Motheater

by Linda H. Codega

In this nuanced queer fantasy set amid the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia, the last witch of the Ridge must choose sides in a clash between industry and nature.

After her best friend dies in a coal mine, Benethea “Bennie” Mattox sacrifices her job, her relationship, and her reputation to uncover what’s killing miners on Kire Mountain. When she finds a half-drowned white woman in a dirty mine slough, Bennie takes her in because it’s right—but also because she hopes this odd, magnetic stranger can lead her to the proof she needs. Instead, she brings more questions. The woman called Motheater can’t remember her true name, or how she ended up inside the mountain. She knows only that she’s a witch of Appalachia, bound to tor and holler, possum and snake, with power in her hands and Scripture on her tongue. But the mystery of her fate, her doomed quest to keep industry off Kire Mountain, and the promises she bent and broke have followed her a century and half into the future. And now, the choices Motheater and Bennie make together could change the face of the town itself.

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Queer, Fiction, LGBT, Witches, Lesbian

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 21, 2025

Reviews

[nikki | ཐི༏ཋྀ​​݁ ₊ ݁ . · Rating 3 out of 5]

while this has some beautiful writing and an interesting atmosphere of appalachian/southern folk horror in a litfic story, i was disappointed by this personally.

the pacing was quite slow throughout, which made this a slog to read at times. the main characters motheater and bennie are quite interesting, but i didn't really buy the romance at the end. bennie was definitely mesmerized by this ethereal witch and we had the benefit of more of her POV, but for me motheater had too much going on to really think about romance and her POV was in the past.

this also read more like litfic with folk horror and fantasy elements rather than a fantasy book. which is fine, but i think litfic readers who are feeling like some fantasy/horror will be more satisfied with this than fantasy readers.

i didn't care for the amount of christian scripture and fusion of religion with magic, just personal taste.

ultimately the most disappointing part was that while i loved the female rage and themes of corporate capitalism destroying the environment and nature fighting back, we don't really get that big triumphant victory of nature > capitalism action ending that would've been v satisfying.

an honest arc review ♡

[LiterallyLahni · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review will 100% contain spoilers because I'm incapable of talking about a book without them. Sorry.

1 STAR

*sigh* This review is going to be as tough for me to write as this book was for me to read. I had been trying to read this book for almost two months, and usually at that point, I would DNF it, but I was determined to finish it. I mean, come on: sapphics, Appalachian magic, and sentient mountains?! Sounds like a dream, but it was so far from it. I know I sound harsh, but I had such high expectations for this book, based on the description and the beautiful cover, and I was fully let down.

Now, let me get into what didn’t work for me in the novel (I had much more nuanced notes starting from the beginning of the book, but alas, those disappeared when I reset my Kobo °(°.◜ᯅ◝°)°):

It was soooooo slow. And I'm talking MOLASSES slow—which reminds me of a simile used in the book that really ground my gears, but I'll get into that later. I honestly felt no sense of urgency that an entire Tiamut-sized mountain was going to burst from the Earth's crust because of the pacing. I really think the flashback scenes were the culprit for me; they broke the pacing too much, and I felt like things weren't progressing at the same speed as the current timeline. Something so exciting would happen to Esther, and then the chapter would end, and all the excitement fizzled because I had to read about Motheater and Bennie eating a sandwich or something.

Unnecessarily lush writing. I will say the writing shines the most in the flashback chapters. It felt 100% more genuine, and the metaphor hit in those parts. This was lost in Bennie's chapters; I felt like Codega tried too hard to make it sound modern to distinguish it from the flashbacks, and many of the lines/dialogue sounded corny.

Ex 1: "Jasper's hand in hers was warm and dry, like clay along a hearth. As he followed Esther, frowning slightly, strange emotions flitted across his face. Confusion, desire, draw."
That was still beautifully lush but painted a clear picture.

Ex 2: "Helen looked up from her coffee, slow like sap, deliberate, coordinated."
Just the juxtaposition of slow-moving dripping sap with the looking-up motion was enough to make me stop reading and say, "Huh?" The metaphor contradicted itself with the imagery, making it feel pointless. This might sound like a complete nitpick, but that's what I started to notice once I became so disinterested with the plot.

The word 'absolutely.' Don’t even get me started. I swear to god it was used like 12 times in the span of 2 chapters.

Bennie's hair and her being Black in a small white town. As a Black woman in America, I could tell the author wasn’t Black from the jump. The half-assed social commentary about living in a predominantly white town, her interactions with the cops, and the weird mentions of her hair going from seemingly standard month-old braids to microbraids (in the span of a day or two, mind you) was a red flag. The kicker was when she called her microbraids (which felt so strange that she kept specifying them) a weave! I was completely floored. How is she gonna have a sew-in and microbraids at the same time???? LOL. The worst part was when she was taking out MICROBRAIDS in only an hour BY HERSELF. I wish I had that power. Don’t get me started on how she picked out and brushed her hair completely dry. Not a single drop of water in sight. The whole scene just pissed me off. Honestly felt more disrespectful than any of the other questionable commentary.

I had way more to say about the book but just got pissed off writing that last part. This was fully a 2.5/3 star book until I wrote that last paragraph.

