“The Yaga siblings—Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a wayfaring street performer and con artist—have been estranged since childhood, separated both by resentment and by wide miles of American highway. But when they learn that they are to receive an inheritance, the siblings agree to meet—only to discover that their bequest isn’t land or money, but something far stranger: a sentient house on chicken legs.

Thistlefoot, as the house is called, has arrived from the Yagas’ ancestral home outside Kyiv—but not alone. A sinister figure known only as the Longshadow Man has tracked it to American shores, bearing with him violent secrets from the past: fiery memories that have hidden in Isaac and Bellatine’s blood for generations. As the Yaga siblings embark with Thistlefoot on a final cross-country tour of their family’s traveling theater show, the Longshadow Man follows in relentless pursuit, seeding destruction in his wake. Ultimately, time, magic, and legacy must collide—erupting in a powerful conflagration to determine who gets to remember the past and craft a new future.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed a copy of this on ebook from my library.

Thoughts: This is an intriguing book that focuses on a lot of different things at once. I enjoyed the beautiful, unique way it was written but at times got a bit frustrated with how much the story jumped around.

The story follows the Yaga siblings. Bellatine is a woodworker who has graduated college and is starting to make a stable life for herself. Isaac is her brother and is a drifter. Isaac drifts from place to place taking what he wants from the world. They get notice that they have received an inheritance in the form of a chicken-legged house. In the end they make a deal to tour with it for a year, after that Bellatine will settle down with it. Their plans are sent askew when they find out the Longshadow Man is trying to hunt both them and the house down.

This was an intriguing story and very well done. I loved all the creativity and description here and the book is very beautifully written. The book jumps between many different points of view and times. Mostly we hear from Bellatine or Isaac. With Bellatine we mostly stay in the current day. Isaac alternates between telling stories of his travels and his modern day activities. We also hear from the house which tells different known stories of its origins but also starts to tell us its true history.

This is a world similar to our own but things like houses with feet aren’t unheard-of; inanimate objects in this world also occasionally develop human parts. Also, both Bellatine and Isaac have power of a sort. Bellatine can awaken inanimate objects and Isaac can mimic other living people. There’s enough magic here that this goes beyond magic realism into all out fantasy.

While I enjoyed this a ton I did struggle a bit with how many changes in both time and POV the story had. I was also a bit let down by how things ended. The reveal of the true history of the house and the end of the story sucked a lot of the magic out of it for me and made me feel really sad and let down. This book is less about the mythology of Baba Yaga and more about the importance of keeping memories and stories alive.

My Summary (4.5/5): Overall I really enjoyed this. I loved the creativity here and enjoyed the beautiful writing style. It was intriguing to puzzle out the story between all the different characters and time frames. However, this also broke up the story and made it a bit hard to follow. I do think this is an exceptional story and it was much different than other books I have read. I enjoyed delving into an alternate history of Baba Yaga and her tale. I would recommend this and plan on keeping tabs on Nethercott to see what she writes in the future.

Review – Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott (4.5/5 stars)

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