Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC.
5 out of 5 stars.

Bellatine and Isaac Yaga are descendants of Baba Yaga. As children, they assisted their parents put on a puppet show, but as adults, they have grown apart. Bellatine feels Isaac abandoned her in the craziness of her childhood when he ran away. Isaac has never stopped running. With a severe case of wanderlust, Isaac hops trains with his best friend, Benji, and learns to mimic people in a terrifying way. Bellatine hides a secret of her own in her hands, which is why she tries to hide it by burying herself in carpentry work.

When Bellatine is contacted by a lawyer stating that inheritance from a world away is on its way to the United States in a shipping crate, she reached out to Isaac but doesn't really expect him to show up. He does, and together, they open the crate, to find a sentient house with chicken legs - the house belonging to their ancestor, Baba Yaga. While Bellatine finds that he feels most safe in the house, Isaac sees the money they can make by resurrecting the puppet show they memorized as children, and taking it on the road, along with the house.

But the story begs the question: what would cause a house to grow legs and run away?

Someone, or something, is hunting the house and has followed it across the ocean. Someone with terrifying powers of their own, someone with unfinished business from years ago.

I have to say, 80% through the book, in chapter 43, I was hit with a bombshell and then I was bawling. Not just ugly crying, but bawling in the early house of the morning before my family woke up. I was thoroughly impressed with the storyline. It is not a children's book by any means, although it does lean into the fairy tale genre. An impressive debut by Nethercott, and hopefully the first in an illustriust career as a novelist.

A Tale Of Dark, Urban Mythology
NOTE: I received early access from NetGalley, for this manuscript, in exchange for writing an impartial review. Completed on 7/09/2022.

Just a quick mention-I will be focusing on my own perspective of the overall entertainment and comprehension of the actual reading material.
I've went with not offering a summary of the plot in my review, since this is more than available through the book's description provided, as well as many other existing contributions composed.

There's a considerable amount of back and forth in this book, and it took all my efforts to concentrate on what was happening as the current drama was unfolding, rather than something I had puzzled over 10 pages prior. I had to significantly focus on keeping things straightened out as I progressed through the initial plot, which required a much slower read in order to absorb what was transpiring.

Additionally, there's a substantial number of POV'S telling the chapters, so I needed to remain cognizant of this to boot, since the titles are purely labeled by numbers, and not headers or names to let you know who's now telling the story.

Very sinister and deviant in a truly graphic manner. I don't mean this in a negative way, but irrefutably something to be observant of upfront. This rather limits the target audience, as it's not going to be reflective to the average sampling of readers, but rather to a more selective patronage.

I also must say I felt lost at times, not being as well-read or knowledgeable as possibly others, on Eastern European folklore, especially Russian and Jewish. This took my passion down a notch or so, particularly since it appears a large portion of the folklore is as I mentioned above.

Neither of the previous two sections are meant in a disparaging manner, or in a castigative, malignant posture either.
They're simply my deferential assessment.

It is a rather captivating read, but I didn't find it one you would breeze through in an afternoon. With the majority of the novel, a much more focused, mental application, was required to stay with the plot.

I would recommend this for a selective audience, but not necessarily just folklore and fairy-tales. It's not even what I would consider paranormal or fantasy, but possibly Eastern European mythology, (from the simplest definition from Greek meaning: Mythos for story-of-the-people, and Logos for word or speech, as in the spoken story of a people) with a dark, urban twist.

I am blown away by the beauty and whimsy of this book. The writing was so beautiful and made me want to keep reading.

I have heard the folklore of Baba Yaga before but this was so much more. This was a story about family and where you come from and not forgetting the stories that are passed down. Listen to your elders stories as that is what your made of and from.

I absolutely loved this book and will recommend it to everyone who will listen.

I am in the vast minority here but I simply could not get into this one.. I was highly intrigued by the concept, I love the Baba Yaga mythology and the blending of contemporary and historical/mythological concepts in the Russian fairy tale genre was highly appealing to me. However for some reason I simply could NOT get into this one.

I tried. Repeatedly. I even tried skimming ahead to see if i just needed to get past a slow start. But no matter what I tried, I could not get into the characters' heads at all and as a result had a very difficult time caring about what was happening to them..

This one just wasn't a good fit for me. Everyone else seems to absolutely love it so I will try it again eventually - sometimes certain books just aren't the right fit at the right time - but for right now I could not finish this one, which means 2 stars from me...

