Cats, Coffee, and Books Club discussion

Three women in three different eras encounter danger and witchcraft in this eerie multigenerational horror saga from the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic.

“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches”: That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva—stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that’s why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales.

In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay’s most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true story: Decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is now studying and became obsessed with her beautiful and otherworldly roommate, who then disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

As Minerva descends ever deeper into Tremblay’s manuscript, she begins to sense that the malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus. These disturbing events also echo the stories Nana Alba told about her girlhood in 1900s Mexico, where she had a terrifying encounter with a witch.

Minerva suspects that the same shadow that darkened the lives of her great-grandmother and Beatrice Tremblay is now threatening her own in 1990s Massachusetts. An academic career can be a punishing pursuit, but it might turn outright deadly when witchcraft is involved.

Hello, welcome to the September book of the month discussion. Please let me know if you would like me to make a channel dedicated to this books discussions in the Discord server as well. That is, would you be active in it?

What are your initial thoughts on this book? Maybe you have already read this one, in that case, let me know what you thought of it. :)

First time reading Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s book and I do find The Bewitching to be lyrically beautiful. It’s atmospheric and rich in historical details, written with a lush prose. While the premise is intriguing, I didn’t feel a strong connection from the stories of the three different eras. If this was horror, I didn’t feel the gripping tension, just three tales describing the resilience of three different women.