This Bewitching is definitely a Silvia Moreno-Garcia style. I even felt like it's the same story as before just different names/setting.

That said, it is a good story, though a slow burn. It takes a long time to get to the point and the meat of the story. It is a story of two different girls, during two different times. One is being pursued by a witch, who is a very vindictive character. And then we have a research scholar, who wants to find out what happened to a girl from years past.

I loved the idea that the missing girl is connected to the biggest horror writers in our history. That was such a nice treat/connection. And how the witches are portrayed in this tale - not the misunderstood girls that are being pursued because of denied love, but actually power grabbing, vindictive people. However, at the same time, this book was just so so slow. And it makes me want to break up with the author for good. Especially after this book, where there is no big "theme" that's new. Just more historical hunting of girls.

This was such an eerie and beautifully layered story that pulls you in slowly but completely. I loved how the three timelines wove together—each felt distinct yet connected by a dark thread of witchcraft and obsession. The folklore elements, especially rooted in Mexican traditions, added so much depth and made the story feel fresh and haunting. It’s not fast-paced, but the creeping dread and rich atmosphere had me hooked by the halfway point. Perfect for readers who enjoy stories that feel both literary and quietly unsettling.

Filled with mystery and haunted by magic, this is a novel that makes you pay attention to things that go bump in the night. Told in three time periods by three strong female voices, it creates both fear and resolve in the reader to discover the evil and bring justice to those who were wronged. The characters are amazing as are the descriptions of the worlds in each time period.

Thanks to NetGalley and DelRay Books for the ARC to read and review.

3.5 stars. Moreno-Garcia is a very talented writer, and she's great at creating a strong sense of atmosphere in her novels. The Bewitching is a story of evil witches across three different timelines, featuring three different young women who encounter malevolent witchcraft. The book was very slow-paced to start, and it was only in the last quarter or so that I was racing through the pages. I think this could have used tighter editing. Also, I was unprepared for a relationship in the earliest timeline that gave me such a huge ick factor that it haunted the rest of the book for me, and I'm still struggling to understand why it was necessary to the plot. (I'm trying to be vague in order to avoid spoilers.) Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore for a digital review copy.

Once again Silvia Moreno Garcia hits it out of the park with this dark, witchy tale told in three alternate timelines that intersect in a thrilling climax.

1908 Mexico- Alba is a young woman living on her family’s farm, mourning the death of her father and doing her best to help her mother with the younger children, when her uncle comes to visit. After the disappearance of her brother and the mutilation and death of animals around the farm she comes to realizes her family has been cursed by a witch. Her mother and uncle won’t believe such nonsense, but her friend and would be suitor, Valentin, promises to help her.

1934 Massachusetts- Beatrice Tremblay is a college student and budding horror writer living in the dorms during the great depression. The disappearance of her college roommate Virigina Somerset, who was affectionally called Ginny, will cast a shadow over the rest of her life and inspire her most famous work, The Vanishing.

1998 Massachusetts- Minerva, Alba’s great granddaughter, and college student at the same university as Beatrice is working on her thesis. Focusing on Beatrice Tremblay’s work and unfinished manuscript, she immerses herself in her research and seeks the help of one of Beatrice and Ginny’s college friends Carolyn, hoping to read through Beatrice’s papers and writings.

As Minerva dives deep into Beatrice’s unfinished manuscript and personal papers, she is sucked into the events of 1934, and the disappearance of Ginny. She soon realizes that the evil that permeated Ginny’s last days has never really left and as she puts the pieces together of what really happened the night she vanished, her life might be in danger as well.

I might have mentioned, I LOVE storytelling with alternate timelines. I feel like jumping from one time period and narrator to the next holds my attention and amps up my desire to see how they all converge at the end. It really works here, even with three different time periods and POVs. Just when you feel like you are getting answers to what’s going on with Alba, Minverva jumps in with more research and falls deep into 1934 and Beatrice’s POV. This is a dark, slow-moving, but captivating tale that kept me turning pages. Highly recommend for fans of historical fantasy and horror.

Final grade- B+

Favorite Quote:

“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches.”

