A review by sol_journal
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

dark mysterious tense
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

**Thank you NetGalley (Kay Popple) and Penguin Random House/Del Rey for this ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.** 
Posted to: NetGalley and The StoryGraph 
Posted on: 23 July 2025 
 
 4.1 (rounded down to 4) out of 5 stars. 
(Okay I know I’m late posting this, I’m so sorry! Reading slumps are real and travel plans interrupted my normal schedule. Anyways, here is my belated review!) 

 

“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches.” 

 
Another Silvia Moreno-Garcia banger!!!! I feel so biased saying that because it’s very clear that she is an auto-buy author of mine. The title is not without its own faults, however. I still find that I really enjoyed Silver Nitrate and Velvet Was the Night a taaaad more than The Bewitching. Regardless, it’s still an exceptional read to have gotten to during Summerween and I’m beyond glad to have been invited to check it out! 
 
To start with, it’s a bit of a slow build up in the beginning for each of the three intertwined stories. This isn’t a bad thing, I’d say, but I also know that the slower pace is not everybody’s thing. At the same time, however, I feel like the pacing is a little weird towards the end in that it feels a bit more rushed? Or it almost skips around some (more-so in Alba’s case but also some in Minerva’s storyline). It wasn’t bad, but noticeable enough especially during some more major scenes happening. The lead up to what’s going to happen feels almost stronger than the actual Big Events- yet everything still ends satisfyingly enough to bleed over those hiccups (I would say, anyways). 
What I really love about Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s writing, though, is her characters. I love how human they feel. I think that Minerva was a little reminiscent to Monserrat from Silver Nitrate, so her character did feel more familiar but to me it helped to fuel that interest that led into me wanting to binge more and more chapters. 
 
My only other qualm about this is the ending. Mild spoilers here for this paragraph (or beneath the spoiler tag for those finding my review on Storygraph!) so please skip to the next if you’d rather avoid spoiler chat! Okay good? Alright-
so the ending, to me, was also reminiscent of Silver Nitrate some. I can’t pinpoint how exactly without saying too much, but I feel like you’ll know it if you read it? I guess I wouldn’t say that’s a ‘qualm’ exactly though, but it did kind of kill a little of the suspense only because I kept thinking “huh, this is very familiar to Silver Nitrate/to something that would happen there too.”
 
There’s some folklore built into this book. There’s some witchcraft, some occult, some academia, and some horror. It’s a nice blend of everything that set the scene of spooky and tense, and I all but devoured it. Despite my few little issues to pick about it, The Bewitching is deliciously dark. Amassing all my thoughts together, it’s safe to say that in the end, I enjoyed this a lot! It’s definitely one of those books I’d love to re-read if only to find any foreshadowing bits seeing as Silvia Moreno-Garcia seems to sprinkle those into her novels all the time (whether purposefully or accidentally is mystery to me, but I’ll eat it up every time!) 

CONTENT WARNING(S): 
Blood, drinking of blood, violence, mentions of murder, self-harm, suicidal ideation, ritualistic killings (in mention, no details), animal death, incest, sexual content (on page with mild descriptions), passing mentions of car accident and death from car accident, death of parent (in passing), stalking/thoughts of being stalked, brief alcohol use/inebriation (at a party/during a party but nothing else comes from it), vomit (no details, in quick mention and only brought up a few times after also in non-detailed use)
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