Joint Review: “The Bewitching”

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Book: “The Bewitching” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Publishing Info: Del Rey, July 2025

Where Did We Get This Book: eARC from Netgalley!

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: “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 has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is 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: Decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is now studying 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 malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus. These disturbing events also echo the stories Nana Alba told about her girlhood in 1900s Mexico, where she had a terrifying encounter with a witch.

Minerva suspects that the same shadow that darkened the lives of her great-grandmother and Beatrice Tremblay is now threatening her own in 1990s Massachusetts. An academic career can be a punishing pursuit, but it might turn outright deadly when witchcraft is involved.

Kate’s Thoughts

I was very pleased to see that Silvia Moreno-Garcia was finally taking on a witch story. She has done so many other kinds of genres and sub-genres, sometimes in fantasy and horror, and now she has taken her genre hopping to a witchy tale with “The Bewitching”. I love witch stories as we all know, and I was very excited to see what Silvia Moreno-Garcia would do with it.

Overall, I enjoyed this fantasy tale and the three narratives that we followed. In the early 1900s in Mexico we have Alba, a young woman in the countryside whose home seems to be cursed and bewitched, and who is trying to figure out who is doing it, all while contending with her mysterious uncle and a local man that is infatuated with her. After that we go to 1930s New England, where a University student named Beatrice has a deep connection with her roommate who vanishes. And in the 1990s, University student Minerva is researching Beatrice’s writings, and starts to realize that there are similarities between Beatrice’s experiences and the experiences of Minerva’s grandmother Alba. It’s a LOT, but I felt like Moreno-Garcia balanced it well and wove it all together perfectly. She takes her time parsing out how all of these things fit together, but I never felt like it was poorly paced or glossed over as I was reading.

I also enjoyed the magical and witchcrafty elements, combining elements from New England lore along with lore from Mexico, and blending them in ways that show their similarities as well as their differences. This definitely leaves behind any romanticism of witches and witchcraft, with a focus on the scarier elements from a story like this, and I liked that there were some genuinely scary beats. While it’s true that I like romanticized witch stories, this one was a well executed thoroughly creepy take. I’m always up for that.

“The Bewitching” is another great tale from Silvia Moreno-Garcia! If you can’t wait for the Fall for a witch story, definitely seek this one out!

Serena’s Thoughts

It’s probably no surprise at this point, but I really enjoyed this book! Witches are one of those paranormal themes that easily crosses genres between fantasy and horror, so between the subject matter and the author in question, this was a match made in heaven for Kate and I to jointly review!

Sometimes I struggle to fully become invested in stories that follow different characters in different time lines. Too often, one or more feels less fleshed out than another and I feel the urge to speed read sections. While I did have favorites here, however, all three timelines and stories were interesting in their own ways. You know the tragedy that is written on the wall for some of them, but even knowing this, I was drawn in to the details of their individual stories. It’s the kind of horror that hides in plain sight: you know what’s coming, and that makes the building dread all the worse.

Like many of this author’s novels, the story is a slow-burn affair. She takes her time fully setting the stage, between the various time periods, locations, and women involved. That being the case, the pacing is definitely on the slow side. However, the payout for all three times lines all pulls together in the end in a fantastic manner, so it is well worth the wait. And, as I mentioned earlier this slower pacing works well to increased the suspense (another factor that is easy to identify as quintessentially Moreno-Garcia’s style).

Overall, I really enjoyed this read. It was creepy but mostly in a way that I could handle (though one scene was a bit much for me), and I was fully invested in the story by the time we got to the end. Definitely check this one out if you’re looking for an interesting take on witches!

Kate’s Rating 8 : Witchy, suspenseful, and very unnerving, “The Bewitching” is yet another great read from a true master of many trades within the writing craft.

Serena’s Rating 8: As always, Moreno-Garcia delivers with fantastic, multi-generational story of witches and brewing dread.

Reader’s Advisory

“The Bewitching” is included on the Goodreads list 2025 Dark Academia Releases.