4 of 5 stars
https://lynns-books.com/2025/07/10/review-the-bewitching-by-silvia-moreno-garcia/
My Five Word TL:DR Review: Definitely not a cosy story

I enjoyed The Bewitching, this is the story of three women whose stories interconnect across time. It blends Mexican folklore and horror to bring to us the disappearance of a young woman that has remained a mystery over the years.

To be fair, I love split timeline stories and I also have enjoyed everything I’ve read by this author to date so I could be unreasonably biased, but I don’t think so.

Set in 1908 we follow Alba’s story, a young woman, just coming of age and starting to feel attracted to a local neighbourhood boy. Alba believes in witches and when unhappy occurences begin to take place she recognises the signs of bewitchment. Her uncle, however, doesn’t believe in such superstitious nonsense and Alba, who longs for her uncles approval, keeps her thoughts to herself. And, yet, the family continue to experience terrible luck with Alba’s brother disappearing without a sign and animals around the farm being brutally killed in the dead of night.

Jump to 1934 where we become aware of Virginia’s disappearance from Stoneridge College. Her roommate and best friend Betty (Beatrice Tremblay) has never forgotten her and becoming an author in later life wrote only one novel called The Vanishing. This part of the story is slightly different than the other two in that we learn about events from manuscripts, notebooks, newspaper articles and interviews.

In 1998 we meet Minerva (Alba’s great granddaughter – from the 1908 story). She is attending the same academy as Virginia and Betty and in fact her thesis is about the author Tremblay and her work The Vanishing. To help with research Minerva connects with Carolyn, Beatrice’s best friend (from the 1934 story element) and she uncovers an unpublished manuscript that clearly relates some of the story regarding Virginia’s disappearance.

So, all three stories are interconnected in more ways than one – in particular is that for each timeline something sinister is stalking the women involved.

I think I’ve possibly made that sound terribly complicated – although I really hope not.

Let’s take a look at what I really enjoyed.

The writing, I clearly wouldn’t keep coming back for more if this author wasn’t so good at what she does, she is amazing at giving you the creeps, that experience where you’re reading and find yourself suddenly self aware that everyone else has gone to bed, you’re alone, the curtains are open and, okay, it could be your imagination, but somebody could be standing in the dark looking in. Gives me the shivers. That’s what she does. She also creates this really creepy, threatening even, atmosphere around the college campus where Minerva is frequently out at night and the place is practically deserted.

She also manages to give us three, yes, connected, storylines but at the same time with such clear voices and with a different feel. The early storyline is set in Mexico and this is where we learn that witches are real – and, well, some of them are definitely not nice! We learn of the folklore elements here and although I wouldn’t say that this was my favourite out of the three stories you do need to pay attention and think about what you’re discovering.

I really liked the mystery element and for that reason the two later storylines were my favourite – just because that’s where the mystery really began. We have Minerva in the most recent story carrying out research into Virginia’s disappearance and uncovering things from that period that seemed to have remained overlooked. And of course Minerva’s research could actually be putting her in real danger.

In terms of criticisms, I felt that some elements of the story slowed the pace a little. For me this wasn’t really a problem because I still pretty much devoured this in short order but I was aware on occasion of feeling that the tempo and tension had lessened. I would mention that some elements of the story may be difficult for some readers as the author delves into certain aspects. I also would mention that I second guessed a couple of the elements that were going on here – but, in fairness, I think that may be deliberate on the part of the author as she still manages to sneak in a final surprise.

Overall, I really did have a good time reading this. I love a good mystery and throw in some dark witchy goings on and I’m sold. .

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

This book spans multiple timelines and touches on folklore, witchcraft, and generational trauma. The story unfolds with a slow burn that ignites only in one of the three timelines. Despite the promise of gothic horror, the atmosphere is mostly faint and the twists largely predictable.

I found the past timeline the most compelling, with a stronger sense of place and injustice. It delivers the eerie and immersive tone I expected from this book. It is certainly more impactful than the other timelines. More of this in the book would have been welcome!

