Silvia Moreno-Garcia just doesn’t miss. The Bewitching, like so much of her work, is a masterclass in tension and atmosphere. The story unfolds across three timelines, all converging in a final, chilling reckoning for our protagonist, Minerva, a graduate student researching the life of a horror author for her thesis.

As Minerva digs deeper, the creeping dread builds with every page, thanks to Moreno-Garcia’s uncanny ability to plant the smallest, eeriest seeds that bloom into full-blown unease. The present-day timeline is set in the 1990s, and it's steeped in nostalgia that really resonated with me— I graduated from uni in 1994. My dorm wasn’t haunted, but those shadowy hallways definitely had their moments.

In the past, we meet Nana Alba, Minerva’s grandmother, who spoke to her of witches. And then there’s Beatrice Tremblay, the horror writer whose most famous novel, The Vanishing, draws heavily from her own disturbing experiences.

What stood out most to me was the ending—not only the climactic confrontation, but also the quiet, powerful choice Minerva makes regarding a side character. She’s been paying attention, and she’s grown. Moreno-Garcia ties all the threads together into a conclusion that’s deeply satisfying.

Always an excellent time with Moreno-Garcia at the helm. This one was a good time, just a good ol' fashioned witchy story that covers three generations of women and the interconnectedness of greed, evil, and resilience. Not a five star read for me as much of it was quite predictable and there were one or two plot-lines that just disappeared that I would have liked to see have a conclusion. But overall, a good time was had.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It blends two of my favorite genres: horror and historical fiction in multiple timeline point of view story telling. Multiple point of view stories are hit or miss with me but when they are execute well, as in with The Bewitching, I love it. Nana Alba tells stories of witches and witchcraft. Beatrice Tremblay is a hopeful horror writer, and Minerva is the great granddaughter of Nana Alba and studying at the same college Beatrice Tremblay once attended. Each character had a really interesting backstory and their stories intertwined so beautifully. Overall, the book had such an eerie tone to it. Silvia Moreno-Garcia's books created a wonderfully creepy and mesmerizing story with The Bewitching. Thank you to Net Galley and Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore for the advanced copy!

Once again, Moreno-Garcia takes us back in time to three distinct time periods where witches wield and vie for power. As part of her graduate studies into women horror writers, Minerva Contreras researches the mysterious disappearance of Virginia Somerset and soon finds herself dealing with supernatural opponents. Moreno-Garcia's worldbuilding and character development create a novel you will speed through in days.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore and the author for an e-Arc copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was drawn in by the atmosphere right away. It has that uncanny vibe that lingers long after you close the book. This is genre-blending done well: imagine dark academia meets folk horror, with a touch of magical realism.

Although I initially found it a little overwhelming to keep track of everything with multiple POVs across multiple timelines, I quickly became familiar with each character and the story they were telling. Each voice in the different timelines is compelling in its own right, yet they build on one another in a way that’s really clever.

The book presents several possibilities early on, ranging from the plausible to the supernatural, encouraging the reader to question everything. That ambiguity worked well for me and added to the overall intrigue. Even when some of the later twists felt a little predictable, I didn’t mind as I was still completely invested in the characters and the tone, and I didn’t want to put it down.

I also found the portrayal of magic particularly interesting. It isn’t whimsical or overly mystical; it’s treated almost like a science, something hidden beneath the surface of the world, following its own internal logic and rules. That grounded approach made the supernatural elements feel more believable, and at times, genuinely unsettling.

Honestly did not expect to love this book as much as I did and will be thinking about it for a long time to come. One of my favourite reads of the year so far.

Well I am a huge fan of Silvia Moreno-Garcia. So absolutely so excited to dive into this story. Witches?! YES PLEASE.

This centers three strong ass women in three different timelines that are all encountering some evil forces and in each timeline you are entrenched in the creepy, nail biting
dangers that are LURKING.

I was on the edge of my seat and loved the whole thing.
I read the ebook but i absolutely will reread this with the audiobook I feel like it would work very well with different narrators-maybe make it a little easier to remember who’s timeline you are in if you pause briefly.

If you like
-Silvia Moreno-Garcia
-evil witches
-family sagas
-horror
You like this.

Thanks to netgalley and random house for an eARC

[ Huge thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ARC! ]

Another beautiful, twisted, enthralling foray into gothic horror by Silvia Moreno-Garcia! 🎉🎉

Let me cut right to the chase: I absolutely adore Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic, and I was ecstatic when I saw that her upcoming release would dip back into the gothic horror genre. If you, dear reader, also enjoy Mexican Gothic (or gothic horror in general), you're going to want to pick up The Bewitching. I mean, a gothic horror novel involving witchcraft AND dark academia? Count me in every time!

The Bewitching is a masterfully woven tale involving three women separated by time but united by the unusual occurrences in their lives. I frequently find when I'm reading a story involving multiple timelines that I'm only really interested in one of the timelines. That was not the case with this novel. Moreno-Garcia did such a fantastic job weaving the threads of this story that I was completely captivated by each of the lead women, their lives, and their tales. Each leading lady was enchanting, and each timeline evoked its own flavor of suspense, danger, and intrigue that mingled perfectly to create a gripping and truly bewitching (buh-dum ksh!) read.

