Review #55: Fiction
Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott
In Thistlefoot, GennaRose Nethercott brings the Baba Yaga folklore into the modern-day, using a magical realism backdrop to tell a unique story of both blood- and found-family. In a debut novel that doesn’t shy away from the painful and grotesque aspects of life, Nethercott builds a world with Grimm’s fairytale bones, complete with whimsy and magic, and modern accents throughout.
When the Yaga siblings, Bellatine and Isaac, inherit a house from a long lost relative in Eastern Europe, the house getting up and walking around on a pair of chicken legs is just the beginning of the oddities that lie ahead. When a shadowy figure crosses countries and oceans to claim the house for himself, the siblings must band together to understand and protect not just their present, but their past. An epic fantasy that spans thousands of miles and hundreds of years, Thistlefoot breathes new life into Jewish folklore.
Bellatine and Isaac have not spoken in years—Bellatine pursuing woodworking and looking to settle into a normal life, and Isaac following the whims and impulses of a street performer and petty thief wherever they take him. When they each get the call that a great-great-grandmother has left them an inheritance, they meet again at a shipyard to open the giant container together. When the shock of a sentient house on chicken legs walking out wears off, they strike a deal. If Bellatine joins Isaac on a cross-country tour to perform their family’s old puppet show, he’ll take the spoils, and she can keep the house. What they don’t know, is that the Longshadow Man wants Thistlefoot for himself to settle a century’s old debt. To save themselves and Thistlefoot from a deadly fate, both Bellatine and Isaac must confront their very worst fears from their past and start using each of their unique abilities for good.
With a cast of characters from the past and present, told through the perspectives of Bellatine, Isaac, and Thistlefoot (who gives us the backstory to understand the Longshadow Man’s pursuit), Thistlefoot will walk right into your heart and soul like a hot cup of tea next to a roaring fire. Nethercott has created a beautiful, whimsical tale of love, loss, and memory through a fantastic adventure complete with ghosts, betrayal, and vengeance. But the ghosts in this story are not just people, they are places and events, and the horror of experiencing a ghost is not shied away from. Nethercott does not hold back on visceral depictions of pain and suffering; she is unashamed of broaching taboo topics and showing the gritty, violent realities of the world.
Existing in a world of magical realism that I didn’t question for a single second, Thistlefoot is a captivating story of generational trauma, exploring what being bound by blood really means, what a family really is, and the price we’re willing to pay for love.
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
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