Published in 2025
416 pages
12 hours and 20 minutes
Linda H. Codega is a nonbinary queer Virginian living in the hills of the San Gabriel Mountains, where they can often be found hiking, sailing, or haunting the local movie theater. They are a writer and entertainment journalist currently working in television production. Their articles appear on Rascal, i09, Reactor, Polygon, and The Observer. They are a Hugo Award-winning first reader at Strange Horizons.
Sanya Simmons is an Atlanta-based Black Latina female audiobook narrator. She’s a member of SAG-AFTRA, PANA, and APA, and she serves on the DEI Committee of APA. Sanya’s alto voice is warm, grounded, friendly, credible, and authentic. Conversational first person POV is Sanya’s forte. She enjoys romance (including erotica), cozy mystery, memoir, true crime and crime fiction, thriller, and YA genres. Nonfiction topics that are sure to catch her interest are those involving African American history and current issues, social justice, inclusivity (especially Black, LGBTQIA+, and disability), mental health, and spirituality. Sanya is also a musician and the author of A Single Mom’s Guide to Raising Black (Gentle) Men.
What is this book about?
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.
