Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

69 reviews

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

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

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

Moderate: Addiction, Stalking, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Fire/Fire injury

mrsmishler's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Xenophobia

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

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: Animal death, Child death, Death, and Genocide

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

achay91's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Cursing, Genocide, Stalking, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide

cameronreads's review against another edition

5.0

This book somehow surpassed every expectation I had of it. It was simply wonderful; from the characters to the storytelling to the powerful and important messages it contained. I’d recommend this to anyone and everyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Suicide and War

dexkit10's review against another edition

adventurous tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Animal death and Blood

bellesunbridled's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Self harm, Violence, Vomit, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexual assault, Violence, Murder, and War

jbird_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Emotional abuse

18soft_green's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

• 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

4.0

4/5

This is a good book, unfortunately.

I say it this way because a lot of the time it felt like the author was being pretentious in her flowery style and drama. The POV switches were painful and Isaac is my least favorite type of character and Bellatine is so fucking annoying! And her statue love interest is worse! Baba Yaga herself was very interesting but her great, great, great, great grandkids are the worst! In fact, it's as if Nethercotte took my least favorite types of characters, added some quirks, and dumped them into a story.

But the story is good! The grief is real, the magic is weird, the contradictions are mysterious, the walking house is fantastic! The angst, my friends! It's such good angst! Not the relationship angst, that shit was boring as hell and annoying, but the life angst, the way the characters felt about themselves, that was the true sauce.

It also felt so fucking weird that Nethercotte constantly acknowledged the atrocities of the land. Maybe that's just my privilege talking but it felt so out of place and character for the Yaga siblings. Like, this book isn't addressing those topics so why is it bringing them up. I care very much about those issues but it felt like the story was only bringing them up out of obligation and personal responsibility rather than because it was important to the story. It was awkward for me.

4/5 I would not recommend unless the situation truly called on THIS particular book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Police brutality, and Grief

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Self harm, Antisemitism, and Kidnapping