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laurareads87'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
3.5
<i>Content warnings:</i> Antisemitism, genocide, murder, grief, self harm, blood, suicidal thoughts, animal death, animal cruelty, fire/fire injury, xenophobia, death, child death, violence
Graphic: Antisemitism, Blood, Child death, Death, Grief, Murder, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Gore
Minor: Alcohol
emilysbookishlife'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: Antisemitism, Genocide, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Alcohol
mossgoblins'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: Antisemitism
Moderate: Death, Genocide, Grief, Abandonment, Murder, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, War, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Xenophobia, Blood, Self harm, Violence, Hate crime, and Child death
Minor: Alcohol, Kidnapping, and Deportation
pins'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? It's complicated
4.75
A story about the importance of stories, how even if our talents may be unconventional, they're still worth something and about how we can affect those around us- even after were gone.
"Kill the lantern, Raise the Ghost"
P.S.
P.S.S. I did listen to this at 1.75x speed, and I do think this tale works MUCH better in audio format than it would written. Plus January LaVoy does a really great job doing distinctive voices
Graphic: Antisemitism, Death, Religious bigotry, Genocide, and Child death
Moderate: Death, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Xenophobia, and Alcohol
victoriousbookworm's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Violence, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Animal death, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Antisemitism, War, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Abandonment
abominablesnowaro'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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Antisemitism, Genocide, Gore, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Violence, and Abandonment
Moderate: Body horror, Self harm, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Alcohol and Vomit
maregred's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Hate crime, Antisemitism, Death, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Child death, Grief, War, Violence, Alcohol, and Alcoholism
Minor: Animal death, Sexual violence, Slavery, Colonisation, Blood, and Emotional abuse
teresareads's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
Graphic: Genocide, Violence, Hate crime, Antisemitism, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Alcohol, Child death, and Addiction
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
zoeelizabethk's review against another edition
- 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
Most of this book is positives for me. I think the narrative structure of Thistlefoot is brilliant. I can't say too much because of spoilers, but the way different stories are broken up and told opposite and in front and in back of each other is well done. If you have any familiarity with slavic fairytales it will feel familiar but also clever. I also loved the prose and the narrative tone of the book. Nethercott is also a poet, and that definitely comes across in her writing. It's very suited to a liminal fairy tale. I really liked the discussion of the power of story, remembrance, and generational memory. I wrote my college thesis on Russian generational memory surrounding WWII, so it's a topic that I've spent a good amount of time with, and I thought that Thistlefoot was a really good vehicle to explore that topic.
The few negatives for me that I noticed, but didn't necessarily impact my enjoyment of the book. Occasionally the prose got a little unwieldy in my opinion and the book could have been shorter. I thought the minor romance that develops came out of nowhere and did nothing; I'm not sure that it even served as a plot device. I think there's good development for Isaac and Bellantine, but don't expect the side characters to be really well fleshed out. I thought they were sufficient for this story, but this might bother character driven readers. The settings felt often very vague despite seeming vivid to the characters. It was very hard to remind myself that this was taking place in modern day. Finally, I think the ending was probably the right choice thematically, but it was not necessarily satisfying, particularly for our characters.
Overall, I am really glad I read Thistlefoot. I'm looking forward to what Nethercott comes up with next, because I really appreciated what she created here. If you are a fan of slavic folklore/fairy tales, I think that this is definitely worth picking up. The blub likens it to Spinning Silver, and I don't disagree, but I think it is more similar to Deathless by Catherynne Valente. If you enjoyed Deathless, Spinning Silver, or the Winternight Trilogy (which I had serious problems with), give Thistlefoot a try!
Thanks to Netgalley and Anchor Books for an eARC in exchange for my honest review. I also listened to the audiobook narrated by January LaVoy, who overall had a terrific narration.
Graphic: Animal death, Antisemitism, Child death, Gore, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Death, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Homophobia, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Gore, and Blood
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual content