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imds's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Police brutality, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Hate crime, Murder, Abandonment, Body horror, Grief, Death, Violence, and Antisemitism
platypoke's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Moderate: Murder and Genocide
Minor: War and Gun violence
cameronreads's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Antisemitism, Death, Self harm, Gore, Grief, Child death, Genocide, Religious bigotry, and Violence
Moderate: Gun violence
Minor: Suicide and War
owlieali's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Racial slurs, Violence, Antisemitism, Blood, Gun violence, Racism, and Xenophobia
Minor: Sexual violence
displacedcactus's review against another edition
- 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
I didn't like Isaac at all as a character. I have no time or patience for smarmy men or people who steal from small businesses and others who can ill afford the loss.
Bellatine was a character I could have liked, but she was so closed off that I felt like she was even closed off to me as the reader, and it was hard to connect to her.
A story about hosting a traveling puppet show in Baba Yaga's chicken-legged hut should feel fun and adventurous, even if a dangerous enemy is chasing you. But no fun was to be had.
There is a final, beautiful, hopeful message at the end, but I had a miserable time getting there. I understand why others enjoyed this book, but I was the wrong reader at admittedly the wrong time in my life for something this heavy.
Graphic: Child death, Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, and Antisemitism
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Xenophobia, Violence, and Self harm
Minor: Cannibalism and Vomit
There's a brief off-handed mention of necrophilia, somehow SG doesn't have a CW tag for that one. There are specific scenes of a pogrom and they're pretty disturbing.torturedreadersdept's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Antisemitism, Blood, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Hate crime, Violence, Body horror, and Child death
savvylit's review against another edition
- 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
Based on the Slavic folktale of Baba Yaga, Thistlefoot is a beautifully written and heartbreaking dark fairytale. The plot and the characters are compelling and not overly fantastical. Isaac and Bellatine are both perfectly imperfect protagonists with unique magical abilities. Thistlefoot, the house, is an enchanting setting AND a dynamic character all on its own. The Longshadow Man is a horrific antagonist. Hubcap, the cat, is the best character and deserved more love. The Duskbreaker Band members are all quite cool and their backstories are the one thing this novel needed to explore in more depth. Winnie is a delight. And Baba Yaga? She was a badass trying her best.
Beyond the deeply memorable characters and plot, the real power of Thistlefoot lies in its exploration of the legacy of suffering and the way that trauma echoes unseen throughout generations. Alongside Isaac and Bellatine, Nethercott invites readers to recognize the power of remembering historical atrocity. If we don't remember, we can't heal. If we don't remember, we can't honor those who have been lost.
This stunning saga is GennaRose Nethercott's debut novel. At first, this fact surprised me given the many achingly gorgeous passages in the novel. However, prior to Thistlefoot, Nethercott was most well-known for her poetry. Additionally, in the acknowledgments, she cites the prose of Angela Carter and Ray Bradbury as inspiration. That inspiration and her clear poetic skill both shine through so vividly in the magical, devastating world that Nethercott has created in Thistlefoot. I won't soon forget the Yaga family story.
Graphic: Gore, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Physical abuse, Violence, War, Gun violence, Death, Grief, Child death, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts
starrysteph's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Child death, Death, Antisemitism, Racism, Violence, Genocide, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Drug abuse, Self harm, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, and Vomit
beforeviolets's review against another edition
- 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 tells the story of the Yaga siblings, estranged for many years after growing up together in a family puppet theater. But they find themselves reunited by a phone call, informing them of an inheritance: a house on chicken legs called Thistlefoot, they turn their new home into a traveling puppet theatre, on a cross-country road trip to perform a show from their youth. But little do they know that their past is haunting them in more ways than one.
GennaRose has written a love letter to folklore and its ever-changing nature, to puppetry and the power of performance, to generational trauma and the importance of history retold, and to storytelling both as an art and as an act of resistance.
Despite its characters’ innate inability to do so, this book plants roots. Like a forest, there’s a whole system of wooden tendrils beneath its surface, burrowed between the pages, stretching back to the past and reaching towards the future. A whole life tangling beneath your (metaphorical) feet. Its themes, its characters, its plotlines interconnect in ways that only begin to break the surface. Each begotten fruit, each unfurled blossom the product of a history and a future unseen, a gift to the reader as we make our way through the complex, snarling terrain of this world and its many unfolding tales.
I unfortunately cannot begin to break down the many amazing element of this book or we'll be here for ages, so let me just quickly list some of my favorite things: a sentient house with its own POV that talks like a Jewish grandmother, an interwoven puppetry show, Baba Yaga as a protective and strong Jewish woman in a Russian shtetl, a new twist on the golem myth paired with conversations about control and life itself, maybe the weirdest sapphic relationship I've ever read, a nonbinary scientist, lavender cigarettes, a joke about Stanislavsky, the concept of ghost as memory (THE CONCEPT OF GHOST AS MEMORY!!), and a dissection of modern American folklore.
This book is for all those who have spent so long looking into the distance, they’ve forgotten where their path began. (And for Jewish puppeteers.) Kill the lantern. Raise the ghost.
CW/TW: antisemitism, genocide, eugenics, violence, gun violence, fire, death, child death, character death, grief, PTSD, murder, drugging, alcohol consumption, blood & gore, smoking, self-inflicted harm, migraines, racism, car accident, adult/minor relationship (kinda?), emesis, needles (brief), cannibalism (mention), decapitation (mention)
Graphic: Antisemitism, Gun violence, Genocide, Child death, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Alcohol, and Violence
Moderate: Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, and Blood
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Car accident, Vomit, and Cannibalism