Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Weyward

I found Weyward to be very unsettling. The themes in this book are very dark, which oddly enough I was not expecting. (I should have though since the cover has a giant crow on it 🙄)
This book follows three Weyward family women: Altha, Violet, and Kate; and each POV is set in a different time period: 1600s, 1940s, 2019 respectively. I thought it added a nice touch to the story, although I found myself not super interested in Violet's storyline. I found her storyline to be a bit flat (although it was heartbreaking) compared to Altha's and Kate's. I also wish we got to learn more about our main characters in general. I feel like they all needed a little bit more oomph for me to care about them, but I also felt like I just couldn't relate to any of them which could be why I didn't find them super interesting.
I did like the overall message of the story, and it was told well. I enjoyed Hart's writing style. There is a lot of emotion behind it. I liked that all the main characters were strong females and we got to see how they overcame traumas and abuse. (But the bugs... oh my goodness, so many bugs, it gave me the creeps.)
Overall, I would recommend this book if you enjoy magical realism, historical fiction, and strong female main characters. It's very character-driven. But please look up trigger warnings before diving into this one.

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ruddypineapplesreads's review against another edition

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challenging reflective medium-paced

3.0

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joblo's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Read this one for a buddy read. Pretty good— the descriptions of nature were beautiful and it made me really want to move to a cottage in the English countryside and start planning my garden for this summer lol. It was cool to see the common motifs/symbols between each storyline, too— the bees and crows and stuff.

I’m not a fan of stories that use “women are suffering” as the main plot point/storyline— I know, I get it, and I feel like there are a lot of ways to write equally powerful stories about women that don’t focus on misogyny/abuse. Also— I liked the characters and felt for everything they went through, but I felt like their actions were inconsistent at times. And again I would have loved to see more of their lives as people in their own right rather than the period of their lives that’s a direct response to the abuse they endured (even though I get it, overcoming the abuse was the point of the story). It’s just— I want to read stories about cool, powerful women where the core of the story isn’t “women have suffered for generations”

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radioactive_starfish's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

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skateranne's review

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5.0

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unavezmas's review against another edition

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5.0

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em_n_ay's review against another edition

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4.0

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haileyreiss's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I did enjoy this even though it was pretty bleak at times. It's a fascinating portrayal of 3 women across 3 different time periods and the unique challenges they face as women in those times. And, of course, there's nature magic (woo!). The multicast audiobook was truly excellent and added variety to each narrative. Moreover, I was really engaged in each woman's story.

Despite reading Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders at the same time as this, I was surprised and a little unnerved by how graphic some of this book was. I also find myself agreeing with some reviewers who felt that these scenes were a bit unnecessarily graphic. It did feel like they served more of a shock value than a narrative purpose. I think a vaguer description of a certain scene would have gotten the point across just as well as the detailed description did--without feeling needlessly shocking. I think most readers who would gravitate towards this book are pretty aware of the physical violence that some women face, so I question why there was a need to be so detailed about it.

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