From the Bookshelf of SpecFic Buddy Reads…

Thistlefoot

GennaRose Nethercott

Start date: December 1, 2022

Finish date: December 31, 2022

Discussion leader: Cathy

Why we're reading this: Group Read Horror December 2022
[close] Group Read Horror December 2022

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Oct 24, 2022 Lata rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, sf-f-h, auth-f, x2022-read

The Yaga siblings live separately, and haven’t seen each other since older brother Isaac left the family at sixteen, to wander the country by rail, and work as a pickpocket, con artist and busker. He’s aided in his criminal activities by an uncanny ability to mimic the appearances and mannerisms of others. Meanwhile, Bellatine works as a woodworker, lives a circumscribed, carefully planned out life. She has the ability to animate some kinds of materials, and the dead, and she’s less than enthuse The Yaga siblings live separately, and haven’t seen each other since older brother Isaac left the family at sixteen, to wander the country by rail, and work as a pickpocket, con artist and busker. He’s aided in his criminal activities by an uncanny ability to mimic the appearances and mannerisms of others. Meanwhile, Bellatine works as a woodworker, lives a circumscribed, carefully planned out life. She has the ability to animate some kinds of materials, and the dead, and she’s less than enthused to meet up with her absent brother after getting word that they’ve been willed something.

That something is an old house on massive chicken legs, that Bellatine calls Thistlefoot. Once they figure out how to get the house moving, Isaac decides that the house will be Bellatine’s, after she and he accumulate profits for a year by putting on puppet shows. This isn’t as crazy an idea as it sounds, as the siblings’ parents are well known and respected puppeteers, and their kids learned the ropes from them.

So Bellatine and Isaac agree, but on the condition that she never has to touch a wooden puppet. They begin their tour, unaware that a malevolent stranger is on their tail, sowing discord, violence and death after him, while he tries to find the ambulatory house.

A trio of musicians also come into the story, having been tracking the scary stranger. Bellatine's accidentally animated stone statue is the last member of this
odd bunch running across the country, trying to keep Thistlefoot away from the stranger.

I loved this book! Packed with beautiful prose, fantastic imagery, and some horrific scenes of a violent history in Russia binding the siblings to the house. The story is filled with all manner of strangeness, from Isaac's ability to physically appear as others, the cat, Hubcap, who trails after Isaac no matter where he ends up, Bellatine's necromancy manifesting as searing heat in her hands, stories of other houses moving from disasters, and more.

I also felt that GennaRose Nethercott successfully wove Baba Yaga with the Jewish experience in Russia into an appealing mix of magic and horror.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for my review. ...more

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Dec 11, 2022 Cathy rated it it was amazing

Here is the rare event of the cover drawing me to a book. Over the years I have met Baba Yaga in various mutations. Probably first through Kate Daniels or another UF series and lastly through the Witcher. The chicken-legged hut sealed the deal. A roadtrip in a walking hut? Sounds bonkers. I had fun looking at various images of chicken-legged huts online…

It started more sweet than horrible, until the bad guy showed up for the first time. Creepy.

“In the tradition of modern fairytales like America ...more

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