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.

This was so beautifully written. I felt the loss, love, and power that no person or event truly dies as long as their stories are told.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Anchor Books.

I thought this was a very interesting twist on the Baba Yaga tale, and although it was a very slow and confusing start, I stuck with it and really enjoyed it in the end—definitely worth a bit of a slog to get to the good stuff.
I’d recommend to all fantasy readers, and lovers of fairytales.
4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC, all opinions are my own.

So good! Love this very much. History and folklore, family lineage, told in the most magical fashion. A new take on an old story, just beautifully done.

Review Copy

Memories are stories and stories must be told - if not people will be forgotten.

THISTLEFOOT is a mesmerizing folktale of the Jewish people of Ukraine around the time of World War One. Thistlefoot is a house that is passed from one generation to another in a quite unexpected way.

Told in the the most compelling voice that I have read in a very long time, I found myself longing for my grandmother's lap and the ability to lose myself in time. This is a novel for everyone to read, no matter your faith or your reading preferences. There are scary sections and uplifting sections and hopefully you, too, will have a new book on your favorites shelf

Loved, loved, loved this book. The conceit that walking houses are not magic, but other things could be, is brilliant. The brother-sister relationship is believable and beautifully fraught, and I loved those siblings with my whole heart. I want more of this, please.

I will update the review with a link to our blog closer to publication date.
I'd like to thank the publisher Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and netgalley for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thistlefoot is mixed with folklore and history. I enjoyed reading the story! Thank you so much for the early copy of Thistlefoot.

What a wonderful retelling of old stories - combining history, folklore, myth and legend, this is an intriguing tale of a brother and sister and their family legacy. The story is beautifully created and suspends reality in the most wonderful way. There are some points where the plot drags, and feel unnecessarily long, however, the sheer determination to know what happens will get you through - and believe me, you will go through much to learn the end result of this struggle!

I loved this strange take on the Baba Yaga tale. It has strong characters and a chicken-legged house called Thistlefoot. I really loved the magical world that this author created. It is a very real and dark tale that I won't forget anytime soon.

This was a great story and a brilliant retelling. I loved the characters and the journey they were on. I hope this author writes much more.

This modern day retelling was absolutely brilliant. The writing was so poignant and conveyed so much emotion to make the reader feel as if they were right there in the story with the rest of the characters. I loved the puppet imagery and found the ending to be bittersweet but realistic. Overall I found this book to be excellent and would recommend it hands down.

Anyone who follows my reviews knows that I am not usuallly a fan of fantasy, but when I read the description I thought . . . WHAT?

It's the combo of Russian folklore, puppetry, and that ridiculous house that brought me to this book, along with GennaRose Nethercott's fine writing. You probably know from other reviews that estranged siblings Bellatine and Isaac Yaga are brought together by the arrival of their "inheritance" from Russia: a giant rustic house on chicken legs which Bellatine calls Thistlefoot. She seeks to understand the house, which lays giant eggs in closets and cupboards, and as a woodworker, she is giving the house the care it has been lacking. She and her conman brother Isaac begin a national tour of their family puppet theater, when they realize that Thistlefoot has brought something dark and dangerous which follows them, leaving mayhem in its path.

Nethercott is a skilled weaver of story-strands and does so in an elegant and involving way. If the story goes on too long, which I think it does, you can peek ahead. Ultimately, this is a surprising novel, weird and wonderful. Check out Thistlefoot's cabinets. You never know what you'll find.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the DRC of this book!

This book is a story of inter-generational trauma, magical realism, and facing yourself as you are, no matter how much you fear it. I definitely teared up multiple times while reading this book. This twist on the legend Baba Yaga was a great choice and honestly, I learned a lot myself about the historical Russian persecution of Jews in between the wars and about the power of stories in keeping memory alive. A fantastic read, with unique characters, the plot weaved throughout time and space effectively without taking anything away from the book as a whole. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC!

If anyone knows me, they know I am a HUGE Baba Yaga fan!! So, of course, when I heard about this book, I had to pick it up. And I'm glad I did! This is the first time I read a book from this author and I am so impressed. GennaRose did a phenomenal job of giving the characters room for their individual voices while simultaneously crafting a world rooted in magic, yet still relatable to us in modern time. I definitely recommend this book to readers who love the classical tales of Baba Yaga, but having them flipped on their heads!

I don't know how to feel. I finished this, and my heart has been both destroyed and completed. Every bit of emotion has been dragged out of me, and I feel empty without it. Enchanting, captivating, bewitching. This book was more than I ever wanted, and everything I ever needed.

The cover, the synopsis, it all sells this book short. The synopsis promises a modern-day retelling. What it doesn't promise is a read so atmospheric you feel like part of the story. It doesn't tell you that Thistlefoot will both rip out your heart and complete it. It doesn't tell you that Thistlefoot gives an entire life to an old tale, and a life that makes it even more than it was. I was expecting a captivating read when I picked this one up, but it was so much more than what I hoped for.

And what really brought that about was the writing. It was sharp, it was real. So much emotion is held within these pages. So much heartache, so much history. This book is an ode to memories and history forgotten. It's a book I hope never to forget, and always to reread.

As for the characters, I loved them all. Issac, Bellatine, Winnie, Shona, Rummy, Sparrow. They all had a life to them, and they all spoke to me. The relationship between Isaac and Bellatine was done just as well as them themselves. There was so much nuance and so much pain wrapped up between them. It was a beautiful portrayal of a sibling bond, and I'm not ready to let go of them. (Also, shout out to Winnie for being so adorable. She was a favorite character)

And the ending... how to even approach this. As the story states, it's told like a folktale. And it's beautiful. I had tears in my eyes. It was the perfect bittersweet ending. Sure, I had wanted everyone to be happy, but the way it ended was perfection. Again, realistic and heart-wrenching.

I've been dragging this review out for ages, but there's just so much to say about this one. The last thing I just have to address is the chapters told by Thistlefoot itself. They were my favorite thing about the book. It was all amazing, but those were on a whole new level. Baba Yaga and her children were such loveable characters, and even though they had their edges, their story didn't. It was beautiful, and Thistlefoot captured those feelings so well.

I've ranted on about this one enough, especially because I know I'll be rereading it and adding to this review. If you ever see this on a shelf, do yourself a favor. Pick it up, immerse yourself in the story, and come out a new person. It's a book that grips you with no apologies, and one that speaks to humanity on another level.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review