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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
sad
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:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
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:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
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:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
All the pieces to make it a really good southern Gothic with a tragic romance, like a traditional Gothic, are there, but the timeline is like four, maybe five, days. It just doesn't work for the romance because it feels shoved in to have a tagline for marketing. The cosmic aspects of the horror in waking a mountain is incredibly well done, and is one of my favorite iterations of nature fighting neck against humanity, but it highlights the poor timeline of the character relationships even more.
Motheater takes place in Kiron, a western Virginia mining town. Bennie is a disgruntled former employee of the mining company white rock, investigating a string of mysterious mining deaths (including the death of her best friend) when she finds a mysterious witch lost in time. Together they help the witch regain her power and memories and fight back against the mountain that is killing people. Very cool concept! I wanted to like this so much.
This book has a million super short chapters and every chapter was so jam packed with plot plot plot, which just isn’t my type of book! I need character building and world building to make me care about the plot. Bennie felt like the only fully realized character in the entire book. (And I loved her). Motheater/Esther’s motivations were never clear to me and I never felt like I understood who she was or why she did anything.
I’m heartbroken for what this book could have been, because I am genuinely obsessed with the concept.
This book has a million super short chapters and every chapter was so jam packed with plot plot plot, which just isn’t my type of book! I need character building and world building to make me care about the plot. Bennie felt like the only fully realized character in the entire book. (And I loved her). Motheater/Esther’s motivations were never clear to me and I never felt like I understood who she was or why she did anything.
I’m heartbroken for what this book could have been, because I am genuinely obsessed with the concept.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
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:
Yes
Amazing story with a distinct voice and very distinguished and developed characters. I loved Bennie and Motheater. Zach grew on me. The story hooked me from beginning to end, slowly unveiling how actions from the past led to ongoing deaths in the mines, to the events now. It also made fascinating commentary on the push and pull between the need to conserve and respect nature and out environment and the needs of the humans in the area to make a living. And how Motheater acted to facilitate this as the resident Neighbor.
I loved how the story approached witchcraft and power, mixing Christian religion to the more nature connected witchery and magic utilized by Motheater and those like her. I also loved the dialogue and prose, as Codega describes the environment of Kiron and Kire, as Motheater converses with her fellow people and later with Bennie, and uses words to do wondrous works, in contrast to Bennie herself trying to make sense of all of this while falling for Motheater. Wonderful to read and a very memorable story. Only thing that kept me from a full 5 stars is how sad the ending made me.
I loved how the story approached witchcraft and power, mixing Christian religion to the more nature connected witchery and magic utilized by Motheater and those like her. I also loved the dialogue and prose, as Codega describes the environment of Kiron and Kire, as Motheater converses with her fellow people and later with Bennie, and uses words to do wondrous works, in contrast to Bennie herself trying to make sense of all of this while falling for Motheater. Wonderful to read and a very memorable story. Only thing that kept me from a full 5 stars is how sad the ending made me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Blood
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Blood, Murder