Also, the ending?? Is Esther a snake or what? I hate ambiguous endings. SMH it's giving pseudo kill ur gays

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Rita · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I expected from this book: witchy fantasy. What I got: well-written literary fiction with fantasy, mystery, horror elements, and a sprinkle of queer romance.

The main character, Bennie, has been living and working in Kiron, a town in Appalachia known for "coal mining, oxy, and rockslides." From the first pages, we learn that Bennie is determined to bring the coaling company, her former employer, to justice, believing they are responsible for the deaths of dozens of workers, including her best friend. The novel starts when Bennie discovers a woman's body in a river – shockingly, she’s alive and is later revealed to be an ancient Appalachian witch who was buried alive in the mountain. If I would have been expecting a cutesy witch from my standard cozy fantasies, I might have been disappointed at this point. Luckily, my expectations were set by the title and the cover of the book already 🧙‍♀️

Highlights:
- This was really well-written, especially for a debut novel. It was quite lyrical, with exceptional nature descriptions.
- The sense of place was strong – the characters spoke the dialect, and the dual timeline of the town helped us get to know the locals and their beliefs much deeper.
- The main characters, especially Motheater, were complex. I might not have understood their motivations all the time, but they felt genuine.
- The atmosphere of this book was chilling, in the best way – the "witchiness," the wild ancient earthy magic, and the mountains that have stood for thousands of years added to this. Although not described as such, this story had strong horror vibes, I thought necessary for its impact. I also found myself with an unexpected phobia of mountains that could awaken? 🤓

What didn’t work for me:
- The magic, while fascinating and fresh, felt too complex for me to keep understanding the rules and what was happening. I did like the connection of magical power from nature though – very pagan!
- Motheater. The number of times the name "Motheater" was mentioned must be in the several hundreds throughout the book. The name was so overused that it felt intentional – if so, it didn’t work for me.
- The ending. Reading is subjective, and different readers will react differently, but I didn’t feel the emotional impact of the ending, which was disappointing.

Final thoughts: I’d recommend this book if you’re interested in dark, atmospheric books or if you want to explore the themes of nature fighting back against overuse of its resources. Or if you like mountains.

Overall, for originality and the chills, I give this 4/5 ⭐.

Disclaimer: I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[JulesGP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I liked some things about this book, I did not have a good time reading it.

The story hooked me in with the start and the setting. Bennie is a former employee of a local mine in Virginia. Her main focus now, since her firing, is to investigate the greedy mining corporation to find out why so many miners are mysteriously dying. During one of her runs, she inadvertently rescues a woman from the river adjacent to the mountain. Motheater turns out to be a 150 year old witch who has a long history with both mountain and mine.

Both Bennie and Motheater/Esther are solid characters. They have a nice connection but no romance. The writing is good and captures the Appalachian country vibe. I enjoyed Esther’s magic, especially back in the day during the older timeline. I also appreciate the book’s stand against corporate poisoning of natural resources and the exploitation of working people.

But ultimately the story lost me because I felt it was way too long and had repetitious passages. There are two timelines, Esther when she was a witch in the past with a snake-handling preacher father and in the present trying to help Bennie with her fight. It was exciting at times but then so much repetition and a convoluted storyline that I nearly stopped. I felt like this story had all the ingredients to be a very good book but the length killed it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

[Zoë · Rating 3 out of 5]

when that hot man stepped out of that tree and everyone was like wow he’s way hotter now I was like damn … gotta go put a man in a tree and let him cook there for a second (for science)

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is beautifully written and the language used was enchanting. The concept and setting gives is a kinda of witchy/horror vibe. I liked the different POV’s especially those dipping into the past and the lore of the mountain

However the book just wasn’t my cup of tea. I ended up DNF’ing at 51% I can see this being a great hit with the right people but I just couldn’t get properly into it.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review

[Gyalten Lekden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This dense, rumbling novel, blending Appalachian folktale, eco-horror, and literary fiction, is a testament to community and sacrifice. It is a love letter to a people and place both neglected and exploited, without shying away from the thorny complications and rough edges such love entails.

The characters were richly detailed and nuanced, and I was able to really feel their presence. This is especially true for the two central characters but also for many of the ancillary characters. The overall story was compelling, and I appreciated the moving back and forth between past and present, with the mystery doled out and revealed in good measure. The exploration of magic and how it relates to the environment, the sacrifice that magic entails and what one might need to give up in order to serve a community they love, even when spurned in response, was beautifully done, a rich vein of thought and contemplation. The writing itself was strong and steadfast, and it felt like it paralleled the depth of the story, the despair, tenacity, determination, and hope that the characters carry with them. The world was really-well realized, through the characters and their aspirations as well as the writing itself, and it created a great atmosphere that really carried the story.

The pacing was a little slow. The moving between past and present across chapters helped keep things moving, but it needed a little more. I don’t know if this means maybe trimming the page count or if there just needed to be something, especially through the middle section, which gave a little forward momentum. I was never bored, it wasn’t a matter of being disinterested, I was invested in the characters and story the whole time, but there were sections that felt a little sluggish. Additionally, the romantic subplot at the end felt like an unnecessary addition, and indeed felt like something that came out of left field instead of being organic and deliberate. Given the state of the characters at that point, where they had come from and what they were facing, it was hard to believe those characters would fall into that at that time. It didn’t detract from the story, I suppose, but it felt out of place and was a little distracting, and it didn’t feel like it added much.

