Weyward by Emilia Hart
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you're looking for a 3-parter novel that follows different generations of "witches" across more than 300 years, you might want to check this out.

It has the requisite men-being-assholes, ruining women's lives. It has journeys of discovery, sometimes even validation and/or vindication. It even has the standard line that women are obviously naturally tied to nature and that makes the superior.

The structure of this novel flits from views of all three women and eventually shows how they're all related. It's not bad, and it's exactly in the same tone I've read many times. Witchy women will win. Unfortunately, it feels, at least to me, as if it's running over ancient ground. I won't say that isn't great for potential readers, but I've been reading things quite like this for over 30 years and it just seems to grow with more hate for men and even more with the 'women are only held back by men' storytelling.

I'm tired, boss. It's just another kind of propaganda, as if we aren't all responsible for the entire mess, together. So, yes, tons of bad men out there -- so maybe we should all work together for once in a moon? But then, maybe certain readers only want this outcome. Overwhelming the readership.

But for me? I'm a pretty sensitive guy. I love to immerse myself in so many different ideas -- but that's actually kinda hard when I'm represented, over and over, as the source of all of women's hardship.


So, even if I think this novel is technically pretty good and the three women have decent arcs, I find myself depressed and hating the world. And for that? I give it 3 stars. Maybe it's not fair, and maybe no men should have anything to do with this growing genre of literature -- not if they want healthy role models or any kind of self-esteem. Or for that matter, for women who might think it a good thing to challenge and correct the men in their lives to be better, to do better.

Most WOULD be open to it. We can't assume that all are like the loudest and stupidest in the media.

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