Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Siliva Moreno-Garcia character work comes out so strong in this book. It's one of the things I love about her characters and overall world building. Sometimes the twists and mystery was predictable but other times it caught me off guard. She really weaves together these three different generation of women's stories. I ate it up. Another banger from her. Love to see it.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches.”
What a perfect way to both open and close this story.
Damn—I really enjoyed this book.
What a perfect way to both open and close this story.
Damn—I really enjoyed this book.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
The name Silvia Moreno-Garcia, is synonymous with gothic horror - and for excellent reasons. "Mexican Gothic", and "The Daughter of Doctor Moreau" are two books that I regularly recommend for fans of dark, suspenseful novels with a gothic overture.
And I know that I will be adding "The Bewitching" to this list.
"The Bewitching" is an intergenerational tale, crossing three timelines: Massachusetts in 1998 and 1934, Mexico in the early 1900s and introducing us to a series of intriguing female characters. Each woman encounters the supernatural and these events connect them through the decades.
The writing is beautiful and slowly builds up the fear & tension through slow events, events that could be innocent, yet in this storyline are anything but harmless. As the fear & tension build, our protagonists must battle for their souls & survival.
And I know that I will be adding "The Bewitching" to this list.
"The Bewitching" is an intergenerational tale, crossing three timelines: Massachusetts in 1998 and 1934, Mexico in the early 1900s and introducing us to a series of intriguing female characters. Each woman encounters the supernatural and these events connect them through the decades.
The writing is beautiful and slowly builds up the fear & tension through slow events, events that could be innocent, yet in this storyline are anything but harmless. As the fear & tension build, our protagonists must battle for their souls & survival.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Every book I read by Silvia Moreno-Garcia increases my devotion, and THE BEWITCHING is no exception. I appreciate her modern take on gothic storytelling, and I appreciate how well she creates such atmospheric stories - the kind where the setting becomes a character on its own. While THE BEWITCHING is a little too predictable for my taste, I still found plenty to enjoy within its pages.
My favorite thing about THE BEWITCHING was the chance to revel in the late 1990s nostalgia. Just like Minerva, I graduated from college in the late 1990s, so each period relic Minerva uses hit me hard. Yes, we did have laptops in the late 1990s. No, the Internet and email were not really a thing yet, but we used our computers for writing papers. Research still had to be done in person in libraries, museums, or through interviews, and you wrote your research notes by hand. Paper was still king. We didn't have MP3 players or iPods yet, so Minerva's use of a Discman is apt. We didn't have cell phones, so you had to borrow someone's phone or use a pay phone. Everything about Minerva's story, aside from the mystery, took me right back to college and those years when the world was at your feet, waiting for you to make your mark.
Maybe because I connected so fiercely with Minerva's story, I read Alba's and Beatrice's stories with a more clinical eye. I was less emotionally invested in their tales, more interested in seeing how the three stories would connect versus appreciating each on its own merits. Alba's story is creepy; Beatrice's is more tragic. Both deal with loss, but Alba's hits harder because her loss was much more personal and included more people. Beatrice's story reads exactly like what it is, a journal of events written long after they happened and with hindsight being colored by love and the selective forgetting of memory. It is easy to dismiss Beatrice's story as nothing more than a tale told to explain the long-ago loss of a friend. You learn Alba's tale as it is happening, and, since it is happening to her, hers is the much more impactful.
Together, the three women's tales combine into one that speaks of power and violence. I've never read anything like the witches found in Alba's tale, so THE BEWITCHING is a new take on witchcraft for me, or at least the how of their witchcraft. THE BEWITCHING is a moody mystery, even if it is predictable in the who and the why. I know my nostalgia plays a large part in my fondness for the story, and that's okay. Take that away, and you still have a decent mystery with plenty of chills and thrills and things that go bump in the night.
My favorite thing about THE BEWITCHING was the chance to revel in the late 1990s nostalgia. Just like Minerva, I graduated from college in the late 1990s, so each period relic Minerva uses hit me hard. Yes, we did have laptops in the late 1990s. No, the Internet and email were not really a thing yet, but we used our computers for writing papers. Research still had to be done in person in libraries, museums, or through interviews, and you wrote your research notes by hand. Paper was still king. We didn't have MP3 players or iPods yet, so Minerva's use of a Discman is apt. We didn't have cell phones, so you had to borrow someone's phone or use a pay phone. Everything about Minerva's story, aside from the mystery, took me right back to college and those years when the world was at your feet, waiting for you to make your mark.
Maybe because I connected so fiercely with Minerva's story, I read Alba's and Beatrice's stories with a more clinical eye. I was less emotionally invested in their tales, more interested in seeing how the three stories would connect versus appreciating each on its own merits. Alba's story is creepy; Beatrice's is more tragic. Both deal with loss, but Alba's hits harder because her loss was much more personal and included more people. Beatrice's story reads exactly like what it is, a journal of events written long after they happened and with hindsight being colored by love and the selective forgetting of memory. It is easy to dismiss Beatrice's story as nothing more than a tale told to explain the long-ago loss of a friend. You learn Alba's tale as it is happening, and, since it is happening to her, hers is the much more impactful.
Together, the three women's tales combine into one that speaks of power and violence. I've never read anything like the witches found in Alba's tale, so THE BEWITCHING is a new take on witchcraft for me, or at least the how of their witchcraft. THE BEWITCHING is a moody mystery, even if it is predictable in the who and the why. I know my nostalgia plays a large part in my fondness for the story, and that's okay. Take that away, and you still have a decent mystery with plenty of chills and thrills and things that go bump in the night.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes