Weyward

Product Information

This author has such potential and I'm excited for her! I hope she stays with this genre, but regardless of the direction she takes, I look forward to her next offering! I highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy a blend of Historical & Women's Fiction with touches of Magical Realism! Three women. Three mistreated women are all linked by their resilience and ability to learn to survive in a world that is not friendly to them. All the women were strong, all had to deal with the expectations put on females at the time in which they lived, all had men trying to excerpt their power over them.

In the end the characters are triumphant, that despite all of the difficulties and obstacles put in their way, each of the women in their own way succeed, and I suspect that it is this element that makes the book work. As an aside, I thought that it was good to read a book with a definite ending for a change, as a result of what happens to these women.

Beyond the Book

I am not a learned woman,” says Altha, “other than in the ways my mother handed down to me, as her mother handed down to her. But I know goodness, evil, light and dark. And I know the devil. I have seen him.” In 1942, sixteen-year-old Violet Ayres leads a suffocating life in her home at Orton Hall where lives with her father and younger brother. She does not know much about her late mother except for what she overhears in hushed conversations among the household staff. She dreams of becoming a scientist, studying animals and traveling the world. But an unfortunate turn of events finds her cast out of her home, fending for herself alone in a cottage that once belonged to her mother. A brave and original debut, Weyward is a spellbinding story about what may transpire when the natural world collides with a legacy of witchcraft." ––Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author of The London Séance Society

Altha Weyward has been accused of witchcraft. She knows about the natural world and will need to call upon what she knows to help herself. Witch. The word slithers from the mouth like a serpent..... a word invented by men, a word that brings power to those that speak it, not those that it describes. A word that builds gallows and pyres, turns breathing women into corpses.”Despite this enormous range in years, it is clear that whatever the time-period, the women never have it easy. Altha is a healer who is on trial for witchcraft, accused of killing a local man. Known locally for her uncanny connection with nature and animals, she is seen by many as a threat that in a time of witch-hunting must be eliminated. I wish I was more similar to Violet! I find her very brave and I really admire the delight she takes in life’s small moments, and in the natural world. I aspire to be more like her. Weyward is used in the First Folio edition of Macbeth. In later versions, Weyward was replaced by Weird. Three women, centuries apart, cast their spell in Emilia Hart’s debut novel, Weyward( St. Martin’s Press) . There is a great deal that connects these women, although each must find that out the hard way.

In 1942, Violet Ayres wants more than what she was allowed. She craves knowledge. She wishes she could be like her brother and be able to learn what he is. Yet, she is told that marriage and having kids is her only purpose. Her father is unyielding and her mother has passed, rumored to have gone crazy. Then two things happen, one involving finding out about the Weywards' past, the other one, a traumatizing event that will change her future. It was a peaceful place to live but it was powerful too as it hummed with ancient and strange energy. Looking into the stillness, she often saw movement from the shimmering surface of a pond full of damselflies to the ravens bursting froth from an old oak tree. Conducting extensive research also helped her a lot as she read all manner of good books on the Pendle Witch Trials and several others across England. The good thing was that the Pendle Witch trials are among the most meticulously recorded thanks to Thomas Potts’s 1613 work “The Wonderful Discovery of Witches.” Sublime - a beautiful exploration of three women and their deep connection to the natural world and each other.I also found Tracey Borman’s James I and the English Witch Hunts extremely helpful: it brilliantly explains how James VI and I — the author of the infamous Daemonologie — brought the witch hunt frenzy with him from Scotland to England when he acceded to the throne. Weyward is a story of three unique women who are connected in many ways. This book looks at how women are viewed, treated and lived at various times in history. Agatha lived in a time where women who were different or did not live by societies standards, were branded witches and put to death. Violet lived in a time where women were strange and different if they yearned for more or wanted to go against the current expectations of women. Kate lived in a time where she was abused by a man who feels he is superior to her.