The Bewitching has an interesting premise but I couldn't get into the book and didn't connect with the characters. I really loved Mexican Gothic by Moreno-Garcia and I was expecting the slow build up of suspense but I felt like the book was just slow and when it came for the climax of the book, I found myself not caring about what happened.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Del Rey for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This story follows three women from three different times - Alba in the early 1900s, Beatrice in the 1930s and Minerva in the 1990s - as each of them grapples with unsettling circumstances. Alba deals with strange experiences after her brother disappears from their farm and Beatrice, a writer, has a friend who vanishes without a trace. Minerva, who is Alba's great granddaughter and is researching Beatrice's works, also finds herself dealing with strange occurrences.

This book was weirdly cozy but also genuinely creeped me out at some parts 😂 I loved the witchy academia vibes, the Mexican folklore and Moreno-Garcia's atmospheric writing. The way the three women's stories were woven together was masterful. All the character's were well-written and I was invested in each of their stories. There was also this feeling of dread built up in the background throughout the book that was just perfect.

A big thank you to @ and @ for the eARC. The Bewitching comes out July 15 - make sure to pick up a copy, it's a great read!

Bewitching was a very well weaved witch story. There were some surprising moments. All three story lines were engaging. However I found some of the narrative hard to remember because the book constantly jumped timeliness. Quality novel

My thanks to Del Ray/Random House Worlds/Inklore and Silvia Moreno-Garcia for an eARC of this book in exchange for a review.

There's a thing we do in my family. For some reason, my parents insist on going out instead of staying in for the evening when we are all together. So we all pile into the car and where do we go? A bookstore. Doesn't matter that we all scatter to the four corners of the world inside that bookstore, we are together in a store, and that is apparently enough. Sometimes we go to 3 or 4 bookstores in an afternoon, if they're visiting me, and 2 if I'm visiting my hometown. It was one such visit to a bookstore when I found the jeweled red cover of a book, Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I'd heard of this author, so when I found that book I thought, sure, why not? I've bought every Silvia Moreno-Garcia book since.

I've been looking forward to The Bewitching and this book did not disappoint me. The book follows three separate storylines, Minerva in the 1990s, Betty in the 1930s, and Alba, Minerva's great-grandmother, in the 1900s. Minerva is a graduate student working on a thesis with a focus on the works of Beatrice Tremblay, Betty, who attended the same college that Minerva is enrolled in. Betty is a woman who wrote a novel based on the disappearance of her college roomate, and her storyline recounts the events leading up to that tragic event. Alba's story follows her experience of encountering a witch when she was a young woman and living to tell the tale to Minerva, who sees similarities between her Nana Alba's story and Betty's as she delves into her thesis research at the start of the book. As Minerva works to uncover as much personal information as she can on Beatrice Tremblay, she starts to realize that whatever force went after Tremblay is still at the school and now it is following Minerva. Turns out, the stories her Nana told her might be just what Minerva needs to fight back and figure out what happened to the missing girl before something happens to her.

There is so much in this book. The atmosphere is a bit eerie, the different settings serve to highlight the difference in timelines and the struggles each woman has to deal with, each story has a distinct voice, enough so that they stand apart but meld together. I wouldn't say this is a scary story but while I was reading this book on my phone it started to ring, which was enough to make me jolt and gasp, but the word engrossing is better, I think, to describe the effect this book had on me. I wanted to take my time reading but at the same time I wanted to rush to the ending.

Things felt familiar with the stories about the little spells that Minerva learned from her Nana, and for the things that Alba did as well. My family has roots in Mexico and things like praying over someone with an egg, putting red thread on a baby's forehead to cure hiccups and wearing safety pins during a solar eclipse are just a few of the things that were a part of my childhood. So when Moreno-Garcia put similar ideas in her book, it felt like a story that could be something told in my family. It's connections like these that keep me coming back to read books by Moreno-Garcia. I want to give copies of this to my mom, my sister and my Tía, for that sake alone.

I will say I've read a LOT of mysteries, so I knew the who of the story from nearly the beginning. It was the how and the why that kept me turning pages. I wanted comeuppance and I got that, so the little vindictive bone in my body does not want to hiss and spit at a lack of punishment for the villains of the book. I'm sitting here almost pleased as punch because HA, not laughing now, are they? I especially enjoyed the Afterword by the author at the end, because again, the stories felt familiar and I see a lot of my family in the pages of this book. Also, I have several bracelets and necklaces to ward off the evil eye. It's just what we do in my family and I'll most likely pass it on when the time comes.

Honestly, every year when it comes time to preorder books, I search to see if Silvia Moreno-Garcia has a new release for the year and then immediately add it to my shelves when it's released. Every book I've read has yet to disappoint me as a reader. I don't see that changing anytime soon. I'm planning to hound my sister into reading this book as soon as I'm finished writing this review. She loved Mexican Gothic and had been trying to get more books by Moreno-Garcia once upon a time. Need her to read this one ASAP. It'll give us something to talk about at night when we both can't sleep.

