Trigger warning for brief depiction of incest and rape.
In her note at the end of The Bewitching, Silvia Moreno-Garcia recalls stories about witches that harken back to old fears about people who would (if you crossed them) make your life absolute hell. Animals die. Crops are blighted. Strange things happen. That inspiration leads to a hair-raising set of linked stories of fear and courage as Alba, Beatrice, and Minerva take on the monstrous witches who will stop at nothing to get what they want.
Minerva lives a lonely life of scholarship at Stoneridge College in Massachusetts in the winter of 1998. She’s struggling with her thesis on Beatrice Tremblay, a mostly forgotten pioneer of horror and weird fiction who is known for one novel, a handful of stories, and a brief correspondence with H.P. Lovecraft. Minerva has a theory that Tremblay’s book is based on a real-life disappearance but, until she manages to access Beatrice’s archives, she can’t prove anything. Thanks to a drunken invitation from a scion of the wealthy Wingrave family, Minerva manages to gain access to Beatrice’s journal and a gold mine of other information that unlocks the truth of a long-ago and very mysterious vanishing in 1934. Unfortunately, Minerva learns enough to anger a powerful witch.
Minerva knows a bit about magic and witches from Nana Alba, who helped raise her before she moved north from Mexico. As Minerva, Alba, and Beatrice alternate chapters, we learn just how dangerous witches can be. I loved how Moreno-Garcia blended historical folk beliefs—witch marks, charms, talismans, the power of blood—into this story. (I’m a sucker for the idea that forgotten lore could turn out to have real power.) Alba turns to the witches of Los Pinos for aid, though they are very clear that they can only do so much. Beatrice is caught between wondering if it’s madness or wisdom to turn to the knowledge of the past. Minerva, armed with her grandmother’s stories, has more to work with than doubting Beatrice. For the most part, the trio are on their own because who would believe them that a malevolent witch is on the loose? Asking that kind of question is a good way to end up in an asylum.
Because Moreno-Garcia tosses out so many of the contemporary tropes about witches, she’s able to create twists and turns that I couldn’t predict. (I’m also a sucker for stories that are original enough that I can’t puzzle out the conclusions ahead of time.) She’s also able to ratchet up the tension of the Alba, Beatrice, and Minerva’s tales to a fever pitch as these characters scramble for anything that might help them save themselves and the ones they love. Moreno-Garcia pulls no punches in The Betwitching, making it one of the scariest books I’ve read in a while.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.