I just finished Thistlefoot and I'm honestly not sure what to write that hasn't already been written about this book but I'll try. It was a beautiful, magical read and I'm sad I finished it but I think it's one of those books you can re-read and discover something new.

However before we get into the review a few trigger warnings: This book is heavily influenced by Jewish stories and the experience of Jewish people in Europe (but specifically Eastern Europe/Russia) during the pogroms. It is horrifying and slightly graphic but an integral part of the overall story so please read with caution.

Thistlefoot follows the Yaga siblings Isaac and Bellatine as they come into a strange inheritance: a house on chicken legs. The siblings are estranged and retired puppet-folk but the house (named Thistlefoot) brings them back together. Isaac, Bellatine, their sentient chicken house, a far too smart black cat, and an assortment of puppets set off on a journey across the United States performing a puppet show they learned from their alive-but-absentee parents. Along the way they cross paths with an unsettling person-thing called the Longshadow man, as well as a ragtag bus of friends who may or may not be a traveling band. Interspersed with the Yaga siblings tale are flashbacks to their ancestor Baba Yaga narrated by Thistlefoot itself.

The story is steeped in magic and Eastern European folklore but the ending brings the mystical and the real all together for a satisfying but shocking conclusion. I'm a fan of re-told fairytales and folklore inspired books and I read a fair amount of them so I feel pretty familiar with the genre. This book kept me guessing the entire read and I loved it. I highly highly recommend this is a new favorite for sure.

Thank you to Netgalley for a free arc of this book.

A beautifully rich book that gets you thinking about family and memory. The story is mythical but infused with historical references. A book that will stay with me for a long time.

Beautifully written. There is so much to love about this book! I love how the story is told from multiple perspectives. By the end, I felt like I understood both Bellarine and Isaac, but also Baba Yaga and Thislefoot.

The story also artfully takes on darker things, like pogroms and the attempt to eradicate Jews from Russia in the early 1900s. I don’t want to say too much a risk spoiling anything from the storyline, but it also does a really nice job of articulating that, even after tragedy, memories cannot be erased.

Thislefoot is a lovely combination of good storytelling and valuable takeaways, including the importance and manifestation of memories as well as the joys of relationships between families and friends.

Stories have always had a unique kind of power. Folktales in particular are some of the strongest, comfortably occupying the space between creating new worlds and allowing us a deeper understanding of our own. GennaRose Nethercott's Thistlefoot takes this exploration to new and fantastical heights with her tale of two siblings who must uncover the mysteries of their past to better understand the unusual family heirloom recently come into their possession.

Through alternating perspectives, Thistlefoot delves the depths of the difference between a memory and a story, and the importance of the space where the two intersect. Bellatine and Isaac Yaga don't know much about their family history. Somewhere along the line between potentially-mystical, voluntarily isolating village crone and adoring mother, their grandmother never held the oral tradition of passing on family tales. But there is…something else that connects them. Strange abilities, tense relationships, a family puppet show business…and a house that stands on chicken legs and takes every opportunity to run.

One part lush fairy tale, one part exploration on the meaning of storytelling, Thistlefoot doesn't just wonder what it would be like if walls could talk - it presents a world in which the walls, floors, and windows all have a story to whisper into any willing ear. A world where memory manifests into magic, and the consequences of our histories follow us until we make time to listen and learn from them. A world in which belief is everything.

Thistlefoot is the kind of lived-in, fantastical tale that all fairy tales strive to be: a way to honor history otherwise hard to talk about, unafraid to approach the darkness while centering itself around the vitality of light. There is aching here, and longing, pain that wrenches the heart. But it is tinged and balanced with joy. Long before we know the Yaga family's tragedy, we are given infinite windows into the things that make them unique and vibrant individuals. We learn their fears alongside the things that bring them the most comfort. And Thistlefoot itself, the chicken-legged house? It welcomes us with equal parts warning and warmth, shaping its origins around what it believes we need to hear, until we are ready for the truest version. Even when the secrets whispering its walls are laid bare, it still desires to comfort us with the knowledge it has to impart.

