“The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet.”
Weyward is the award-winning debut novel by Emilia Hart. Sweeping both Best Debut Novel and Best Historical Fiction in the 2023 Goodreads Choice Awards, the story interweaves the lives of three generations of women from the same family, each of them sharing a profound connection to nature, resilience and a secret power. Wayward alternates between Altha in 1619, a woman accused of witchcraft, Violet Ayres in 1942, a young woman in WWII-era England confined by societal expectations and her controlling father, and Kate in the present era who flees an abusive relationship and finds safety in her late great-aunt’s cottage. Spanning five centuries, Hart’s tale celebrates the power of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world. If you’re looking for more historical and fantasy Witchlit stories with similar themes, join us at What We Reading for the best books like Weyward!
The Once And Future Witches – Alix E. Harrow
First up on our list of books like Weyward is Alix E. Harrow’s Witchlit story, The Once and Future Witches. Set in 1893, there’s no longer such a thing as witches. There used to be, at least before the dark days, before the burnings began and reduced witching to little more than charms and nursery rhymes.
But, when the Eastwood sisters – James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth and Beatrice Belladonna – join the new suffragist movement in New Salem, they begin dabbling in words and ways that could spell to turn this women’s movement into a witch one. Hounded by those who might not let a witch even live, let alone vote, the three sisters need to delve into the oldest magics, find new alliances and heal the bonds between them if they want to survive.
Daughters Of The Witching Hill – Mary Sharratt
Mary Sharratt’s Daughters of the Witching Hill is a mesmerising and wrenching account of a family attempting to navigate the chaos of a witch-hunt. Bess Southerns is an impoverished widow living in Pendle Forest, haunted by visions and quickly gaining an infamous reputation as a cunning woman. She heals the sick and reads the future, and teaches her granddaughter, Alizon, her craft.
When a peddler suffers a stroke after a heated exchange with Alizon, a local magistrate, eager to etch his name as a witch finder, begins playing friends and neighbours against each other, stoking the fire until the town is in a frenzy. Like Weyward, Daughters of the Witching Hill combines vivid historical details and beautifully crafted storytelling for a story of betrayal, strong women and family.
Circe – Madeline Miller
Like Weyward, Madeline Miller’s Circe is another Goodreads Choice Award-winning novel featuring witchcraft, survival and self-discovery. A modern retelling of the classic Greek myth of Circe, Miller introduces her titular protagonist as a woman rejected by the Gods but who finds companionship in the world of mortals and in the power of witchcraft.
Threatened, Circe is banished to a deserted island by Zeus. There, she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and encounters some of the most famous figures in all of mythology including the Minotaur, Daedalus, Icarus, Medea and Odysseus. Yet, Circe soon finds herself drawing the fury of both man and god alike, including the most powerful and terrifying of all the Olympians. To protect what she holds most dear, Circe must summon all her strength and decide whether her future lies with the gods she was born to, or with the mortals she has come to live.
Check Out The Best Books Like Circe
The Witch’s Heart – Genevieve Gornichec
Another one of the best mythology retellings like Weyward, The Witch’s Heart is a 2021 fantasy novel by Genevieve Gornichec. Angrboda’s story opens where most witches’ tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for denying him knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured, powerless and fleeing into the furthest reaches of a remote forest. There, she is discovered by a man who is revealed to be Loki. Despite an initial uneasy feeling about him, Angrboda soon falls deeply in love.
The pair have three children, all of whom possess a secret destiny. Keen to keep them away from Odin’s all-seeing eye, Angrboda slowly rediscovers her prophetic powers – and learns that her entire life is in grave danger. With help from the fierce huntress Skadi, she is forced to choose between accepting the fate she knows is awaiting her beloved family, or rise up and remake their future in this tale of love, loss and hope.
Shark Heart – Emily Habeck
Nominated for Best Debut Novel alongside Weyward in the Goodreads Choice Awards, Shark Heart is a 2023 fantasy book by Emily Habeck. For Lewis and Wren, their first year of marriage was also their last. Weeks after they tied the knot, Lewis receives the bizarre diagnosis that he will retain his consciousness, memories and intellect, but that his body will gradually shift into a Great White Shark. As he develops the features and instincts of one of the world’s most predatory creatures, his complex artistic heart struggles to find peace with his unrealised dreams.
