Reviews tagging 'Death'

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

93 reviews

rorikae's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

'Thistlefoot' by GennaRose Nethercott is a wonderful folklore filled novel that touches on the power of stories, memory, and community. 
Bellatine and Isaac Yaga have been forging their own lives. Bellatine finds comfort in creating things out of wood while Isaac uses his ability to slip into other people's mannerisms to busk. They are brought back together when a package arrives, an inheritance from one of their family members. The inheritance in question, a house with legs. As the house starts to bring them together, it also has an enemy who has followed it to America and wishes to see it destroyed. The Yaga siblings will have to  band together, pull from their family's history, and believe in one another to take down this threat. 
This book is absolutely fantastic. Nethercott has created a collection of complex characters that are both easy to care for and ones that are easily frustrating in ways that feel uniquely human. This is also a story stuffed to the brim with folklore. It is told not only through the eyes of Bellatine and Isaac but also from the point of view of the house, which I absolutely loved. At the heart of this story are so many important lessons. How violence creates a lasting memory. The power and resilience of community. How stories live on. Between beautiful prose, folklore and fantastical elements, and complex characters, this is a special story. I'll definitely be checking out what Nethercott writes next because they brought something unique and magical to this story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Violence, Grief, Hate crime, Death, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Child death and Abandonment

Minor: War

thehobbitbarbie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

If you'd told me a week before I read Thistlefoot that an Americana horror novel was going to be my new favorite book, I'd have thought you were out of your mind. But here we are, almost 450 pages later, and this book is all I've thought about since I first opened it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Antisemitism, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, War, Blood, Genocide, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Hate crime, Death, Car accident, Xenophobia, Child death, Violence, and Racial slurs

Minor: Medical content, Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, and Sexual content

sneaky_snake22's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is a beautiful tale. It weaves together the past, present, magic and reality in a way that draws the reader in further and further. You learn and grow with the characters and understand how a past that seems so far removed from ourselves is connected and ingrained. It's a story that inspires you to connect and remember those that are struggling today. The main takeaway is that storytelling ensures those that are physically lost to us are never forgotten, that no matter the atrocities that occur, by remembering and telling the stories of those that lived, we can beat the hatred and darkness. And that by remembering the past, we can heal ourselves. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Death, Self harm, Child death, Genocide, and Murder

Moderate: Vomit and War

Minor: Death of parent

julianh's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Antisemitism, Death, and Genocide

ehrycyna's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Child death, Murder, Hate crime, Genocide, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, War, and Torture

emfo5777's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Child death, Death, Religious bigotry, Antisemitism, Murder, Genocide, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence

Minor: Grief

kmesserl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What an incredibly beautiful and deeply moving read. Honestly this will probably be my favorite book of the year. It’s been so long since I could nerd out not just on a sensational plot and realistic characters, but the prose itself. The writing it so juicy. The kind of writing that makes me want to be a better writer. My book is filled with underlined passages and earmarked pages because there were so many beautiful lines I didn’t want to forget. 

I loved this book. Can’t recommend it enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism

Moderate: Death, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Xenophobia

Minor: Addiction

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A friend recommended this delight of a book to me and I loved it. It explores myths and legends, cultural destruction, Russian Jewish heritage, and the role that stories play in both culture and heritage, all wrapped up in a fantasy-horror book with a fun cast of characters. I saw one reviewer characterized it as culturally apropriative to have non-religious characters with Jewish heritage as the main characters, but I enjoyed having characters like this because that’s my experience as well. I am not religious, but have Jewish heritage.

As an odd coincidence, the same day I started reading this book, a journalist I was working with told me about his family heritage. One side of his family came to the U.S. to escape the pogroms in the early 1900s. It was the first time I’d heard of the pogroms in Russia, and then this book centers them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Transphobia, Violence, Alcohol, Body horror, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Antisemitism, Blood, Hate crime, Murder, War, Death, Terminal illness, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Death of baby, death of family member, graphic Reanimation of dead animal

17kmcollins's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Animal death, Death, Antisemitism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Gore

samburkhouse's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Death, Child death, Genocide, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, and Stalking

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Fire/Fire injury