I absolutely loved this take on Baba Yaga. The book pulled me in within the first few chapters and I couldn’t put it down. It is also about awakening power within you. It’s how our ancestors help us through trauma and to balance ourselves. Love it and recommend to those who enjoy fairy tale retelling

An excellent tale about the aftermath of horrors and how generational trauma can affect descendants. Magical realism and the Baba Yaga story and Jewish cultural references and it's just amazing.

Firstly this book was beautifully written and I loved the whole atmosphere of the Jewish folklore, fairytale, and fantasy. This book made me feel all kinds of emotions such as heartbreak, happiness, loss and love.

Overall a 5 star read!

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC. This was a fantastic read I’ll definitely be purchasing this book when it’s released.

Really loved the premise of this book, a great balance of fantasy, fairy-tale and folklore and a really original story. The tragedy peppered throughout the story made the history the author was telling seem much more real. I have to say there was a lag between the incredible set up and the story line picking up pace that really frustrated me but I'm glad I stuck with it.

A moving house on chicken legs..

A woman who can animate objects..

A man who can mimic anyone…

A sinister shadow trailing behind..

Bellatine and her brother Issac have been estrange since Issac run away. Bellatine never thought she would see him again. Yet the Yaga siblings cross paths when they converge on the inheritance of their great grandmother’s living house years later. Hailing from a profession of acting and puppeteers, they set off on an adventures of memories. Not knowing that by waking the house, a Longshadow Man hunts for it.

Full of creative imagery and metaphoric haunting anecdotes, Thislefoot segue effortlessly through multiple POV while imparting a riveting story. Thistlefoot is a one of kind fairytale. Not the soft, dreamy, and warm adventure but a remembrance of a forgotten town - their dreams, hopes, sorrow, and anguish.

What happens when history loops back on itself?

The first two-thirds of this book were fantastic. The author blends folklore, popersp[ectives, and modern-day easily. I love the twist of this Slavic tale following the ancestors of Baba Yaga.
The story really gets a word in the last third though and the action is slammed into short space without time for anything to breathe. But the ending itself was a good payout.

Thistlefoot is based on Slavic folklore of a house with chicken legs and Baba Yaga. I loved the character development and the four different first-person viewpoints the reader is given. The magical realism in the plot was masterfully built so the reader does not have to suspend his or her disbelief (other than a house with legs obviously). And the resolution was both surprising and satisfying.

Isaac and Bellatine are raised in a family of professional puppeteers but things kind of break down when the kids each discover that they have special gifts. One of the kids’ gifts seems more prominent than the other and they seem to split up as a family. Years later, the siblings receive notice that they have an inheritance and discover the house with the chicken legs is now theirs to share.

However, they soon discover that there is someone after them: the Longshadow Man who has these tendrils of evil that are able to impact humans and he begins to target those around Isaac and Bellatine. For their safety and for those around them, they need to unravel the mystery of why the house has chicken legs and why the Longshadow Man is after them.

My two complaints about this book is that the cursing halted the flow of the dialogue for me; the harsh language was jarring at times and pulled me out of the story. Secondly, it contains a fairly high level of violence. There are multiple triggers warnings: infant death, suicidal thoughts, anti-Semitism, and death of loved ones. There also is a same-sex relationship.

Otherwise, this is a thought-provoking tale and one that was emotionally moving. I thought a lot about the plot and what was happening when I wasn’t reading it and wanted to get right back into the tale to finish it.

Thanks to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Anchor and NetGalley for this ARC.

This debut novel is chocked full of story maybe too full. The basic story is about a brother and sister, Isaac and Bellantine Yaga, who inherit a strange house with chicken legs from a relative in the old country of Russia. The house has quite a story and carries some supernatural abilities and some scary "baggage". Their ancestor lived in the house over a hundred years ago during the time of the Great War in Russia. As the story unfolds the reader learns the history of the family and the house and must confront the Longshadow Man who seeks to destroy them all. The point of view switches between the characters, their stories and the house which attempts to tell the reader his story. There are dangers,deaths, poisonings, things brought to life and the curses both children seem to carry. Isaac is a shapeshifter, he can become anyone he sees. Bellantine has "the embering" she can "burn" things to life with her hands.
The book is a very interesting story, but it gets a little long , a little repetitive and a lot of information drawn out over the plot. The book will be enjoyed by those who enjoy folktales even embellished and reinvented ones. Her work on this tale is exquisite