Both of those are small quibbles, though. The story feels like it draws on a deep well of love for a place and its history, and that is shaped by an evocative and lush language and an exciting type of faith & magic. This story feels like it comes from the earth, a story of intimacy, sacrifice, and devotion. It is definitely a fun read, and if you are able to go along with a little bit of languid pacing through the second act then there is a lot of joy and meaning to mine in this tale.

(Rounded up from 3.5)

I want to thank the author, the publisher Kensington Publishing | Erewhon Books, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I give this book credit for a unique setting and some interesting ideas, ultimately, the story and characters don't rise to the occasion that the setting provides.

The story is set in a mining town in Appalachia and follows a young woman named Bennie, who post-breakup and post-job firing, finds a woman unconscious beside a river and decides to be a good samaritan and get her some help. The woman awakes and runs into the woods where Bennie follows, and she soon find out that she's a. actually a witch and b. from the 1800s. The woman doesn't know her real name, and only remembers a moniker of "Motheater". From there the book goes between present day with POVs either from Bennie or Motheater, and then POVs from Motheater when she lived in the past, as Esther.

I found myself liking the flashback sections a bit better, as the idea of a witch in Reconstruction era is an interesting one. The present-day setting is muddled, with the main character of Bennie going between her investigation of the mining company (which is quickly dropped) and driving Motheater around to places. There are lots of scenes of Motheater doing cool witch things, but I found them to be overwrought and too frequent. I wanted some more substance behind the magic.

The story is meandering and there's a supposed mystery (how did Motheater end up where she was?), but it's fairly obvious and the story leading up to it makes little sense. There's also a romance between Bennie and Motheater which makes even less sense. Motheater feels less like a person and more like an entity. She and Bennie barely talk and most of the time Bennie just watches her do some magical thing and then that's that. As the reader, we see the development of her character (sorta) through the flashbacks, but Bennie doesn't see that.

Also, the story seems to touch on some quasi-political concepts but doesn't really know where it stands. Is it anti-corporation? Anti-capitalism? Anti-mining? Anti-progress-in-general? Not that I'm asking for a fantasy book to be a diatribe, but I think you can explore political concepts in interesting ways, which this book fails at.

Overall, I did enjoy the setting and the concept of an Appalachian mountain witch. I kind of wish the author had just set the entire thing in the 1800s, as I just felt a lot more substance in those sections.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship · Rating 1 out of 5]

A cool premise handled in the most disappointing way possible: from a plot that spends most of the overlong novel spinning its wheels, to inauthentic characters, to poorly-thought-through themes that ultimately undermine the message the author seems to have intended. I should have paid attention to the low average rating.

Set in small-town Appalachian Virginia, this is a work of fantasy/folk horror with a past/present timeline split, between a witch named Esther living in the late 19th century and opposing a mining company that wants to enter her town (distressing to Esther because she is psychically bound to the sentient mountain they want to mine), and a modern-day plotline in which the same woman (now going by Motheater since she has partial amnesia) is pulled alive out of the mountain, having Rip Van Winkled her way through the last century or so. She’s discovered by Bennie, an ex-employee of the current mining concern, who wants to shut the company down due to miner disappearances.

My attempt to describe the plot founders a bit here, in part because the characters’ goals seem to shift back and forth unpredictably (do they want to stop the mining, or stop the mountain from punishing mining?), and in part because it’s one of those books that disguises lack of forward momentum with short chapters and frequent POV shifts. Most of the novel is spent on the characters puttering about with very little change to the plot, and lots of repetitive inner monologue. Bennie thinks about how she is attracted to Motheater but must suppress it ad nauseum, while Esther constantly asks herself whether her loyalty is to the town or the mountain—a conflict that is not at all compelling as written, as the townspeople are bland at best and unpleasant at worst, giving the reader no reason to care what happens to them. Also, Codega’s writing seems to fall apart on especially dramatic scenes, which are consistently difficult to picture and emotionally flat. Nor did I fully understand the magic, although given the frequency of discussion and plot importance, I think I was supposed to.

As for the characters, Esther/Motheater is the one aspect of the book I somewhat liked: she’s a witch protagonist who genuinely comes across as dark and ominous (yet sympathetic), as opposed to the insipid victims often seen in fiction. Her magic, how she gets it, her encounters with modern technology, and her general vibe are pretty cool. That said, the author didn’t build the kind of emotional connection that would’ve had me invested in her fate, and glosses over the massive cultural shifts that occurred over the century-plus that she was asleep, as if new technology were the only real change in all that time.

Meanwhile Bennie, the modern protagonist, is just poorly-drawn and not believable. She’s supposed to have given up her entire life to fight the mining company: after getting fired, instead of pursuing professional opportunities elsewhere she gave up her career and took a retail job to keep her in town (in this economy?), where she has only lived a few years and has no one, especially after breaking up with her boyfriend for being insufficiently supportive of her mission. All this is supposed to be motivated by the death of her “best friend,” who in flashbacks is just shown engaging in basic friendly coworker behavior (advising Bennie on finding housing and inviting her to a cookout). The friendship lacks any emotional heft, let alone enough for Bennie to throw away her career, lifestyle and dating prospects in memory of the friend, and I was left wondering what else is going on in Bennie’s life that might cause this (where is her family? her childhood and college friends? Is she depressed?).

