patty_pages 's review for:

Motheater by Linda H. Codega

3.0

mysterious slow-paced

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I had high hopes but was ultimately let down by the pacing and structure. Bennie, a Black woman in West Virginia finds a centuries old Appalachian Neighbor named Motheater and enlists her particular brand of Gospel flavored witchcraft to stop a corrupt coal mining operation and bring peace to whatever's inside Kire mountain. Sounds interesting enough. Unfortunately, the split POV with alternating timelines dragged on too long, the queer romance felt awkward and should've remained platonic, and there were several words and phrases repeated so often they became filler and took away from the stakes and resonance of the story.