Nethercott's novel is also something even more important than a story about stories - it is a story about the preservation and passage of cultural history. The Jewish heart beating at the center of Thistlefoot is at once a comforting and vital presence. That it tells the story of a tragedy without letting itself become wholly tragic is a joy. That it knows the importance of honoring memory while constantly, ceaselessly celebrating life is the kind of refreshing comfort folk and fairy tales are and should be made for, even at their darkest. Bellatine, Isaac, Winifred, and all the rest feel so lived-in it's as if they are gathered around you telling the story themselves.

Though here there be devils and angels alike, dybbuks and demons (who all look like soldiers, even when they aren't), Thistlefoot is the kind of lush prose with a burning core meant to be enjoyed curled up at the fire, or passed down at the dinner table lit by candlelight.

Kill the lantern, it begs, and raise the ghosts of history to guide you firmly toward the future.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

*This book was received as an Advanced Reviewer's Copy from NetGalley.

I'm not going to lie. I really struggled with the beginning of this book. A bit too descriptive and of a poetic style of writing for me, I just had a hard time sinking in. I'm glad I persevered though because about a third of the way in my perspective completely changed and I started loving the book.

It was at about that point when the characters suddenly became fully fleshed out, the jumping narratives started to make sense, and the overall sense of the story really hit. Part tale of siblings with unique powers and struggling through generational trauma, part historical lookback as to what caused that trauma, and part folklore, with the chicken-footed Baba Yaga hut and other magical happenings, there was a lot to unpack and set up.

I don't want to spoil too much, but I really enjoyed the different take on trauma and how it can impact future generations was brought through this book. It took some twists and turns I didn't expect and while there are true "baddies", they may not be the ones focused on in this book. I also enjoyed some of the concepts of magic and considered it to be very magical realism because they were accepted everyday magic in some cases (um, yeah, a chicken-footed house that somehow isn't making sensational headlines). So it was a bit of an alternate reality in that perspective where magic is perhaps closer to the surface.

While some of the character's actions didn't entirely endear me to them, I did find the dynamics interesting. Especially given the puppetry and family history, even if we don't actually interact with all the family through the book, the nuance was there and the memories were there to shape the shown characters.

Very interesting book, I'd definitely recommend a read!

Review by M. Reynard 2022

Thistlefoot is an interesting blend of folklore, urban fantasy, and magical realism. There are four POVs alternating and running throughout Thistlefoot:

1) Thistlefoot’s narrative which includes the story of Baba Yaga and her two daughters growing up in Gedenkrovka, a Russian shtetl;
2) Isaac, with his ability to take on another’s characteristics and his constant need to be on the run: “As Jews, we evolved to be ready to run;”
3) His sister, Bellatine with her “Embering” hands and her unique abilities; and
4) The Longshadow Man who is in pursuit of Thistlefoot. “I am not a what; I am a when.”

Remembering is a major theme throughout this novel. As Thistlefoot points out, the worst and deadliest thing about a memory is that a memory can be forgotten; whereas “a folktale can never be forgotten because it wriggles and rearranges until it sits neatly on the heart.”

-“Please, please remember, when the time for remembering comes.”
-“Witness is a testimony. ... With a witness, it could be like we never died.”
-“What do memories want? They want to be remembered, commemorated.”
-“He’s doing damage control. So his version of the story can be the only version.”
-“For as long as it is remembered and told, the story remains. The silencers have lost.”
-“Bellatine and Isaac stayed. They bore witness. The time for running, ended.”

Kill the Lantern. Raise the Ghost.

At 448 pages, Thistlefoot is a bit on the long (and sometime slow) side. However, the action really picks up in the last quarter of the book with a fascinating concluding chapter in which Thistlefoot recounts “what came after.” Those last chapters really tied everything together. Overall, an enchanting read.

I know it's only August, but this might just be my favorite book of 2022.

I knew I was in for a treat from a few chapters in when we get a story from the perspective of Thistlefoot itself, and I loved the whole thing, but the last third really blew me away. Watching things come back and come together...it was absolutely brilliant. I'm really struggling here to adequately put my feelings about this book into words.

This is a book about so many things: memory, family, stories. It's gorgeously written and expertly crafted. Don't miss it.

