Reviews - Motheater | The StoryGraph

480 reviews for:

Motheater

Linda H. Codega

3.51 AVERAGE

mreid761's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

tilly_thecat's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

This book was meh. It's very slow paced, the entire book takes place over one week.
Liked:
Takes place in Appalachia, which I don't know much about, so this was interesting to me.
Queer, though the falling in love felt rushed.
The magic is cool

Disliked:
None of the characters are fleshed out except for motheater, but we still don't know what she's thinking mostly. It's hard to care about characters you know nothing about.
The flowery language is very nice at first, but got tedious by the middle of the book.
Hard to follow why people are doing what.
Way too much usage of scripture. It doesn't make sense most of the time.

akdavis's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

Some nice atmospheric moments but just didn’t cohere or hold my attention — there are so many interesting ideas here that just got dropped or rushed. The story needs focus and a more mature voice.

mbmartin42's review against another edition

2.75

mysterious slow-paced

stacyrenee's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: N/A

Adult
🏳️‍🌈Queer Fantasy
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

“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.”

I really enjoyed this!
The MC, Bennie, is investigating a string of deaths at the local coal mine she previously worked at when she comes across a half-drowned woman in a dirty coal-slough and attempts to help her. The woman, who calls herself Motheater, can’t quite remember who she is but they soon find her connection to the past and set out to right what was wronged.

Set in southern Virginia (map of specific area included in slides) and filled with Appalachian folklore (witchy), historical flashbacks, some culty snake-handling religious aspects, and environmental justice, plus a little bit of sapphic romance.

This is for fans of Wake the Bones, In the Hour of Crows, and Willa of the Wood!

zeecorster's review against another edition

4.25

emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

calicos's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

strong start but then the story just dragged. the magic was interesting but got a bit hard to follow, that may be because I kinda half checked out. I don’t quite get what the point was since

the ending with the mountain being evil seemed to go against a lot of the build up about protecting it. The romance also seemed a bit forced, an “I love you” after like five days is crazy.

The story felt kind of repetitive and then ended quite abruptly. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book with so many f-bombs (nothing against it but it became a bit distracting). It felt hard to connect to the characters as well. There were some good parts but overall it was too long and solidly “meh.”