Thistlefoot

Unreliable narrators experienced a moment a few years ago, with everyone from big 5 editors to bookstagrammers gushing over them. With Thistlefoot, a Baba Yaga retelling involving two siblings and a traveling puppet show, GennaRose Nethercott takes this concept of shifting perspective to the extreme. Sure, people can curate their stories, but how about houses?

The house in question, a wonderful wooden creation that runs around on chicken’s feet, breaks the third wall repeatedly in the narrative by addressing the readers directly. The feisty house, named Thistlefoot, acknowledges that it is telling us only one version of several possible stories, holding its secrets close to its shingles, and even rebukes us at one point for not having patience. Thistlefoot is not messing around. It has its reasons and no reader quibbles will sway it from its intended purpose.

Those reasons soon become apparent as we follow Thistlefoot and its inhabitants, siblings Bellatine and Isaac Yaga, on an epic adventure. The siblings are an unlikely pair. Bellatine uses carpentry to stop herself from using her magical power which she fears. Isaac, on the other hand, uses his own gift to grift his way across the country. Thanks to this impasse, they’ve grown estranged, but when the mysterious house on chicken feet is bequeathed to them by a long lost ancestor, they form a tenuous agreement. They will use Thistelfoot as a traveling puppet theater. After one year of performances, Isaac will keep all the profits while Bellatine will retain sole ownership of the house.

Too bad neither of them knows Thistelfoot is being hunted by a shadowy creature known as the LongShadow man. As the siblings struggle to figure out how to protect Thistlefoot, they must dig deep and learn about their own ancestral history, no matter how painful. The individual story arcs of Bellatine and Isaac intertwine with Thistelfoot’s own story like vines on a trellis. The house and its memories form a scaffold onto which each individual can hang their own trauma, obstacles, and desires.

Who gets to tell a story, and how that viewpoint shapes future understanding of historical events, is at the root of all fables and folktales. This is never more obvious than when a house on chicken legs encourages two squabbling siblings to take control of their own narratives. It’s a lesson I will take with me into my own writing. Narrators are not necessarily unreliable, they simply each have their own agenda, which can often directly conflict with traditional Western story structure. Honoring that balance and saying true to oneself is at the root of every good story, no matter who tells it.

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BookishlyJewish received an e arc of this book after requesting one through NetGalley

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E Broderick is a writer and speculative fiction enthusiast. When not writing she enjoys epic games of trivial pursuit and baking. She currently lives in the U.S. but is eagerly awaiting the day a sentient spaceship offers to take her traveling around the galaxy.