I want to thank #netgalley for letting me read an eArc of #Thistlefoot by #GennaRoseNethercott

I have always loved the tales of Baba Yaga, I still don't know why I love them so much I just do. The idea of a home that sprouts chicken legs and can travel wherever its bid to go is fascinating.
The story of Thistlefoot is told from the perspective of the house itself of Thistlefoot. Thistlefoot tells of its origins although we receive many different ones it only reveals the truth of itself at the end.
We travel back and forth through time and stories.
We learn of the Yaga siblings who are descendants of Baba Yaga. Bellatine and Isaac Yaga are not exactly what they seem. Bellatine works in carpentry with her hands something that she loves but she keeps herself rigid and distanced from people because of a curse that lives within her hands. Isaac left his twin years prior to ride the rails, he is a bit of a con man with an amazing gift to mold himself into others. The siblings receive word that they have an inheritance waiting for them at a loading dock so they both leave and head toward the unknown. What they find they are sure what to make of, its a house that's alive. It has chicken legs and grows food on its roof, the hearth is always going no matter what and the house understands. Bellatine feels an instant connection to the home she names Thistlefoot. Isaac sees a chance to get out of some debt and tells his sister if she will do a traveling puppet show with him for a year and give him all her wages the house is hers free and clear.
Bellatine has a fear of the puppets, of what her hands can make them do. She agrees only as long as she doesn't have to touch the puppets. She wants to run rigs and nothing more to which Isaac agrees.
But something has traveled from Russia where Thistlefoot came from. Something dark that has unfinished business, the Longshadow Man brings chaos wherever he goes. He feeds off it and it gives him strength. He is on the trail of Thistlefoot, searching to finish what he started to very long ago.
Moments in history leave a mark, the ghosts don't linger but the memory does and sometimes it imprints and relives itself over and over and over again. I'm sure we all have memories or places like that. How do you get rid of a memory? Cause it to no longer repeat? The ShadowMan knows and he is coming to finish what he began.

An absolutely stunning retelling of Eastern European folklore with vibrant and entrancing prose. At its heart, its about family, stories, and connections through time. Nethercott brilliantly weaves the past and present together in a beautiful cyclical adventure of Baba Yaga's house, the siblings who inherit it, and a Longshadow man who's out to destroy it all.

One thing that never really came up was people questioning the house. They start out near where Bellatine works, and not a single person has a what the...? moment. Its just accepted that, 'hey, a house with feathery chicken legs is totally normal.' That was the only thing that was hard to believe. No one freaked out or needed an explanation. Even as the house was walking to new locations.

The narration falls between the siblings and the house itself. We learn about the familial tragedy that has bled into the youngest Yaga family members. By the end, the journey is meaningful and undeniably remarkable. The prose: sumptuous. Intriguing and complex characters round out this stellar book. No doubt this'll be a top read of this year. A folklore retelling that is unique but retains that special folklore magnetism and charm.

In this extraordinary work of Jewish magical realism, the American great-great-grandchildren of legendary Eastern European witch Baba Yaga inherit her chicken-legged hut, and find themselves tasked with laying the ghosts of the pogroms to rest.

This story is undergirded by a traditionally Jewish vision of death and the afterlife, in which being remembered by your descendants is the most important form of immortality. Hauntings are repressed history made concrete. The line between metaphor and reality, like the line between past and present, ceases to matter when the historical trauma is great enough. The ultimate showdown in this book is between the Yaga descendants, whose magical powers have their hidden roots in Jewish survival skills, and the personification of genocidal forces that would erase not only a marginalized people but even the memory of their existence.

And there is a traveling puppet show, and a monster-hunting band of queer rock musicians, and a lesbian romance with an animated graveyard statue. What more could you ask for?

More than a lyrically written story, or a great adventure -- though it is both of those -- "Thistlefoot" is a profound modern myth that will remain in my mind as a touchstone for how to work with ancestral trauma.

Pure perfection. 6 out of 5 stars.

Wow, this could have blown everyone out of the water, had it been toned down, writing wise. This was an awesome story of the old ways but reading this was like swimming through thick fluid.

I really enjoyed reading about Isaac and his sister Bellatine and their powers. I was not that impressed with the Longshadow Man, I thought that character needed a bit more darkness.