The middle timeline, which focused on Ginny, felt unnecessarily drawn out. Since readers are already aware of its outcome, the prolonged narrative adds little tension. While it offers clues to the present, it could have done so with far fewer pages.

The modern timeline, following Minerva, was passable but felt flat. Although her emotions are described, they felt grey and muted, making her reactions dull. It lacks the vivid inner life needed to carry that part of the book. I can't help wishing this timeline had the guts and grit of the past timeline. It would have been a wonderful set of bookends to frame the Ginny timeline.

This book has moments of promise, but its underdeveloped atmosphere and stretched pacing prevent it from casting the spell it should have.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Bewitching, a layered gothic tale that only seems to find its footing around the 30% mark, I am so glad I persisted.

Split across three timelines, the book pairs emotional weight with a sense of mystery, driven by characters that feel era-specific and vividly drawn

What makes this story shine is how it stays true to each era’s mood and mindset—social norms, emotional landscapes, and all. The pacing may test your patience early on, but it evolves into a haunting mystery that lingers.

As someone who’s drawn to quietly unsettling storytelling and characters with emotional depth, I found the slow-burn pace worked in its favour. With its threads of folklore and feminism stitched through the three eras, the story unfolds with a kind of quiet persistence that stays with you.

Thankyou to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

This is my first book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought the multiple POV's would be hard to follow but they flowed seamlessly. There is a relationship, however, that some readers may feel uncomfortable with which I do think is worth mentioning.

However, I enjoyed this nice slightly slower paced folklore/horror read that I would recommend to friends and family

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a multi-generational horror novel that intertwines three distinct timelines, each featuring a woman grappling with danger and witchcraft. The story follows Minerva, a graduate student researching the forgotten horror writer Beatrice Tremblay. Beatrice’s haunting novel, *The Vanishing*, isn’t just fiction - it whispers of a terrifying, real-life, sinister event that claimed a dear friend. As Minerva delves into her research, she uncovers a haunting mystery and discovers that her family history is connected to the same dark forces. Will they be able to find and stop the witches before it’s too late?

The story is told from three POV - Minerva (1998), Beatrice (1934) and Minerva’s great-grandmother, Alba (1908). The events of 1908 and 1934 intertwine with those of 1998 profoundly and powerfully, forging a seamless, intertwined tapestry of history rather than just three disconnected stories, each thread amplifying the other's significance. The author effectively creates a sense of tension across all three timelines, which were all equally engaging.

Although I initially found the beginning slow, around the 30% mark is where I feel the story picked up and from then on, I needed to keep reading to find out what was happening.

Readers will be able to piece together who the witches are before the characters, but I feel like this book is more about the journey than the destination, and we should enjoy the ride.

As this was an eARC, the formatting wasn’t great, which I do feel affected the pacing of the story for me, as I needed to reread sentences. Despite this, it didn’t detract massively from the story, and I’m aware that this is unlikely to be an issue in the final copy.

If you're looking for a gothic, atmospheric read involving witches, then you'll enjoy this!

Thank you to Quercus publishing and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Honestly, I'd read anything Silvia Moreno-Garcia wrote at this point. Her beautiful, literary horror is soaked with gothic vibes, feminism and a perfect understanding of what puts claws into your heart and stays there, curled up.

I often find myself thinking of Moreno-Garcia's previous books, my mind drifting back to small details and devouring them all over again.

The Bewitching adds another of my passions to one of my favourite modern authors, witchcraft.

I think maybe it was this feverish excitement that made me struggle a little at the beginning. I had such towering hopes for this book, that I felt a little disappointed at the slow beginning. But in hindsight, after finishing the book, I think the problem was almost certainly me and not the book. But then, as the gears kicked up, I couldn't put it down. I drank in ever detail and loved watching the stories of Minerva, Alba, Betty and Ginny unfold and take twists I could never have imagined.

