i see the vision and while i appreciate the rich history, there was something lacking. not sure if the dual pov (also different time periods ok) did more harm here than good. i think i would have rather this had been all told from motheater's perspective. i didn't really get the romance between bennie and motheater either. was this just like a really odd rebound for bennie or ..... ? there wasn't much of a cohesive flow (imo) and i am feeling more indifferent than anything now that i've finished reading this.

(ty netgalley for this arc, i appreciate it always)

while reading this i comped to it a friend as Ferngully meets The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo, and i think i'm going to stand by that.
Codega does an excellent job of building atmosphere in this novel, i haven't spent much time in Appalachia but it really comes alive in their writing. and THE BEGINNING! i truly haven't read an opening that captivating in a long time, i didn't want to put the book down.
unfortunately the book has a hard time keeping up with the opening, and it's not bad but after the brilliant driving force of the first few chapters i got sort of bogged down in the middle a bit. i also think i found the romantic build to be sort of unnecessary and distracting, until it was used as a sort of driving force for the end but because i had been struggling with that development it left the ending feeling a bit unsatisfactory to me. i think it's hard because we're getting Bennie in present day and Motheater's past, and with everything they're trying to accomplish it just felt a bit off to me.
i loved the dual timelines though - the way we got Motheater's past sort of as she picks it back up and remembers it, and the way we see the origins of the battles Bennie has been fighting in present day.
I think there are people this will REALLY work for - people who love atmospheric haunting queer litfic-lite speculative fiction, people with deep ties to Appalachia and life there, people who love seeing religion twisted into metaphor and used as magic, books about looming industry and nature striving to prevent it.

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?

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.

Thank you to Netgalley for letting me read and review this book. The writing style is beautiful and there is some good worldbuilding, but the pacing was too slow and I got bored. I liked the two main characters, but there wasn't much of a romance like I thought there would be. The ending was disappointing as well.

DNFed at 72%

I really, really wanted to love Motheater. It had everything I could want: an ancient witch, nature versus industry, a little mystery and sapphics, all set in Appalachian mountains. What's not to love?

Well... a lot. Despite a relatively strong start, it started to drag rather quickly. I found myself delaying the next reading session because I knew I would make pitiful progress and not even enjoy what I was reading.

Bennie, the main character, was pretty boring; and so unreliable in her personality I couldn't keep up. One moment she'd be endearing or interested in Motheater and the next she'd be angry, seemingly for little reason if at all. Her constant reminders of her dead best friend felt like the author did not trust the readers to retain the character's main motivation.
Motheater was better, despite being pretty blank as a character in the Bennie chapters. Where she really shined were her own chapters as Esther, which were the most interesting part of the book.

My main issue was probably the pacing: I was expecting and actual fight of nature against industry, but it was all dragged out in the chapters where it actually happened, and the rest (most of the book) was just the main character talking in circles.

Bennie and Motheater's romance, of which I haven't read much, was all to predictable and yet unbelievable. Nothing about it felt natural to me, rather its arrival in the plot seemed very sudden and not at all in line with the behaviours of the characters prior to that point.

I won't speak of the religious aspect of the magic, as I am much too ignorant on its basis in actual practices; but I do wish we were given more information on it, rather than just thrust into events or recollections with no idea why the characters do what they do. The magic system, though mentionned at length, also remained pretty vague throughout.

Motheater was unfortunately huge disappointment for me. I think it has a strong foundation but would have benefited from more thorough editing in terms of pacing and character development.

Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with an e-arc!

this books started really interestingly, everything about it seemed intriguing, from the main characters, the atmospheric setting, the premise and even just the plot. But unfortunately, the more i learned about all of those things, my interest of them quickly waned. by the middle of the book, it became really difficult to return to reading the book again as it had given me a reading slump. the ending itself is a lot better executed than the rest of the book, but it didn't really make up for it.

2.5

I was really intrigued by the firsts chapters of this novel, it started mysterious, dark & intriguing. I liked Bennie and Motheater the moment i met them. They both seemed interesting, had a lot going on and i was excited to find out.

It took me a while to finish this novel, because as much as i was enjoying it at first, the more time i spent away from it the more i did not want to come back.
At first, I did not fully understand why, the story even if not exactly what promised by the premise was interesting and so was the setting. But the characters... Felt really two dimensional, their personalities and characteristics were almost interchangeable, I cannot really tell you what makes none of them unique.
Bennie, the main character, is a black queer woman, but apart from a few paragraphs here and there, her blackness doesn't impact anything about herself, it feels weird that if you drastically changed her appearances nothing about her.

I did not connect with any of the character or how the story progressed. I really enjoyed the beginning but the further along i went, the less sense and more abrupt it felt.
This are my opinions, i value interesting characters more than plot in many occasions, and i do recommend picking it up if you are interested.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for allowing me to read an ARC copy of Motheater!!!!

