Weyward: Three women, magic, and a tale elegantly told

Weyward by Emilia Hart

Weyward, by Emilia Hart, (2023), is women’s fiction with magic. The stories of three different women in three different eras wrestling not only with their connection to nature, but with the restrictions and exploitations of society, are captivating, and it’s all delivered with beautiful descriptions and flowing language.

I’m going to go down a rabbit hole here. I recently had to make a long drive (2 ½ hours each way) and used most of that time to chew over why I categorize this as “women’s fiction with magic” rather than “fantasy.” Here’s what I’ve decided; the magic in this book is important, but it isn’t what the book is about. The book is about women and their lives, and also, women and societies that want them kept in a box and neatly labeled, their power available only to the men around them.

Weyward follows Altha, a 17^th century healer on trial for witchcraft; Violet, motherless daughter trapped on a moldering estate with her arrogant, greedy father in the 1940s, and Kate in 2019, whose controlling, abusive boyfriend has cut her off from everything in her life. Whether they know it or not, each woman is from the Weyward line, with witchy powers closely tied to nature. (In the first folio, the witches’ speech in MacBeth uses “weyward” instead of “weird.”)

Kate’s narrative is the most contemporary. Beyond the very bad situation with abuser Simon, I’ve known women who were like Kate in other ways—competent, smart, strong and creative, who constantly doubted themselves. When Kate discovers that her great-aunt Violet has left her a cottage, she uses all her courage and ingenuity to escape from Simon. But she knows, and we know, that he’ll come after her. Kate is different from the other two women. She was city-raised, and is afraid of nature, most importantly, of birds, and the crow that appears in her cottage the first few minutes she’s there terrifies her. This fear comes from an event in her childhood, and it’s also symbolic (she’s afraid of her own power, of course) but it’s well-written throughout the story.

Emilia Hart

Altha’s story was the most suspenseful to me. It provides most of the backstory and details we need to understand the Weyward women.

In spite of the fact that Altha is actually imprisoned, Violet felt the most imprisoned to me, as her father restricts her from doing anything, demands she be “ladylike,” and plans to marry her off in an unsavory match. Violet’s first challenge is to uncover the truth of her mother’s life and death—but soon it’s obvious that only her own actions will help her escape her horrible life. Violet’s story is the most conventional and predictable of the three, and it’s done well.

In a story in which patriarchy is the adversary, it’s no shock that most of the male characters are villainous or adversarial. It was a pleasant surprise that Violet’s brother is her ally in the struggle with their father, even when it costs him.

Ultimately, this was a book about believable women and a powerful natural world. In one or two places, I thought Hart tried too hard to show us how events were strung together when it wasn’t really needed, but I didn’t mind that too much. If you liked The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner, this may be the book for you. If you were disappointed that The Lost Apothecary didn’t deliver for you, check out Weyard anyway. You will be rewarded. It’s a story of three believable women, beautifully depicted and elegantly told.