I had such a great time with The Bewitching! Silvia Moreno-Garcia takes us through three timelines; 1908, 1934 & 1998. It blends witchcraft, history, and horror seamlessly! Each generation of women felt vivid and real, and I loved how their stories slowly intertwined.

Minerva, in 1998, was such a sweet main character. Her obsession with the history of horror literature and the mysterious author Beatrice Tremblay is what really drew me in. And then you get these chilling glimpses into the past, especially through Nana Alba’s haunting childhood memories.

This is classic Moreno-Garcia…witchy, atmospheric, and full of strong women. I loved how she tied trauma and magic together across generations. I def recommend if you like horror with a historical twist, folklore, and a bit of academic obsession.

Pub date is July 15. *thanks to NetGalley and @random for this great arc opportunity!

The creepiest most scary summer read this year!

This book proves that yet again SMG is superb at storytelling and giving such character driven stories. The way that she builds people in books sparks such deep curiosity for me. It doesn't matter if they are hero or villain, I must know them and learn them.

With the three timelines and three capitol characters intertwined fates, I was at the edge of my seat formulating theories and anticipating the next scare.

The noises and bumps in the night of this book all have meaning and something is def behind all the spooky things. Which just added to the layers that one could pick apart. This would be such a great book club pick! I can see vivid debates about each character in here.

Three time frames, three strong women. And witchy Gothic vibes. Minerva in the 1990s finds herself researching events from the past and learns so much more than she expected. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Good world building and fine storytelling combined with likable characters make this a very good read.

Oh how I love my witchy reads and Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s newest novel has jumped to the top of my list for favorite books of 2025. Told in triplicate, with timelines spanning a century, we travel from early nineteenth century rural Mexico to modern day New England in this bewitching tale that immerses us in each culture’s legacy of witchcraft.

The witches of this novel, or teyolloquani as they are called, have their roots in Mexican folklore. Their bewitchments both horrify and haunt. They are not content with merely cursing their victims, they delight in their torture and have a hunger for blood. This folklore element was my favorite part of the book and I found it fascinating.

Moreno-Garcia is a master of her craft and the story she has constructed is complex and wonderfully done. Multiple timelines can be tricky and I often find myself drawn to one over the others, but all three here are equally strong. I could not get enough of any of them. I sometimes find violence in horror novels to be inexpertly wielded. The author goes for shock value and it just feels gratuitous and loses its impact. That is not the case here. Moreno-Garcia builds an atmosphere of dread and when the violence comes it is not a surprise but rather the logical destination in the journey she has constructed for us. Was I scared? Perhaps not, but I was severely unsettled and that lingers longer in your psyche.

And beyond being a tale of witchcraft. This is the author’s reverent homage to the masters of horror and the genre’s legacy. The names of many are sprinkled throughout the book along with allusions to their works that are intertwined in the plot. I particularly enjoyed the ode to Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman. There was just so much about this book to love and I couldn’t get enough. Thank you to @netgalley and @delreybooks for this arc.

Loved this one! I really enjoy this author and her style of writing. Very easy to lose myself in the story.

Set in 3 time periods; 1908, 1934 and 1998. 3 stories entangled and revolving around witchcraft. There’s missing people, decadence, dark academia, mystery, and found “footage”. All things that make a great horror/fantasy/dark academia book.

My favorite time period and character was 1998 and our heroine, Minerva. Suffering from social anxiety, she surrounds herself in the comfort of research and academia. All stories line up with Minerva and she’s a strong force for good. One of my favorite characters that I’ve read this year!

For fans of dark academia, witchcraft horror, and mystery.

“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches,” Alba tells her great-granddaughter Minerva. The Bewitching tells three interwoven stories in alternating chapters. Alba is a young woman in Mexico in the early 1900s, Minerva is a graduate student attending a New England college in 1998, and Beatrice is a student at the same college in 1934.

SMG’s work is always so deliberate and delicate, and this is no exception. The book blends different folkloric traditions, bringing together both Mexican and New England legends of witchcraft just as different generations fuse together in the book (and these are not your witches with pointy hats– these witches are dangerous). The pace is very slow, and some readers will dislike this; however, I found myself luxuriating in it and I think it contributes to the building horror. And while some reviewers commented on a favorite POV character, I think all three voices were mesmerizing.

