Looking at Emilia Hart's Weyward, her witchy, award-winning historical debut

Emilia Hart’s Weyward won the Goodreads Choice Award in both the historical fiction and debut novel categories in 2023, a significant feat. Over 84,000+ readers have already rated it at Goodreads. While it doesn’t especially need more attention, it had been in my NetGalley queue since last winter, and the holiday break was a good time to read it at last.

With its multiple-narrative structure, theme of female empowerment, and witchy focus, it hits multiple trends. The writing is clear, the pacing brisk, and the scenes illustrating three women’s hereditary abilities to commune with the natural world of remote Cumbria, England, are the book’s strongest aspect.

In the present day, Kate Ayres flees London and her abusive boyfriend for Weyward Cottage, which she inherited from a long-forgotten great aunt. During the WWII years, teenaged Violet Ayres, never permitted to leave the grounds of her titled father’s estate or learn anything about her late mother, takes comfort in exploring local plants and wildlife, which she has an affinity for. It’s a unique touch to have Violet take notice of the delicate beauty of bees and damselflies; she’s far from a typical young woman. And in the early 17th century, motherless Altha Weyward sits on trial, having been accused of bewitching a herd of cows into stampeding over a neighboring farmer – her former friend’s husband.

As the plot explores its three protagonists’ struggle to flex their underlying strength and wield it against the forces (men) oppressing them, it becomes a classic account of good vs. evil, presented along gender lines. Each woman endures horrific circumstances, which kept my attention in hoping they’d escape and find some measure of contentment. But over time, I became so used to assuming the male characters would be heinous that it came as a surprise when one turned out to be compassionate or heroic.

Recommended for readers who enjoy some magical gothic atmosphere with their feminist historical fiction; I just wish the nuance used to depict the Cumbrian countryside and women’s powers could have been invoked in the novel’s gender relations.

Weyward was published by St. Martin's Press in February 2023, and the paperback is out next month.