Good-quality witchy stories can be hard to come by in the horror genre. Although there are a handful of great (or at least fun) witchcraft movies and TV shows, like The Craft, Weapons, and Charmed, most of the better stories come in the literary section of the subgenre. Witch stories often toe the line between horror and fantasy, tending not to dive too far in one direction or the other. However, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s newest novel, The Bewitching, sits firmly in the horror genre.
Moreno-Garcia, who was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for her 2020 novel Mexican Gothic, typically brings a fantastic balance to her writing, but always uses a peculiar mystery as a lynchpin to tie her stories together. She’s become one of the most well-known modern horror writers, and stays prolific, releasing five genre-blending novels since Mexican Gothic, including Silver Nitrate and The Bewitching, and will release a noir mystery titled The Intrigue later this year.
The story of The Bewitching covers three distinct timelines: the first follows Minera Contreras in Massachusetts in 1998, as she puts together a thesis on one of her favorite horror writers, Beatrice “Betty” Tremblay. Tremblay (a shoutout to Paul Tremblay?) is most known for her novel The Vanishing, which was inspired by the real-life disappearance of her college roommate, Ginny.
The second timeline features Alba, Minerva’s great-grandmother, in a small village in Mexico in 1908, where her family is met with witchcraft put upon her farm after the death of her father and the sudden arrival of her beloved uncle.
The third timeline comes from Betty Tremblay’s personal journal, which details her friend’s disappearance in the 1930s, at the same college Minerva attends in 1998.
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At first glance, juggling three different stories simultaneously sounds like it could be jumbled and confusing, but Moreno-Garcia does a wonderful job keeping them separated, yet connecting their content flow into one another seamlessly. You get to know Minerva more by learning more about Alba.
You learn about Betty and Ginny through Minerva. The dots connect perfectly, and even though the novel takes its time introducing and developing the characters at the start, when things pick up, they don’t let up until the last page.
Each of The Bewitching’s three main characters could hold up a book on their own, especially with the amount of deep Mexican culture and personality traits and traumas revealed in each story. Alba’s small-town, repressed, religious upbringing speaks to her naivety but also her undying loyalty.
Minerva’s underprivileged and difficult past lends credence to her preference for being a loner. Moreno-Garcia always puts so much effort into her characters, and if the story ever drags, they have no issues carrying the load.
The refreshing thing about Moreno-Garcia’s style is that she’s capable of writing something perfectly dark and horrific, without the need to get overly graphic in her writing. I often think of her writing like a gorgeous watercolor painting, not necessarily incredibly intricate to the point of having every visual cue, but allowing the viewer (reader) to envision it on their own and play out the scene in their head.
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If there was an aspect of The Bewitching I was disappointed with, it would be the predictability. Being predictable isn’t always a bad thing; sometimes it can feel like a warm hug and justification for the thinking the reader puts into it, but in this case, the perpetrators and actions behind the scenes of the mystery were a little too easy to pinpoint from early in the book.
Overall, a strong entry into the horror genre for Moreno-Garcia, despite any small pacing or predictability issues. She’s brilliant with characters, and after reading the afterword, it becomes so obvious how much of herself and her individual experiences, stories, and passions she puts into her writing. Add The Bewitching to the list of Silvia Moreno-Garcia novels to pick up.
The Bewitching is currently available at all major book retailers.
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