MOTHEATER

Sanya Simmons narrates this debut audiobook set in a coal mining community in southwestern Virginia. Bennie is trying to find out what happened to her best friends and other mine workers who have disappeared inside the mountain. When Bennie rescues a half-drowned white woman named Motheater in a stream near a borehole, she soon discovers that Motheater possesses a strange form of magic that might help Bennie's efforts to hold the mining company responsible for the disappearances. Simmons adopts an Appalachian accent for the narration. The story is told in the third person through Bennie and Motheater and flashbacks of Esther, an earlier incarnation of Motheater in the Reconstruction Era. Simmons expresses the varied emotions of the characters but manages to remain upbeat overall. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2025]