This was incredibly disappointing.
After seeing who this book was by I had high expectations that were quickly dashed away.
The weird relationship niece/uncle relationship was really off putting.
The witchcraft elements of this were really lacklustre and it reads like there so much unnecessary information in here to bulk out the story but just ended up making this a tediously slow read.

This book could be considered a work of art.
Brilliant writing, the way it’s paced and reflects on different generations and storyline’s is incredible.
The perfect balance of supernatural, horror, history and fiction.
I loved this book and will definitely be recommending it to others.

Trois femmes, trois époques, trois histoires effrayantes.
Minerva, étudiante en histoire littéraire, se passionne pour Béatrice Tremblay, une autrice de contes macabres oubliée. Sa thèse devient une obsession lorsqu'elle découvre que le roman phare de Tremblay, « La Disparition », s'inspire d'une histoire vraie terrifiante.
En s'enfonçant dans ses recherches, Minerva sent une présence maléfique roder autour d'elle, celle-là même qui a hanté Tremblay et, plus tôt encore, son arrière-grand-mère, Nana Alba, témoin d'une rencontre surnaturelle avec une sorcière.
Minerva parviendra-t-elle à briser le cycle de cette malédiction ancestrale ?

Tout d'abord, j'ai été très surprise de constater que ce roman était écrit en anglais et non en français, j'ai eu peur  que mon niveau d'anglais ne me permette pas de l'apprécier pleinement, mais finalement je ne m'en suis pas trop mal sortie. J'ai été totalement captivée par cette histoire de sorcellerie qui se déroule à travers différentes époques. L'intrigue est envoûtante, les personnages sont attachants et le suspense est maintenu jusqu'à la dernière page. Une très bonne découverte !

✨ARC Review✨
✅Split-time narrative
✅Witchcraft
✅Unsolved disappearance
✅Superstitions
✅Ghosts

If there’s one word to describe The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, it’s spellbinding. I’ve been reviewing a lot of romantasy lately, so this book provided a great change for me. It’s captivating and I finished the book in two days.

World building: I love how Moreno-Garcia described everything. She weaved an intricate world, and I felt that I was in the story with the characters. Everything was well described and made the story spookier.

Characters: Minerva, Alba, Betty, Ginny, Carolyn, Arturo, and even the minor characters - they were all complex yet relatable. They all went through challenges and trauma that even the villains made me relate to their plight a little. I loved Alba the most. To suffer all that loss but still come out stronger than before is admirable.

Some notes:
- I wish we learned more about Conrad. Is he just a creepy student? Is there more to him that the author just forgot to flesh out?
- Is Noah like his grandmother? The epilogue teased something, but I guess it will just be up to the reader to think of.

Overall, I love this book. It has the right combination of mystery, suspense, horror, and some romance. I have not read a book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia before, but she is now on my list of authors to read and recommend.

Yet another spellbinding, atmospheric novel by Silvia Morena-Garcia. It’s very difficult to weave a coherent story when you have different time settings and povs, but the author does it wonderfully, keeping the reader gripped no matter whose pov we’re reading. The pacing was a little slow for me, especially in the beginning but the characters, story and prose largely make up for it! A must read for 2025.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia once again draws me into her spell with every page in The Bewitching. I cannot stress enough how much I love this one. We follow Minerva and the stories of her great grandmother, Alba, and that of an underrated horror author, Betty, while she navigates the pressures of academia, balancing a social life and being hunted by something that she only heard about in stories growing up.

Pacing was great and by the end I couldn't put it down. I love so so many of her previous works but this one had such beautiful prose, a unique perspective on witches and folklore, and completely skin crawling moments that I haven't felt in ages.

So honored to have been given an ARC, this one is gonna blow up I'm making sure

One of my most anticipated releases of the year, and it is just as fascinating, engrossing, and suspenseful as I had hoped! If not more!! Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s writing absolutely shined in this. It’s the kind of prose that makes it feel like you’re experiencing everything the characters are going through, and the kind that makes you want to pay attention to every small detail. It feels expertly crafted and woven together, and I loved seeing all of the timelines intertwine and overlap with one another. Each woman had a distinct voice, a distinct story that I was equally attached to, and I was fascinated in seeing how their stories echoed one another. I also love that Moreno-Garcia’s stories have this incredible build up - they simmer and build into this incredible drawn out conclusion that always takes me by surprise. And the dark academia aspect makes for a truly spellbinding and lush read. Overall, this is another hit for me. I am very much looking forward to reading this once again come Fall!

Publishes July 15th and follows 3 women in 3 different eras experiencing a missing person and witchcraft.

