A review by apers
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

4.0

I will start with a preface that is - I don’t like scary media. I am so easily scared and it lasts a long time and fucks up my already busted sleep schedule. However I will make an exception for a few authors that I know will explain the phenomenon in a way that I will no longer find it scary and Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of those. I definitely stalled out a bit at 60% because I was sure the next chapter is where the spooky really got going and I was absolutely correct, that next chapter was so spooky. But I’d given myself enough time to keep going and get to the answers. As always, the book would feel slow if you’re a proper horror-reader but as someone who likes a lot of classic mysteries, the pacing felt right for the story.

🔥

Normally in my reviews (of romance), I would review the spice here but this isn’t a romance. Also it is a gothic horror so here’s the thing about me…

I always end up reading books or watching movies or starting shows that turn up having incest in them, and that theme continues.

I think that Silvia Moreno-Garcia writes gothic romantic stories, where you want the characters to find love at the end, but it’s not actually a romance so it doesn’t always happen.

Ephemera

• I got this book as an Advanced Reader’s Copy from NetGalley. I don’t usually write public reviews because I get ARCs as a librarian and not a reviewer so like.
• It did neatly fit into the first of the Read Harder Challenges for 2025 but of course now I’m behind in that again (my goal is to complete one challenge every two weeks but man, time is not my friend).