Rating on my scale: 10 Stars. This book reminds me of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix, The Haunting of Payne's Hollow by Kelley Armstrong and A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher. If these books appeal to you as a reader, grab The Bewitching and enjoy.

This is a unique and refreshing spin on the usual witch story and I really enjoyed it. The scarier scenes were perfectly descriptive and I was pretty interested in all three time periods. One of the bigger twists was pretty obvious early on, but otherwise this is a fun and creepy read.

3.5 Rating

“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches”
That's what Minerva's great-grandmother told her while growing up. She grew up on stories of witches, creatures, and things that should not exist.

It is 1998 and Minerva is studying "History of Horror Literature" at Stoneridge College. For her thesis, she decided to focus on Beatrice Tremblay, a relatively "lesser-known" author who had a talent for writing grim and darker stories. One of her stories has always stood out to Minerva - "The Vanishing". Beatrice Tremblay studied at the same College in the 1930's so Minerva hits the student jackpot when she finds one of Beatrice's College friends is still local and has the few journals left of Miss Tremblay's that were not donated to the College.

The deeper Miverva dives, the more she learns about the College, and the strange things that happened during Beatrice's time here. Minerva no sooner learns that Beatrice's roommate and friend went missing when VERY strange things start happening around campus. Worse - Minerva herself starts experiencing some weird shit.

In alternate chapters, we get Alba's POV (Minerva's great-grandmother) - early 1900's. Growing up on a farm in Mexico, her father has just died, and her younger brother is now tasked with the responsibility of head of house and running the farm. Alba's only task is to manage the house and look after her younger siblings. The farm is not necessarily lucrative, but they are managing FOR now. Alba makes a silly wish for her uncle to return, not much older than she - they have always got along and she needs his comfort right now. A few days after her "wish", her uncle does return - but the happiness Alba starts to feel is short-lived when things start going HORRIBLY wrong, and no one will listen to her - her brother goes missing, people start dying and something is lurking outside her window she can sense it.

Neither Alba nor Minerva believed in magic, witches, or curses - until they had to.

I enjoyed this read, very atmospheric, this author always manages to capture the setting so well. I did find the book a tad predictable, but I always found myself intrigued by what was going to happen next. The suspense was done well. I found Minerva to be a little dull I won't lie (just me personally). It was the right amount of suspense and creepy.

The setting itself reminded me a lot of Mexican Gothic, if you enjoyed that then you will LOVE this book.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia has such a talent for weaving stories that just perfectly fit the characters she creates. This covers several generations and an ongoing mystery. The more Minerva digs into things the more she sees her family’s connection and the witchcraft that is present still in her own time.

Note: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book, with its three POVs (Alba in 1908, Betty in 1934 & Minerva in 1998), kept me absolutely captivated the entire time I read it. I had to keep reading on - the story of Minerva, a college student, was particularly compelling to me. As she navigated researching the disappearance of Ginny, another college student, via Betty’s writing, the tension building was palpable.

It was a deliciously terrifying work of horror fiction, it evoked such a sense of dread, but it was so beautifully written. The way details were slowly revealed, allowing all of the jumbled pieces and stories to come together, was masterfully done.

This mystery doesn’t just rely on twists—it crafts them. The writing is tight, deliberate, and full of quiet tension. Every sentence feels like it’s hiding something just beneath the surface, pulling you deeper without ever revealing too much too soon. It’s the kind of prose that makes you second-guess even the punctuation. If you love a slow-burn mystery with sharp, clever writing that lets the atmosphere do the heavy lifting, this one’s for you.

Another gorgeous story by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. After reading Mexican Gothic, I was excited for this one and it did not disappoint.

This book was really good, I loved the dual timelines and figuring out how they connected, and I loved the eerie feeling that filled the pages. Let's just ignore the uncle aspect of this book and move on to the end, which was awesome, I love woman who kill.
Thank you netgalley for the arc.

I don't know what Silvia Moreno-Garcia puts in her novels but they are always gold. I always find myself savoring them and taking a little extra time with them, both waiting to see how the story is going to come together and not wanting it to end.

The Bewitching was beautifully written and weaved together. We follow this gothic story along three timelines. Our first with Minerva, a graduate student unraveling a mystery that surrounds a lesser known author, Beatrice Tremblay, and the mysterious disappearance of her roommate, and finally Minerva's grandmother Alba in her youth.

Silvia's storytelling is top notch and really shines here as we watch these timelines unfold with similar occurrences. The eerie haunting in these stories keeps you turning pages and unsure of who to trust, who is friend, and who is foe?

This was a stunning novel, I can't wait to add it to my collection when it is published. I highly recommend you pick this up. Easily a five star read!! Thank you to the publisher for providing an advanced readers copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A slower, more creepy and atmospheric horror story focusing on the bewitching of 3 different women during different time periods. The truly horrible supernatural events that these characters went through were pretty upsetting (which I loved), and the different settings really worked for me. I will say that I wasn't surprised at any of the major revelations, it isn't too difficult to identify the likely suspects throughout the story, but I very much enjoyed this and highly recommend it to lovers of gothic horror.