Thistlefoot

In January 2023, my partner dropped this book into my hands and said, “I’m pretty sure this book was written exactly for you.” And you know what? They were RIGHT.

This book isn’t just the Baba Yaga retelling of my dreams—it also features one of the most captivating sibling relationships I’ve ever read. Bellatine and Isaac Yaga are beautifully complicated characters, each unable to stop hurting the other as they manage their trauma in very different ways. (Hint: both of them involve very cool magic.)

I spent the book desperately wanting each of them to reach one another, and was… show more.

This book is exactly what I love in a folklore-inspired novel: an original tale artfully revised or updated with contemporary connections and resonance. Honoring the original while linking it to new or modern events in a continuing literary conversation. The test is whether this is done well and entertainingly without losing the familiarity and history. Nethercott delivers!

The classic Eastern European tale of Baba Yaga underpins her quirky, affecting novel. The mythical house on giant chicken legs is shipped from long-term storage in a Ukrainian warehouse to the US, inherited by Yaga’s descendants: a 20-ish brother and sister from an… show more.