To begin with, Wren finds herself resisting her husband’s fate. Then, a glimpse at Lewis’ developing carnivorous nature triggers her repressed memories ranging from her childhood living on a houseboat in Oklahoma, her time with her college ex-girlfriend and her unusual friendship with a woman pregnant with two birds.
The Age of Witches – Louisa Morgan
Harriet Bishop is descended from a long line of witches and uses magic to help women in need – not just everyday women, but also those with powers of their own. She is forced to intervene when one of her distant cousins commands dangerous magic to change the lives of two unknowing individuals, one of whom might be a witch herself.
Frances Allington has used witchcraft to haul herself out of poverty and into a marriage with one of New York’s most affluent high-rollers. Determined to keep the Allington name among the wealthy and elite, she concocts a plan to wed her step-daughter, Annis, using the same power she herself used on Annis’ father. To save Annis from this dark power, Harriet reveals Frances’ manipulation. Together Harriet and Annis must resist her stepmother’s agenda if they want to keep a hold of their freedom, and possibly their lives.
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Practical Magic (Practical Magic #1) – Alice Hoffman
For over two centuries, the Owens women have found themselves bearing the blame for anything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have shared that fate as well. As children, the two sisters were taunted, pointed at, talked about and endured a life as permanent outsiders.
Yet, their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery that would pass through the town with their musty house, their exotic concoctions and their crowd of black cats. Nevertheless, all Gillian and Sally ever wanted to do, was escape. One of them would do so by marrying, the other by running away. One of the best magical realism books similar to Weyward, Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic series kicks off with the two sisters soon learning that the bonds they share will always bring them back together.
The Physick Book Of Deliverance Dane (The Physick Book #1) – Katherine Howe
Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer researching for her doctoral dissertation. But, when her mother asks her to handle the sale of her grandmother’s abandoned estate near Salem, she cannot refuse. Entranced by the mysteries of the family house, Connie soon discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key also comes with a yellow parchment with a sole name written on it: Deliverance Dane.
This discovery leads to Connie embarking on a quest to unearth who this woman was and to locate a rare artifact, a physick book, whose pages serve as a repository for lost knowledge. Similar to Weyward, as the pieces of Deliverance’s story fall into place, Connie is soon immersed in visions of witch trials and the sordid reality that she shares far more dark ties to Salem than she ever could have imagined.
The Familiar – Leigh Bardugo
In a shabby house down a shabby street in Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to make it through her endless days of toiling as a scullion. But, when her scheming mistress discovers her powers, she enlists her to elevate the family’s social standing. What starts out as benign amusement for the Spanish nobility soon takes a dangerous turn when Luzia draws the attention of Antonio Perez, the disgraced secretary to the king eager to restore his own reputation.
Nevertheless, Luzia is determined to seize this opportunity to better her fortunes. Plunged into a world of alchemists, seers, holy men and hucksters, the lines between science, magic and fraud soon become blurred. Couple this with her Jewish blood potentially drawing the wrath of the Inquisition, Luzia must rely on all her wit and will to survive in Leigh Bardugo’s 2024 fantasy novel, The Familiar.
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The Unmaking Of June Farrow – Adrienne Young
Another one of the best magical realism books like Weyward that follows generations of strong women in the same family, Adrienne Young’s The Unmaking of June Farrow opens in the mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina and June Farrow waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm, and for the strange curse that has plagued their lineage.
It’s been a year since June began seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. From faint wind chimes, a voice calling her name to a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere, the signs of the inevitable are all appearing. She discovers a series of clues regarding her mother’s disappearance and realises that this door she assumed was a hallucination might actually be the answer to her questions. Yet, walking past the threshold promises to change both the past and the future, reveal the lingering mysteries of her small town and ensnare her heart in an epic star-crossed love.
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Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
