Recent Reads: Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott 

Publisher: Anchor Books
Publication Date:  September 13, 2022

 

Format: Hardback
Source: BOTM October 2022

Rating:
DNF - 1 Star

Goodreads Synopsis: 

In the tradition of modern fairytales like American Gods and Spinning Silver comes a sweeping epic rich in Eastern European folklore--a debut novel about the ancestral hauntings that stalk us, and the uncanny power of story.

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 a mysterious inheritance, the siblings are reunited--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 in Russia--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.

An enchanted adventure illuminated by Jewish myth and adorned with lyrical prose as tantalizing and sweet as briar berries, Thistlefoot is an immersive modern fantasy saga by a bold new talent.

Review: 

I am sad about this one, I wanted to love it ... or even like it for that matter and sadly it was just too slow, and I was not invested enough to care to finish it. 

I DNFed this book at ~40%, I had been trying to read it for the last month, and in the meantime also finished many other books while avoiding it. The story is about a brother and sister that are pretty much estranged, but come together when they inherit the chicken-legged house. Now in order to pay off her side of the house and own it outright, Bellatine is helping her brother Isaac put on a puppet show... but there is also someone trying to find the house. At almost halfway through, there were no climaxes in the story at all, and I needed something to keep going and it just never came. I got to a section where they are sitting in a diner and talking and then Isaac has a flashback about a friend named Benji... and I tried to skip it... it was at that point that I realized the character building/ flashbacks that were meant to build were just depressing me and so I called it quits.

Where I think this book went wrong was in the pacing. It was so unbearably slow for too long. There are oh moments here and there but not with the characters we are meant to invest in. It also has a weird past/present issue that irked me... are we set in modern times with cell phones or are we in the 1930's because it oddly felt like both and maybe that was meant to bring on an 'old-soul' feel but it was just odd in context. 

I also still wanted more from this world - it was magical realism, so it was supposed to be able to set magic down in our world and ride it out, but I found the magic to be forced and not as seamless as I like my magical realism settings to be.

So, overall, this was not for me... however if you are looking for something slower paced, you might enjoy it.