GennaRose Nethercott

This story takes its inspiration from the folktales of Baba Yaga, but it’s a rather lyrical contemporary fantasy rather than a folk retelling. The American Yaga siblings Bellatine and Isaac inherit the chicken-footed hut called Thistlefoot from a great-grandmother in Eastern Europe. But the Baba Yaga in this story is not the wicked witch in the woods but rather a Jew living in a shtetl around the turn of the twentieth century. It is a rather melancholic story about bearing witness to the show more past and the legacy of evil. The aptly named Longshadow Man is a timely lesson in how fear can be used to control people and how it creates evil in ordinary people.

The story seemed rather repetitive at times, and the action scenes in particular seemed too drawn out to sustain suspense. But the novel is really more philosophical than suspense- or action-driven, so this isn’t as much of a flaw as it would be in a different sort of book.

I listened to the audiobook, read by the skillful January LaVoy. show less

“What is memory if not a ghost?”

It starts with estranged siblings, a magical house with chicken legs, and puppets; it ends with burgeoning love, a newfound home, and more puppets. And in between? In between is a journey across America and back through time, to explore themes of immigration, inner magic, and the remnant ghosts of time and memory. It all starts when the Yaga siblings, Bellatine and Isaac, inherit their maternal great grandmother’s house from Ukraine - which they soon show more discover is far more than just a house. Not only is the house that of the mythical Baba Yaga (one of my favourite folkloric characters), but it is the last living remnant of a historical event that was so brutal that it is still causing ripples in time. As in all good folk tales, the Yagas don’t get possession of the house without some complications. Not only are they plagued with the foibles of their own hereditary magical powers (the ability to shapechange for Isaac and the bringing the inanimate alive for Bellatine), which cause problems in their every day lives, but as they set out to tour their family puppet show across America their real foe is revealed. The Longshadow man is a memory brought to life by the same events that woke the Yaga house (aka Thistlefoot), and like his forebears he is bent on erasing any trace of the community that used to play home to the Yagas and their Jewish neighbours. The story is a rollicking adventure, but Nethercott artfully weaves Jewish folklore and European history throughout to create a mythical tale that treads a unique border between the reality that is and the reality that could have been. Like the stories of Baba Yaga herself, this story is a dark reckoning with memory that walks Thistlefoot out of an idyllic future and into a place of truthful remembering - even if we are never quite sure we have the full story. show less

Weird, wonderful, whimsical, and woeful, these stories reveal the human heart and all its foibles: Young love, lost love, the bonds and betrayals of young friendships. Some read like a strange cross between fairy tale, magical realism, and horror.

The titular story was great: strange and quirky and whimsical and sad. It’s a bestiary written by florists that contains a hidden tragic love story dropped in pieces among the animals. It is illustrated with pictures of the 50 beasts.

There were a show more couple I didn’t care for, including “Homebody,” which was too Machado-esque for my taste. But the rest were gems. show less

Is this going to be My Year of Slightly Above Average Short Story Collections? We'll see what the algorithm dictates. Not sure how I feel about this one—basically it's Welcome to Night Vale written by a Nicole Dollanganger fan, which is fine if you're into that. Illustrations were great.
Favorites: "A Diviner's Abecedarian", "Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart", "Possessions"