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slcrow 's review for:
The Bewitching
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
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:
Complicated
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is not only insanely productive, publishing sometimes multiple books inside a year, but also has an incredible amount of skill at transcending genre. She certainly settles most comfortably into the horror genre, but she's managed historical fantasies, thrillers, and period pieces that show an intense amount of skill at developing character and building story that is hard to top in any genre. So when, after years of loving almost everything that has crossed my desk by her, I say that The Bewitching may actually be my favorite yet, know that is high praise. This book manages to hold together tight stories and characterization across three time periods, with no period feeling overemphasized over the others. The characters all have life and protagonistic draw to them, and I am deeply invested, page after page, in what comes next for them (though as someone who wrote reams of paper on horror, feminism, and the sublime in my undergrad, I've got a soft spot in my heart for Minerva).
Appeals to my nerdy little heart aside, Moreno-Garcia weaves a magical world for her readers in all of her work, and this book is absolutely no exception: in fact, she manages to weave THREE worlds, each connected by a critical thread. She also speaks to those issues that impact her characters for having the audacity to be of lesser means in a world that worships wealth, women in a world controlled by men, brown and Mexican in a world that wants them to want to be white in order to succeed. These pressures are all subtly (or sometimes more overtly) pushing into the experience of her characters.
Of course, the magic weaved here is magic of horror and sometimes gore, but her skill is blatantly evident in part because of the way she can adjust the volume of that terror at any time she wants. She plays her cards skillfully, and wickedly fiddles with our emotions throughout the story. I CANNOT wait to foist this book on every horror and fantasy nerd I can in July.
Appeals to my nerdy little heart aside, Moreno-Garcia weaves a magical world for her readers in all of her work, and this book is absolutely no exception: in fact, she manages to weave THREE worlds, each connected by a critical thread. She also speaks to those issues that impact her characters for having the audacity to be of lesser means in a world that worships wealth, women in a world controlled by men, brown and Mexican in a world that wants them to want to be white in order to succeed. These pressures are all subtly (or sometimes more overtly) pushing into the experience of her characters.
Of course, the magic weaved here is magic of horror and sometimes gore, but her skill is blatantly evident in part because of the way she can adjust the volume of that terror at any time she wants. She plays her cards skillfully, and wickedly fiddles with our emotions throughout the story. I CANNOT wait to foist this book on every horror and fantasy nerd I can in July.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail