The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
As we moved through spooky season, I was a little behind the ball on reading something on theme with October. The lingering guilt of not getting all of my GoodReads bookmarks reminded me that I wanted to read The Bewitching…
The Bewitching was such a good spooky book for this season!
This book follows 3 women at different points in time (1908, 1934, and 1998) who are each dealing with witchcraft (and not the cute, cozy kind) in their different eras.
Our 1998 main character (they are all main characters) is Minerva, a young woman working on her grad school thesis inspired by The Vanishing and also learning about horror literature and the history of horror.
Our 1908 main character is Minerva’s grandmother when she was a young woman, Alba. Alba and her family are facing a series of unfortunate events that are affecting their family farm in Mexico.
Our 1934 main character is Beatrice Tremblay, a horror author of her time (that Minerva is studying in 1998). Her writing is inspired by happenings in her life that are paranormal.
All three characters have similar paranormal occurrences, and the book follows these characters on their journeys as Minerva tries to find answers to what may be happening to her (or haunting her), and what may have happened to Alba and Beatrice before her.
The pacing and writing style in this book really excelled. The three different timelines were slightly difficult for me to keep track of at the beginning of the book but once I settled in to the characters and timeline, I really enjoyed the simultaneous viewpoints. All women experiencing similar things builds SO MUCH TENSION throughout the book. As one timeline starts to heat up, we then jump to another timeline with perfect timing. I am not usually a thriller/horror reader, but the suspense in this book was so *well built* throughout, and when we reached the climax of the story….phew.
I was outside reading my book, enjoying the peace and quiet, and a giant grow flew over my head during the climax of the book, caCAWED, and scared the shit out of me 😂
Rating:
I gave this book a full 5 stars. It was a beautifully told, haunting and eerie story. This was completely outside my wheelhouse as far as what I normally read, and it drew me in and kept me in through the entire story. I’m not usually a “5 stars for every book” kind of girlie, but I was impressed!
To see more of what I’ve been reading lately, check out my goodreads or find me on insta!
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