James Nicoll Reviews

Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s 2025 The Bewitching is a period-piece horror novel¹.

International student Minerva Contreras keeps busy with her studies at Stoneridge College, her work in the language lab, and her duties as a resident director. Despite this, Minerva is consumed with inexplicable ennui.

An encounter with wealthy failson Noah Yates provides Minerva with all the diversion she could want. Somewhat more, in fact.

Noah’s grandmother is Carolyn Yates. Carolyn is custodian of the papers of obscure horror author Beatrice Tremblay. Tremblay being the subject of Minerva’s thesis, Minerva would very much like to examine those papers. Formal requests having failed thus far, Noah offers alternative access.

Tremblay’s most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by an actual Depression-era disappearance, that of Tremblay’s fellow student Virginia Somerset. Tremblay’s papers might shed an interesting light on the novel’s background. So can Carolyn, who knew both Tremblay and Virginia.

The public record about Virginia’s disappearance is negligible. The gossip, that she ran off with a handsome labourer does not stand up to close examination. Perhaps Virginia was murdered. Perhaps the truth is much darker.

In the present day, Minerva becomes aware that someone is stalking her. Who is stalking her and why they are stalking her are mysteries. Of more importance is the question of what is stalking Minerva.

Minerva’s late great-grandmother Alba could identify the hunter. Ninety years earlier, Alba had been dealing with a predatory witch.

~oOo~

That’s a nice, eye-catching cover on the US edition. I am not crazy about the UK cover, alas.

The Bewitching focuses on three periods: 1908 (Alma’s story), 1934 (Virginia’s story), and 1998 (Minerva’s story). Alma’s story takes place in (just barely) pre-Revolutionary Mexico. Virginia’s takes place in early New Deal America. Minerva’s story is set in a US that still has dial-up internet, foreign students, and a functioning higher education system². How time flies.

Often, when we encounter monsters in recent fiction, they are first presented as a straightforward menace. Then we are given context: the werewolf is placed in an ecological setting, the vampire gets a tragic backstory and lofty moral ambitions, and the witches become wise old women whom society has unjustly persecuted.

The Bewitching is not one of those stories. While magic is only as malevolent as the purposes to which it is turned, the witches with whom Alma, Virginia, and Minerva are confronted have made the conscious choice to use magic for terror and avarice. The witches are knowledgeable but not wise. They are serial killers, in the game for personal gain and sadistic glee. Don’t expect redemptive arcs.

Instead, these are intertwined tales of people targeted by seemingly all-powerful monsters³. Some victims are entirely ignorant, some victims have a little knowledge. That’s not worth much in the face of dark magic.

I always look forward to each year’s new Moreno-Garcia novel. She moves from genre to genre but the results are always satisfying. The Bewitching is no exception.

The Bewitching is available here (Del Rey), here (Barnes & Noble), here (Bookshop US), here (Bookshop UK), here (Chapters-Indigo), and here (Words Worth Books).

1: A just barely upcoming horror novel. Release date on July 15.

2: Before the current president started attacking universities that defied him. USA delenda est.

3: The witches are monsters who often combine the arcane arts with mundane wealth. After all, a curse is an excellent way to remove business rivals and other impediments.