So, I loved it, but I found most of the twists of the book quite predictable. SMG is a remarkably talented writer though– if she wanted to obfuscate things more, she certainly would. So why not? I think part of it is to the reader’s benefit: the satisfaction of being right and feeling superior to the characters in the novel for seeing what they cannot see. But wait, there’s more. The inevitability contributes to that building dread. The horror lies not in surprise but certainty that the worst will happen. It evokes a sort of Lovecraftian horror of modern society’s insignificance compared to cosmic horrors. The book draws heavily on folklore, and some predictability more deeply connects the story to mythic traditions (there will be three trials, the bargain with the fae will always go sour, etc.). Last but not least, it’s a way to subvert our expectations.

TLDR: SMG is amazing.

Moreno-Garcia may be my favorite active writer right now. Her versatility is astounding. I've read a dozen of her novels, and each one has been in a different subgenre and an absolute treasure in its own right including this one, Prime Meridian (a cutting critique of techno-futurism and capitalism), Certain Dark Things (a haunting tale about vampires in Mexico), Gods of Jade and Shadow (a modern day Mayan fairy tale and road trip novel), Mexican Gothic (an incredible take on gothic horror) Signal to Noise (an unusual coming of age story), and Silver Nitrate (a combination of the 1970s Mexican horror movie scene and the occult). If you liked this one, I recommend trying out Mexican Gothic next or perhaps Silver Nitrate.

A perfect summerween read! Eerie, witchy, gothic, everything here was excellent. The vibes were coming off this book in waves immediately and I flew through it! I love multiple timelines and this was no exception. I especially loved how they all tied together. This was a unique and haunting story, and I will be highly recommending.

The Bewitching, out July 15th, follows three women in three different eras who are all drawn into the shadowy mystery of a missing person and the age-old threads of witchcraft. At its heart is Minerva, a curious soul in the 1990s, who begins researching an author linked to her great-grandmother. What she unearths is a haunting, multigenerational web of magic, danger, and hidden truths.

Told through three distinct points of view, across three timelines, this story beautifully balances its layers. The structure( flipping between eras while holding a central thread) kept me engaged the entire time. It reminded me a bit of The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro, which I also really enjoyed.
The eerie elements were subtly done, just enough to raise goose bumps, and the atmosphere was richly academic, Gothic, and quietly powerful. It’s the kind of book that feels just right for a chilly autumn evening with a candle flickering beside you.

While the pace is on the slower side, it’s intentional and rewarding. This is a story that invites you to linger, to look deeper, to listen for whispers between the lines.
A thoughtful, witchy tale worth diving into.

Thank you, Del Rey Books and NetGalley, for providing me with an early e-book of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you @delreybooks + @prhaudio for the ARC & ALC ♡

Oh man, this was spooky, with the eerie supernatural things that lurk in the dark.
The type of horror that makes your skin crawl.
.
There are 3 timelines and I found all of them equally gripping:
જ⁀➴..❧ In 1998, Minerva is an international graduate student, working as an RA to afford the tuition…
જ⁀➴..❧ In 1934, Beatrice and Virginia (Betty & Ginny) are roommates at the same dorm, then an all-girls institution…
જ⁀➴..❧ In 1908, Alba is coming-of-age on a farm in rural Mexico, a time when there were still witches..
.
I was able to tag the villains by about midway, although I suspected at least one more that never truly manifested — but there is so much anticipation being built, that it only adds to the suspense of how it will all play out.
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Eerie and dark, evoking the old-school monsters, gothic curses and concoctions. With a nod to current social topics including class differences, wealth in America, inequities in US caste system.

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||။‌‌‌‌‌|• 🎧 Gisela Chipe brought to life a wide range of character voices, from Spanish-accented English, to haughty old money New Englanders, to entitled frat boy jock types. Loved this audio narration! Highly recommend this format.

TW: I do recommend checking trigger warnings regarding some disturbing content toward the end.

