Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

La maison aux pattes de poulet by GennaRose Nethercott

32 reviews

caebrown's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

social_eyes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

cleot's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

Engaging and devastating with a unique narrative style. I wept. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Xenophobia, Animal death, Murder, and Racism

hey_al's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad fast-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

5.0

This story took me a while to get into, but it is worth the trek to the end. If you love spooky folktales and history of eastern European Jews, this one's for you. I don't reread books ever but I might reread this one. The way Nethercott writes about trauma is so beautiful and heartbreaking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism and Animal death

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Alcohol, Colonisation, Death, Genocide, and Grief

liv_easton's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.75

This book was one I've been meaning to read for a couple of years now, and I can confidently say I'm glad I did. The payoff was incredibly satisfying, and just what I would want from a book of folklore. That being said, I genuinely did not know how I was going to finish this book for about the first half. For me, there was just too much time spent on the set-up of the book, and it felt like Nethercrott was trying to build up a suspense around the magic system of the book that wasn't quite necessary, since the magic system either went mostly unexplained to make time for the other story elements (at worst) or was meant to be shrouded in mystery as part of the folklore/storytelling core (at best, and what I believe was the actual intention. 

In either case, halfway through the story was a bit long to finally drop the curtain on what we needed to know about magic in the novel. Couple that with a POV that is often unappealing to read and also refuses to give the reader any information for a couple hundred pages (I'm looking mostly at you, Isaac, but occasionally at Bellatine), and I didn't think that this book would ever become a novel I was actually invested in. However, I'm happy to say that I was wrong on that count—once Bellatine's magic was revealed, the story and characters seemed to open up and get me invested in the story enough that I would have given the story a 3.5 stars (the last .25 coming from my affection for the type of ending the story ends up having).

The major highlight that kept me reading was every chapter the house told, as the house was by far and away the most compelling character and also the best storyteller of the lot by far. On the whole, I think this is a super worthwhile book to read, and if you need to skim some of the first 20 or so chapters to get through it, I get it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, Animal death, Genocide, Antisemitism, Death, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Hate crime, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Blood

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

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

kerri_m's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

An unexpectedly beautiful tale of generational trauma, not standing by, and the enduring power of memory. Just enough shock value at times, and Thistlefoot herself was beautifully voiced. Only downsides: I wanted more from the Dustbreakers and much less from Benji.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism

Moderate: Animal death

sparklefarm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.5

This was tremendous.

If you had said, "Hey Hannah, read this folk tale about generational trauma," I don't know that I would have picked up Thistlefoot enthusiastically. But this was such a good read.

I think some people would describe this prose as flowery or purple or excessive, but for me it worked well within this folk tale setting, especially within an audiobook. 

This was wonderful and I think will appeal to fans of Alix E. Harrow. I can't wait to read more from Nethercott.

Pay attention to the content warnings because it is a book about trauma, and dips occasionally into horror territory as well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Animal death, and Child death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and Body horror