Unfortunately Bennie’s bland “the normal one” characterization and lack of backstory does not render her believable as a obsessively dedicated activist. She also struck me as unconvincing as a black woman: she seems entirely disconnected from black culture, without explanation (was she raised by white parents or something?), and I highly doubt that being black in rural Appalachia in the Trump era has as little impact on one’s life as portrayed here—where it has none, aside from a single scene where an innocuous encounter with a police officer stresses her out. Meanwhile the author is far too chicken to explore changing racial attitudes via Motheater’s reaction to Bennie, either. In fact, Codega carefully avoids ever including Esther/Motheater’s thoughts on either race and homosexuality, despite half the major characters being people of color and all of them queer (Bennie and Motheater naturally have a very boring romance, which mostly made me wonder who makes a move on a woman from the 19th century without checking in with her about it first? Who knows how she would interpret that?).

Despite all that, I was still expecting to give this 2 stars until I hit the final few chapters, and the incoherent mess they make of the book’s themes. It sets out to have a strong environmentalist and anti-corporate message, which I could get behind. But it winds up taking a hard right turn into nature being the villain, mining essential to human wellbeing (the mountain’s sentience be damned), and the corporation let off the hook. Instead, the narrative ultimately pins responsibility for the mining deaths on Motheater, because her being angry infected the mountain, which apparently would’ve been okay being bled to death otherwise? OK, let’s review: Motheater is not angry because of a breakup or a petty slight. She’s angry due to childhood neglect, religious trauma, and being literally sacrificed on the altar of capitalism by her neighbors and father. And yet no one other than Motheater herself ever faces a reckoning: not the community that condoned all this, nor the company that benefited from it. Nor is Motheater’s own reckoning portrayed as the tragedy it should be, nor the character as a Christ figure with the full weight of sacrificing herself for her enemies. Her sacrifice got a shrug from me. Even the other characters don’t really mourn her, a lack of feeling that should be a source of pathos but isn’t.

As a sidenote, I wound up wondering if this book was a response to N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, which also features earth mages, and suggests that victims have no moral responsibility. I wasn’t satisfied with that any more than I guess Codega is, but this vision, in which only victims have moral responsibility, didn’t sit right with me either.

In the end, an overly long, repetitive, messy, unsatisfying read. There are glimmers of promise here though, particularly in the depictions of Motheater and the natural landscape. I’ll check out the reviews for Codega’s next book, but I won’t be so quick to pick it up.

[❁lilith❁ · Rating 2 out of 5]

thank you to netgalley and to kensington publishing for the eARC!

The first 30 - 40% of this book was interesting to me, with the setup of our main character's wants to uncover a conspiracy going on within the mountains of Appalachia that is killing the people. Motheater was also, as her name suggests, interesting, though as more is revealed of her backstory she sort of stagnated for me.
Unfortunately I failed to really connect with any of these characters, and so the story suffered when I wasn't too bothered about what was going to happen to them. The plot was also a little meandering, and very slow paced. I found myself tiring of both of these aspects of the book, and so I also found myself skimming through the pages after the 50% mark.
The relationship fell a bit flat for me, but I think that was due to my indifference towards the characters. Any plot twists I was able to see coming, but it was nice to get Motheaters backstory uncovered at least. The magic was fairly interesting, the connection she had with nature and with the mountains was nice to read about.

[emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a lot to like about this one. Overall, I think I’d put it on the 3.5ish range, but I’m rounding up instead of down because I loved the characters and THAT COVER.

I do think, that the only knock on this book is that it maybe was a little wordy and a little repetitive at times. It’s a debut, and while on the one hand, I actually really loved the writing and the language, I do think at times it repeated itself a bit too much, and could have been tightened up just a little.

I, like Bennie, fell hard for Motheater/Ester, and, like Motheater, also really loved Bennie as a protagonist as well. I love a hedge witch type fantasy and this hit a lot of buttons for me. There were a couple of things I wanted that didn’t happen, but overall, this was a really fun debut and I’m very glad I read it. I’ll def check out what else the author does in the future.

[cate · Rating 4 out of 5]

until dawn but in the woods. stop messing with nature

thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile]]

DNF at 39%

Too slowly paced and I lost interest. Others will certainly enjoy it though!

[storytime with steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was unfortunately such a letdown for me to the point where i’m beginning to question whether i even like appalachian/southern gothic horror (not that i would even really classify this as a horror novel). where to start…

to address the biggest issue, the way the main character (can’t remember. is it bennie?) was portrayed had me scratching my head until i realized she is a black character written by a white author. there is nothing inherently wrong with that, HOWEVER they definitely should have consulted multiple sensitivity readers before publishing this book. i am not black so i don’t claim to speak for this community, but the little things, like her hairstyles constantly changing in ways that don’t make sense in the timeline, to what felt like the belittling of larger systemic issues like misogynoir and police brutality, all left a very bad taste in my mouth. i also felt that esther/motheater’s friend jasper from the flashback timeline was uncomfortably sexualized as an indigenous queer man. just my two cents.

apart from that, i was really frustrated with the environmental injustice aspect of this book which was what initially drew me in. i felt like they fully dropped the ball and lost sight of what they were trying to say in favor of going the nature/cosmic horror route. i did like the flashback timeline a bit more and part of me thinks that the author should have just committed to writing a historical novel instead. the relationship felt very tell-not-show but in a way that was trying to be show-not-tell, and yes i did feel like ripping my hair out during portions of this book.

man i tried to keep it short because i feel a little bad like im dogging on this book but i guess i had a lot to get off my chest. oh well

[Hester Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

With a voice as unique and haunting as the Appalachian setting, Codega delivers an enchanting story of witchcraft, nature and industry, and the power of a love that can move mountains.

