Motheater

In a startling and nuanced queer fantasy set amid the beauty of an Appalachian mountain, the last witch of the Ridge and a newcomer investigating the coal industry must choose sides in a clash between nature and development that’s been 300 years coming…

After her best friend died in the coal mine that employs half of Kiron, Virginia, Benethea Mattox sacrificed her job, her relationship, and her reputation trying to uncover what’s killing miners on Kire Mountain. When she finds a half-drowned white woman in the dirty mine slough, Bennie takes her in because it’s right—but she also 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, nor 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, and the promises she bent and broke have followed her 150 years into the future. And now, the choices Motheater and Bennie make together could change the face of Kire itself…