Throughout this story we follow a young woman named Minerva in the 1990s as she researches an author connected to her great grandmother that leads her down a path of uncovering a multigenerational connection of witchcraft.

3 POVs, 3 timelines, 3 interconnected stories. This story slightly reminded me of The Haunting of Alejandra by V Castro which I really liked.

I found this story quite compelling, I thought the structure of the story flipping between storylines kept me engaged and the consistency of one character in all the timelines kept the story cohesive.

The spooky vibes were weaved seamlessly into a well thought out and brilliantly told story of multigenerational occult dangers. With the vibe of this book, filled with witch stories and the an academic setting, I think this book would hit best in autumn.

This was a slower paced story and well worth the read. 4.25 stars

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is an eerie and atmospheric horror novel that intertwines the stories of three women across different eras, each facing the dangers of witchcraft in their own way. In the 1990s, graduate student Minerva uncovers unsettling connections between a long-lost manuscript and the mysterious disappearances that plagued the lives of her great-grandmother and an obscure author, Beatrice Tremblay.

What I loved about this book was Moreno-Garcia’s mastery of writing a triple POV story, with each character's voice distinct, authentic, and perfectly fitting their time period. The suspense builds effortlessly as the story weaves between the eras, and the connection between the women and their encounters with malevolent forces is both chilling and mesmerizing. The author’s depiction of the evil forces lurking in the narrative is hauntingly vivid, making it a must-read for fans of the occult and witchcraft. As an avid reader of witchy books, The Bewitching will undoubtedly make it into my top 5 witchy reads. I couldn’t put it down, no matter how spooked I was. The Bewitching is a perfect, atmospheric read for the fall or spooky season, but can be enjoyed year-round.

🌟🌟🌟🌟 The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a spellbinding tale that beautifully combines historical fiction with witchcraft, suspense, and family secrets. If you're in the mood for a read that mixes the eerie with the emotional, then this book will cast its own magical charm on you! 🧙‍♀️✨ Set across three intertwining timelines—1990s Massachusetts, 1930s New England, and early 1900s Mexico—this novel takes you on a mysterious journey where family history and the supernatural collide in haunting ways. Here’s a closer look at why I’m giving it 4 stars! 🌙🔮

✨ A Rich and Mysterious World
First, let’s talk about the world-building, which is absolutely captivating. Each timeline is meticulously crafted, immersing you in different historical settings, all while maintaining a strong sense of atmosphere. The story in New England in the 1930s is steeped in mystery and dark magic, while the timeline set in Mexico adds a rich layer of folklore and cultural traditions. 🌍🌿 The author does an incredible job blending these distinct settings, tying them together with witchcraft that feels rooted in both history and the supernatural. It’s not just about magic for the sake of magic—there’s an authenticity to the witchcraft in this story that feels grounded in real-world traditions and beliefs. The 1990s timeline in Massachusetts brings the modern perspective, with Minerva, our protagonist, digging into her family’s tangled past. The way these timelines are interwoven is clever and intriguing, making the plot feel like a puzzle that slowly clicks into place with each page you turn. 🧩🔍

💫 Strong, Complex Characters
At the heart of The Bewitching are its characters. Minerva, the main character, is driven, intelligent, and deeply curious about her family’s secrets. 👩‍💼📚 Her journey is both external and internal—she’s trying to uncover the truth, but also grappling with her own emotions and family dynamics. I found her to be such a relatable and layered character, and I loved seeing her navigate her personal and academic challenges.

But it’s her relationship with her great-grandmother, Alba, that really steals the show. The bond between these two women is complex, and their generational connection is central to the story. 👵💫 The way their lives intersect across time adds a deeply emotional element to the plot. Alba’s story, particularly in the 1930s timeline, is rich with untold history, and watching Minerva uncover those layers is both thrilling and poignant. The theme of legacy and family history is explored beautifully here, as Minerva learns not only about the past but also about herself and her own place within this intricate web of witchcraft, power, and love. 🧡

🔮 Slow-Burn Suspense with a Touch of Supernatural
Now, let’s talk about the witchcraft and supernatural elements. Moreno-Garcia does a fantastic job of slowly building suspense throughout the novel. It’s not a fast-paced thriller, but instead, a slow-burn mystery that pulls you in deeper and deeper as the secrets of the past unfold. 🖤🌑 The magical elements are subtle at first, adding just the right amount of unease and wonder to the story. The witches, their powers, and their history feel mysterious, almost like a legend being told, adding an aura of danger and fascination to the narrative. ⚡

