Three women in different eras battle dark and mysterious forces in The Bewitching, an eerie gothic thriller from Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Silver Nitrate; Mexican Gothic).
Minerva worries that she has already plateaued in grad school. She plans for her thesis to shine a spotlight on Beatrice Tremblay, author of "Weird fiction," by examining the claim that her novel The Vanishing was based on a true story and analyzing it in the context of New England folklore. When a chance encounter gives Minerva the opportunity to study Tremblay's personal diary, she begins to suspect that the same malign force that haunted Tremblay and her fascinating roommate, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances, still lurks at Stoneridge College. And it may be the same sort of witchcraft Minerva's great-grandmother Nana Alba spoke of in tales of her youth in Mexico.
Moreno-Garcia combines dark academia and folklore in a multigenerational narrative in which class privilege, on campus and in the Mexican countryside, is as palpable a menace as magic. Her characters are compelling young women with desires--for love, status, or knowledge--that radiate from the page. In the world of The Bewitching, magic is only as evil or good as the person wielding it, and those who use it for evil are as sinister and seductive as any reader of gothic novels could want. The determination of the three heroines to harness whatever power necessary to will hold readers in suspense. Fans of V.E. Schwab and H.G. Parry will find much to appreciate. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library