Motheater
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
In this nuanced queer fantasy set amid the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia, the last witch of the Ridge must choose sides in a clash between industry and nature.
After her best friend dies in a coal mine, Benethea “Bennie” Mattox sacrifices her job, her relationship, and her reputation to uncover what’s killing miners on Kire Mountain. When she finds a half-drowned white woman in a dirty mine slough, Bennie takes her in because it’s right—but also because she hopes this odd, magnetic stranger can lead her to the proof she needs.
Instead, she brings more questions. The woman called Motheater can’t remember her true name, or how she ended up inside the mountain. She knows only that she’s a witch of Appalachia, bound to tor and holler, possum and snake, with power in her hands and Scripture on her tongue. But the mystery of her fate, her doomed quest to keep industry off Kire Mountain, and the promises she bent and broke have followed her a century and half into the future. And now, the choices Motheater and Bennie make together could change the face of the town itself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Appalachia comes alive in Codega's atmospheric debut fantasy. Benethea "Bennie" Mattox is determined to bring down White Rock, the corporation that's chipping away at Kire Mountain in the mining town of Kiron, Va. People have been disappearing in the mines in ones and twos for decades, and the most recent person to vanish is Bennie's best friend, Kelly-Anne. While searching the mountain for evidence that White Rock is to blame, Bennie pulls a body from a river and is shocked to find the woman is still alive. She introduces herself as Motheater, but she has only the vaguest memory of who she is: an Appalachian Neighbor, a witch with deep ties to the region. She has been trapped in the mountain for a century and a half, since just after the first big mining company appeared in the area, but she's ready to resume her crusade to protect both the town and the mountain. Together, Motheater and Bonnie work to save the place they both love. Codega weaves Appalachian magic and Southern cunning throughout their protagonists' crusade and brings in an exploration of what it is to be queer in the South. Readers will find lots to love.
