The Bewitching

Today Silvia Moreno-Garcia releases her eleventh novel, The Bewitching. By now I’ve read nearly everything she’s released, and I know that, no matter the genre or setting, I’ll be in for a mesmerizing tale.

Here readers get three timelines: On a rural farm in Mexico in 1908, Alba faces a series of losses and increasing horrors, from the death of her father and disappearance of her brother to a certainty that her family has been cursed. At a Massachusetts college in 1934, Betty Tremblay recounts how her roommate, Ginny, went missing after proclaiming herself to be the victim of some sort of haunting. Betty’s account comes in the form of an unpublished manuscript, which Minerva reads in 1998 while a student at the same campus. Minerva is fascinated by the author Beatrice Tremblay, especially as concerns that 1934 disappearance. Somehow, all three stories are connected by folkloric magic and witches.

What I Liked:

• Triple timeline of closely connected bewitchments. Betty’s parts, set in 1934, come in the form of an unpublished manuscript that Minerva reads; it’s like a book within a book. Alba and Minerva’s parts are both a bit longer, and all three form parallel (but unique) tales of young women facing the horrors of a bewitchment. Does anyone believe them? How can they protect themselves from an unseen evil?
• Tradition of folklore, legends, and how stories are passed down. This is the beating heart of The Bewitching. In 1908, Alba believes in the traditions passed down for generations. She practices minor folk magic and believes in witches, as most in the area do, even if her own family dismisses it all as nonsense. Alba’s great-granddaughter Minerva has heard these stories her whole life and is drawn to the long history of witchcraft and horror present across New England. She’s also struck by the nearly forgotten mystery behind Ginny, only put to paper by Betty decades later. These two sides of witch legend blend into one in Minerva’s timeline. Portents, apotropaic markings, and talismans further color this tale of witches.
• Class and family. In all three timelines, discussions of finances, social class, and how a family is perceived come into play. Money and greed are huge drivers in why some characters act as they do. Alba, though the daughter of a farmer, is seen as too good for a handyman like Valentín. Then there’s Minerva, a scholarship student who must balance her thesis with work, and the stark contrast with someone like Noah, a trust fund guy who’s dragging his feet through college.
• A new look at witches. Here, the witches are somewhat like vampires, with their love of drinking blood. Maybe they’re a bit like werewolves, too, with their strange animalistic qualities. Of all the books I’ve read about witches, this is the first time I’ve seen them portrayed quite this way. It’s a refreshing take, though one that’s clearly rooted in centuries of tradition.

Final Thoughts

The Bewitching takes some time before its teeth sink in (pun intended!), but once they do, it’s a gripping and subtly horrifying story across three timelines. The dread and fear grow bit by bit, and by the end, it’s a thrilling read that will have you flying through the pages. Of the ten full novels I’ve read from Siliva Moreno-Garcia so far, this is certainly among my favorites.

Special thanks to Del Rey and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy The Bewitching here – it’s available as a hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Audience	Adult
Genre	Gothic; Fantasy; Horror
Setting	Massachusetts; Mexico
Number of Pages	368
Format I Read	Ebook (NetGalley ARC)
Original Publication Date	July 15, 2025
Publisher	Del Rey

Official Summary

Three women in three different eras encounter danger and witchcraft in this eerie multigenerational horror saga from the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic.

“In Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s sure hands, every uncovered secret is fraught with intrigue and creeping horror.”—Tananarive Due, Bram Stoker Award–winning author of The Reformatory

“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.