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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
The story had cool concept, but the execution wasn't great. The story moved really slowly and the character's motivations were sometimes unclear, it seemed like decisions were made for the sake of the plot rather than consistency.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an eARC!
I love a good fantasy-horror-witchy vibe book. Reading this did satisfy those loves but it was also a very slow paced read.
The book is very interesting but it felt a little dull? I love angry pissed off witches but it sort of fell off. Overall the book was enjoyable and I do think it gives the southern gothic horror vibe but I don’t know if it would ever be a reread for me.
I love a good fantasy-horror-witchy vibe book. Reading this did satisfy those loves but it was also a very slow paced read.
The book is very interesting but it felt a little dull? I love angry pissed off witches but it sort of fell off. Overall the book was enjoyable and I do think it gives the southern gothic horror vibe but I don’t know if it would ever be a reread for me.
adventurous
dark
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Thanks to NetGalley, Kensington Publishing, and Erewhon Books for providing an eARC of Motheater by Linda H. Codega in exchange for this honest review!
🐦 Vibes
• Eco-Horror
• Anti-Industrialization
• Backwater Towns
• Big Witch Energy
• Nonlinear Narration
Big heads up! There are witch activities that may not be for everyone, such as animal sacrifices and self-harm.
Motheater takes place across parallel times in the Appalachian Kiron, a small town near the mountain of Kire. In the past, the Appalachian Neighbor Esther fights against the looming threat of industrialization and machinery coming to mine Kire while in the present Bennie and Motheater try to save Kiron from the vengeful titan that has been stealing away miners.
I really enjoyed the ecological horror aspects of this story, but the near-constant bible verbiage made it a struggle for me to stay immersed. I did find my mind reading Esther's chapters with the heaviest drawl ever, which I would definitely recommend doing 👌
The one thing Motheater does really well is create an atmospheric story. You can definitely feel the wilderness of the mountains, the desperation of the townspeople for their livelihood.
I don't have any particular strong feelings here; Motheater was a pretty middle of the road novel for me. The ending was inevitable, but not particularly satisfying. It also felt like there should have been much more urgency in the character's actions, but after almost every major revelation they go "well 🤷🏼♀️ time to eat and get a good night's sleep!". And the number of times Motheater says "I don't remember" regarding some part of herself or the past, I wanted to throttle her.
🐦 Vibes
• Eco-Horror
• Anti-Industrialization
• Backwater Towns
• Big Witch Energy
• Nonlinear Narration
Big heads up! There are witch activities that may not be for everyone, such as animal sacrifices and self-harm.
Motheater takes place across parallel times in the Appalachian Kiron, a small town near the mountain of Kire. In the past, the Appalachian Neighbor Esther fights against the looming threat of industrialization and machinery coming to mine Kire while in the present Bennie and Motheater try to save Kiron from the vengeful titan that has been stealing away miners.
I really enjoyed the ecological horror aspects of this story, but the near-constant bible verbiage made it a struggle for me to stay immersed. I did find my mind reading Esther's chapters with the heaviest drawl ever, which I would definitely recommend doing 👌
The one thing Motheater does really well is create an atmospheric story. You can definitely feel the wilderness of the mountains, the desperation of the townspeople for their livelihood.
I don't have any particular strong feelings here; Motheater was a pretty middle of the road novel for me. The ending was inevitable, but not particularly satisfying. It also felt like there should have been much more urgency in the character's actions, but after almost every major revelation they go "well 🤷🏼♀️ time to eat and get a good night's sleep!". And the number of times Motheater says "I don't remember" regarding some part of herself or the past, I wanted to throttle her.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I just couldn't get completely into this book. There were times when it was fine, especially with the dark, witchy atmosphere of the book, but the overall pacing was a bit slower than I liked so I got bored quite a few times and it took me way too long to get through it. I was not a fan of Bennie, but Motheater was a bit more complex and I appreciated that, especially with the other POV that dives more into her character. The ending was also disappointing. The characters go through so much, only for there to be an ending that just falls flat, even after all of that buildup. The romance was also just weird. Bennie and Motheater's chemistry was basically non-existent and then somehow their non-existent interactions turned into them falling for each other? Its pretty unbelievable.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
*I only finished 93%.* I picked up this book to fill some headspace with Appalachia, but was terribly disappointed in the story. very whimsical story about mining the mountains and a witch who was entwined. what started out as a beautiful story ended up being dragged and bogged down throughout the whole book paired with nonsensical character motives and a seemingly forced love story.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was another book I really wanted to love. Unfortunately, it just felt like the concept was better than the writing itself.
On a positive note, I don’t agree with several other reviews I’ve seen that talk about the middle of the book being too slow. I felt like it was paced well, I don’t need to have massive explosions every chapter. The story moved along nicely with the Esther and Bennie chapters providing nice context for each other.
HOWEVER (Spoilers)—
For the first 80% of the book the situation between Bennie and Esther felt out of place and kind of unnecessary. There were random pining moments that popped up periodically, seemingly always immediately after a gross, or at least unappealing, description of Esther’s dirty hair, blue skin or something with bugs. The lead up of Bennie falling for her made absolutely no sense to me. But I was fine with just sort of ignoring that whole bit (which as a queer girl, was pretty sad). Of course as turns out, it was kind of a major part of the ending that Bennie loved her so much. So… I really feel like the author shit the bed on their love story if the ultimate plan was to hang the entire conclusion on love saving the day.
Additionally, the writing was very repetitive. Multiple mentions of sour apples was awkward and if I had to read one whine from Bennie about how done/screwed/fucked she was, I was legitimately considering DNFing the book just for that. It was multiple times on the same page, at one point. Once was enough, 384729474739 times later I wanted to strangle everyone involved in editing this book.
On a positive note, I don’t agree with several other reviews I’ve seen that talk about the middle of the book being too slow. I felt like it was paced well, I don’t need to have massive explosions every chapter. The story moved along nicely with the Esther and Bennie chapters providing nice context for each other.
HOWEVER (Spoilers)—
For the first 80% of the book the situation between Bennie and Esther felt out of place and kind of unnecessary. There were random pining moments that popped up periodically, seemingly always immediately after a gross, or at least unappealing, description of Esther’s dirty hair, blue skin or something with bugs. The lead up of Bennie falling for her made absolutely no sense to me. But I was fine with just sort of ignoring that whole bit (which as a queer girl, was pretty sad). Of course as turns out, it was kind of a major part of the ending that Bennie loved her so much. So… I really feel like the author shit the bed on their love story if the ultimate plan was to hang the entire conclusion on love saving the day.
Additionally, the writing was very repetitive. Multiple mentions of sour apples was awkward and if I had to read one whine from Bennie about how done/screwed/fucked she was, I was legitimately considering DNFing the book just for that. It was multiple times on the same page, at one point. Once was enough, 384729474739 times later I wanted to strangle everyone involved in editing this book.
I may return to this at a later date, but this was just not drawing me in at all. I was promised a queer, Appalachian horror fantasy novel but at about 100 pages in of a 400 page story all I'd received was a slow Appalachian litfic with some slight fantastical suggestions. Zero horror. Zero queer themes. Judging from other reviews I've been reading, this apparently is more litfic than a fantasy horror and I'm just not currently in the mood for such a story, especially one so slow.