I especially loved how the magic wasn’t in-your-face; instead, it lurked in the background, present in the details, like whispers in the night. As the novel progresses, the stakes get higher, and the tension intensifies. The supernatural elements, while not overtly scary, have a way of keeping you on edge. There were moments where I felt genuinely creeped out—like the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. That’s the beauty of this novel: the atmosphere is what really gets under your skin. 👀

📚 The One Small Drawback
Now, while The Bewitching is a strong 4-star read, there is one small issue that prevented me from giving it a full 5 stars. The resolution of the 1930s timeline left me a little wanting. I was hoping for more closure or perhaps a deeper exploration of the events and characters from that period. 🧐 While the connections between the different timelines were fascinating and the secrets revealed were satisfying, I couldn’t help but feel that the 1930s storyline didn’t fully reach its potential. It felt a bit rushed compared to the other timelines, and I wanted to know more about the people and events that shaped that part of the story.

🌟 Final Thoughts
Overall, The Bewitching is an incredibly rich and atmospheric novel that blends supernatural elements with historical fiction in a way that’s both mesmerizing and haunting. ✨ The world-building is immersive, the characters are multi-dimensional, and the themes of legacy, family, and witchcraft are explored with depth and nuance. The slow-burning suspense, combined with the eerie atmosphere, makes this book perfect for anyone who loves a good mystery with a dash of the supernatural. 🔮

While the 1930s timeline could have been given a little more closure, it doesn’t take away from the overall enjoyment of the book. I definitely recommend this one if you’re looking for a story that mixes witchcraft, history, and a touch of magic. 🖤📚 Just be prepared for a lingering sense of mystery that might leave you questioning the unseen forces around you. 🌒✨

#TheBewitching #SilviaMorenoGarcia #SupernaturalThriller #Witchcraft #FamilySecrets #MagicalMystery

Oh boy, this book was delightful! If it weren't for a clingy toddler monkeying around me, I could have finished it in one sitting. Nevertheless, I managed to read it in two sittings in less than a day, which, from the perspective of a mom with a toddler, feels like quite an achievement.

Let me throw some random topics covered in the story at you to entice you into reading it: witches, spells, curses, 1900s Mexico, ghosts in dorms, a college campus setting during summer break, a factory in ruins, missing people, and a story within a story format. All these elements come together to create an eerie and magical experience. In one word, I’d call it brilliant!

Rating: 4.75/5 🌟 (I reduced it by 0.25 because I couldn't fully understand what was happening with Conrad).

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Publication Date: July 15th, 2025.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc and thank you to the author for writing this book. I loved her book Mexican Gothic. Minerva remembers her nana always telling her stories and those stories have stayed with Minerva all her life. Now grown Minerva is a graduate student and focusing on the history of horror literature. She is now researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an author of macabre tales. Minerva is putting her paper together and she uncovers info that the authors most famous novel was inspired by a true story. Minerva is also a student at the same college the author attended decades earlier. Here Minerva obsesses over the life of Beatrice and finding all the truths about this author and her life and her novel.

I wanted to love and inhale this book, and it just was not keeping my interest. I think I need the physical book for this one, as a lot of books on my ereader do not have the same experience. That being said, Silvia Moreno-Garcia fans will be very happy with this one. It’s wonderful, I just know my brain isn’t able to eread this one digitally.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide honest feedback voluntarily. I received a free eARC of this book.

I've said this before in other reviews of Moreno-Garcia's books and I'll say it again: Nobody Is Doing It Like Her!! She does such a phenomenal job of creating a sense of time and place and helping the reader sink into a world they may not know a ton about, and I adored the way she was able ot weave together three disparate timelines and perspectives to create an eerie overall whole. She simply can't miss

Thank you NetGalley and DelRey for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange of an honest opinion.
I am absolutely in love with generational tales, especially if they're imbued with feminine MCs and magic. This book does it all (in a way another famous book from our generation promised to do but didn't deliver - won't name names!), adding to this efficient mix a very compelling background, full of Mexican folklore and history, and three main characters with a precise personality in accordance with both the times they're living in and their nature. The story is split between three different characters in three different eras, each one testifying their dynamics and how they reflect on the characters, two of which are from the same family while the third is known through her own words left in diaries and pictures.
I loved seeing how their stories entangle, bit by bit, how their experiences are passed down through generations and used to face familiar enemies, magnifying the importance of family but also spying on the bad hills that family often stumbles upon. In all this, witchcraft and ghosts: familiar and not, devisive and destructive, often moved by greed but sometimes fueled by the desire to protect and avenge. The prose manages to adapt to the setting and the character we're reading of, and even if, to me, it stalled a bit towards the end, it made for a compelling and interesting read.

