Weavingshaw When her brother falls ill with a potentially fatal illness, Leena Al-Sayer knows there is a medicine that can save him. The trouble is that it’s expensive and they don’t have the money to pay for it. In a last ditch effort to save him, Leena goes to the mysterious Saint of Silence, a man who trades in secrets and has a deadly reputation. Though it could cost her everything, Leena sells him her greatest secret: She can see ghosts. She doesn’t know why the ability came upon her three years earlier, but she is afraid she will be sent to an asylum if anyone finds out. The Saint accepts her deal for a price: He will buy the medication her brother needs, and Leena will become his indentured servant to help him find the ghost of Percival Avon, the last lord of Weavingshaw. When their search for the ghost finally takes them to the eerie manor house of Weavingshaw, Leena discovers that there is a connection between the Saint and the last Lord Avon, and that the mysteries of the lonely manor are deeper and deadlier than she could have imagined. I find it hard to resist the allure of the Gothic. Give me an eerie old house haunted by the uncanny and surrounded by a landscape that provides a touch of the sublime, and I will be one happy reader. I haunt reading lists and sites, searching for books that will provide a truly Gothic. story. When I saw the synopsis of Weavingshaw and noticed the “Gothic debut”, I had to try it. Did it live up to my expectations? Mostly. Over the last few years Gothic. tales once more become popular, though the label is often applied too liberally. Half the time it seems like a book is labeled ‘Gothic.’ just because it takes place in an old house, but one crumbling manor does not a Gothic. story make, and the first half of Weavingshaw doesn’t even have the old house. Leena’s ability to see ghosts can be seen as Gothic., but it’s also an element of your bog-standard horror novel. Weavingshaw‘s first half feels a little like a horror novel blended with a mafia-adjacent story. Once Leena signs her contract with the Saint of Silence, she becomes a witness to the seedier side of her world. For a time, the ghosts are almost secondary to everything else. For that first half, we see everything through Leena’s eyes and come to understand her place in the world-- not just as a woman who can see ghosts, but also as a refugee who has lost nearly everyone she loves and who has never felt like she belongs, no matter what she does to assimilate into the society she lives in. Perhaps, though, Leena’s existence as an outsider makes her a Gothic. heroine. She is in that liminal state between cultures, not being fully welcome in the place she has grown up in, but unable to return to her homeland. Even if she were able to go home, there’s not guarantee she would be welcome there, either, having spent so long in a foreign land. Liminal spaces are an element of the Gothic., and there Leena is, existing in a halfway state between two cultures and unable to fit into either one. Still, the first half of the book doesn’t quite feel like a Gothic. novel. It’s a slow build and slow burn section devoted to world building and character development, and if you don’t end up liking Leena or the Saint, then you probably won’t enjoy the book overall. Personally, I liked Leena. She’s thoughtful and actually clever, doesn’t lose her temper at the drop of a hat, and does her best to do the right thing even when it’s detrimental to herself. The Saint of Silence has shades of the handsome and broody love interest who shows up in so many romantasy novels these days, but without the kind of behavior that reasonable people would file a restraining order over. He has a mysterious past that Leena wants to uncover, if only because she wants to find something to use against him. It’s in the second half of the book where we finally arrive at the titular estate of Weavingshaw. This is where more Gothic. elements come into play. The house is old and full of secrets. The people who live within it have even more secrets. The place is eerie and never feels like it has ever been fully lit, and a sense of gloom and looming death settled over it ages ago. Here, we plum the Saint of Silence’s human depths and find out about the darkness in his past. Still, Weavingshaw never fully commits to the Gothic. mode. It flirts with it in meaningful ways, but doesn’t fully commit to the uncanny and sublime elements the Gothic. embodies. That said, Weavingshaw is a compelling story with a slow-building romance, solid character development, sensible world building, and a story that-- if Al-Wasity can maintain all these elements into the next book-- could be even stronger in the next installment. Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the advance ebook for review. Traveling in Books is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell Traveling in Books that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments.
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Wednesday, 25 February 2026
Book Review: Weavingshaw by Heba Al-Wasity
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