Weavingshaw

Heba Al-Wasity’s 2026 debut novel, Weavingshaw, is a Gothic fantasy romance set in the industrial city of Golborne. The story centers on Leena Al-Sayer, a young Algaraan refugee who possesses the ability to see ghosts. To afford life-saving medicine for her dying brother, Leena sells her secret to the menacing inquisitor Bram St. Silas, only to be blackmailed into a contract of indenture. She is forced to serve as his “ghost-seer” in his hunt for a powerful spirit connected to the haunted Weavingshaw estate. The novel uses its Gothic framework to explore an anti-colonial perspective by centering its narrative on marginalized refugee protagonists. It examines themes such as The Weaponization of Secrets, the corrosive effects of Systemic Oppression of Diasporic Groups, and The Lengths People Will Go to Save a Loved One.

As Al-Wasity’s first novel, Weavingshaw draws upon the author’s personal and professional experiences to ground its dark fantasy world in a sharp critique of social inequality. Al-Wasity, who was born an Iraqi refugee and later worked in emergency medicine and psychiatry, explores how poverty and social deprivation create cycles of violence and desperation. The novel’s depiction of a disenfranchised refugee community exploited by a corrupt ruling class reflects this focus, blending supernatural horror with the real-world horrors of prejudice and systemic injustice.

This guide refers to the 2026 Del Rey hardcover first edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain depictions of graphic violence, cursing, substance use, addiction, racism, ableism, gender discrimination, bullying, child abuse, child death, physical abuse, emotional abuse, death by suicide, illness, and death. 

Plot Summary

A civil war in the nation of Algaraa forces Leena Al-Sayer and her family to flee to Golborne, the capital city of Morland. Her mother dies in a refugee camp when she is 12 years old, and her father, Ali, is later thrown into a Morish prison for attempting to start a workers’ union. Her father’s arrest leaves Leena and her younger brother, Rami, with only themselves to depend upon. 

When Rami contracts a deadly disease known as Sweeper’s Cough, Leena desperately needs money to buy medicine. Her only option is to sell a secret to the infamous Mr. St. Silas, an “inquisitor” also known as the Saint of Silence, who pays for confessions. Leena finds his shop in the Northern Quarters and tells him her secret: She can see the spirits of the dead. To prove her ability, St. Silas takes her to Newtorn Prison. There, she identifies the ghost of his murdered former secretary, who points to St. Silas as his killer. With her ability confirmed, St. Silas reveals that Leena has also contracted Sweeper’s Cough and blackmails her into signing a new contract: In exchange for medication for both her and her brother, she will work as his secretary and use her ability to find the ghost of Percival Avon, the 16th Marquess of Avon and master of an estate called Weavingshaw. Leena is forced to agree.

As his secretary, Leena witnesses St. Silas’s sordid business firsthand. During consultations, he documents confessions in cursed black ledgers that inflict agonizing spiritual pain upon the confessors. While working, Leena researches the Avons and Weavingshaw. A dream about her deceased mother warns her about Weavingshaw and mentions a clandestine group called the Wake that threaten her imprisoned father. During the annual Festival of Demons, St. Silas takes Leena to a meeting with a man named Basil Richards, who belongs to the local Black Coat gang. Leena sees a ghost branded with the word “Wake” haunting Basil. Under interrogation, Basil reveals that Lord Avon led the Wake, a group that sells prisoners, before St. Silas kills him. They are immediately confronted by Rami, who is furious about Leena’s indenture. St. Silas threatens Rami, prompting Leena to pull a pistol on St. Silas. Soon after, Rami is kidnapped by the Black Coats. He sometimes duels for the gang, and he refused to throw a fight for their boss, Mr. Orley, at the behest of a wealthy tradesman, Mr. Martin. Leena and St. Silas track Rami to an abandoned cottage, where they kill one of his captors and learn Mr. Martin ordered the kidnapping. Together, Leena and St. Silas bury the body, a moment of shared vulnerability in which St. Silas reveals he buried his first body at age 12. St. Silas hires Rami as his personal security. 

Leena begins to be followed by the ghost of a servant-boy named Theodore Daye, who claims to know Lord Avon and promises he can summon his spirit if they find a lost Avon family heirloom, a red diary. Theodore indicates the diary is located at Weavingshaw. Meanwhile, Leena discovers that St. Silas’s housekeeper, Mrs. Van, is a demon. Their search leads them to Weavingshaw, which is now owned by Mr. Martin, who is hosting a hunting party. The estate is a menacing fortress on the northern moors. Upon arrival, Leena is possessed by the memories of Moira, Percival Avon’s mistress, and learns that the cruel Lord Avon strangled Moira to protect a secret. The search for the red diary proves fruitless. On a desperate lead, Leena visits Percival’s old housekeeper, Mrs. Graham, in the nearby miners’ town of Lytham. The woman, whose memory is failing, reveals that Percival had a son who was taken by the Wake, and that the new Lord Avon is a man named Bramwell. Leena realizes that St. Silas is Bramwell Avon, Percival’s son and heir.

Leena confronts St. Silas, who confirms his identity as Lord Avon. In the ensuing emotional turmoil, they almost kiss. Their fraught connection deepens as he reveals Weavingshaw is bound to a powerful demon, a curse he intends to break. Their search for the red diary takes them into Weavingshaw’s crypts, where they discover Mr. Martin and Lord Kilworth are using an Avon tomb to store smuggled drugs. Enraged at Martin’s earlier actions, Rami destroys the drug supply. Soon after, Martin discovers the ruined drugs and confronts Rami in the courtyard. To save Rami’s life, St. Silas agrees to a duel to the death with Martin. The duel is a trap; Martin’s second is Lord Hargreaves, Bram’s godfather and a leader of the Wake. Hargreaves reveals he orchestrated these events to acquire the red diary, which he believes contains the location of the Limitless Vessel, a powerful demon artifact. He stabs Bram with a demon-poisoned blade, but Bram manages to shoot Martin before he and Rami escape.

While the duel occurs, Lord Kilworth confronts Leena and Mrs. Van, intending to hunt the demon. Leena shoots him with a pistol St. Silas gave her, but only wounds him. He pursues them into the crypts, where Leena kills him in the Hall of the Lake. They flee Weavingshaw, but their carriage wheel breaks on the moors, stranding them. Rami and Mrs. Van ride for Golborne to get the antidote for the poison, which will kill St. Silas within a week. As Leena and a delirious St. Silas struggle through a snowstorm toward Lytham, they are ambushed by Mr. Orley, who reveals he is also a demon. He manipulated them using Theodore’s ghost because Leena is a rare human vessel capable of opening a portal between the human and demon worlds, and he wants to return home. Leena agrees to take Orley through a portal in exchange for St. Silas’s safety and the antidote. 

They arrive in Bastmore, a desolate demon city. Orley immediately betrays them, destroying the antidote and attempting to murder the unconscious St. Silas, but Leena fights him off. When Bram awakens, he is horrified to find Leena in the underworld. He confesses the full truth of his past: His father and Hargreaves traded him at age 12 to the demonic Duke of Fray in exchange for the Limitless Vessel. He is bound to a 108-year contract of servitude. His entire life as the Saint of Silence has been a scheme to find a way to break this contract. They realize the red diary must contain the key to finding the Vessel. Knowing Hargreaves and the Wake will hunt Leena relentlessly for what she knows, St. Silas releases her from her contract with him. When the story ends, they’re both trapped and he’s dying in the demon world as their enemies close in.