Review: Weyward by Emilia Hart

Weyward by Emilia Hart
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an audio ARC of this book via Netgalley, thank you to Macmillan Audio for allowing me an early listen.  This book will be published March 7, 2023.

This is told from the perspectives of 3 women in the Weyward family and each POV has it's own narrator.  I thought the narration was well done, Aysha Kala, Helen Keeley, Nell Barlow really brought Emilia Hart's story to life and I appreciated that Altha, Violet and Kate had their own physical voice so you knew which time period and which character was the focus of the story.  As the story progresses we learn how the three women are connected, but I liked that each chapter focused on one of them specifically and the narration followed suit.

I would look up trigger warnings before delving into this book.  While this focuses on women finding their own power, there is mention of physical and verbal abuse as well as SA, there is also miscarriage and abortion.  None of of it is particularly graphic and most of it happens off page, but there is enough there to make the reader uncomfortable.

Altha is being tried for witchcraft, Violet's affinity for insects makes her strange and undesirable, and Kate is fleeing from an abusive marriage.  These women all come from a long line of Weyward women who have an affinity for nature and have power within them if they are willing to tap into it.  Kate has been left her Aunt Violet's estate, and seeks refuge there as she figures out to do after leaving her husband.  Violet was a bit stranger, preferring to spend her time with insects and wildlife instead of people, but as Kate spends more time in her cottage she discovers that there was more to her aunt and her family than she knew.  As the book unfolds we get to know Violet and Altha and the hardships they faced as women and how they found the courage to overcome them.

I thought Hart did a great job of showing the historical accuracy of how women were treated and how we as humans treat things we don't understand throughout history.  Men are able to do evil things to women, yet women are still shamed as it was in Violet's case.  This still happens today.   Kate's situation was portrayed very accurately, and unfortunately many women are victim to those types of relationships.  I definitely got the feeling that this was trying to portray that women are good and men are evil.  I do also feel that Hart was trying to send us a message about body autonomy as well, which is still a pretty hot topic today.

Overall, this is an interesting yet dark historical fiction with a hint of magical realism.  I thought the switching back and forth between the POVs and timelines was interesting to connect the three women, however their character development suffered a bit because of it and there was a bit of repetition throughout.  

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