Thistlefoot
In the tradition of modern fairy tales like Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver comes an immersive fantasy saga, a debut novel about estranged siblings who are reunited after receiving a mysterious inheritance. “A wonderfully imaginative, wholly enchanting novel of witness, survival, memory, and family that reads like a fairy tale godfathered by Neil Gaiman and Tim Burton in a wild America alive with wonders and devils alike. Thistlefoot shimmers with magic and mayhem and a thrilling emotional momentum.” —Libba Bray, bestselling author of The Diviners 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 an inheritance, the siblings agree to meet—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 outside Kyiv—but not alone. A sinister figure known only as the Longshadow Man has tracked it to American shor
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Wood-carver Bellatine Yaga and her grifter older brother Isaac receive an inheritance from their Russian great-great-grandmother: a wooden cottage on chicken legs called Thistlefoot.
Thistlefoot was written by GennaRose Nethercott and published in 2022. Nethercott is also a poet whose later novel Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart was published in 2024.
Yes. Thistlefoot blends Jewish folklore (particularly Baba Yaga's chicken-legged hut), Appalachian setting, and contemporary literary fiction. The premise of inheriting a sentient walking house has been widely cited in conversations about modern fairy-tale fiction.
Thistlefoot is 448 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Thistlefoot takes most readers 7 to 10 hours to finish.
Thistlefoot is a standalone novel by GennaRose Nethercott, not part of a series.
Thistlefoot is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.