The Weather Woman
one of my favorite sub-genres: early modern creepy fantasy
The Weather Woman by Sally Gardner falls into one of my favorite sub-genres: early modern creepy fantasy, alongside The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock, The Familiars, and The Miniaturist. I have a YouTube video about this sub-genre which you can watch on my channel. Now technically, this book starts in the late early modern period and continues into the early modern period, but I think it still counts.
The Weather Woman follows Neva, a young Russian girl suddenly orphaned in London who can predict the weather. She is taken in by a craftsman of clocks and automatons and together they seek their fortune by combining their respective talents in the Weather Woman, an automaton who predicts the weather, and present it to stunned audiences. Unfortunately for the entrepreneurial family, there are agents who wish them harm. When Neva falls for a man related to one of her ill-wishers, their situation only worsens.
The Weather Woman was strongest in its commitment to found family and fostering relationships based on mutual respect. There were several instances where the characters could have fallen into petty jealousy and backstabbing in the hands of a lazy writer, but lucky for us, Gardner is not a lazy writer. She gives her characters real conflict-resolution skills and reserves the truly petty behavior for her villains (who are complicated and not cartoonish).
“Poverty makes criminals of us; opportunity in the form of shoes is the only way to walk out of it.”
Gardner’s villains are also complicated and layered. There are several instances where characters who seem like they have good intentions fall into villainy instead and characters who initially have villain vibes turn out to be thoughtful and, if not kind, then decent. The story is mostly character-driven, but there is just enough plot-based drama for it to feel thrilling and adventurous.
The Weather Woman is what I had hoped The Ladies of the Secret Circus had turned out to be. If you are a fan of Jessie Burton, Stacey Halls, Elizabeth MacNeal, and Caroline Lea, then you will probably enjoy this book.
