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“Honestly, I don’t know why I’m surprised I like Mother Moth so much. I’m always a sucker for unusual covers with equally unusual titles. Maybe, somehow, in the back of my mind the film The Mothman Prophecies kept popping up against my will, making me think this was going to be horrific and unsettling. Instead, happily, I discovered Mother Moth to be refreshingly old school in how it instantly transported me back to my childhood and the fairy tales I loved to read.
There’s the heartwarming relationship between Elspeth and her father, the clear love and humane concern for animals they both share, the descriptive pastoral settings, oddly charming drawings and, most of all, the writing that would make you swear this was written in another century when time slowed down and writing was about creating truths and images, pulling you into a world you wouldn’t mind spending hours and hours in…
Terribly excited to see a cow make an appearance (I’m a bit cow-obsessed) I love lines like this: “…Clover had sensed peril. She was a milking cow, a mother herself, and recognized motherly concern in another creature, in Elspeth. Elspeth nestled by the cow’s heavy belly, with the hot, tender, grassy smell, and anxious burble of digestion.” A few sentences later, Clover snorts, almost as if realizing Elspeth cares about her, but knows she’s no less the helpless for it.
In a world where mainstream books are written at the speed of light, all with that “let’s get the next book out as soon as possible,” it’s nice to read something previously undiscovered that you actually want to read out loud, either to yourself or someone special in your life. There’s a gentleness, even a philosophical feel to Mother Moth that I truly admire.” – Angie E.