The House With Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson Review

Hi ForeverBookers, 

How are you all? Hope you’re good!

I’ve just finished reading “The House With Chicken Legs” by Sophie Anderson. It was an enchanting, but quite a sad read, while still being uplifting, if that makes sense. It’s middle grade so fine for all audiences to consume. As an adult, I understood what our main character Marinka, who’s twelve, was going through, as she experiences a wide range of emotions within the story, some of which I experienced growing up and still do experience now.

I read “The House With Chicken Legs” for a couple of readathons, 

The Cardcaptor-a-thon - The Change - A book that’s had a cover change - now, this might be slightly stretching the rules but it’s my game and it DOES have different covers in different countries. It just hasn’t had a cover change, per se...

Reading Rivalry - A book with a white house on the cover - it was because of something to do with US politics -  Participants in Reading Rivalry were allowed to count this if the WORD “house” was in white on the cover, so although the actual house on the cover is red, the word is white, as well as drawings of it inside the book. 

Spoilers Below...

The story starts by us seeing Marinka, our main character, who straight away tells us, 

“My house has chicken legs. Two or three times a year, without warning, it stands up in the middle of the night and walks away from where we’ve been living.” 

As an opening line this captivated me from the off! It’s written in simple language because it’s middle grade but there were a few more complex ideas/surprises still, like how the house just gets up and moves away without warning. Marinka has the task of building the bone wall to the house which is “important to keep out the living and Guide in the dead,” because it’s creepy enough to keep the living out but the dead feel at home there. She lights the skulls in the fence each night to Guide the dead. 

“I wish my house was a normal house, down there, with the living. I wish my family was a normal family, too. But my house has chicken legs, and my grandmother is a Yaga and a Guardian of the Gate between this world and the next. So my wishes are as hollow as the skulls of the fence.”

Marinka just wants a normal life! Her grandmother is a Guardian of the dead, who looks over spirits and let’s them transcend or cross “The Gate” into a peaceful death. Marinka, therefore knows that she’ll never have a normal life. No one else her age lives like she does. 

She makes a friend, right at the beginning of the book called Benjamin. “But as I stand next to Benjamin and look at the view, unbarred by a skeleton fence, I feel incredible. Like I can do anything,” displays how much Marinka wants to be normal, like any other twelve year old girl. She wants to be able to go out and make friends but Baba tells her that Guiding the dead is a very important job. Marinka, of course doesn’t care at first!

“My gaze is drawn to the lights of the town glistening far below; a universe of possibilities.” Marinka is often seen comparing her life to those of others. All she wants is to live normally. She wants the same possibilities that all of the living have the chance of. When she learns that she isn’t what she thought she was what will she do? You’ll have to read to find out!

We’re introduced to other characters slowly in this story. The cast of characters is relatively small, with only eleven or twelve main characters. There are a few that show up near the end too but they’re only mentioned once and they aren’t significant to the overall story. 

Our three most present characters are Marinka first, who tells the story. I love first person narrative and this was no different! I love being able to get inside a character’s head, to experience what they’re feeling whether it be happy or sad. With Marinka, I felt like I was the granddaughter of a Baba, going on several quests to find answers. I’d say our next most prominent character is Baba, Marinka’s grandmother. She is more so present in the first half of the book, because of something that happens, but is referred to throughout. You’ll have to read “The House With Chicken Legs” to work out the plot twist!

We have the house as a character too. This was different, I thought, but the house is a living thing in “The House With Chicken Legs” — I mean, it moves and is in the title of the book, so it counts as a character I think. It has feelings too, feelings that Marinka doesn’t always consider. The other characters, while being significant for their individual stories in “The House With Chicken Legs” aren’t really significant to the overall plot. 

Marinka has a pet jackdaw called Jack, and a lamb called Benji who help Marinka see that she’s more than she thinks, as well as a boy called Benjamin who gives Marinka Benji to look after, not knowing the house won’t be there the day after he lets her keep him for the night, when he goes to retrieve him the next day. As I said the house is alive so it moves as it’s got legs. A couple of bullies are present that tease at Marinka for being different, as well as a Yaga, a woman, who again helps Marinka to see that everybody is different and tells her not to be afraid to embrace who she truly is!  

There was a tiny inkling of a romance between Benjamin and Marinka but nothing too much because as I’ve said, “The House With Chicken Legs” is Middle Grade story. I would have loved for it to be YA and the romance to have a little more light shed on it but I really enjoyed the story for what it was! 

Lastly I just want to note the cute illustrations that make up this book along with the text. The images would help the younger audience understand what is happening, I think. There aren’t illustrations on every page but for what there is I thought they added to the story. For example, there’s a picture of Marinka’s house in the snow at one point, when they visit the snowy lands. There is also a Russian-English index at the back of the book as well, which tells us what the Slavic words that are mentioned mean. This was very helpful! These Slavic words are written in English text but they added another element to the story!

Overall, I’m giving “The House With Chicken Legs,” 4.5 stars! I really enjoyed it, and I got through it within a week too (I make detailed notes for these reviews with each book I read so it normally takes me at least a couple of weeks to complete a book)! 

Stand by for me next review, coming soon!