“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches”: That was how Nana Alba always began her stories—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, the author of The Vanishing, a story about a girl who disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
In the course of assembling her thesis, 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.
by Damla
“The greenness pulsed and she had the thought to run, to simply get out of the house and run away. Normalcy had been annihilated. Now the uncanny pierced the night.”
This might be the perfect read for the spooky season.
Silvia Garcia-Moreno really has a way of weaving a beautifully gothic tale: slow like molasses, atmospheric, sinister, and entirely satisfying. The darkness builds slowly, creeping, almost oozing through the cracks under doors and through the pages. The tension builds up gradually, purposefully, masterfully, complimented by the shifting perspectives and timelines. So, on a vibes level, this book was a ten in my opinion.
In an interview years ago, when Mexican Gothic had come out, Garcia-Moreno had mentioned growing up on her own great-grandmother’s stories that would blur the boundaries between real and fantasy, and the haunting effect of those stories can really be seen more in her latest book than ever. The story line of The Bewitching weaves between the lives of three women: Alba (a young woman in a rural Mexican town in 1900s stuck between family and her dreams), Beatrice (a student in 1930s obsessed with her eccentric roommate), and Minerva (Alba’s great-granddaughter, a graduate student studying literature), all linked together with a series of mysterious disappearances around them. As the mystical merges with the very real dangers, the story takes on a darker and darker tone in more ways than one. Besides the occult elements, one of the women’s stories also takes a shockingly taboo twist – which is all I will say without spoiling anything, but I think that many readers can guess what is coming early on in the book. Although it was difficult to read at times (mostly towards the end), I believe it is a very deliberate choice to drive home the nightmarish wrongness of the unfurling events. Goosebumps.
The book as a whole was a great ride full of thrills and spooks and such, if you can get past a few sensitive topics. Recommended for lovers of slow burn horrors humming deep down with an occult touch.
