Weyward

At the beginning of the story, Kate is a timid 29-year-old Londoner involved in a relationship with an abusive boyfriend. As a child, she saw her father hit by a car while he was trying to save her, and she has carried the guilt of that experience throughout her life. Walling herself off from other people and suffering from low self-esteem, she is a prime target for a narcissistic man named Simon.

When she inherits Weyward Cottage from her great aunt Violet, Kate uses this windfall to escape her boyfriend. Unlike Altha, Kate is afraid of nature and knows nothing of her Weyward heritage until she finally arrives in Crows Beck. Because she is pregnant, Kate feels a particular urgency to protect her unborn daughter from her brutal biological father. Kate eventually reestablishes her link with nature and learns about the strange powers she inherited from her female ancestors. By the end of the story, she stands up for herself and uses her connection to the natural world to end Simon’s reign of terror over her life. She is also prepared to hand down the Weyward powers and lessons to her daughter, continuing the family’s matrilineal tradition.

Violet is 16 years old in 1942. She is the daughter of a Weyward descendant named Lizzie and Rupert Ayres, the lord of Orton Hall. Like Kate, Violet is unaware of her special connection to nature because her father suppressed all information about her dead mother. Because Violet resembles her mother so closely, she has earned the dislike of her father, who wants to turn her into a proper young lady.

When a cousin named Frederick arrives for a visit, Violet fails to recognize his efforts at seduction until it is too late. Frederick rapes her and later claims he intended to propose. Violet’s father wants to force her into marriage because she is pregnant, and he banishes her to Weyward Cottage to conceal her pregnancy. There, she stumbles across Altha’s hidden documents and herbal recipes. One of these remedies helps her end her pregnancy and thereby escape marriage with Frederick. Violet uses her magical abilities to plague Frederick with a decades-long insect infestation after he inherits Orton Hall.

In later life, Violet earns a degree and becomes an entomologist who travels the world studying nature. She bonds with Kate when the latter is only a child, recognizing their shared abilities. As an old woman, Violet leaves her cottage to Kate and also leaves a clue in her locket that will allow Kate to free herself from an abusive man, just as her ancestors did.

Frederick is a dashing young soldier in 1942 who has just returned from service in Libya. He is Violet’s first cousin and hatches a scheme to force her to marry him by raping and impregnating her. His goal is to inherit the wealth and title associated with Orton Hall. Lord Rupert likes Frederick much better than his own offspring and disinherits them.

While Frederick gets the land and title that he wants, Violet’s plague of insects befouls Orton Hall and unsettles him. When Kate meets him years later, Frederick is elderly and senile, and he mistakes Kate for Violet because of their close resemblance. He is eventually sent to a nursing home, where he raves about Violet sending the insects after him. The book implies that he dies there soon afterward, mourned by no one. Frederick’s actions and fate, particularly his spoiled inheritance, represent patriarchy’s violence and shortcomings.

Simon is Kate’s handsome blond boyfriend. He is charming and charismatic when they first meet, but he quickly finds ways to control all aspects of her life. He talks her into quitting her job and isolates her from her friends and family. Simon only gives Kate a small allowance, rendering her financially dependent on him. He puts a tracking device on her phone so he can monitor her every move. After he becomes physically abusive, Kate leaves, but Simon fakes a suicide attempt. Once his girlfriend returns, he puts pressure on her to have a baby and flushes her birth control pills down the toilet, a form of reproductive abuse.

After Kate disappears, Simon harasses her, trying to make her come back. When Kate uses her old email address to send her mother her new contact information, Simon intercepts it because he is still monitoring her email. He then appears at Weyward Cottage, intending to claim both Kate and her baby. However, Kate summons angry flocks of birds and hordes of insects to attack him, and he loses an eye. When Simon flees, he is apprehended by the police and may spend two years in jail. Even after he is released, the novel implies that he will be too frightened to interfere with Kate again.

Graham is Violet’s younger brother by a year and is Kate’s grandfather. He is on good terms with his sister and is also alienated from his father. Graham mistrusts Frederick and warns Violet about him. Later, after she induces an abortion while at Weyward Cottage, Graham covers for his sister. He buries the fetus and tells his father and the doctor that he saw Violet miscarry. Like Violet, Graham is also disinherited but earns a law degree and becomes a successful attorney. He uses some of his money to pay for Violet to attend college, thus helping her fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming an entomologist and traveling the world.

Grace is the same age as Altha in 1619. The two girls were childhood friends until Grace’s mother grew deathly ill. After being treated by the Weywards, she died anyway, and Grace refused to forgive Altha.

Several years later, Grace marries a prosperous farmer named John, who is abusive toward her. Every time she miscarries a baby, he beats her. Fearing for her life, Grace asks Altha to help her abort the next fetus because her husband might kill her if she miscarries again. Altha is successful in terminating the pregnancy, but John gets Grace pregnant yet again. This time, Altha intervenes to save Grace by sending a crow to stampede John’s cattle. He is trampled to death, and Altha stands trial for witchcraft but is acquitted. Even though she hasn’t completely forgiven Altha for her mother’s death, Grace is relieved by the verdict.

Lord Rupert is the Ninth Viscount Kendall and the Lord of Orton Hall. He is also Violet and Graham’s father and Frederick’s uncle. Violet perceives him as cold and uncaring. In addition to being arrogant and selfish, Rupert values his possessions and enjoys big game hunting. When he realizes that Violet’s mother can control nature, he is attracted to her and uses her gifts to get rid of his parents and elder brother, thus clearing the way to the family title for himself. When his wife is of no more use to him, he locks her away and is indirectly responsible for her death through a botched hysterectomy. Lord Rupert, like many of the book’s male characters, embodies Gendered Oppression and Power Struggles Under Patriarchy. Lord Rupert has always hated Violet for her resemblance to her mother. Suspecting Violet’s abortion and Graham’s complicity, he disinherits both his children. Rupert dies of a heart attack later in the book, clearing the way for Frederick to assume his title.