I'm a sucker for any story that shows our human world through the lens of someone non-human. Open Throat was one of my favourite books from 2025, and it was from the perspective of a Puma. I guess I was expecting something a little similar, but from the perspective of a hungry and murdering alien.

Walking Practice is a unapologetically queer view on gender expression, sexuality, neurodivergence, and physical disabilities. The comparisons were a little too obvious in the beginning, but with each subway trip and transformation, the story adds more to "two categories for humans doesn't make sense." My ebook is littered with highlighted sections whenever our alien expressed their opinion on being human and desiring to be loved. As the story went on, I genuinely wished they found their forever love. There must be a human that would love them in their alien form!! There must! They deserved it!

There was a good amount of gore when they killed and broken down humans, but I like gore so I wish there was a tad bit more. There was a point in which the story took a turn I wasn't expecting and omg I would have joined our lonely alien in killing humans!

I did struggle with the audiobook narration and text style, but that may because I wasn't in the mood for a stylized story (with certain things happening around me, I just didn't want to use more brain cells). The narrator brought the book to life, but I couldn't listen to them or read the book for too long. There were times the text was spaced out letter by letter [l i k e t h i s] and I honestly struggled. It would remind me that I was reading words on my phone. There is a note from the translator at the end and they explain they chose to stylize the english words like that as a way to show how the original text in korean would have emphasized the alien's disconnection with themselves.

I would recommend the story if you like stories from a non-human perspective that focus on critiquing gender norms and a very neurodivergence experience of life. But I do think it's best read without pausing for too long, maybe even a one-day read. I think that's where I messed up: (1) I wasn't in the mood for stylized narration and (2) I would read a few pages, pause for a 1-2 days, then read a few pages again. I will be buying a physical copy in the future so I can do a reread and annotate it!