River of Teeth

This book is so much fun, just the best kind of pulp. I love it and I need more! Fortunately for me, the sequel just came out.

There's a whole troupe of interesting characters and a very nice romance between a bisexual man and a nonbinary person, as well as lots of action, actually funny humor, and a good plot. The ending is sort of a cliffhanger, but not in a truly frustrating way. Also, I love pretty much anything that has human/animal bonding as a strong plot element, and here all the animal companions are hippos.

This is the Wild South instead of the Wild West; the timeline at the end of the book places it in the 1890s (I think) and explains everything that has put this region in its current (somewhat lawless) state. Other than the hippos, there are some other world-building changes, too. There is no overt anti-lgbt sentiment; all the characters, even the villainous types, use the nonbinary character's pronouns automatically, and no one raises an eyebrow at the two (maybe more) bisexual characters.

In summary, I want to marry this book.