This slim book is spare and thoughtful and exciting and quiet and funny and sad. And it is narrated by a hungry, queer mountain lion, who is trying to make a little bit of sense of their--and our--world. At one point, they explain: "I try to understand people but they make it hard." I know, right??

 

Publisher description:

A queer and dangerously hungry mountain lion lives in the drought-devastated land under the Hollywood sign. Lonely and fascinated by humanitý€™s foibles, the lion spends their days protecting the welfare of a nearby homeless encampment, observing obnoxious hikers complain about their trauma, and, in quiet moments, grappling with the complexities of their gender identity, memories of a vicious father, and the indignities of sentience.́ €œI have so much language in my braiń,€ our lion says,́ €œand nowhere to put it́.€ When a man-made fire engulfs the encampment, the lion is forced from the hills down into the city the hikers calĺ €œellaý.€ As the lion confronts a carousel of temptations and threats, they take us on a tour that spans the cruel inequalities of Los Angeles and the toll of climate grief, while scrambling to avoid earthquakes, floods, and the noise of their own conflicted psyche. But even when salvation finally seems within reach, they are forced to face down the ultimate question: Do they want to eat a person, or become one? In elegiac prose woven with humor, imagination, sensuality, and tragedy, Henry Hok這s Open Throat is a marvel of storytelling, a universal journey through a wondrous and menacing world told by a lovable mountain lion. Both feral and vulnerable, profound and playful, Open Throat is a star-making novel that brings mythmaking to real life.