Benny is a Black woman living in a small Appalachian mountain town, working to expose a crooked mining company after the death of her best friend. She comes across a barely breathing witch, Motheater, who is out of time from the 1880s, freed from inside a mountain during a mining expansion. 150 years later, they are bound by the same vow: to stop the deaths on the mountain.

A dark folk tale with a splash of fantasy elements, this story fails to deliver on its own message: anti-capitalist? Anti-progress? Or perhaps suggesting that progress is sometimes necessary at the expense of the environment? The sapphic elements would have been more enjoyable had they given both Motheater and Benny any real chemistry, rather than just a lot of internal pining. The queer and BIPOC elements, along with the impacts of living in a small, highly religious, and primarily white town, are mostly glossed over. It’s a hodgepodge of themes but never fully fleshed out enough for the reader to sink their teeth into.

This book was fine—it took some incredible folklore and delivered a novel that highlights an often overlooked demographic, leading to my own deep dives into Appalachian history. 3/5 stars.