I have been a huge fan of Silvia Moreno-Garcia ever since Mexican Gothic gave me the biggest plot twist of my entire life. (IYKYK.) I have enjoyed traveling with her as she’s traversed all different facets of the horror genre, but I confess I am delighted to find her back in gothic, or at least gothic adjacent waters.



This novel draws most on Weird Fiction, and especially that of Lovecraft and his contemporaries. Minerva is a poor student from Mexico writing a thesis on the life and literature of Beatrice Tremblay. She is a student at the very institution that Beatrice attended many years ago, and her most famous work “The Vanishing” is based on a true story, of a bright and vibrant friend of Beatrice’s who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. As Minerva gets closer to her subject, she also remembers her own grandmother’s stories of mysterious disappearances in their family history. As the three tales wind together, a dark magic is rising.



Moreno-Garcia’s deft hand at capturing atmosphere and place is at great advantage in this book, and I enjoyed spending time with all these characters. I did find that some of the plot points were exceedingly obvious–to the point where I couldn’t believe that characters were truly as oblivious as they seemed. And ultimately that was frustrating enough that my 3.5 stars got rounded down.



Fans of Moreno-Garcia will still enjoy this spooky atmospheric tale, and if you just read Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil and aren’t quite ready to let the spooky magical women go yet, you could do worse than picking this one up.



I received an advance copy in exchange for this honest review.

A great, interesting story. Writing is phenomenal, but the ending, for me, is like every other Silvia Moreno Garcia book where the ending felt rushed.

Across 1908 Hidalgo, 1934 Massachusetts, and 1998 Massachusetts, three women—Alba, Beatrice, and Minerva—must rely on folklore and magic to save themselves and their loved ones from bewitchment. I’m a sucker for an intricate plot, and the triple-timeline structure gives the story an epic sweep: the magic might be fading, but its aftershocks still ripple like a generational curse, and every scrap of ancestral knowledge turns out to be lore that can save your life.

I kept wishing the protagonists—especially Alba—could have connected the dots sooner. This didn't need to be a story with twists and reveals. I saw dangers before the characters did, but that dramatic irony contributed masterfully to the book's slow, creeping sense of dread. I wish the characters had been allowed to catch on much earlier to the full scope of the dangers they faced; unfortunately, holding off on that made the characters seem a little dumb.

The Bewitching is my first Silvia Moreno-Garcia (yes, Mexican Gothic is still haunting my TBR). It didn’t blow me away, but the steadily ratcheting dread, fueled by clues echoing across a century, kept me glued to the page. I am eager to read more by her.

Content warnings (incomplete—just the ones that hit me hardest): animal death; gory human death (thankfully not overly graphic). Normally would have dnf'd a book with that type of content, but by the time those details cropped up, I was already spellbound. om/review/show/7720699005

“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches.”

In a world of witchcraft, ghosts and darkness, an invisible string ties the lives of three women during different timelines of the 20th century: a farmer’s daughter whose family seems to be under a spell, a writer haunted by the disappearance of her roommate Virginia and a thesis student fascinated by horror stories trying to unveil the mystery of Virginia’s sudden vanishing.

The Bewitching is my third read from Silvia-Moreno Garcia, and I can now say that she never disappoints. Persistently creating an atmosphere of tension and mystery, Silvia-Moreno Garcia completely mastered the setting in The Bewitching. The story flowed naturally, and the mix of fantasy and horror was beautifully done. It was also great to see the author’s love for horror books shine through the character of Minerva. You could feel all the work and passion the author put into this book. When the writing, the story and the setting are great, what more can you say?

I thoroughly enjoyed The Bewitching. I've read several of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's novels, and this is one of my favorites. It mixes supernatural, horror, and thriller very well. I especially loved the great grandmother's story in Mexico. Moreno-Garcia balanced the mystery and suspense really well of what was going on in the early 1900s Mexico. It was a fast paced read that I tore through to see what would happen, and I highly recommend!

This was a wonderful story. I enjoyed the multiple timelines and different POV‘s. I think the transitions were easy to follow and not get lost. It reminded me a lot of nosferuto and also a lot of like the Hacienda which I’m really just over it. I think every author just copies each other, having said that the story is entertaining and More to read.