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A review by jaimeeslitlife
Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
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
5.0
"What happens when the walls we raise outlive the dangers they were built to keep out? At what point does a fort become a cage?"
Thistlefoot was weightier and more beautiful than I imagined; in this novel, folklore meets immersive fantasy meets real-life horrors (horrors that Nethercott's ancestors actually witnessed).
Baba Yaga, a figure from Slavic folklore, is reimagined as a Jewish woman living in an Eastern European shtetl during a time of civil war and pogroms; she is fierce and maternal, she can help or harm, she is shunned and sought after. Thistlefoot is similarly full of opposites; it is solemn and joyful, gruesome and humorous, realistic and fantastical. The folklore of the past leaks into present-day in a heartwrenching story about inherited trauma, roots, and the power of storytelling.
Nethercott creates a world in which the magic is tantalizingly revealed and not overly explained. This world feels just slightly off-center from ours; houses grow legs and gills and no one bats an eye, but horrors like pogroms still haunt history. Parts of this book had me on the edge of my seat, flipping pages as fast as I could. Other parts felt like I was floating along, picking up crumbs of information but mostly soaking luxuriously in Nethercott's beautiful prose.
I also think that there's a lot to explore here re: the idea of houses as bodies; trauma alters Thistlefoot the house, just as it alters generations of the Yaga family. The house holds trauma but it also holds (and creates!) stories. Thistlefoot is the perfect vessel for the story Nethercott tells.
Thistlefoot is a powerhouse (pun intended) of a debut novel, and I cannot recommend it enough.
Thistlefoot was weightier and more beautiful than I imagined; in this novel, folklore meets immersive fantasy meets real-life horrors (horrors that Nethercott's ancestors actually witnessed).
Baba Yaga, a figure from Slavic folklore, is reimagined as a Jewish woman living in an Eastern European shtetl during a time of civil war and pogroms; she is fierce and maternal, she can help or harm, she is shunned and sought after. Thistlefoot is similarly full of opposites; it is solemn and joyful, gruesome and humorous, realistic and fantastical. The folklore of the past leaks into present-day in a heartwrenching story about inherited trauma, roots, and the power of storytelling.
Nethercott creates a world in which the magic is tantalizingly revealed and not overly explained. This world feels just slightly off-center from ours; houses grow legs and gills and no one bats an eye, but horrors like pogroms still haunt history. Parts of this book had me on the edge of my seat, flipping pages as fast as I could. Other parts felt like I was floating along, picking up crumbs of information but mostly soaking luxuriously in Nethercott's beautiful prose.
I also think that there's a lot to explore here re: the idea of houses as bodies; trauma alters Thistlefoot the house, just as it alters generations of the Yaga family. The house holds trauma but it also holds (and creates!) stories. Thistlefoot is the perfect vessel for the story Nethercott tells.
Thistlefoot is a powerhouse (pun intended) of a debut novel, and I cannot recommend it enough.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Child death, and Violence
Moderate: Death and War
Minor: Cannibalism