River of Teeth

River of Teeth, Sarah Gailey, Hugo-nominated novella. This didn't really hang together for me - I found the plot and action muddled and hard to follow, and I honestly spent most of it more preoccupied with why the dam was upriver of the lake rather than downriver than with what was nominally happening. But seriously, how the fuck does that work?? You dam a river and then water backs up behind the dam and creates a lake, this is basic hydraulic engineering?? How does a dam make a lake *downstream*? I kept waiting for someone in the book to as-you-know-Bob it because there had to be some kind of explanation and then THERE WAS NO EXPLANATION and my head exploded. Miiight have worked as a comic where we could just look at lots of pictures of hippos and not notice so much that nobody's character motivations made sense. (BUT WE STILL WOULD HAVE NOTICED THE RIVER PROBLEM, WHERE WAS YOUR EDITOR, GAILEY.)

ETA: Major animal harm and child harm, I meant to say that and I'm sorry I forgot.

Down Among and my Hugo Novella ballot

Down Among the Sticks and Bones, Seanan McGuire, novella, sidequel to Every Heart A Doorway (chronologically earlier but should be read after, I think). I liked the premise of Every Heart a lot more than the execution (true of pretty much everything I've ever read by McGuire) and felt no need to return to that world. This one felt like a novelette of material, belabored.

A space, and then my ballot ranking behind a cut.

Space!

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