As always with Moreno-Garcia, it's beautifully written and reads more like literary fiction than horror with the word choices and sentences flowing like poetry, but it's still a strange little gothic tale at it's beating heart and one I won't hesitate to recommend to everyone.

Thank you to NetGalley, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and the publishers for this ARC! This was my first Silvia Moreno-Garcia book and therefore I had no expectations going into this book.

The Bewitching is a gothic light horror, with mystery and a dark academia-esque vibes, as well as historical fiction thrown into the mix that link throughout three different time periods.

I really enjoyed the time periods that Silvia created within The Bewitching. I especially enjoyed exploring the same place in both 1934 and 1998, and found that I was able to differentiate envisioning both time periods when reading the different POVs. I also thoroughly enjoyed the 1908 time period and setting of the small village farm in Mexico. All three time periods were creepy and atmospheric in their own ways, with untrusting people throughout!

All three POVs and characters read very strongly and I felt there was no blending between one another, all headstrong and wayward in their own ways, however deal with their own battles along the way. I especially felt a lot of dread reading Alba's journey in 1908 and what she experiences, I just wanted to jump in and give her a hug.. but also scream at her what I suspected all along was in fact true!

I did figure some of the reveals earlier on when I naturally found myself theorising, however this did not take away from the reading experience.

After this read, it's safe to say that I am looking forward into reading more of Silvia's work!

THE BEWITCHING - SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA

Mexican Gothic is one of my all-time favourite books, so when I saw that Silvia Moreno-Garcia had a new novel on its way, I had to get my hands on it!

Much like Moreno-Garcia's other novels, The Bewitching is a blend of genres. While it may feel easiest to just call it a gothic horror, at times this book feels like historical fiction - with a supernatural twist, of course. Set within three different time periods - the early 1900s in Mexico, and the 1930s and 1990s in New England - The Bewitching is a sweeping saga and it's impossible to not get sucked right in.

Moreno-Garcia is a master of getting to the heart of each character within a few words, making them utterly relatable even while going through the most extraordinary and creepy events. I think this is what always unsettles me the most, as it makes the storyline of The Bewitching feel a lot closer to home.

The Bewitching touches on familiar concepts: witches, ghosts, mysterious disappearances, curses and talismans. However, in Moreno-Garcia's hands, she takes all of these and makes them utterly unique and creepy in a way that I guarantee you haven't read before.

Thank you to Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC.

Release date: 15 July 2025

Review score: 4.5/5

TWs: d*ath, injury detail, r*pe, s*xual content

Thank you Quercus Books and NetGalley for the arc I was excited to receive it as I have pre ordered the special edition on Waterstones

I fully enjoyed it and the different characters and different timelines in it

The book is a mysterious folklore witches magic intriguing supernatural fantasy horror story

Will I keep my special edition I’ve ordered and yes and would recommend others to read too

Seductive, sinister and steeped in folklore, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s The Bewitching is gothic fiction at it's finest. A creeping sense of dread coils through he pages, building toward an sense of inevitable tragedy. With nods to classic gothic tradition and modern horror it's told through Moreno-Garcia's rich immersive, prose. This is a story that slips under your skin, a whispered enchantment where you can feel the chill in the air and hear the rustle of branches, listening for footsteps that may not be there.

Unfolding across three timelines, each with its own distinctive narrative voice, every thread is a compelling, complete story in its own right. There’s no weak link, no timeline you rush through to return to another. Yet it’s in their convergence that the novel really shines revealing how the past speaks through the present and how the legacies women inherit, scattered across years and continents, still echo one another with a haunting unease.

The three central women are vividly drawn and achingly real, less like characters and more like echoes of real lives. Each woman’s path is shaped by isolation, grief, love and an enduring resilience. Around them spins a cast of secondary characters that are just as complex as the story flickers between the ordinary and the uncanny

Even with the outcomes of some timelines laid bare and many twists easy to foresee every page is gripping. The novel doesn’t rely on surprise or cheap horror to shock. This is a novel for readers who crave atmosphere, who revel in the slow, deliberate unspooling of dread and descent into darkness.