CW: antisemitism and antisemitic violence/pogroms, deaths (including of children), self-harm, xenophobia, discussion of eugenics, referenced racism and transphobia, mentioned deportation of a parent

The book is based on the premise of Baba Yaga's descendants, two siblings - Isaac and Bellatine, from a family of a travelling act - inheriting her cottage seventy years after her demise. It starts off to reveal Isaac making his way around as a street performer, and the reader is slowly shown more and more about him and his family and past, as the author slowly opens up more plot threads.

"Kill the lantern, 
raise the ghost."

The whole book definitely reads like the author is aware that not all audiences who would get their hands on this book might be familiar with the themes and references running through it. This is one of the biggest merits of the narrative style, in my opinion. I'm not particularly well read in European and Slavic folklore, and the first thing I did before I read the book was look up Baba Yaga, just in case I might have missed something important the book commented on. This was strictly unnecessary, since the prologue itself promises the book to be accessible to most readers, and the first few chapters do a great job in setting up the tone for what can be expected in the rest of the book.

While most of the book is written through the Isaac and Bellatine's point of view, the chapters written in the house's perspective were the ones that stood out to me the most. The author has masterfully used them to add Slavic folklore to the story without disrupting its overall flow, and they definitely helped give a feeling of some knowledge of the past, along with making Baba Yaga feel more human, and less of an enigma.

The magic in this book is minimal and not what you would typically expect in a fantasy novel. I would categorise this as speculative fiction with folklore and magical realism. There is some necromancy involved, Baba Yaga does cast spells, but the magical realism is really lovely to read about, and the imagery in the prose is spectacular. And of course, since Baba Yaga's cottage is involved, it does move around.

I had a few issues with the execution of this tale. Now, I found myself feeling indifferent to the siblings, they didn't seem very well fleshed out to me. Conflicts and lack of communication within family bonds can be difficult to express, even within a narrative structure, but I just found that it wasn't done to my personal satisfaction here. When their present dynamic was introduced at the beginning of the book, I thought that the exploration of their feelings and the eventual resolution would have great potential for exploration, and was a little disappointed by how it progressed through the story.

THISTLEFOOT is an emotional and sensitive tale based on Slavic folklore that shows how history can repeat itself. I am willing to give it another go a little later to see if my feelings change. There are many of my peers that have picked up on other aspects of this book that I don't think I am particularly qualified to comment on, so I urge you to peruse a few other reviews as well. It was just not a good fit for me at this point in time, but I am confident that that may change. GennaRose Nethercott certainly has potential, and I will closely watch her future projects and will happily put her next books on my TBR pile.

I won’t waste any time in saying that Thistlefoot is easily my favorite new release of 2022 so far. It is intricate and immersive, beautifully written and deeply engaging, and readers will enjoy it from start to finish.

Nethercott’s tact and skill as a writer shines through on every page; it’s very apparent that she has a background in poetry, as the prose is absolutely gorgeous. But the story itself is fantastic, regardless of the way it’s being told (which, for the record, is also fantastic. I adored the narration and the way it pulled the audience into the story). The characters in Thistlefoot are dynamic and varied. I fell in love with all of our protagonists and was haunted by the Longshadow Man after I finished the book. The relationships between the characters are incredibly written as well, and the love they express (platonic, familial, and romantic) is so palpable. Each relationship is handled with the same amount of grace, from the friendship between Isaac and Benji, the romance between Bellatine and Winnie, and the found-familial love between Shona, Rummy, and Sparrow. Each character was strong on their own, and they only became stronger once Nethercott put them all together.

Nethercott takes us on a journey that spans across generations, incorporating both American mystique and Jewish folklore. I wasn’t bored for a single second. The way she weaves together every thread of the plot is almost magical. In particular, I love the way that this book talks about ghosts, and how memories are a kind of ghost. It’s a very unique perspective that will stick with me for quite some time.

More than anything, Thistlefoot is a thesis on the power of stories themselves. It’s a retelling of a folktale, but it’s also a folktale in and of itself. I haven’t read a fantasy this wonderful in quite some time, and I cannot wait to revisit it.

Take a dark and whimsical journey with this Baba Yaga retelling as you witness the power of generational pain and healing.

<b><i>What happens when the walls we raise outlive the dangers they were built to keep out?</i></b>

Follow along with the Yaga siblings for a journey much more life-altering than either of them ever intended. Meet Issac, a vagabond with a knack for imitation, whose past haunts his confidence in his true self. And Bellatine, his sister, trying to outrun a curse that will leave her embering if she does not face it. After an unexpected inheritance - a house with legs and a mind of its own - enters their lives, a unexpected journey commences.

