Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

2 reviews

tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

What an absolute joy of a book this is. History; heartbreak; magic; theater; folklore; queerness; complex family relationships; Jews kicking ass; a creepy, creepy villain <spoilers>who's really just a manifestation of the terrible things human beings do to each other; and the most adorable version ever of Baba Yaga's chicken-legged house. It's pretty great.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Stalking, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Transphobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Racial slurs, Vomit, and Cannibalism

Graphic: Mind control Moderate: Nonconsensual drug use

18soft_green's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

4/5

This is a good book, unfortunately.

I say it this way because a lot of the time it felt like the author was being pretentious in her flowery style and drama. The POV switches were painful and Isaac is my least favorite type of character and Bellatine is so fucking annoying! And her statue love interest is worse! Baba Yaga herself was very interesting but her great, great, great, great grandkids are the worst! In fact, it's as if Nethercotte took my least favorite types of characters, added some quirks, and dumped them into a story.

But the story is good! The grief is real, the magic is weird, the contradictions are mysterious, the walking house is fantastic! The angst, my friends! It's such good angst! Not the relationship angst, that shit was boring as hell and annoying, but the life angst, the way the characters felt about themselves, that was the true sauce.

It also felt so fucking weird that Nethercotte constantly acknowledged the atrocities of the land. Maybe that's just my privilege talking but it felt so out of place and character for the Yaga siblings. Like, this book isn't addressing those topics so why is it bringing them up. I care very much about those issues but it felt like the story was only bringing them up out of obligation and personal responsibility rather than because it was important to the story. It was awkward for me.

4/5 I would not recommend unless the situation truly called on THIS particular book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Police brutality, and Grief

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Self harm, Antisemitism, and Kidnapping