After I finished Sarah Gailey's "Taste of Marrow", I read the two short stories included in the "American Hippo" collection. I'm not sure if it reflects on Gailey as a writer or me as a reader that I found "Taste of Marrow" and "River of Teeth" both perfectly enjoyable heist-adjacent stories, but one of the short stories is about a hippo dentist and it may be the most delightful thing in the collection. Perhaps Gailey's strength lies in short stories, or this kind of alternate history lends itself more readily to shorter fiction. Maybe Gailey was trying to put too much into not enough space with the novellas.
Maybe with 'cowboys but they ride hippos' Gailey's hit on the first thing where my response is MORE WORLDBUILDING PLEASE.
Hippos.