[Siavahda · Rating 2 out of 5]

*I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.*

Highlights
~calm down mr bluejay
~magic vs mining
~don’t mess with a Neighbor

This book made me feel extremely autistic.

Not at first. The first half, maybe even the first two-thirds, are incredibly strong – and the prose is absolutely lovely throughout. I have never visited Appalachia, but Codega’s writing is rich and atmospheric, and the setting is – pretty literally! – a character in its own right. And the fact that none of our main characters are uncomplicatedly Nice/Good People? *chef’s kiss* Magnificent, and much approved!

“Faith’s only part of it. There’s more fire in me than blood. You pull on my red-string it’s liable to lead you to Old Scratch himself. You want to be a witch?” Motheater hissed, eyes wide. “For magic, you have to tie yourself to something greater, to a baptism. You bind yourself to power, an old creature, an ancient thing; the Witch-Father, the Devil’s Wife, the Moon Raker, the Drunken Child, the Last Bride. The old witches, the nightly powers. Then you give, and they give back.”

…But.

Look: it is possible that I was just being Extremely Autistic, and missing the obvious. But it sure felt like, the closer we got to the final pages, the more characters were suddenly changing long-held views without any warning – or, worse, any explanation. I could not figure out, even after combing back over what I’d read, when, or why, Esther decided the mining company coming into town might not be a bad thing. There seemed no groundwork laid for Motheater deciding she was the cause of the problem; she just abruptly comes to the conclusion that everything is her fault, actually, and I couldn’t figure out her reasoning. The (magical?) bond between Bennie and Motheater comes out of nowhere; it just seems to appear, suddenly, not grow over time. Bennie’s Intense Aversion to the whole scene with the tree was utterly baffling: I didn’t understand at all what was going on, when she’d been so into and excited by magic just the day before. Everything Esther did was for Kiron, until suddenly the book was all ‘she hasn’t been looking after Kiron at all actually, major fail!’ Despite previously deciding that Zach is more than culpable in nearly killing Motheater (actually killing her, as far as he knew) she goes back to thinking he’s a paragon later, apparently forgetting all her anger and disgust with him.

I just. What?

The moths were a Milky Way above them, soft silverine stars dotting the ceiling.

The characters aren’t the only thing that stopped making sense. I have no problem with soft magic systems – I love them! – but this one was contradictory. Literally: on one page Esther cannot cast a spell, isn’t able to, but then does it anyway a page later in the same scene. You become a Neighbor (a badass, extremely hardcore Appalachian witch) by making a bargain…but at one point Character A is made into a witch by Character B, which, how??? What??? Character C tells Motheater off for not tending to the souls, but then it’s revealed that Character C has been gathering them this whole time? What’s the problem then?

Hopefully some of that got fixed in copyedits – I did read an arc, after all, not a finished copy – but it was majorly frustrating.

The use of biblical quotes for Esther’s magic – for Appalachian magic in general – is something I’ve come across before, and I think was done really well here! And to be clear, the magic very much felt like magic, which I appreciated. I liked how wild and strange it felt, how earthy it was. But when so much of the plot rested on it…it did get frustrating, having no concept of where the limits were, what was and wasn’t possible. Nothing about it was really explained – Kire, the local mountain, is alive and sentient (in its way), and so are at least some trees, and some animals at least some of the time? I would have really liked to learn more about the framework of Esther’s magic; not the mechanics, but who or what the spirits are that she references sometimes, why she can do this but not that, how can this fucker over here use magic too? What’s the belief system, here?

The romance never convinced me. That Bennie was in awe of this powerful witch’s powerful power? Yep, got that, very convincing, and I can’t blame her because I was impressed too. And I could sort of see Bennie crushing hard on this woman. But it felt entirely one-sided to me, not reciprocal at all. I never got the sense that Motheater returned Bennie’s attraction; I never even got the sense that Motheater was queer until suddenly she was in love with Bennie, with apparently no buildup. Had she been in love with women before Bennie, did she already know she was queer? Either way, when did she start to fall for Bennie? She seemed to treat Bennie more like an assistant than an equal, never mind a romantic partner.

There were quite a lot of writerly decisions that I didn’t like. Bennie, a Black woman, playing pretty useless sidekick to the white, powerful Motheater, for one: she had very little to contribute to what they were doing, so that she felt like a side-character even when we were in her POV. The way the ending fell out, for another; wow did I dislike that. But there were also a lot of word choices that made me want to tear my hair out: for instance, at one point, Codega writes ‘warp and woof’ – which, hi, virtually none of your readers are going to know that woof is a technical, historical term for ‘weft’! Which means you using it there is just going to make us think of dogs! Or the insistence of using the word ‘cleavage’ to describe rocky surfaces, which PAINFULLY undermines the dramatic showdown with the sentient mountain in the climax! Come on.

Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!

[Para (wanderer) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher (Erewhon Books) for an ARC of this book.

