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While I give this book credit for a unique setting and some interesting ideas, ultimately, the story and characters don't rise to the occasion that the setting provides.
The story is set in a mining town in Appalachia and follows a young woman named Bennie, who post-breakup and post-job firing, finds a woman unconscious beside a river and decides to be a good samaritan and get her some help. The woman awakes and runs into the woods where Bennie follows, and she soon find out that she's a. actually a witch and b. from the 1800s. The woman doesn't know her real name, and only remembers a moniker of "Motheater". From there the book goes between present day with POVs either from Bennie or Motheater, and then POVs from Motheater when she lived in the past, as Esther.
I found myself liking the flashback sections a bit better, as the idea of a witch in Reconstruction era is an interesting one. The present-day setting is muddled, with the main character of Bennie going between her investigation of the mining company (which is quickly dropped) and driving Motheater around to places. There are lots of scenes of Motheater doing cool witch things, but I found them to be overwrought and too frequent. I wanted some more substance behind the magic.
The story is meandering and there's a supposed mystery (how did Motheater end up where she was?), but it's fairly obvious and the story leading up to it makes little sense. There's also a romance between Bennie and Motheater which makes even less sense. Motheater feels less like a person and more like an entity. She and Bennie barely talk and most of the time Bennie just watches her do some magical thing and then that's that. As the reader, we see the development of her character (sorta) through the flashbacks, but Bennie doesn't see that.
Also, the story seems to touch on some quasi-political concepts but doesn't really know where it stands. Is it anti-corporation? Anti-capitalism? Anti-mining? Anti-progress-in-general? Not that I'm asking for a fantasy book to be a diatribe, but I think you can explore political concepts in interesting ways, which this book fails at.
Overall, I did enjoy the setting and the concept of an Appalachian mountain witch. I kind of wish the author had just set the entire thing in the 1800s, as I just felt a lot more substance in those sections.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!
The story is set in a mining town in Appalachia and follows a young woman named Bennie, who post-breakup and post-job firing, finds a woman unconscious beside a river and decides to be a good samaritan and get her some help. The woman awakes and runs into the woods where Bennie follows, and she soon find out that she's a. actually a witch and b. from the 1800s. The woman doesn't know her real name, and only remembers a moniker of "Motheater". From there the book goes between present day with POVs either from Bennie or Motheater, and then POVs from Motheater when she lived in the past, as Esther.
I found myself liking the flashback sections a bit better, as the idea of a witch in Reconstruction era is an interesting one. The present-day setting is muddled, with the main character of Bennie going between her investigation of the mining company (which is quickly dropped) and driving Motheater around to places. There are lots of scenes of Motheater doing cool witch things, but I found them to be overwrought and too frequent. I wanted some more substance behind the magic.
The story is meandering and there's a supposed mystery (how did Motheater end up where she was?), but it's fairly obvious and the story leading up to it makes little sense. There's also a romance between Bennie and Motheater which makes even less sense. Motheater feels less like a person and more like an entity. She and Bennie barely talk and most of the time Bennie just watches her do some magical thing and then that's that. As the reader, we see the development of her character (sorta) through the flashbacks, but Bennie doesn't see that.
Also, the story seems to touch on some quasi-political concepts but doesn't really know where it stands. Is it anti-corporation? Anti-capitalism? Anti-mining? Anti-progress-in-general? Not that I'm asking for a fantasy book to be a diatribe, but I think you can explore political concepts in interesting ways, which this book fails at.
Overall, I did enjoy the setting and the concept of an Appalachian mountain witch. I kind of wish the author had just set the entire thing in the 1800s, as I just felt a lot more substance in those sections.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!