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Motheater was not what I was expecting in the slightest. There's a lot I enjoyed about it and some things I didn't.
To start, I wouldn't have classed this as a fantasy. It reads as a lyrical literary fiction with hints of folk horror and fantasy. Which i appreciate. The prose was great, and as a sucker for religious folklore, I really enjoyed the mixing of Christian scripture with pagan witchery.
I loved the setting and the characters, both Bennie and Motheater were interesting, although all bits of Motheater POV were set in the past, it was enough to give us a good understanding of who she is. The Appalachian mountains were a perfect scenario for this tale, and the text was burst full of history about the area and its mining past.
A couple of things that didn't really tickle my fancy were for one, the sheer number of times the word "Motheater" was on the page. It was so many times it kind of lost its meaning. I don't know if this was on purpose, but if it was, I don't really understand why. Another thing that didn't flow as I expected was the romance aspect. While for Bennie, it all made sense as we had her POV set in the present, for Motheater to reciprocate her feelings felt a bit out of the blue, and it just didn't quite fit. A shame, really.
Lastly, I regret to say that the ending wasn't for me either. There was no satisfaction factor at all in it, no great climax on the setting that was put forward. The elements of female rage and the perpetual battle between capitalist progress and nature fell flat with a less than compelling ending.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable reading, and the prose was just the way I like, and I would recommend it to people who like a folk tale and badass women.
Thank you, NetGalley, for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
To start, I wouldn't have classed this as a fantasy. It reads as a lyrical literary fiction with hints of folk horror and fantasy. Which i appreciate. The prose was great, and as a sucker for religious folklore, I really enjoyed the mixing of Christian scripture with pagan witchery.
I loved the setting and the characters, both Bennie and Motheater were interesting, although all bits of Motheater POV were set in the past, it was enough to give us a good understanding of who she is. The Appalachian mountains were a perfect scenario for this tale, and the text was burst full of history about the area and its mining past.
A couple of things that didn't really tickle my fancy were for one, the sheer number of times the word "Motheater" was on the page. It was so many times it kind of lost its meaning. I don't know if this was on purpose, but if it was, I don't really understand why. Another thing that didn't flow as I expected was the romance aspect. While for Bennie, it all made sense as we had her POV set in the present, for Motheater to reciprocate her feelings felt a bit out of the blue, and it just didn't quite fit. A shame, really.
Lastly, I regret to say that the ending wasn't for me either. There was no satisfaction factor at all in it, no great climax on the setting that was put forward. The elements of female rage and the perpetual battle between capitalist progress and nature fell flat with a less than compelling ending.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable reading, and the prose was just the way I like, and I would recommend it to people who like a folk tale and badass women.
Thank you, NetGalley, for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.