Book Review: The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Release Day: July 15th, 2025
Release Date: July 15th, 2025
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Spice Level: 0 out of 5
Cover Grade: A+
Audiobook Narrator Performance: Excellent!
Synopsis:
Opening line: “Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches.” THE BEWITCHING is a soft spine-chilling multi-generational gothic horror tale, three women from distinct time periods face peril and the supernatural forces of witchcraft.
Minerva grew up with tales about witches from her great-grandmother. As a Mexican foreign transfer, she is now a graduate student specializing in the history of horror literature in the state of Massachusetts. Minerva is gathering her thesis on the life of college alumnus and author Beatrice Tremblay. Tremblay’s one and only novel, The Vanishing, released in 1969, was inspired by a true story.
In 1934, during the Great Depression, while Tremblay attended school, she became enamored with her beautiful, lyrical roommate, who vanished. As Minerva begins to uncover more clues from Tremblay’s personal papers about her roommate’s final days, she senses a malign force that has turned its sights on Minerva. This force stalking Minerva eerily mirrors the stories from Tramblay’s written accounts and her great-grandmother's tales about the witch she encountered as a young girl.
Verdict:
I’m not going to lie, the beginning is very slow going, but the opening line had me invested. Quickly grabbing me with the three timelines of these women’s stories, which intertwine seamlessly and connect beautifully. Elegantly written story of witches, warlocks, and Mexican supernatural folklore. Not overly frightening, though there are a few scenes that will chill your spine. This book leans more towards historical fiction with a supernatural element. The timeline set in 1908 Mexico, with Alba, is the most chilling, and Nana Alba's stories of witchcraft prove crucial for her great-granddaughter exactly one hundred years later. Excellent representation of Mexican witches, they are not to be messed with. (8.5/10)
Thank you, Libro.fm, Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Del Rey, and Penguin Random House. I received an advance review copy for free and am leaving this review voluntarily. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Pre-Order Your Copy
Aber Stoat Books (print)
Bookshop.org (eBook)
Libro.fm 🎧 (audiobook)
Similar Titles:
The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner 🎧
Goddess of Filth by V Castro 🎧
The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson 🎧
The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling 🎧
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher 🎧
Other Books by Silvia Moreno-Garcia:
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau 🎧
From the Publisher:
Publisher: Del Rey | Penguin Random House
Audiobook, 14 hours, narrated by Gisela Chipe
Hardcover, 368 pages
Fiction / Gothic
Fiction / Horror / Occult & Supernatural
Fiction / Fantasy / Historical
Description:
Three women in three different eras encounter danger and witchcraft in this eerie multi-generational gothic horror saga from the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic.
“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches”: That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva—stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that’s why Minerva became a grad student focused on the history of horror literature; she’s now researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales.
In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay’s most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true story—Tremblay attended the same school as Minerva decades before, during the Great Depression, and became obsessed with her beautiful and otherworldly roommate, who then disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
As Minerva descends ever deeper into Tremblay’s manuscript, she begins to sense that the same malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus. These eerie events also echo the stories her great-grandmother told her about her own girlhood in 1900s Mexico, in which she had a terrifying encounter with a witch.
Minerva suspects that the same shadow that darkened her great-grandmother’s and Tremblay’s lives is now threatening her in 1990s Massachusetts. An academic career can be a punishing pursuit, but it might turn outright deadly when witchcraft is involved.
Story Locale: Mexico and New England
Author Bio:
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the New York Times bestselling author of Silver Nitrate, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Mexican Gothic, and many other books. She has won the Locus and British Fantasy awards for her work as a novelist, and the World Fantasy Award as an editor.
Author Residence: Vancouver, British Columbia
Please heart this post to help others find me!