Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the bestselling author of such works as MEXICAN GOTHIC and VELVET WAS THE NIGHT, returns with THE BEWITCHING, which is possibly her most lusciously gothic and spookiest novel yet. Alternating between three timelines and three women touched by the occult, Moreno-Garcia unveils a tale of witchcraft and danger, ambition and academic pursuit, all tied together by one indomitable spirit.

It is said that no one is ever quite ready for a New England winter unless they were born and raised in the brutal, remote area themselves. But Minerva Contreras, hailing from Mexico City, was practically raised in the Northeast through the works of esteemed horror authors: Peter Straub’s Hampstead, Stephen King’s Derry, and, most impactfully, the forgotten works of Beatrice Tremblay, who once attended Stoneridge, the prestigious private university where Minerva is now pursuing her graduate thesis.

"If there is such a thing as Summerween, Moreno-Garcia has dominated it and made it her own with THE BEWITCHING, a beautifully written and eerily unsettling novel that only she --- a master of literary horror --- could write."

Originally intended as a work that would dive into the autobiographical elements of Tremblay’s cult classic, The Vanishing, and contextualize them against New England’s own history of folklore, Minerva’s thesis has hit a plateau. Though Stoneridge boasts the only archive of Tremblay’s works, their materials are dry and impersonal, and they include none of her letters or diaries. The Yates Foundation, an investor in Stoneridge, possesses the rest, but Minerva has found herself stonewalled by the notoriously difficult to reach Carolyn Yates, a former friend of Tremblay’s and current obstacle between herself and academic success.

But why, you may ask, is Minerva so intrigued by this otherwise forgotten, obscure horror writer? The answer lies in her own past and that of her great-grandmother, Alba. Minerva was raised by Alba and delighted in her stories, which always began the same way: “Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches.” All her life, Minerva heard Alba’s stories of witchcraft and sorcery, evil and the occult, but none stood out so much as her recounting of the teyolloquani --- witches who drank the blood of their victims and ate their hearts, but only after tormenting them with horrific pains and visions. These stories, paired with her discovery of the works of Tremblay, have propelled Minerva her whole life. Now, settled in the very place where Tremblay first danced with the supernatural, she is devastated to have hit a dead end.

But a chance encounter with Carolyn’s grandson, Noah, helps Minerva get her foot in the door of the Willows, the Yates estate, and right in front of Stoneridge’s most esteemed donor herself. Though Carolyn is dismissive of her late friend’s works, she is impressed by Minerva’s ambition and grants the young woman a few hours to look through Tremblay’s effects. It is then that Minerva learns that in 1934, when Tremblay and Carolyn were attending Stoneridge, another student --- Tremblay’s best friend, Virginia Somerset --- disappeared, assumed to have run off with a lover despite no real evidence to support the salacious rumor. The disappearance haunted Tremblay her whole life, guiding her own fiction writing and now Minerva’s thesis.

However, the discovery of a college disappearance is not just serendipity --- though it does, of course, add an edge to the thesis. More than that, it awakens a sense of déjà vu in Minerva, reminding her of her grandmother’s tales, and, in particular, a terrifying encounter she claims to have once had with a witch when she was just 19. It’s true that witches exist in all cultures and histories, but there is something achingly, painfully familiar about the evil spirits present in Tremblay’s writings and the one described by Alba.

Add to that the unexplainable weirdness decorating the corners of Minerva’s life --- her debilitating melancholy, strange lights in the dense thicket of woods outside of her dorm, and even an eerie work of graffiti plastered to her door --- and she starts to suspect that Alba, Beatrice and now herself may be haunted by the same spirit, and wonders if a recent student gone AWOL met the same fate.

I’ve said before that there’s not a genre that Silvia Moreno-Garcia cannot conquer, but it also must be said that witchy, gothic horror is where she thrives. She effortlessly balances her three storylines in such a way that you almost hate to see the next one appear, only because you’re so immersed in what you’re currently reading. Although Minerva’s storyline --- her remembrances of her great-grandmother, her academic (and more personal) probings into Tremblay --- forms the novel’s main plot, it’s Tremblay’s writings and her retelling of Virginia’s disappearance that present its most chilling, gripping scenes. They are all bedecked in dark academia, Spiritualism, and a time untouched by cell phones and other supernatural-disprovers.

I’ll admit that I struggled slightly with Alba’s chapters. Although Moreno-Garcia is adept at historical scene-setting, one incestuous plotline was often a bit difficult to stomach. But this is merely a quibble in a work as multigenerational and dynamic as this. If there is such a thing as Summerween, Moreno-Garcia has dominated it and made it her own with THE BEWITCHING, a beautifully written and eerily unsettling novel that only she --- a master of literary horror --- could write.