The strength of this book, I think, lies in its characters. I loved the titular Motheater as well as Bennie. Both were engaging, unique, and had great narrative voice. I also found the Appalachia setting and mix of sources of horror --religious, eco, corporate, rural, and witch--were done well. The overall vibe was both compelling and chilling.

However, I found the pacing very slow. I had no trouble differentiating or following the two timelines in the novel, but I think if either narrative was presented separately it would have been stronger. I often found myself caring more about the past than the present, particularly because of my interest in the witches and their specific domains which are really only present in the past.

I also didn’t feel the romantic connections between Motheater and Bennie really worked. Both were great and had strong motivations separately, but having them hook up just didn’t work for me. Others may disagree on that, and I admit as an aroace I may not be a great judge of it.

Motheater is a gripping, darkly atmospheric novel that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Linda Codega’s writing is both haunting and beautiful, weaving together mystery, tension, and deep emotional moments. The characters feel real and layered, making their journey one that stays with you long after the last page. With themes of identity, survival, and self-discovery, this book offers a powerful, immersive experience for anyone who enjoys a complex, thought-provoking narrative.

I really enjoyed this book! I thought the premise and the writing of this book!!

It was really fun for a debut story about a witch who is trying to protect her home, the writing was good so were the characters, the main problem I had with this book was the length. Maybe about 40 (minimum) pages could be cut.

After getting halfway through, I’m realizing this just isn’t a good fit for me. I’ve been trying to read it since the start of January and the pacing just keeps me from gravitating toward it.

This is certainly a case of it’s not you, it’s me. If you like slower, more atmospheric books with slight folk horror elements, I recommend giving this one a shot.

Bennie saved a strange girl from drowning in the river. It turns out that Motheater, this seems to be the only name she remembers as her own, is an Appalachian witch that lived more than a century before. The two of them collaborate to stop the mysterious deaths that are happening on the mountain.

I loved the story, the magic, the concept, the cover. I loved Esther and her flashbacks, the urban fantasy mood of this book, the "industries and men vs nature" debate that's the core of this story, the gentle but strong bond between Bennie and Motheater.

I didn't like the slow (TOO slow) narrative, the ending (that was a little confusing - maybe beacause english's not my main language?), the strange relationship between Bennie and Zach, the non-resolved plot about Bennie's best friend.

Overall, I liked this book but since I wanted to LOVE it, I'm not totally satisfied.

A hungry mountain. A witch with no memories. And a woman reeling from loss, trying to solve the mystery of why people are dying. Motheater came out swinging with finding a dead woman in a river and didn't let up from there. Bennie and Motheater race against the clock to try and put a mountain to sleep before it rains down destruction all along Appalachia. We also get to see Motheater's past, filling in the blanks of memory before Motheater can do it herself. We see the witch she was and the witch she is trying to be again. The romance aspect of it didn't quite hit for me but I loved the story of the pain that still lingers in the mountains.

Motheater by Linda H. Codega feels like a story born from the mountains themselves, raw, eerie, and deeply tied to the land. As someone from Southwest Virginia, this book felt incredibly close to home, not just in its setting but in its understanding of the unspoken histories, the weight of industry, and the folklore that lingers in Appalachian air. It follows Bennie Mattox, who is grieving the death of her best friend in a coal mine accident when she stumbles upon something far older and stranger than she ever expected. Motheater, a witch bound to the land, has awoken, forcing Bennie to face the connection between the past and present, between survival and destruction, between who she was and who she is becoming.

What I loved most was how this story wasn’t just about reckoning with the past, it was also about moving forward. Bennie’s journey isn’t just about uncovering old wounds but learning how to heal, how to find strength in unexpected places, and how to build new friendships even in the aftermath of loss. The mountains keep their secrets, and so does this book, but it leaves you with a sense of hope, of resilience, and of belonging. If you love Appalachian folklore, slow-burning horror, and stories about finding connection in the most unexpected places, Motheater is the book for you. It was truly magical.

An incredibly interesting and impactful story. Taking fantasy into a new world by delving into Appalachia and the impacts of Mining, positive and negative, on the community and environment.

Filled with the beauty and the complexity of Appalachia through the lens of fantasy; this book is delightfully complex, queer, beautiful, intellectual, and all around a fantastic read!

This book started off really promising. Witches, slow burn queer romance, badass fmc’s. A little over halfway through, I figured the story was on its way to wrapping up. And then it didn’t. Then it continuously added things in the story that made the story longer. And longer. And longer. Honestly, it could’ve ended 15-20 chapters sooner. Or at least cut all the filler that really wasn’t needed.

Thanks for the advanced ebook for review, from NetGalley!

This really didn't work for me but it was likely a case of a "it's me, not the book.' I'm generally a fantasy reader, so having magic and bible quotes mix together in a dark setting really irked me, although I generally understand why it was done. The two different POV's tended to be fairly repetitive, and the ending was WILD. There were a few times I was tempted to quit but overall I'm not terribly unhappy I stuck with it. Just slow going for me.

I do find myself still thinking about it, and I'm trying to decide if that's a good or bad thing, but it certainly wasn't unforgettable, so there's that.

If this review of Motheater sounds wishywashy, It's because I really am uncertain how I feel about it! It's definitely on the darker side of the track as far as the magic goes, so do please keep it in mind if that bothers you. (it was just about almost too much for me.)

Benethea «Bennie» Mattox happens upon a young unconscious woman, who not long after sprints unto the woods. When Bennie takes her in, she hopes that this strange magical woman can be just what she needs to stop people from dying in the mines.

The atmosphere in this novel is what truly sets this book apart from others. The Appalachian/ southern folk vibes are impeccable. However, it simply was not enough to keep my interest for the long run. I struggled to keep my interest on what was happening and at 35% I gave up. I might pick this book back up later, but for now I just couldn’t get through it.

The pacing was very slow throughout and I just could not be bothered to care for the characters.

I’m confident that this book will find its right reader, and that many will love it, but it sadly was not me. This novel is probably a better fit for lovers of literary fiction rather than that of fantasy readers.

Big thanks to Netgalley, Kensington Publishing and the author Linda H. Codega for allowing me to read an E-arc of this novel.

Linda H. Codega's Motheater is a wonderful feast for the senses. I loved everything about this book! If you are into Appalachian folklore\ magic with a side of every day problems, or just a good story. This is your book!

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!!!