I’ve been chasing the southern gothic high ever since I read Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo. I love the atmosphere and strong sense of place, but my luck with the stories themselves has been…mixed. Motheater, unfortunately, among them. Though it has the most incredible, gripping first couple pages I’ve ever seen (I was immediately hooked), it couldn’t keep my interest for the whole book. Paired with the theme ending up much less environmentalist than it seemed in the beginning, plus generally not sticking the landing, and I can’t help but feel disappointed. Again.

When investigating suspicious miners’ deaths, Bennie stumbles upon a strange, half-drowned woman in a creek. She turns out to be a witch calling herself Motheater, born a little after the Civil War, interred in the mountain Kire for over 150 years. She remembers little of her past, not even her own name, but she knows that she’s a witch bound to the land, and had been fighting the mining companies coming for her mountain too before she was buried.

The atmosphere and the magic are by far my favourite parts. Pissed off witches using nature magic by reciting Bible verses as a focus, terrifying living mountains, all of it. It’s wild and angry and uncontrollable and exactly what I came in for. Sometimes you just want to watch a witch who is a force of nature go apeshit.

But no book can get by on vibes alone, and unfortunately, the story doesn’t quite hold up. I enjoyed the Esther (obviously a past version of Motheater) flashbacks and learning how and why she ended up in the mountain, but the present day storyline dragged. A lot of extremely forgettable driving around, some amusing moments with Motheater and modern tech, but not much I got invested in. It was fine, I guess, but I felt no urge to pick it back up when I put it down and it took me ages to read.

But the biggest disappointment was how the main theme of the book was handled. Initially, the setup seems to be Bennie and Motheater trying to find a way to get the mining corporation off the mountain. Stop miners dying for Bennie, protect the mountain for Motheater, everyone is happy. Except…that’s not at all where it ends up?

To keep it short, Motheater realises that everything she did was wrong (which…no? Going too far, maybe, but she really was done dirty by everyone, including the ending.), passes her power to Bennie, sacrifices herself to kill the mountain’s spirit, the mountain collapses, the mining company only stops operations in that particular place since there’s no mountain anymore and starts “working to transition to safer practices” (direct quote, there is no elaboration about what that means), and…? And what?

There’s no accountability for the harmful choices people made (except, I guess, if your name is Motheater). It felt pyrrhic and hollow and most of all, extremely rushed. Funny, given how much the middle dragged. I’m not saying I’d have liked it more if the story had gone for a full-scale “people bad, nature good” approach. I hate that too. But there are many, many more ways to strike a good balance and ending up at “oh well, people are the most important, not much to be done about environmental destruction” just doesn’t sit well with me. Not in the times we live in.

Oh well. Better luck next time.

Enjoyment: 3/5
Execution: 3/5

Recommended to: fans of southern gothic and bi disasters
Not recommended to: those drawn in by stories of witches protecting nature and fighting greedy mining corporations

More reviews on my blog, To Other Worlds.

[Zach Laengert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Kensington Publishing and Netgalley for my first ARC book!

I knew of Linda Codega from their time in the D&D spotlight, and was excited to give their book a try.

'Motheater' is an immersive story of witchcraft brought into the modern day, in the same part of America as 'Demon Copperhead' (which I loved). It follows Bennie, a queer Black woman, as she investigates disappearances surrounding a local mining operation.

I expected the novel to have a little more to say - about queerness, race, environmentalism, etc. - than it ultimately seemed to, sticking to surface level ideas. I wish Bennie could have been more personally connected to the region's past in different ways to strengthen some of these themes.

The other characters were good, though rarely felt as human as Bennie. Oddly, I think this might be the first 'Zach' I've read about and that was unique haha.

Another frustrating aspect of my experience was the combination of many typos with intentionally old language/phrasing. I usually enjoy adapting my mind to different forms of language (again, Demon Copperhead) but in this case I rarely knew what was written as intended vs. mispelled or had missing words.

Still a unique narrative clearly inspired by the author's passion and personal experience, and I enjoyed getting the chance to experience this story!

[akacya ❦ · Rating 3 out of 5]

2025 reads: 99/300

after her best friend dies in a coal mine, bennie sacrifices her job, relationship, and reputation to uncover the truth behind what’s killing miners on kire mountain. when she finds a half-drowned woman in a mining slough, she’s so drawn to this stranger that she takes her in. the woman, called motheater, can’t remember her real name or what brought her to the mountain. bennie and motheater work together to find out what’s going on in the mines and, by extension, how to save the town.

with this being a sapphic appalachian fantasy, i wanted to love this so badly. and while i did enjoy some aspects, such as the setting and the characters, overall i was just kind of bored. i liked how the setting played into the story and directly impacted the characters’ journeys. i didn’t like the slow pacing, and the plot didn’t quite captivate me. still, while this wasn’t quite for me, i liked parts of it, and it might be for someone else.

[bookishjae · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

This book has easily become one of my favourite reads this year. A story rich in folklore, gothic elements, and environmentalism? I'm hooked for life. There's genuinely nothing that I can fault in this book, the characters were all realistic, funny, charming, and most importantly: COMPETENT. The relationships, phenomenal, the setting and use of magic, impeccable. For a debut novel too, Codega's work stands as tall as any mountain (lol) and I cannot wait to find more from her. Truly a beautiful story.

[heptagrammaton · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Ain't about God." Motheater's voice was sharp as sin on a conscience. "This about you. You got your own faith? Your own certainty? The love under you?"