this was so unlike anything i've ever read before, and if you'll pardon the pun, i've been truly bewitched by this book. each perspective has such an evocative sense of time and place, and all three narrative threads are interwoven with much care; you can really sense how much the author connected with minerva in particular. take your time with this one; wandering through this novel at a leisurely pace as it builds and swells with suspense is an absolute treat, and i promise you, the ending is worth every word in gold.

there are definitely times where i feel i have already read a paragraph earlier in the book - for example, i think it's well established that alba has trouble doing the chores when she is stressed about her portents, and portents in general is a word i feel i saw too many times.

overall, i loved this, and will be going back to read mexican gothic soon enough! thank you kindly to netgalley and PRH for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review :)

I had such high hopes for this book, and I’m so excited to say it lived up to my expectations! This is by far my favorite book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. It follows three storylines: Minerva in Massachusetts in 1998, Alba in Mexico in 1908 and Betty in Massachusetts in 1934. Minerva Contreras is studying horror authors and takes a particular interest in Betty Tremblay who wrote a story based on her friend’s disappearance. Her great grandmother, Alba, has a similar story about her brother disappearing which leads into her storyline. I found myself interested in Alba’s story the most. And the third storyline is in 1934 from Betty’s personal journals and detail the events leading up to her friend Virginia’s disappearance.

I love that you have an idea about two of the storylines’ fates, just not everything leading up to them and one storyline you’re completely in the dark about what’s going to happen. There is a common theme of witchcraft and the supernatural among all the storylines. There were also topics such as wealth, greed and prejudice in all three. Minerva uses that knowledge to figure out the creepy things she’s experiencing herself and also to figure out what happened to Virginia.

The foreshadowing builds over time, and I will say things don’t start to get scary until around 40%. But the author does a really good job adding in little pieces of information that can spook and also leave you guessing. There are things and people that made my skin crawl. I love how this book ended and I was frantically flipping the pages the last 10% especially. I think any horror fan will love this book.

*The Bewitching* was an intriguing read, but it didn't fully grab my attention. The story is split into three parts, each following a different character—Alba in 1908, Beatrice's journal from 1934, and Minerva in 1998. All their stories connect in the end, but I didn’t feel as invested as I hoped.

The New England college town setting was perfect for the witchy atmosphere, and I enjoyed the sections set in Mexico with their rich folklore about witches. The overlap with vampire myths was a nice touch. Minerva’s story, where she only reads Beatrice’s journal in small pieces, was a unique detail that kept the mystery alive for a bit longer.

Unfortunately, I figured out who was cursing the characters halfway through, which made the twists at the end less surprising. Still, the author’s world-building and mix of magic with everyday life were well done, and the longer chapters gave me more time to connect with the characters.

Overall, the book was enjoyable, but the predictability lessened the suspense. I’m giving it a 3.5, but rounding up because it was still a fun read, and I look forward to sharing it with others.

In 1998, Mexico City born Minerva wound up attending Stoneridge College in a small Massachusetts town. In addition to being a prestigious institution, Stoneridge allows her access to some personal writings from the subject of her grad school thesis, the overlooked weird fiction author Beatrice Tremblay. That writer was responsible for a handful of weird horror tales and a single novel, The Vanishing, which may have been inspired by historical and autobiographical events, and Minerva is absolutely curious to find out about them.

Minerva is something of a horror buff who started down the macabre road early in life via stories her Nana Alba told about her own youth, back when “there were still witches.” However, as she digs into the life of her literary person of interest and speaking with those still alive who might recall the years of interest, Minerva becomes increasingly aware that the days when witches were real might not be so long gone after all. Something unnatural seems to be stalking her. Could it be one of the blood drinking witches Nana Alba spoke of?

Told in parallel to Minerva’s tale are two other narratives. One tells the story of a young Alba whose family, in 1908, is beset by troubles that may stem from maliciously supernatural causes. The second is the first-person narrative account of Beatrice Tremblay’s encounters with one Virginia Somerset, the classmate who would become the subject of her sole novel. This second narrative fills in the events leading up to her disappearance in December of 1934, answering some questions Minerva has while opening up even more questions.

Will Minerva learn enough from the past to stave off her own sorcerous threat, or will she become one more victim in a long line of them? Silvia Morena-Garcia pens a provocative supernatural thriller across three historical time periods with her latest novel, The Bewitching.