<b><i>There are no ghosts of the dead. But events? Events, if they carry enough wailing, can leave a mark. Can squeeze themselves into terrible shapes, grow arms, legs, a head on which to wear a hat, feet on which to follow you. Events—they have a way of coming back.</i></b>

This beautifully written story had me wrapped up in the elegant and dark whimsical prose. GennaRose is a remarkable success in the creation of a modern folktale, a retelling of a beloved legend, that will take you on an expedition to discover the power of events and trauma on a generational scale.

For fans of retellings, dark whimsy, and modern folktales, I highly recommend this story to you.

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott will be released September 13, 2022.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this stunningly fantastical and poignant novel.

<b><i>Kill the lantern. Raise the ghost.<i><b>

'Thistlefoot' is a moving and enchanting tale of family, tradition, and the essence of storytelling.

The alternating points of view (including that of Baba Yaga's chicken-footed house!) make for a slow build to a fulfilling payoff, and an enriched view of the plot. While the slower pace may make this novel a little tougher to get into for some readers, sticking with it is worth it. There are some difficult themes and heartbreaking scenes throughout, but in a story like this, it's both expected and important to face a few heart-rending moments. And while there are a small handful of setting aspects we're expected to take at face value without much deep explanation, what folktale doesn't have that?

Content aside, the prose itself is absolutely gorgeous— Nethercott has a way with words seldom seen in modern fiction, particularly in 'Thistlefoot's' genre.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Despite its faults, Neil Gaiman's American Gods is one of my all time favorite novels. I also find Baba Yaga to be super interesting, so when I saw Thistlefoot's description and its comp to American Gods I immediately requested it.

Thistlefoot is about a chicken-footed house sent to America to a pair of siblings, but more importantly it is about the importance of stories and what it means to be a living memory. The prose is gorgeous and I really liked Isaac and Bellatine, but more importantly I loved the way Nethercott unraveled the plot and the purpose of Thistlefoot (Thistlefoot, in this instance, being the house). I liked that there was a slow build up to the story and that while everything made clear and logical sense (in that there were no off the wall mind blowing twists, but then again I don't like thrillers, so this was perfect for me) the way she introduced things was just so beautiful and heartbreaking.

I had a handful of questions at the end—why was Thistlefoot sent to America, for example?—but the themes of storytelling and bearing witness and living memory through stories (which, I think, is its own kind of immortality) are some of my all time favorite themes and they were so well executed that my lingering questions don't actually bother me all that much. This was just so good and I can't wait to beg all my friends to read it.

This book is gorgeous! So well-written. Love the characters, love the story, love everything! It has earned a place on my shelf as a personal classic.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

This book is about the chicken-footed house of the infamous Baba Yaga, brought into modern America, but even more its about humanity, psychology, evil, and survival. Though the books slips from perspective to perspective like someone changing clothes, it principally follows the two Yaga siblings: Isaac, a wayfaring rogue with a knack for impersonating other people, and Bellatine, who works with wood but takes care with what else she touches because of the dread potential in her hands. They know they have Jewish ancestry going back to Russia, but little about it, so when the siblings are reunited when they are bequeathed the chicken-footed house, they are taken aback by their weird fortune. Things get weirder from there, as it soon becomes clear that a dark force has also come from Russia and is hunting them down.

Foremost, the praise: the prose is gorgeous. There were multiple lines that made me say, "Wow" out loud. The book could be read and enjoyed for its language alone. However, this is not a gentle read. Major trigger warnings apply here, as there is a deep exploration of despair, death, and pogroms. It covers brutal subject matter in a heart-wrenching way.

Other aspects bothered me, though. Isaac is the kind of callous rogue who repulses me on a deep level. I struggled to get into the book because of his chapters through much of the book. The story is also surprisingly linear. It delivered little in the way of surprises through the end. Some major questions around the whole initial set-up of Thistlefoot (the house) and the bad guy coming to America were never answered for me, either.

