Review by surdiablo - Weyward

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surdiablo 's review for:

Weyward by Emilia Hart

2.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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: Yes

Honestly.. I was skeptical when I saw this book had won the Goodreads awards and received high praise. I went in with low expectations, and still found it disappointing. I won't say it's completely terrible.. There are some occasional bright spots, and the prose has its moments, but overall, it’s just aggressively mediocre.

Let’s start with the good. There are some genuinely beautiful lines scattered throughout the novel. One that stood out to me was this line: <b>“We never thought of ourselves as witches, my mother and I. For this was a word invented by men, a word that brings power to those who speak it, not those it describes.”</b> Lines like this show glimpses of sharp, evocative writing that, unfortunately, the book doesn’t sustain. The use of multiple perspectives was often handled well. The three POVs, Violet, Altha, and Kate, connected seamlessly at times, and moments like

Violet reading Altha’s journal

added a cool meta layer to the story. The depiction of trauma also felt largely well-written, capturing the weight of the characters’ suffering. And as a debut novel, it wasn’t outright bad, just uninspired.

However, my praise ends there. My biggest problem wasn’t the dark subject matter or the constant abuse faced by the characters; it was the fact that the story itself was just so dull.. Witch trial, abuse, escaping oppressive situations, these should be inherently gripping, yet everything felt muted and predictable. There was no real tension, no surprises. The plot twists were painfully obvious, and what should have been thrilling moments were written in such a flat, uninspired way. Which brings me to the characters.. Despite spanning different time periods, the three main women sounded almost identical. Their voices blurred together, making it difficult to feel a true sense of individuality. Worse, each of them had to deal with stereotypical, one-note evil men. I have no problem with stories highlighting abusive men, but some nuance would have made the narrative far richer. Instead, it felt repetitive, especially with all three women living in the same cottage at some point and going through near-identical struggles. The mystery surrounding Weyward itself was also underwhelming, as there wasn’t much for the audience to figure out, just characters going through the motions of discovery while we already knew where it was all heading.
There was excessive telling instead of showing. Especially in the early sections, the book constantly spoon-feeds us what characters are feeling rather than allowing us to infer it. So many moments that could have been emotionally impactful were flattened by over-explanation.

I don’t typically try to predict plots as I read, but this one also made it impossible not to see the twists coming from a mile away, whether it was foreshadowed or not. And, of course, ENDING SPOILERS

the present-day protagonist escapes her abuser by unleashing birds and bugs on him.

I get that it’s magical realism, but I struggle to see true empowerment in a story where justice is only possible through supernatural means, especially when real women can’t rely on that kind of intervention. It would have been far more powerful to see Violet thriving as an entomologist, rather than just reliving past traumas. The final revelations, confrontations, and epilogue felt anti-climactic, and I thought the epilogue content would have been more impactful if it had been revealed during 60-70% of the book. There were occasional awkward phrases and grammar mistakes, but I’ll give it a pass since it’s a debut novel. What I won’t give a pass to is how the witch trial scenes felt like modern courtroom dramas with some historical aesthetics slapped on, as that completely broke my immersion. I’m also baffled by how this book won Best Historical Fiction, there’s very little historical depth to it. And while I understand that stories about women’s struggles often involve themes of sexual violence and unwanted pregnancies, it’s become such a predictable trope that it feels more like an easy emotional shortcut than meaningful storytelling at this point. The book also throws in several clever literary references, but at the end of the day, all the references in the world won’t help much if the actual story is boring. So yes, ultimately, I found it forgettable and unoriginal. It’s okay at best, and I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it.

Content Warnings