For decades, one by one, coal miners have been disappearing in the heart of the Kiron mountain. Set on uncovering what must be the company's crimes ( coal mining, man-killing, mountain-cutting ), Bennethea 'Bennie' Maddox comes down to the refuse-choked creek, searching out for the body of her best friend, only to drag out a perfectly alive 150-year old witch – she was pretty, if you were into thin excult ladies who needed a good shower.

   A spectre of decolonization and an ecological consciousness haunts Motheater - these themes will only become more present in speculative fiction in the years to come, I expect. (For good and bad reasons... "at least Vietnam gave us good protest songs" and all that jazz. (Literally.))
   The text oscillates, sometimes awkwardly, in-between that loftier mystery-laden, wonderment-working and the hour's sapphic yearning tragicomedic proceedings.
  

  "I think all the Psalms are about love," Motheater said, and Bennie knew that her face was full hot now. "And not about God at all."
   Bennie swallowed, her eyes wide. Her hearr was beating faster, caught in between the winds of a blue jay and the ground.
 "Because she is at my tighy hand, I shall not be moved."

There is an... unease-with-itself in all the things Motheater tries to be, as a story, which shows most in the overexternalization of Bennie's thoughts, which shows her that she is conflicted and is trying to be focused on her goals... by showing her conflicted, in the same ways, already implicitly discernable from the rest of the text, repeatedly. The prose is rough in places. Yet, elsewhere, Codega excels as a hierophant, a witness of miracles, a conveyor of the sublime wonder that is the proper effect of magic—

Kire breathed under their hands. Not with flesh and lungds, and not with air, but the steadiness of a creature at rest, the non-zero movement of all things. It was the ebb of a tide, the wane of the moon, the revolution of the world, ready to break apart if Motheater just gave it the smallest nudge in the right direction. . . .
   Kire stepped up, out of its cradle and spread its arms, the many-arms, the many-hands, the shifting cleavage and planes that made up the old titan of the new world, and stretched.

—and of nature—

... The storm was still hanging around. Weather wasn't a thing that happened; it was a thing that surrounded you.

   Not without flaws, but an excellent debut novel by all means. Certainly a writer to watch.


a note:
   

{This is a review of an advanced reader copy, made available through NetGalley.}

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5 stars rounded down)

Motheater took me a bit to get into, but once I did, I came out enjoying it. It is certainly a slow burn, so anyone looking for a quick paced book should head elsewhere. Codega does a great job of painting the setting of this Appalachian town, its surroundings, and the characters that inhabit it. To me, it all felt very alive. I enjoyed the way the magic was raw and wild. It was cool to see the land itself take on its own personhood. It felt in line with the worldview expressed in something like Braiding Sweetgrass. It was also nice to see the queer representation, even though parts of it felt unearned. The other piece that I loved seeing was the mix of sacred and pagan. Seeing Motheater take this religious framework she grew up with and realign it in a way that gave her power wholly separate from that faith was neat. The way she talks about her father's church and the idea that people could be worshipping something completely different from what they think they are worshipping was also intriguing. As someone who has walked away from the religion they grew up with, it hits in a way that is hard to explain. All in all, a decent read if you are willing to give it the time.

[lily ⊹ ₊ ⁺ · Rating 2 out of 5]

• ➻ 2/5 ✦

"sometimes the things that keep us safe keep us small"

yeah this was.... not the greatest. it started off strong and both leads (bennie and motheater) were pretty compelling at the start but that quickly fell off for me.

the story itself was all over the place and barely made any sense. there was no witch magic logic, motheater tended to just be able to do random things. the plot itself didn't seem to know where it was going at all, it felt like we were just meandering around a story rather than working towards an end goal.

speaking of the end - it was very abrupt, with many things left unsaid and a few things that didn't make sense plotwise at all.

there were a few moments between motheater and bennie that were sweet but for the most part, i couldn't really care for their relationship at all. there really wasn't much chemistry between them throughout the story - which in a way isn't a bad thing but this story was marketed as a queer romance, when it really should be marketed as literary fiction.

i'd say the only big positives which i enjoyed were the fact that, due to to writing style (and use of apostrophes) you were really able to read this novel in a southern accent which was fun. another thing was that i like the dual timelime situation and how they eventually lined up a bit.

[Christine Sandquist · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was hooked from the first page, by which I mean, seriously, I went around sharing it in all my Discords saying "wow this is the best first page I've read in a while, look at this!" and then having all my friends get mad at me because the book isn't actually out for another six months. Oops.

Anyway, it turned out that the rest of the book was just as good as that first page, too. This is the kind of witchy I love best: deals and bargains with powers greater than we can understand and whose wrath we risk invoking. Titans are best left sleeping.

Between Motheater and The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo, I am feeling like I desperately need more dark, queer Appalachian spec fic in my life now.

Gonna be a total nuisance about this book again in January when I can actually make everyone read it immediately.

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that this is a book where it is important to know what you're getting into before you start it. I know a few people who read this book who were expecting a witchy fantasy novel, and while technically the book is fantasy and has a witch, I'd put it more in the lit fic camp with magical realistic elements. The pacing is slow, which many lit fic readers will expect but witchy fantasy readers would not. The book wasn't cozy and it wasn't comforting, and those who are looking for a cozy, witchy fantasy read likely won't be the right audience for this book.

