Reviews with content warning for Forced institutionalization - Weyward

Weyward was an enjoyable read, that was engaging to read, however was a bit of an easy read and felt the writing stylistically similar to a YA novel (content is definitely NOT YA as there are so many content warnings!)

I enjoyed the intergenerational stories and how the three stories built off each-other and interwove with one another.

Magical realism elements contrasted harsh, dark, and traumatic moments. Which there are many of. Trauma felt like a slight crutch of the book, but the story of Kate brought hope and conclusion to cycles of abuse.

I didn’t love the focus on birth, motherhood, and lineage. However I am not a mother. I was more drawn to the resilience and spirit of the strong women characters.

Content Warnings

alejandra_reyes's review

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4.5

4.5 stars…check your trigger warnings. The female characters of this book experience so many different types of violence from the men in their life. I think it basically covers every form of abuse women face which makes it a hard read. With that being said it is a fascinating tale of 3 women who are related and their experiences at different points in history. We have a modern day woman, one in post WWII, and one during the early witch trial days. They each have a very unique experience but are still tied to one another. I loved seeing how each generation had struggles but found strength to be better for the next generation. There are witchy elements and a cabin which made it the perfect fall book in my opinion

Content Warnings

seamtressstenny's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? No

4.5

Amazingly well-written but hard to read. The pain experienced by the main characters is haunting. Check the content warnings before starting this book!

Content Warnings

icecreamsoldier's review

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mysterious fast-paced

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

1.0

I really tried to like this book as I saw great reviews everywhere, however I think this book is my on my top worst books. There’s spoilers ahead :

The premise of the book is to tell women’s stories on different periods that are tied together not only for being women, but also related and witches. I enjoyed reading Altha and Violet (to an extent), however I found myself dreading whenever I had to read a chapter about Kate. I felt that her character was very one dimensional and it could have been interesting learning along Kate who Kate is, specially after loosing all of herself in an abusive relationship, however we just get a very one dimensional Kate who is constantly stealing from her dead aunts closet and the only thing she can think about is the baby, (do it for the baby, the baby needs this, etc) and when her whole role is not being a pregnant woman she is just blatantly dumb. That tied with the fact that I don’t understand how Kate belongs to the witchcraft lineage as she is not the daughter of the first woman born but instead her father is Graham’s son who is Violet’s brother so she fits through this lineage because of men.
The other characters while their stories where more interesting and more developed I still had a lot of issues with them for instance this is supposed to be a book about feminism however Violet feels like “I am not like other girls” by bashing on other girls who wear skirts.
Altha on the other hand was my favorite character, and I really enjoyed her queer romance with Grace, however at the end she just gets the “seed” of a man just so that she can be pregnant and continue the lineage of women in her family (Which honestly as a lesbian woman it felt like a slap to the face). All of these stories really just made me feel as if a woman will only reach their true potential and be fulfilled through motherhood, as Altha the only queer character in the book gets pregnant, Violet who aborts her first daughter as it is from the conception of a rape even though she is very successful in her career and life she feels like something is missing and was the chance to be a mother (and it’s confusing why she could not have had another baby, since based on Kate’s story it is unclear whether the witches only the first women born, or is it all the women? What is wrong with having a boy and teaching them to be better? Or what about adoption or other sources of being a mother figure?), and Kate which the only thing she talks about is her pregnancy.
The writing at times was overly decorated ranging from cliche phrases and absurd amount of insect metaphors (we get it all these women love insects). Finally this book while I understand that is telling the stories of women abused by men it felt like it fell under the spectrum of “all men are bad” and even the ones that weren’t like Graham they are defined as like “okay”. I am not saying we should give a cookie to every man that is not an abuser however I think this problem is not a problem that could be solved by segregation of the woman but instead of teaching men to be better

Content Warnings

missjaward's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

SPOILERS AHEAD three women's stories from different age spans.

In 1619 Althea is on trial for potential witchcraft, accused of putting a spell on her friend's husband, John, to kill him after finding out he was abusing his wife (Althea's friend Grace who was being beaten up because she could not provide him with an heir), Althea is actually involved in his death by proxy when 'her' crow causes his cows to stampede and kill him. Althea is found not-guilty in trial and very bizarrely at the end invites a local boy into her house to have sex with her one time so she can get pregnant and have a daughter. That was a bit weird.

Violet 1942 - doesn't know much about her own dead mother and lives a lonely life in a grand house. Her cousin comes to visit and rapes her (let's not forget not only was she a child but this is quite incestuous). When she becomes pregnant she is cast out of the family home into her mothers old poor cottage where she finds her mother old 'recipe/concoction' books and induces her own miscarriage. Its never really explained why her father chose the mother in the first place as she was obviously from such poor background and never seemed to care about her. Why would a man with all the riches and wealth choose someone like her (who he himself calls strange) without actually being truly in love with her? She lives the rest of her life without children but has visions of her brothers kid suffering in the future (she sees visions of a car accident and a horrible man), so she chooses to leave all of her possessions to her when she dies rather than try and make contact again. hmm. the cousin also basically gets away with the rape, although it is alluded that Violet puts a curse on the family home so it is infested with bugs until her death

Modern day Kate - finds the courage to leave her abusive relationship when she realises she is pregnant. She flees in the night to the cottage left to her and tries to start anew. While I totally get fleeing the abusive relationship - there is no real thought to what is going to happen after the baby comes. Unless its reported in the right ways, the father is likely to find out and demand visitation because he is so controlling anyway. She also keeps blaming herself for her dad's death after he was hit by a car when she was distracted by a crow (the crow in question being her aunts - so really did she ultimately kill her brother?!)

The endings of each story were pretty predicable. The only one I really didn't like was Altheas where it was so important to her to have a child that she just randomly bedded a guy from the village once so she could be impregnated. I quite liked the end of Kates story where she was able to almost use her witchy powers to have the birds and spiders attack Simon making him leave. I think I would have preferred more of the witchy elements rather than just the abusive men storylines but heyho.

Content Warnings

jkunke's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved this book! The women are strong and well-developed characters.

Content Warnings

soozevp's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I could not put this down! The way these three stories are woven together is brilliant! There are some pretty heavy topics in this book, but handled really well I felt.

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Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Weyward by Emilia Hart

kaylee_reads_quietly's review against another edition

isabelmargetts's review against another edition

anisiaguerrero's review

ashgalwoah's review against another edition

alejandra_reyes's review

seamtressstenny's review

icecreamsoldier's review

missjaward's review against another edition

jkunke's review

soozevp's review