I was swallowed whole by this book. I drew fan art, I loved our girls Bennie and Motheater, I loved the Blue Jay that showed up and he got fan art too. This book did confuse me. So first of all, Bennie kept going on and on about how she's "screwed" she's "so fucked", she's gone over Motheater, and it goes t said a bit too much for my liking. It got annoying. I get it! I get it now please show me something instead of just saying that. I would have liked, in Motheaters chapters, to see romantic feelings growing. Slowly is fine but we really only saw it from her in the last ten percent of the book.

What was going on between Moth and Jas? We're they lovers? Besties? I feel like they were just besties. I enjoyed Bennie's complicated feelings about Moth and Jas. I love that we explored racial issues, I love that we explored issues of poverty and who is poor and this unable to escape the big problem.

The middle dragged for me, I think we could have moved up some romance to fill the space instead of dragging on and on with Bennie being so infatuated!!

I might be in the minority but I wanted Kire to win. 😭 I wanted the humans to learn about Kire and understand they can't take from him anymore.

NetGalley in the ARC version there were a LOT of typos and this book needed more thorough editing!!!

Unfortunately i did not like this as much as i wanted to :( Whilst i absolutetly adored the Appalachian setting and the weaving of past and present, i found myself struggling to care about the mystery aspect. Lots of potential, it just wasn't for me !!!!

I don't think this book is bad by any means, I just feel like it was lacking in something for me. There were so many moments when I felt like the plot was dragging because it felt like Bennie and Motheater were just going from place to place without their research efforts seeming to yield much or move the plot forward, and any information they gleaned toward Motheater's past or the disappearances seemed to come from Motheater organically. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but it made the research element feel unnecessary and as if it was just filling time until the climax. I feel like the point overall came across very muddled as well, because it initially seems as if the mining company was going to be behind the disappearances in some way, especially given Esther's vehement campaign against them in the flashback chapters. However, in the end it was the mountain behind it all and I couldn't quite understand the company's place in all of it. I feel like all of the book's elements had potential to come together more concretely, but it just felt a bit sloppy in the end. I think the book worked best based on its vibes and that that's what kept me going, but overall it wasn't my favorite witchy read by a long shot.

I greatly enjoyed Motheater, the debut novel of Linda H. Codega. It’s a modern-day (mostly) fantasy, about Benethea, a woman trying to find out what happened to her best friend and other mineworkers who have disappeared inside Kire Mountain in the Appalachians, and the mysterious half-drowned woman she fishes out of a creek downstream from a borehole. It’s also about complicated friendships and longings and obsessions, and the relationships between nature, communities, and industry; people have to make choices among moral ambiguities, and sometimes they have to try to fix mistakes.

Motheater initially has amnesia, but it’s almost immediately apparent that she has magic, including some kind of command over nature. She doesn’t actually eat moths, but moths carrying souls/ghosts cluster around her so they can whisper their secrets to her before crumbling into dust and rest. Bennie quickly realizes that Motheater can probably help fight the mining company that she believes is responsible for the deaths and disappearances; Motheater is sympathetic but focuses first on recovering her memories so she can restore her full powers.

The book is told (in third-person past tense) from the viewpoints of Bennie, Motheater, and flashbacks from Esther, a Neighbor/witch of the past who quotes Scripture as she casts spells and makes self-sacrificing bargains with the Mountain to try to protect her community. Bennie gets grudging help from her ex-lover, Zach, with mine information and access, even as she starts to have feelings for Motheater. Historical research and mountain wanderings start to revive Motheater’s memories of conflict and anger in the past; meanwhile, something else is reviving — a power that has been sleeping for a long time — and those occasional disappearances of miners may just be warning flags for a looming catastrophe.

This book did not go where I was expecting with the main plot, but I loved the twists and turns that it took. People with the best of intentions can be blind to the harm they’re storing up for the future, and anyone can make promises that end up being derailed by events beyond their control, but especially, people who take everything upon themselves can be unconsciously arrogant. I also appreciated how opposing viewpoints were reflected, such while Esther was struggling against a mining company’s efforts to supersede local operations, those residents believed that company’s resources and technology would make them safer and richer. Sometimes what seems like gullibility can just be people trying to make the best of a poor set of options.

I loved how preacher’s kid Esther kept quoting Scripture as a sort of focus for her bargaining magic for the community that didn’t love her back, and how Bennie kept rolling with the punches as she realized magic was real and maybe the company wasn’t the only threat around, and how Motheater was honest enough to realize her mistakes and try to mitigate some consequences that were surfacing from her past actions.

I loved the rich characterizations in this book. I loved how earthy and grounded this book felt, despite the fantasy elements. I loved the depictions of moral complexities and stark choices. I definitely look forward to reading whatever Codega comes up with next!

Content warnings: Deaths, disasters, environmental damage, betrayals, racism and sexism (negatively portrayed), religious extremism.

Comps: Old Gods of Appalachia podcast, Smothermoss by Alisa Alering.

Disclaimer: I received a free eARC of this book from the publisher for review.

I am obsessed. This book is so freaking good. It's a delightful original fantasy set in Appalachian coal mining country, and I was enthralled from start to finish.

One of the things I love about this book is that it doesn't faff about. There's no existential crises on the order of "omg magic is real ... but is it really?" Everybody acknowledges the weird but buys into it and goes with it. Codega also doesn't pause to explain the magic system (which is original and super interesting), and yet they give you enough information that you're well able to wrap your head around it by the end of the book. This allows for focus on plot, characterization, and setting, which are all very well done.

I also really appreciate Codega's deep respect for the places depicted in their book. I feel like, especially in recent years, neglected or ignored places like Appalachia are often used in books as ideas, rather than depicted as real PLACES. That's not the case with Motheater, and that rootedness in and love for place really ties the book together.

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!

Many thanks to NetGalley at the publisher for this ARC.

As a fan of sapphic, literary horror, I was excited to dive into this novel. Unfortunately, this book read as more general fiction, possibly YA, than literary fiction, which I’d expected from buzz about the upcoming release.

Codega’s novel takes place in two different time periods—and it seems clear they were more confident writing the older backstory of the witch than the contemporary protagonist. Language choices that felt natural and compelling in the older timeline were stifled and forced in the other.

When I pick up a book presented as more literary, I expect a deeper interior examination of the characters. But these characters hit go and don’t stop moving from the moment they meet. If that kind of plot pacing calls to you, this book is worth picking up.

Otherwise, I would suggest “the Bog Wife” for a very creepy atmospheric novel about Appalachia or “Bloom” for a sapphic horror.

For me, this would be a two star read, but I don’t think I’m the intended audience, so I’m rounding up to 3.

Thank you to both NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story has multiple POV's that have the same goal, protect mount Kire from coal mining. Mining this mountain has caused multiple suspicious deaths that Bennie is trying to solve.

I liked the organic representation and diverse range of characters. I loved the past perspective and the magic of the hedge witch. The atmosphere in that era was on point. The cover is also STUNNING! ✨

One of the things that I struggled with was the tone of the story. Is it a horror, historical fantasy, fiction, queer romance, murder mystery or thriller? Since the book has a bit of all these elements I found that the tone was hard to follow as it seemed to continually change. I also wish that the author had introduced the stakes at the beginning of the story as I found myself asking why these characters were doing these things. This was because it didn't seem like there were any real consequences. There was definitely an insta love story that was frustrating as it could have been super beautiful.

I'm super sad this one didn't work out for me 😔.

*I received a copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this opportunity*

I rarely do this but I DNF’d this book.

The character of Motheater was somewhat interesting and I did find myself enjoying her flashbacks. If the whole book had been the story of an Appalachian witch in post civil war America? Maybe it would have held my interest better. But as many other reviewers have stated, the story starts to drag around the halfway point.

The writing itself is often repetitive and flowery. And after about 40-50% I found myself thinking “I don’t actually care what happens in the end” which is unfortunate because as I stated there were some interesting bits! The history and the magic was really well flushed out. Again Motheater herself was a good character. And even the main character Bennie was well written. But the plot, the “let’s stop the mining company” story just lost my interest. I can assume they will win in the end and I don’t really want to take the time to keep reading and find out how.

Pros to this book:
-Woman of color main character
-Witch from the past
-LGBTQ+ represent
-Set in the Appalachian Mountains
-Small town vibe
-A murder/investigation

Why do I punish myself thinking that I'm finally going to get a really good Appalachian witch story? I mean they do exist don't they? Or are they just unicorns in the wild that I will never catch?

Dammit man.

Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review. I know it's not much of a review but I'm tired of sucky books.

This is one of those books that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go. It’s eerie, unsettling, and strangely beautiful all at once. From the first page, I was pulled into a world that felt both deeply personal and utterly alien.

It's a haunting story that explores themes of identity, survival, and transformation in a way that feels raw and unfiltered. Codega’s writing is sharp and vivid with the kind of prose that paints pictures in your mind. At times, it’s grotesque, and at others, it’s weirdly poetic, but it’s always gripping.

What I loved most about Motheater is how it blurs the lines between humanity and monstrosity. It forces you to confront some uncomfortable truths. The main character’s journey is full of twists and turns, and while some moments genuinely caught me off guard, they always felt earned.

This isn’t a light or easy read; it is definitely dark, intense, and a little weird but in the best way. If you’re into speculative fiction that’s both thought-provoking and a little creepy, you’ll love it. I know I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time!

I can't believe I'm disappointed with a book I've been looking forward to.

Actually, the book did start off strong, and I was ready to dive into the story, but the more I read, the less interesting it became. The pace was off. The story is told in two timelines: one in the modern day, where Bennie found Mothereater in the creek, and the other is Mothereater's past timeline. I just can't with the character dynamics; they feel flat and underdeveloped. Bennie is too quick to accept Mothereater and her magic, and Mothereater is too comfortable in the modern day despite her history.

And I don't understand why horror is one of the genres of this book. Did the author want to create a gothic fantasy atmosphere? If so, I honestly can't feel it.

Overall, I can see the potential of this book; the premise is good enough to make me curious about the whole story, but sadly, it isn't working for me.