Three timelines - three women. Switching back and forth between the 1600s and 2019, the novel shows the plight of women unable to live and have a life and career which they desire- healing, education, freedom and even essential safety.
In 2019, twenty-nine-year-old Kate Ayres escapes from her abusive boyfriend in London to Weyward Cottage, Crows Beck, Cumbria. This almost hauntingly described property is bequeathed to her by her late Aunt Violet. Initially deeming it only as a temporary refuge, Kate is just relieved to be safe. But then she starts to discover her lineage, her family’s history and the incredible story of her Aunt.
In 1942, sixteen-year-old Violet Ayres leads an unfair and discriminatory life in her home at Orton Hall. Her proud aristocratic father and younger brother Graham is all the family she has after the mysterious death of her mother. Her days are filled with findings in the natural world, insects and birds and tiny creatures of soil and air. She is bright and quick to learn but is constantly put down by her merciless father who only wants to see her married off well to a treacherous cousin. After an innocent mistake on her part, she is cast off from all that she was familiar with - even her education. But this turn of events sheds light on her mother’s death.
In 1619, twenty-one-year-old Altha Weyward, a natural healer, is on trial after the death of a villager. Accused of witchcraft and imprisoned in a dungeon cruelly, she recalls the incidents which led to her state.
Problems with the book which are my personal opinion
Uninspired writing
I wonder how and why this book really is in the top read of 2023. The prose is commonplace, the story is predictable and the style is not really page-turner even though it's made out to be one. Writing style was stale and the charm of a classic was missing for a book which has elements of historical fiction.
The magical realism to me really felt flat and not magical at all. For a novel which is about witchcraft or atleast its history, the element of surprise and delight were hardly there. The raven which flies at the climax to save Kate could very well be like an alarm clock buzzing at an expected time, thats about it.
Nature connection is bland
I remember reading The Signature of Things by Elizabeth Gilbert and to date I can feel the magical quality of nature described in the book, of Alma Whittaker’s passion for botany, the wildness and danger and enigma of woods and forests when one is on your own or out only to discover and learn.
Characters are not well articulated. The relations are not drawn from a descriptive place. We are so much into the action that just the abusive relationship between Kate and her boyfriend is depicted. What about her mother, why isn't more of graham and violet shown? And why not a portrayal of Violet's mother and she with her husband?
Polarized Femininity
I am done with books in the garb of contemporary fiction which should actually have a flag of wokeness. I mean every man in this book is bad. Either authoritative, dictator, rapist or abusive. Yes there are very real and hurtful cases in the world but will a novel like this begin to care about real women? I don't believe so.
Fitting in
I agree with this viewpoint I found on Goodreads -
‘It seems like Weyward was maybe trying to fit in amongst the canon of female rage or revenge stories, but there's just something that's missing. This doesn't provide the catharsis that I want from a female revenge story, as there's too much time spent on women being brutalised. Justice is fleeting and the solution to being unsafe is being alone.'
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