Book Summary and Reviews of The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Bewitching

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Publishes:
  • Jul 15, 2025, 368 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Three women in three different eras encounter danger and witchcraft in this eerie multigenerational horror saga from the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic.

"Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches": That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva—stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that's why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales.

In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay's most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true story: Decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is now studying and became obsessed with her beautiful and otherworldly roommate, who then disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

As Minerva descends ever deeper into Tremblay's manuscript, she begins to sense that the malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus. These disturbing events also echo the stories Nana Alba told about her girlhood in 1900s Mexico, where she had a terrifying encounter with a witch.

Minerva suspects that the same shadow that darkened the lives of her great-grandmother and Beatrice Tremblay is now threatening her own in 1990s Massachusetts. An academic career can be a punishing pursuit, but it might turn outright deadly when witchcraft is involved.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"With this equally spooky and sophisticated horror novel, bestseller Moreno-Garcia proves she's as adept playing in the tropes of dark academia as any of the other subgenres she's tried on... . It's as unsettling as it is unputdownable."­ —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A thoroughly enjoyable book about power, privilege, dark magic, and the capacity for stories to transcend them all." —Booklist (starred review)

"The Bewitching is a stunning story about the power of generational knowledge that proves that any danger to be found in magic lies solely in the person who wields it. Silvia Moreno-Garcia shows just how a story can be a spell—one I was happy to be under." —Jessica Johns, author of Bad Cree

"Remarkably gripping, Silvia Moreno-Garcia's The Bewitching is a gorgeous, propulsive tale of witchcraft across the generations. This is a novel of eerie beauty, a book you won't want to turn your back on." —J. M. Miro, author of Ordinary Monsters

This information about The Bewitching was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of Silver Nitrate, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Mexican Gothic, and many other books. She has won the Locus and British Fantasy awards for her work as a novelist, and the World Fantasy Award as an editor.

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