Author: Emilia Hart
Weyward is a story of three women, one living in the 1960s, one in the 1940s, and one in the present day. The women are all related and going through similar issues, just at different times and social circumstances. I loved this social aspect, as well as the focus of the book on external influences of human behavior, which is what this book tackles.
I generally prefer books that look at external and societal influences on human behavior and that focus on dialogues and conversations, as opposed to psychological novels that look at the character’s inner world and how that influences behavior (not surprising given that I study human behavior from a sociological, not psychological, perspective). Thus, I really enjoyed Weyward and its focus on external influences and showing how external influences influenced characters’ behavior and inner world. I also enjoyed more structured writing, which I generally like more, and thus we follow the three Weyward women chapter by chapter, which are intertwined in a way that works well. Three stories develop one after another, and the reader goes in circles and reads about three Weyward women.
I also love books about witch trials and the persecution of women and how they fought against it, so this book had it all for me. The Weyward women go through various forms of persecution. Altha was trialed for witchcraft, Violet was expelled from her parents’ house and had to live with the prejudice of family’s witchcraft allegation history whilst Kate went through domestic abuse and then still faced prejudice of local villagers who never forgot family story of Weyward woman being accused of witchcraft, Weyward women always being healers, never marrying and only ever having one daughter or no children at all.
Fascinating stuff and a truly well-written book speaking eloquently and knowledgeably about herbs, healing, passion for nature, and other women. The book also nicely tackles patriarchy, opening a question of whether men persecuted women who were independently living on their own and without a man. I previously knew an argument from ecofeminism about men developing modern medicine and thus persecuting women who were healers and accusing them as witches (I wrote about this briefly in my book on ecofeminism). The healing part is portrayed nicely in Weyward with local villagers always first calling a doctor who was draining patients of blood by putting leeches on them, then they would call the Weyward women to try to help with herbs. When they succeeded, fine, but when they failed, it was not the responsibility of doctors and their leeches, but apparently, women were witches. It is appalling, but it is also what happened to many women during the witch trials.
In all three cases of Weyward women, it was the Weyward cottage that has given these women a shelter and they have lived there and healed people for hundreds of years. This is portrayed beautifully.
Weyward can definitely be seen as witcherature, and the reason for reading witcherature is certainly because it gives the voice back to women. Weyward is a historical novel with elements of the supernatural, and it celebrates women, their focus on healing and helping the world, and it critiques patriarchal persecution of independent and strong women. Weyward women take control of their lives by confronting patriarchal society, and Hart skillfully narrates the battles and hurdles they face in a very captivating book, which was hard to put down.
Thank you for reading!