Over all though, if you like reading prose like this, then this is a really good story.

Thistlefoot is the brilliant, clever, deeply and well thought-out magiclal realist book about the Jewish diaspora from Eastern Europe I have been waiting for. It's beautifully written and original and heartbreaking and joyous. And it is the best re-telling/use of Baba Yaga as a figure ever. Two siblings, mostly estranged and each dealing with hidden traumas and magical gifts, inherit a house, shipped all the way from Russia. It has chicken legs, and responds to commands in Yiddish. Bellatine and Isaac, inheritors, make a deal: they will revive their parents' professional puppet show, go on tour, using the house as home and stage. Isacc will get all profits, and at the end, Bellatine will own the house in full. But someone--something--somewhen--is trailing them, intent on finishing the destruction it began long ago.

Full of stories and history and compelling characters and magic that has been thought through in ways most SFF books and games never even approach, Thistlefoot is my new favorite book.

Plot: 4.5
Characters: 4
Writing Style: 5
Cover: 4
Enjoyment.: 5
Buyable/Re-readable?: Yes to both.

This was mostly a lot of fun, save for the serious bits (of course). I very much enjoyed the threading of Jewish and Slavic culture/beliefs and saved quite a few foreign words to boot. I learnt that tumbleweed is not, in fact, native to North America, but instead "(i)n 1873, Russian immigrants arrived in South Dakota, selling off and planting flaxseed they had carried with them from their home villages. The seed, unbeknownst to them, had been contaminated with thistle." And thus, we got thistle/windwitch/tumbleweed. The abilities presented in the novel were unique and worth exploring - really got a kick out the Yagas. I did not, however, gel with one of the relationships. It left me feeling slightly icky at times, if I'm being honest Maybe one or two teeny tiny threads that went unfinished, but nothing major enough to deter from the main story. Nethercott writes so very poetically that soaking up their beautiful writing is worth reading this, alone. And she references relatable traumatic events in such a subtle yet powerful way that leaves you like 'Oh. OH! Oh...shit.' Doesn't hold back on the narrative of said horribleness, either; appreciated that. We also get third-POV chapters from both siblings and a few others including the quirkiest character, Thistlefoot. :3

This read a bit too young for me. I love stories about Baba Yaga and was instantly interested, but ultimately the characters didn’t entice me.

I was...amazed with this book.

I was stuck as to where to start this review because this book feels...like so much. Much as Thistlefoot is more than a house, this story is more than words put together on a page. Literally everyone should read it - it taught me history my many years of school never touched.

Two siblings, descendants of THEEE Baba Yaga, inherit her animated house after a predetermined amount of time, dozens of years. Our main characters exist in almost a liminal space in society and time for me as a reader; there are so many anachronistic features to their story. Like a vaudeville relic, their family are a show troupe and traveling act. Isaac is a throwback to the vagabonds of the 30s, a greasy trickster archetype dressed in a threadbare suit, chainsmoking and hitching rides on trains to crisscross the country. Bellatine spends her time on carpentry and making the sets when they reunite to put on more shows from the stage of their new inheritance, Thistlefoot's porch. But then there are cellphones and things that remind you they're living in now times.

Let me mention the minimal issues I had. I didn't particularly care for any of the characters, and the book certainly slowed down at times. Some passages, though beautiful and painful, had an overwritten and overly floral vibe which resulted in some dense areas.

Now, to the good, which is everything else. The incredible prose for the most part, the lore, the emotional reckoning with painful, concealed history, queer inclusion without feeling forced in, and a plot filled with bizarre, magical anachronisms that grabbed me by the lapels as I read. The writing is so gorgeous - cruel and gritty when it needs to be, heartwrenching when moments call for it. There are chapters written in the cottage's POV that absolutely shone for me.

The magic isn't your fairy godmother waving a wand, warning. Baba Yaga swipes up her own menstrual blood for a spell when needed, there is animal death mentioned, and some necromancy. The magical realism is off the charts - one passage mentions houses getting up and moving, like Thistlefoot, in reaction to flooding from a hurricane. Incredible imagery.

In the end, Thistlefoot was an evocative if solemn journey reckoning with heritage and pain passed through a bloodline, told with magic steeped in Slavic and Jewish folklore that should appeal to a wide audience. Five full stars.