Reviews tagging 'War'

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

46 reviews

kmesserl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What an incredibly beautiful and deeply moving read. Honestly this will probably be my favorite book of the year. It’s been so long since I could nerd out not just on a sensational plot and realistic characters, but the prose itself. The writing it so juicy. The kind of writing that makes me want to be a better writer. My book is filled with underlined passages and earmarked pages because there were so many beautiful lines I didn’t want to forget. 

I loved this book. Can’t recommend it enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism

Moderate: Death, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Xenophobia

Minor: Addiction

therainbowshelf's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A friend recommended this delight of a book to me and I loved it. It explores myths and legends, cultural destruction, Russian Jewish heritage, and the role that stories play in both culture and heritage, all wrapped up in a fantasy-horror book with a fun cast of characters. I saw one reviewer characterized it as culturally apropriative to have non-religious characters with Jewish heritage as the main characters, but I enjoyed having characters like this because that’s my experience as well. I am not religious, but have Jewish heritage.

As an odd coincidence, the same day I started reading this book, a journalist I was working with told me about his family heritage. One side of his family came to the U.S. to escape the pogroms in the early 1900s. It was the first time I’d heard of the pogroms in Russia, and then this book centers them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Transphobia, Violence, Alcohol, Body horror, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Antisemitism, Blood, Hate crime, Murder, War, Death, Terminal illness, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Death of baby, death of family member, graphic Reanimation of dead animal

cameronreads's review against another edition

5.0

This book somehow surpassed every expectation I had of it. It was simply wonderful; from the characters to the storytelling to the powerful and important messages it contained. I’d recommend this to anyone and everyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Antisemitism, Death, Self harm, Gore, Grief, Child death, Genocide, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Suicide and War

fee_nix05's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

The proze is so good! I also learned a lot about russian-jewish history, without it ever feeling like reading a textbook. The main characters felt so real, and the latter portion made me cry because of how beautifully it was written. The only thing keeping me from rating this a 5-star read is that it felt a little long sometimes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, War, and Antisemitism

ahntologies's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Really beautiful dark rich modern folklore. Looking forward to more from Nethercott. There are so many incredible quotes on trauma, grief, memory. The multitude of storytelling style  in this book was able to show me that folklore is humanity's way to heal and survive, no matter the culture. In that, both power is evoked and magic happens. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Antisemitism, Genocide, Self harm, War, Child death, and Suicide

noelpaige's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I cannot say enough good things about this book. I never thought I would be sobbing about a brother and sister and a house with chicken legs but here we are. Absolutely incredible, beautifully written, the perfect amount of fun and folklore and whimsy mixed with real historical references and dark + challenging topics. I would also die for every one of these characters. I’ll be thinking about this book and the ending for the rest of my life probably. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Genocide, Child death, and War

Minor: Xenophobia

cyanochic's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Loved this book from cover to cover!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: War, Genocide, Child death, Antisemitism, Abandonment, and Death

Minor: Alcoholism

dexkit10's review against another edition

adventurous tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Genocide

Moderate: Animal death and Blood

honeycrow's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

this was such an enjoyable book to read- much like the house Thistlefoot, the book of the same name has a life of its own and a story that surely won’t fade

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, War, Antisemitism, and Xenophobia

bellesunbridled's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Animal death, Antisemitism, Child death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Vomit, Violence, Religious bigotry, Death, Child death, Genocide, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Antisemitism, and Self harm

Minor: War, Sexual assault, Murder, and Violence