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4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
2025: 4.25
Hoo boy. Silvia Moreno-Garcia is back, but I don't know if this book will be everyone's cup of tea. Let's start with the good: great creepy horror that's more spooky than out-right terrifying. Witches and a good mix of academia. I loved the main character and her awkwardness, def getting a whiff of neurodivergent there.
The story is told in three parts, following Minerva (love that name) in 1998 as a young college student studying a piece of writing by Lovecraft contemporary Beatrice Tremblay, whose one novel seems to mirror events that happened when she attended the same college in 1938. We follow Beatrice (Betty) in 1938, through Minerva's reading of her journals, and Minerva is enticed by the unsolved mystery of a disappearance. Then we also follow Alba in Mexico in 1908, dealing with her own hauntings.
My main critique of this book was that through little hints dropped early on in the story, we know how another story ends, effectively, which kind of took a little bit of the suspense away. By omitting just a tiny detail, it would have maintained the suspense, but maybe Moreno-Garcia figured we're too smart to be fooled that way. Along those lines, I did figure out the end, but not early enough to make it boring.
My other critique is the (trigger warning)full on uncle/niece incest! Even Game of Thrones fans will be like "damn". Not only is there graphic sexual content, twice, yes it is the two that are closely related. Siliva, may I call you Silvia. You couldn't have made Arturo the friend of the brother? Who hangs around and tries to influence the family and seduce Alba? I'm not trying to question your vision, that just traumatized me and I'm not easily traumatized.
The story is told in three parts, following Minerva (love that name) in 1998 as a young college student studying a piece of writing by Lovecraft contemporary Beatrice Tremblay, whose one novel seems to mirror events that happened when she attended the same college in 1938. We follow Beatrice (Betty) in 1938, through Minerva's reading of her journals, and Minerva is enticed by the unsolved mystery of a disappearance. Then we also follow Alba in Mexico in 1908, dealing with her own hauntings.
My main critique of this book was that through little hints dropped early on in the story, we know how another story ends, effectively, which kind of took a little bit of the suspense away. By omitting just a tiny detail, it would have maintained the suspense, but maybe Moreno-Garcia figured we're too smart to be fooled that way. Along those lines, I did figure out the end, but not early enough to make it boring.
My other critique is the (trigger warning)
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
dark
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
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Holy crap???
Last year, I went to SMG’s book tour for The Seventh Veil of Salome and when she teased this book? I KNEW I needed to read it. Witches in a horror historical setting? Let’s GO!
As a writer myself, I was able to pick up on the foreshadowing and predicted the Who about 15% of the way in, but I could still appreciate the craft of sprinkling the hints between the pages, and the dread of wanting the characters to figure it out in time, to BELIEVE. Felt like I was going insane too because what if I AM wrong? (I wasn’t!!!)
I also felt so sick to my stomach, watching beloved characters be tortured for someone else’s greed. (I wonder what kind of horrors someone evil would exact with magic—if they haven’t already.) And a massive warning for incest. It made my skin crawl; unfortunately, incest in Mexican families hides itself in despicable ways, and the way SMG highlighted it felt too familiar to patterns in my own family I heard about.
SMG always does a good job at highlighting something good and something awful from Mexico. Maybe that’s why I love her books so much. She always makes them feel real.
Since I read Mexican Gothic, I had to yet to feel the same for another SMG book—don’t get me wrong, I love many other books of hers, but none spiked the unease and intrigue in me that Mexican Gothic did. And here it is again: The Bewitching captured me between its teeth (🥁)
SMG does it again!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Incest, Blood, Murder
Moderate: Confinement, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy