Motheater

Hardcover, 405 pages

English language

Published Jan. 1, 2025 by Erewhon Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-64566-179-5
Goodreads:: 211960914

(1 review)

In a startling and nuanced queer fantasy set amid the beauty of an Appalachian mountain, the last witch of the Ridge and a newcomer investigating the coal industry must choose sides in a clash between nature and development that’s been 300 years coming…

After her best friend died in the coal mine that employs half of Kiron, Virginia, Benethea Mattox sacrificed her job, her relationship, and her reputation trying to uncover what’s killing miners on Kire Mountain. When she finds a half-drowned white woman in the dirty mine slough, Bennie takes her in because it’s right—but she also 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, nor 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, …

In a startling and nuanced queer fantasy set amid the beauty of an Appalachian mountain, the last witch of the Ridge and a newcomer investigating the coal industry must choose sides in a clash between nature and development that’s been 300 years coming…

After her best friend died in the coal mine that employs half of Kiron, Virginia, Benethea Mattox sacrificed her job, her relationship, and her reputation trying to uncover what’s killing miners on Kire Mountain. When she finds a half-drowned white woman in the dirty mine slough, Bennie takes her in because it’s right—but she also 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, nor 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, and the promises she bent and broke have followed her 150 years into the future. And now, the choices Motheater and Bennie make together could change the face of Kire itself…

1 edition

enne📚 reviewed Motheater by Linda Codega

3 stars

I wanted to like this queer witchy Appalachian book a lot more than I ended up enjoying it. The setup is that Benethea Mattox has sacrificed everything to find out why her friend mysteriously died in a mining accident; she rescues a mysterious woman from a river, who turns out to be a hundred plus year old witch with her own vendetta.

The perspective of the book alternates between Bennie in the present and Motheater in the past. What doesn't work for me is that most of the interesting tension happens in the past; Bennie's own agency and mystery solving in the present is largely subsumed in service to helping Motheater with her own plot.

One interesting observation is that I read the conflict as being between protecting the people vs protecting the land. Motheater wants to provide for her people but is competing with the growing needs and desires …

I wanted to like this queer witchy Appalachian book a lot more than I ended up enjoying it. The setup is that Benethea Mattox has sacrificed everything to find out why her friend mysteriously died in a mining accident; she rescues a mysterious woman from a river, who turns out to be a hundred plus year old witch with her own vendetta.

The perspective of the book alternates between Bennie in the present and Motheater in the past. What doesn't work for me is that most of the interesting tension happens in the past; Bennie's own agency and mystery solving in the present is largely subsumed in service to helping Motheater with her own plot.

One interesting observation is that I read the conflict as being between protecting the people vs protecting the land. Motheater wants to provide for her people but is competing with the growing needs and desires of her town that lead them to increased mining, either on their own or through a company. Surprisingly, this turned out to be much less than I expected about mining companies exploiting people than it was about mining generally hurting the environment.