Thank you Arcadia for the ARC.

Having thoroughly enjoyed mexican gothic I was excited to receive an ARC for the bewitching.
I really enjoyed the myths, folklore and gothic atmosphere throughout the book that was present in all three timelines - and appreciated the unease of what had/was bewitching the three female protagonists centuries apart.
This was a slower read for me - It felt repetitious at times (in Particular with Alba's story) and the "twists" were predictable.
I also felt uncomfortable with the relationship between vulnerable Alba and her uncle - I thought we may have had an avunculate marriage on our hands....
Overall an enjoyable slow-paced horror read

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A deeply immersive, eerie gothic-horror told through three different POVs stretched across 90 years. In 1998 we're in the dark academic setting of a New England college where Minerva falls deeper and deeper into a 60-year-old mystery. Meanwhile, her great-grandmother Alba fights and unknown evil in rural Mexico in 1908, and a lesser-known novelist reminisces on the disappearance of her first love in 1934. While extremely slow to get going, the creepiness really begins to ramp up with this one at around the 30% mark. Moreno-Garcia has such a beautiful way with words and the prose draws you in, atmospheric and descriptive. Tiny details foreshadow what's to come, and the timelines start to weave into one another as secrets are revealed.

Unfortunately I realised quite early on that The Bewitching was going the same way as Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil did with me recently, and for pretty much all the same reasons. So if you loved that book, I would recommend this one as well - but it just wasn't personally for me. I think for a lot of people this would be a slow burn, atmospheric read but to get into this, I either needed one of the three main characters to be likeable and to grab my attention, or for there to be an instant hook into one of the POV characters' storylines. And while Alma's incestuous relationship with her uncle was surprising (and uncomfortable), her story didn't hook me any more than Minerva's did, so I'd already sort of checked out by the time the third character's chapters started.

The Bewitching definitely wasn't for me but I can see it going down well with fans of Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

Disclaimer: I received an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley, but this is my voluntary and honest review.

Note: As requested on the publisher information section, I will publish this review on Goodreads, Fable and Storygraph no more than 3 weeks before release. I will update this review page at that point with the links to the three reviews on those sites.

Updated 26/06 - provided links to Goodreads, Fable and Storygraph

Intriguing, mysterious and sinister 🧙🧙‍♂️✨👻🩸

This was a slow burn but wow, just my type of read when it got going. What is not to like? A gothic, dark and mysterious, multi-generational story about witches and curses.

We follow Minerva in the 1990s, writing a dissertation and investigating Ginny’s disappearance from the University years before. History shows that there have been many lose ends and secrets over the years and she is keen to discover what has happened. Her Great-Grandmother Alba’s stories always started with “When I was a young woman, there were still witches”, this statement has never left her.

Our second protagonist is Beatrice in the 1930s. She lives with Ginny whilst at university. Ginny is an unusual and spiritual young lady, who starts to act strangely, then just disappears one day.

Alba in the early 1900s, my personal favourite, lives with her family on a farm when it would appear they have been cursed.

I genuinely really enjoyed this story. I liked the sinister elements and the following of each of the ladies’ stories as they found themselves involved with the supernatural and how it wanted blood. This was not consistent throughout the book, and I liked this. For me, I enjoyed how each person’s story panned out with their family and/or friends, and then there were other times when the story grew much deeper. This added a change of pace and depth as the book progressed and kept me invested and guessing.

One thing of note, for those that would struggle with the idea of incest or animal harm, then please bear this in mind before reading.

My first and not my last book by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia. Really well written with some superb sections which kept me guessing what or where the story was going. Plus, some beautiful writing, one of my favourites:

“There were never any satisfactory answers, or there were, perhaps too many to be able to glimpse the truth. A mystery is the most seductive of poisons: it intoxicates the soul.”

