Books › The House with Chicken Legs
The House with Chicken Legs
272 pages
A warm, bittersweet fairy tale about a girl, her wandering house, and the heavy, beautiful burden of guiding the dead.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like sitting by a crackling hearth while a cold wind howls outside, wrapped in a blanket of rich Slavic folklore. The narrative moves at a brisk, adventurous pace, yet it always leaves room for quiet, melancholic moments that explore the heavy ache of loneliness and the inevitability of death. The prose is wonderfully sensory, filling the imagination with the scent of hot borscht, the clatter of bone fences, and the restless shifting of a house that breathes and feels. It is a deeply earnest and bittersweet journey that balances eerie, ghostly elements with profound warmth. Perfect for anyone who loves magical realism that tackles grief and the search for belonging with a tender, hopeful touch.
- Mood
- folkloric
- cozy
- melancholic
- magical
- Tone
- earnest
- whimsical
- bittersweet
- hopeful
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- grief and letting go · finding one's destiny · the meaning of home · loneliness and friendship · the cycle of life
- The writing
- Lyrical and deeply sensory, rich with the comforting smells of Russian cuisine and the lively, thumping heartbeat of a magical house.
- The arc
- Moves from deep loneliness and rebellion against an inherited destiny to a profound, tear-jerking acceptance of loss and self.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave atmospheric, folklore-infused middle-grade fantasies that tackle heavy themes with warmth and wonder.
Content notes
- grief
- death of a loved one
- discussions of the afterlife
About the book
"All 12-year-old Marinka wants is a friend. A real friend. Not like her house with chicken legs. Sure, the house can play games like tag and hide-and-seek, but Marinka longs for a human companion. Someone she can talk to and share secrets with. But that's tough when your grandmother is a Yaga, a guardian who guides the dead into the afterlife. It's even harder when you live in a house that wanders all over the world... carrying you with it. Even worse, Marinka is being trained to be a Yaga. That means no school, no parties -- and no playmates that stick around for more than a day. So when Marinka stumbles across the chance to make a real friend, she breaks all the rules... with devastating consequences. Her beloved grandmother mysteriously disappears, and it's up to Marinka to find her -- even if it means making a dangerous journey to the afterlife. With a mix of whimsy, humour, and adventure, this debut novel will wrap itself around your heart and never let go." -- Jacket flap.
Description from Open Library.
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