That all being said, if you like slowly-paced literary fiction that deals with very real world issues while also having some magical elements, keep reading! Motheater has two main characters in Bennie (a present-day Black woman living in small-town Appalachia and working to bring justice for those who have lost friends and family to mining "accidents") and Motheater (a Neighbor aka witch from Appalachia of the past, who is also working to stop the mining of the nearby mountain.)

Some aspects of the book I loved:

- The book is atmospheric and has a strong sense of place. I love when the setting is a character in and of itself, and this is the case both figuratively and kind of literally.

- The characters had depth and nuance, and while I didn't always agree with them, they generally felt realistic with very human-feeling motivations.

- The magic was intoxicating and intriguing. It was wild and earthy and out of control at times, which I appreciated.

- The book has horror elements that kind of meld with the environmental, social, and religious themes of the story.

- Several world issues were examined, including systemic poverty, race, gender, religion, and land exploitation.


A few things I wished:

- The pacing did feel a bit too slow in places, and there was a bit of reperition that could have been tightened up a bit.

- The ending didn't really pack the emotional punch I had hoped we were building toward, and I wish we’d gotten a bit…more.


Overall I enjoyed savoring this book over a several week span. If you like literary fiction with horror aspects and/or themes that include people exploiting the land and the land fighting back, this might be a good one to check out!


Thank you so much to Kensington Publishing for the advanced copy of the book!

[Bec]

Skip the audiobook for this one. The narrator has the cadence of a robotic YouTuber, with the weird infections at commas and periods. I had to turn off the audio at 3 minutes because her reading was so irksome.

maybe I'll come back and physically read this, but I'm not too invested actually.

[Bryna Adamo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Motheater is a story about nature vs industry and the battle of humanity vs itself vs progress vs sustainability. I do not want to give much away for this book with regards to themes and plot, sufficed to say, I found this book very interesting although slightly confusing at times. It was trying to touch on a lot of pertinent topics but it caused a lot of clutter in the story telling my opinion. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys speculative fiction and is looking for something unique. 3.25 stars.

[Hjorprimul · Rating 1 out of 5]

For whatever reason, the decision was made to have the first page of every chapter be done in black font on a dark grey background, eventually fading to light grey. If you have any vision issues, this will be extremely difficult to read.

Throwing accessibility out of the window to ensure the book has "fun witchy vibes" is just beyond aggravating.

[Misha · Rating 3 out of 5]

(rounded down from 3.25)

This is an interesting tale of witches communing with an Appalachian mountain against humans trying to mine it for profit. I enjoyed the beginning of the story well enough and Bennie is an interesting protagonist as she's sneaking around trying to find evidence that the local mining operation is hiding the deaths of up to thirty workers including her best friend, Kelly-Anne. Instead, she stumbles across Motheater, a woman who has lost her memory but appears to be able to work nature magic and has survived being encased in the mountain for 150 years.

The premise is fun and the most interesting parts of the story for me were Motheater and Bennie tackling modern life together and running around trying to find Motheater's origins or job her memory. Unfortunately, the book does slow down significantly around the 40% mark and retains that pace for most of the rest of the book, which caused me to knock down the rating a bit. It does pick up again for an exciting conclusion right at the end, but I'm not going to lie and say that the middle slog back in time and to present day is not a bit tough to get through.

Overall, a fun idea and I enjoyed the characters. I just wish the pacing has been better in the middle.

[Anne (eggcatsreads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Applachian folk fantasy that will have you believing in witchcraft and the inherent majesty and power of the mountains that make up all of Appalachia.

“Benethea Mattox was not raised to be a fool. Yet here she was, fishing a skinny white lady out of a river.”

I really loved this book from the first page (the first sentence even), and it kept me engaged throughout. We meet Bennie, a forcibly retired safety officer determined to find out just what is causing miners to consistently go missing in the mountain overlooking the town she lives in. During her investigation she accidentally finds Motheater, a witch out of time without a name and powers that break one’s understanding of the world. Together they must fight together to save their town from a power that neither one expected to haunt it.

If you love Applachian folk magic, a touch of horror, and the unyielding loom of industry always on the horizon, this is the book for you. Reading this felt like it was straight out of a season of Old Gods of Appalachia, and I never could predict where this story was going. The romance progressed naturally, the conflict was diverse, and the book ended on a high note - without solving the complex issues that were explored with a simple fix that would not have felt realistic.

I’m from Pennsylvania, which is in turn both part of Appalachia and not depending on the location and your opinion of it, but I’ve lived near the Appalachian mountains almost my entire life and I could so easily see the descriptions of all the mountains present within this book. The looming and majestic presence of Kire, the stripped mountains from strip-mining, and just the presence of nature and the feel of the wildness when walking amongst those giants. This book is beautifully written, and perfectly captures the intrinsic feeling of loss felt when looking at a once-majestic mountain stripped to barely anything due to mining.

My only real issue with this book is that a main plot point is that Motheater doesn’t remember her own name, and this is the thing limiting her power. However, when we delve into the past with her memories, her name is given within these chapters. I think the impact at the end when Motheater is given her name back would have been more impactful if she is referred to as simply Motheater during these chapters, or something like E—- is used, to still have it be a mystery.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Kensington Publishing for providing this e-ARC.