The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The cover of The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia delivers supernatural horror in three tales of mysterious disappearances connected by a grad student named Minerva. Her great-grandmother, Nana Alba, told Minerva many stories of witchcraft in Mexico which inspired her to study the history of horror literature in the hub of New England. Minerva expected to do research on her thesis topic, Beatrice Tremblay's real-life inspiration for her book The Vanishing, but she didn't expect to find eerie similarities between Tremblay's account and Nana Alba's story, let alone experience a shadowy presence herself. 

I’m very impressed by the way that Silvia Moreno-Garcia flits between the pov of three different characters in three timelines, settings, and cultures! Each narrator felt authentic which, I imagine, was a hard thing to accomplish. Like her name implies, Minerva is wise and artistic, but she recognizes that she inherited some of her proclivities from Nana Alba. This means that I didn’t have to yell at her (in my head) to stop running towards danger like I usually do (out loud) with most horror flicks. 

This novel has good pacing and the story kept me hooked, which is why it didn’t take long to finish reading. I think it was especially effective because I don’t know a whole lot about the horror genre in literature or Mexican folklore. When I don’t know much about a topic covered in media, I get excited to look it up and learn more! Another aspect that kept me reading was Moreno-Garcia’s accuracy in depicting Boston. I went to school in the city and would have cringed if the scenery and public transit weren’t depicted accurately. 

I found The Bewitching captivating and perfectly creepy, despite the fact that I predicted a few aspects of the mysteries within it. The only thing that I wasn't a fan of was the incest, but I guess that's part of what built the unsettling atmosphere.

If you enjoyed Mexican Gothic or books by Isabel Cañas, I think you should pick this book up, too!

Content Warnings: incest, animal death, blood, body horror, violence, gaslighting, toxic relationship, classism, xenophobia (minor), and death.