When we first begin this story, we get a bit of history on how thistlefoot made its way to the US. While it was beautifully written and held my attention, I had no idea where the story would go from there. We then get to meet our estranged siblings Isaac and Bellatine, they are both on their way to meet and receive an inheritance from one of their Russian ancestors.
It's a house... that has chicken legs... and has a mind of its own, Bellatine desperately wants to live there so she and her brother come up with a deal. Go on tour with the house and do their families puppeteer act for a year and Bellatine have have the house free and clear. Bellatine and Isaac both have some heavy baggage and it was very interesting to see them come back together after so long apart.

Little do the siblings know that someone else is after the house, and he will do whatever it takes to find it.
The siblings go on a wonderful journey of self-discovery, this story did a great job of weaving the past with the present and making a very unputdownable story. The ending was very action-packed as Bellatine and Isaac and their new friends try to take down the evil that's been following them, It was both heartwarming and heartbreaking and a wonderful story.
I will definitely be reading more from this author in the future.

I received this as an ARC through NetGalley.

I really enjoyed the original premise of the book, the tale of Baba Yaga and her descendants as they take the house on the move. The magical included nations of the family and the juxtaposition of the present and past. Learning more in depth about Baba Yaga was fun as well.

The writing is heavy and slow and hard to digest. I tried listening to this as audio and wasn’t able to follow the story, so I read through and still struggled a bit to keep up with all of the details. If you usually are a lighter reader, this may not be for you.

It has been a long time since a book I was indifferent about had such a sudden and positive turn-around. Thistlefoot honestly took me by surprise. The beginning was a slow start, establishing the numerous characters and providing background of the house and the history that ties every factor of this story together. I had a hard time connecting with any of the leads and found the alternate historical perspectives from the house's point of view much more interesting. But I kept reading invested to see how it would all tie together.

Then the last 20% hit and I was blown away. Every point of view tied together seamlessly, this book about a walking house turned to a hard-hitting statement on generational trauma and how "all it takes is one survivor and the story lives on."

And it is for the delivery of the final act, how touching this book is, and the story it tells, that I would recommend it.

This book surprised me. I've always loved the stories of Baba Yaga since I was a child and when I was scrolling and saw the cover of this book I knew instantly I had to read it. I was not expecting to fall in love with it while it broke my heart at the same time. Baba Yaga's story and the chicken house's story about their village takes place in the area of Ukraine my Russian Jewish family left in the same general time period. It gave me a better understanding of my own family and reasons they may have left for America. And if a reader isn't able to relate in the same way I was, this book did an amazing job telling the story of generational trauma and how we carry it with us, in addition to remembering history and continuing to tell the stories and learning from them. Such an amazing book, definitely one of my favorite reads this year!


I received this book from NetGalley. Thank you!

Kill the lantern. Raise the ghost.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do this book the justice it deserves with this review. I haven't heard anyone talking about this book, I came across it on NetGalley and requested it on a whim, mostly based on the cover. I am a real sucker for Russian folklore in books, especially stories about Baba Yaga, and I went into this book hopeful but without a lot of expectations. It became immediately evident to me within the first few pages that this book was going to be something that stays with me for a long time.

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott is a story of the Yaga siblings, Bellatine and Isaac, their family history, and the way that stories weave into our lives. I'm not the best with summaries, but know that these siblings inherit a house with legs and life, come from a family of puppeteers, have their own unique kind of magic within them, and are now on the run from a dangerous shadow man. They are also Jewish, and trace their lineage back to Russia, and the trauma of pogroms from the early 1900s is integral to the story. I am not Jewish, so of course it's not for me to say anything about that representation, but it feels mindfully and lovingly done. Authentic and honest.

This book deals with family, with self, the way we move or don't move through the world, loss, grief, love, and above all, story. What are our stories? What stories do we tell ourselves and how do other people talk about us in theirs? How do stories change with time and with tellings? Whose story gets heard? How do we bear witness?

It's beautiful. I highlighted so many lines and sections while reading. There were times when it gave me chills to read, times that I had tears in my eyes. It's heart-wrenching and hopeful. I know it's a book that I am going to read again and again. It's a book that has sunk into my bones and that I know I am going to think about and reference for a long time.

I loved the shifting perspectives of the house and the Yaga siblings. It was a beautiful novel and more insightful than I thought when reading the description.