It is terribly strange for me to think of 1998 as historical, since that’s the year I started dating the brilliant and lovely woman who would become my wife, the year we were both out of undergrad and looking toward grad school options. Far, far easier for me to see 1934 and 1908 as periods from the dawn of time, so to speak. I suppose 1998 is over twenty-five years ago and therefore historical for many a reader coming to that period today.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia has a knack for conjuring each of those periods and filling in the corners with flavor and evocative material, bringing them each to life. Her view of 1998 isn’t quite the one I lived, but it’s one I can recall through my experiences with others. And the 1930s is beautifully evoked. As well, Mexico at the turn of the twentieth century is equally lush, lived in, inviting in all the ways we want historical fiction to be.

Adding a horror plot to this only sweetens the flavorful pot so far as I’m concerned. Of course, Moreno-Garcia has made a terrific career out of giving us spooky, dark fantasy and crime yarns at various periods of history. I’ve raved about works like Mexican Gothic, Velvet Was the Night, and Silver Nitrate and I fully expect to be raving about The Bewitching throughout 2025. Just about everything I’ve encountered from the author has included an attentiveness to crafting gorgeous sentences and imagery, all in service to compelling stories about women with no shortage of smarts, strength, and pesky vulnerabilities who find themselves thrust into danger. The Bewitching continues this trend nicely.

The witches in this book are nothing like the Wiccans I know and have no intention of being positive role models. These are much more wicked in their outlook, selfish creatures that crave blood, flesh, power, and who work terrible spells to ensure their own survival (and occasionally because of a morbid sense of whimsy). They are the chilling visions we might recall from fairy tales of yore, stories like H. P. Lovecraft’s “Dreams in the Witch House,” themed collections like Catherine Cavendish’s The Crow Witch and Other Conjurings, novels like R. Patrick Gates’ Grimm Memorials, or features like Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977). There is more than enough room in the world for scary tales of fiends of this sort. I welcome clever spins on them.

Applying a dark academia approach to the main narrative also adds gravitas. On the one hand, it appeals to the investigatory aspect of dark fantasy fiction, providing the framework that invites inquisitive characters to ask one too many questions and therefore learn things mere mortals were not meant to know. On the other hand, it offers nods to one of the seminal novels of witchcraft in the contemporary times, Fritz Leiber’s Conjure Witch, which posits a secret war between witches playing out on a college campus. The Bewitching is not necessarily a bookend piece to Lieber’s book or a flipside to it, but it certainly draws inspiration from a similar wellspring.

I strongly suspect Moreno-Garcia is versed in many of these works I’ve referenced, as well as dozens more that remain uncited. The Bewitching’s narrative is certainly well acquainted with both the fantasy and horror genres, and makes overt and subtextual nods to quite a few highlights from the past as well as the contemporary scene. The book is all the richer for these easter eggs (my favorite is a thesis advisor named Brian Derleth, whose name combines one of a couple of possible Brians—Lumley, Evenson, etc.—with Arkham House Press founder and author August Derleth) though identifying them is unnecessary to enjoying Moreno-Garcia’s novel. Such nods are most often reserved for background characters or locations (e.g. author Molly Tanzer’s name appears on one of the campus buildings), which is how it ought to be. Then again, reader patience for such cheekiness will be tested by Beatrice Tremblay’s name, which offers a nod to horror novelist, editor, and all-around nice guy Paul Tremblay, as that is a major character in two of the periods.

In the final analysis, The Bewitching is a playfully eerie and provocative exploration of darkness unbound by the constraints of time. It’s a sinister suspense piece, where we are invited to occupy Minerva’s shoes as she becomes increasingly uncertain who to trust, or Alba’s world besieged by the unknown, or Beatrice’s collegiate world where hope, desire, and camaraderie build toward unresolved tragedy. This is a work that, like the best literary investigations, provides us with a wealth of information and takes its times for that stuff to settle into a coherent larger picture. It’s a book that trusts us to follow along. It’s a novel the returns in spades the time and energy invested in its reading. I predict will wind up on the ballet for a couple of Best Novel awards. But really, for the world of readers where such nods and appreciations aren’t necessarily all that important, Moreno-Garcia’s novel is a thoughtful, cleverly constructed, and engaging story about three women across different time periods facing the unknown. It’s an excellent page turner.

From the three of the books storylines I mostly enjoyed two of them - Minerva's 1998 timeline was great - tense and suspenseful, Betty's 1934 was the shortest of them all, but still good. It was was watching Minerva uncover this story and search for the truth. It was the Alba's 1908 storyline that wasn't enjoyable for me to read. In the end it was still a worth reading, but I wish it was the same length as the Betty's timeline - and that there was more of Minerva's storyline.
The best things about the book was the writing and the atmosphere it created - the dread seeped from the page and made me quite often forget that Minerva's story takes place during the summer. The mysteries were quite predictable, but that didn't matter - it was more of a "how can they survive" type of a story rather then "who could be behind all this".