Thank you to Netgalley, Quercus Books/Arcadia and Silvia Moreno-Garcia for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Due to be published on 17 July 2025.

I really like Silvia’s writing style and even though I guessed the twists pretty early on, it didn’t stop me from enjoying the story.

The way that the three timelines wove together kept me engaged throughout.

Overall it was a good witchy book and I’ll definitely be reading more from Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

I really loved this! I found it didn’t lean quite as far into the horror and supernatural elements as some of her other work, but it was still an engrossing book.

Told in three timelines, it’s the story of Alba in Mexico, torn between two potential lovers and facing down a bewitchment that has taken her brother, and of Betty in the 50s, a scholar and a secret lesbian who’s crush is about to go missing, and Minerva, moved internationally to attend school and studying Betty’s legacy in the late 90s but potentially being drawn into a mysterious witch curse.

Great character development, super true to the times of each timeline and just fantastic writing as always. The twist I did NOT see coming and it’s lovely how it wraps every up. It’s not necessarily a happy ending, but I was very satisfied by it.

4.5 Stars
I adored this book. I loved how the three timelines wove together to tell not only their individual stories but their combined stories as well. I did find that I had to take my time reading this book to not miss anything whereas usually I’m a speed reader but this didn’t affect my enjoyment of it. I’ve yet to read a book by Moreno-Garcia that I haven’t liked yet. I throughly recommend this book.

This is my True and Honest review my opinions are my own.
An abbreviated version of this review can be found on my Instagram .
3 timelines, 3 young women, 3 haunting experiences.
Minerva, a levelheaded university student studying in New England. Preferring to spend what little free time she has, emersed in her academic studies. Particularly with her favorite author Beatrice Tremblay, a former student of the same university from a different era and author of The Vanishing, Minerva's chosen thesis subject. Perhaps her love of mystery and the uncanny comes from the time spent with her great grandmother. Her stories of witches and spells of protection to guard against them are just that, stories!?
Beatrice Tremblay an author with a story to tell. A mystery that haunts her from her university days, a true story. Strange occurrences leading to a loss that will echo through the years, compels her to write The Vanishing.
Alba, a young Mexican woman dreaming of life beyond the family farm. When tragedy strikes and the bad omens persist. What must she do to protect her family. What legacy can she impart to future generations to keep them safe.
After all, Witches are just superstitious nonsense, aren't they?
I really enjoyed this book, the sense of eerie foreboding building throughout was perfectly paced. 3 timeline can be difficult to manage, while building character connection with the reader. I found that not to be the case here. Each character was given enough page time to express and react to their experiences within the plot and the nuances of the time setting.
The ominous feeling grew as the story progressed and the character experiences become dark and strange. The question of, How does a rational mind believe in folklore and stories of strange specters and witches. Or perhaps, the question should be: Is it irrational to not believe and not have the knowledge to protect yourself against evil things.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mystery with an element of horror and the supernatural . I will be purchasing this book on its release date, as this will make a perfect Autumn re-read.
Thank you to Netgalley for the Arc
If you like reading:
• Cultural folklore
• Spells & Charms
• A ‘smidge’ of historical fiction
• Eerie, tension building, Atmospheric stories.
This book is for you!

Silvia MG has a lovely writing style. I read Mexican Gothic and loved it, and I found the writing style in this book just as engaging. I also liked the concept and initial setup.

However, and spoiler / trigger warning alert, I just personally don't like reading about incest and from very early in the book it plays a factor. If I'd known it was going to be so prominent, I would have skipped this one.

I'll read something by this author again, but will look up the trigger warnings next time.

Three women across a century are preyed upon by a witch in the latest novel from Silvia Moreno-Garcia, bestselling author of Mexican Gothic. Well written and atmospheric but far too long, full of filler and entirely predictable. It lacks any sort tension and would have been much better off being entirely focused on Betty, who has the most suspenseful and engaging story. Not one for me.