PBS Books Readers Club welcomes award winning author Silvia Moreno-Garcia to discuss her brand-new thriller The Bewitching, and her New York Times Bestseller, Mexican Gothic. The episode premieres on September 24th at 8PM ET as a PBS Books Facebook Live event, on the PBS Books YouTube channel, pbsbooks.org, and the PBS app.
The Bewitching spans three generations of haunting. Minerva is a grad student writing her thesis on a little-known macabre author, Beatrice Tremblay, whose most infamous novel may be rooted in a real-life disappearance. As Minerva’s research deepens, she discovers eerie connections between her own life, Tremblay’s dark past, and the frightening stories passed down by her great-grandmother— suggesting a sinister force may be stalking her across time.
Dark, elegant, and deeply atmospheric, The Bewitching blends literary horror with folkloric dread, drawing readers into a web of obsession, memory, and witchcraft. Silvia Moreno-Garcia masterfully crafts a narrative where the supernatural isn’t just a threat—it’s a legacy.
The PBS Books Readers Club will also explore the eerie brilliance of Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic, a lush and chilling gothic novel set in 1950s Mexico, where ancestral power, colonial history, and biological horror converge in a crumbling mansion and the monstrous secrets hiding behind decaying walls.
Together, these haunting novels explore themes of inherited trauma, the power and peril of storytelling, the weight of history, and the fight for female agency in worlds shaped—and warped—by the past.
PBS Watch-Alike: Finding Your Roots
Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Finding Your Roots- a compelling series that explores the ancestral histories of people from all walks of life, using DNA and historical records to uncover powerful family stories. While the show features a wide range of backgrounds and identities, several episodes during Hispanic Heritage Month highlight the rich, diverse roots of Latinx guests—shedding light on migration, resilience, and cultural legacy.
These stories offer a deeper understanding of Hispanic heritage and its enduring impact on American history. Watch past seasons now on PBS Passport.
 About the Author
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
 About the Hosts
Princess Weekes
Princess Weekes is an award winning writer and video essayist who works at breaking down the intersections between race, gender, and pop culture. Formally an Assistant Editor at The Mary Sue, co-host of Netflix’s The Geeked Podcast, and co-host and co-writer on the PBS Digital Series It’s Lit. On weekends she works as a bookseller at a local bookstore. When not reading or writing she can be found playing TTRPGs of cuddling with her cat, Lola.
Lauren Smith
Executive Producer and host of national PBS programming at Detroit PBS, Lauren develops content for PBS and other distributors of public media for broadcast, streaming, and other digital channels and has executive-produced and/or produced over 60 national broadcast and programs. Her passion is to develop inspiring, entertaining, and educational content alongside the best national and international talent, and to engage important content with communities across the country. Lauren loves to read and has worked to develop and produce PBS Books content for nearly ten years!
