When I started this, I was so down for a good gothic horror. I was looking forward to creeping dread and an incredible atmosphere. And this just didn't do that. It had some good scenes, sure. Some made me shudder, some had me cringing away. But for the most part? I was bored. The relationship between Sarah and Lucy didn't feel real. I love books that explore codependency and obsession, and I think Blood on Her Tongue tried, but it didn't get the feelings right. The actions were there, but the compulsions and the thoughts weren't. That was my biggest problem with this one overall. From an idea standpoint, it was great. I loved the concepts. But, the execution left a lot to be desired.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

I read this pretty much in a single setting. It was fabulous. The atmosphere and the way in which the change in Sarah was portrayed was so clever. The detail and imagery was just sublime. The ending was not at all what I expected. A great read.

This was such a hauntingly beautiful gothic horror, I cannot get over how good the writing and the story was overall! So tragic and wild and I could not put it down, Johanna has become an absolute favorite author of mine for sure.

From my most anticipated release of 2025 to a "WTF did I just read?" – the strange case of Blood on Her Tongue

Put on your high-cut rubber boots, because this is going to be a boggy ride.

The story starts off deliciously creepy—disgusting and unsettling, just the way I love my horror novels. It’s fraught with vivid descriptions, terrifying concepts, and stomach-churning scenes. But after all the promise of eerie fun, things decompose fast, and the whole narrative begins to resemble a rushed YA novel.

We’re introduced to Lucy and Sarah, twins who share more than just their striking looks (ahem, let’s just say they both have the same taste in men), and right away, we’re forced to pick a favorite. For me, it was definitely Sarah. I absolutely LOVED devouring her chapters—the letters, her experience discovering the bog woman, her descent into madness, and everything in between. It was beautifully written and completely hooked me from the start. In contrast, Lucy’s chapters didn’t resonate with me at all—her inner monologues and irritating personality made her a bore. Still, I was willing to give her a chance.

However, the story soon lost its "proper Gothic" tone. Certain words and phrases, at least for me, didn’t fit the time period in which the novel was set. Take "the scene of the crime," for example. While detective novels made that phrase popular, it only gained widespread usage in the context of criminal investigations and legal discourse during the late 1800s and early 1900s. While it’s not entirely implausible for it to appear in 1887, it’s highly unlikely.

As much as I like sibling co-dependent and utterly strange relationships, this was just... I don't know how to put it? Unemotional. I didn't feel the love between Lucy and Sarah, I just didn't. So what was up with that ending? What was the point of the book?

(Spoooooooilers aheaaaaaaaaaaaaaad)

Hmm, let's see...
1. Men are evil, they should be destroyed even though they are sexy
2. Having a creature puppeteering the body of your sister is better than not having a sister

Or maybe, just maybe, I misunderstood it completely. Someone correct me If I'm wrong.

If the point was female empowerment and female rage, I didn't feel that. Yes, the men were despicable and they probably deserved what was coming to them, but it didn't make me feel anything, it was just meh.

Tips on how to improve the overall narrative:

- Use more time appropriate language and purple prose
- Cut down the inner monologues or don't use them at all
- Don't tell us what a character is thinking of doing and then show us them doing the same thing they were thinking of doing
- Give us more backstory and explore the complexity of the relationships between the characters
- Make the reference of the mad aunt be relevant and tie it to the story


Despite all of the nonsense I just spewed out, I can't wait to see what the author is going to write next.

This book is exactly what my brain was craving. I wanted something horror and trippy that was dark and engaging. This has gore, emotion, excellent character development, an intriguing plot, and so much more. My jaw was on the floor several times, tears left my eyes from sadness once or twice, and I couldn't put this one down. I took me about three sittings with snack breaks. This one is really good.

I highly recommend this to horror lovers. You don't want to miss out on this one. The cover matches the content pretty well too I think! I am definitely interested in reading more from this talented author.

Thank you to Net Galley and Poisoned Pen Press for early access to this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily and this is my own opinion.

Blood on Her Tongue delivers a gothic story steeped in atmosphere and dread. When Sarah discovers a body in the bog near her husband’s secluded estate, it ignites an obsession that soon manifests as a mysterious illness. Fearing the asylum’s looming shadow, her twin sister Lucy steps in, determined to protect Sarah and uncover the truth behind her condition. But the closer Lucy gets to the answers, the clearer it becomes that both sisters are keeping dangerous secrets—and time is running out.

Van Veen’s prose is both lush and eerie, crafting a novel where supernatural horror intertwines with the crushing realities of Victorian-era patriarchy. The tension builds gradually, revealing not only the vampiric undertones but also the raw, emotional bond between the sisters.

4,25⭐️

"Though if God disagrees and you are damned and restlessly must roam, please, Saartje, please come and haunt me."

Oh, what a delightful and dreadful story that was! van Veen spins a great horror story, weaving into it love, hunger and (un)death, drenching it in unrepeatable atmosphere. She draws from both worlds – writing a gothic novel that could undoubtedly stand next to the classics, yet conciously enriches her text with her modern perspective and modern knowledge of the epoque. A chilling plot with morally questionable characters, uncertainty of what is real and what belongs to supernatural – it was a real feast to read.

At the end of the 19th century, Lucy travels to her sister’s husband’s mysterious estate to take care of her. Sarah is unwell, her behavior began to change after discovering a corpse in the bog and his husband is starting to question things. Lucy must start investigating to discern on which side of the fine line between madness and obsession her sister stands, determined to free her from the clutches of a patriarchal and medical system that demonizes and mistreats mental patients.
Gradually, Sarah undergoes increasingly radical changes, transforming into something far more sinister and entirely different from the sister Lucy has always seen as her mirror. Eventually, Lucy will have to choose between accepting the monstrous truth or losing her other half forever.
To get this out of the way, let me say that I’m obsessed with bog bodies, so within a few pages, Van Veen had me hooked to the point where I found it easier to understand Sarah's fascination with the discovery than Lucy's concern.
Now for the actual review. The author creates a dark atmosphere that goes beyond merely placing us in a decrepit and hostile mansion, fully developing into a deeply disturbing story filled with obsessive relationships, power imbalances, and explicit gore scenes. This alone makes the book a delight for horror readers who live for Gothic tales.
The characters are compelling, especially Lucy, whose inner world we get to explore as she is the narrator. She is compassionate and morally driven, with a strong sense of right and wrong. However, facing the possible loss of her sister forces her to abandon this rigid sense of morality—not because she stops believing in good, but because her understanding of what good is changes drastically. This shift pushes her to commit actions she would have condemned before. The circumstances surrounding the twins compel her to shed her previous innocence. At the same time, Sarah’s vulnerable position forces Lucy into a more active, autonomous role, breaking free from the dependence she’s always had on her sister.
The male characters are frustrating—and that’s excellent. Neither Michael, Sarah’s husband, nor Arthur, the well-meaning family doctor, are explicitly evil (at least not initially). However, their positions in a male-dominated society place them above the twins, and when they choose to wield this socially granted power, they become dangerous forces against the sisters.
If I had to point out a flaw, it would be the pacing. I understand it’s a deliberately slow, creeping story, but at times, it felt repetitive or sluggish. That said, I finished it in about three days, so it didn’t affect my overall experience much—though I did feel like I’d read a much longer book than it is.
One last note: the book’s take on vampires is interesting, though I do wish someone would dare to bring back the classic blood-drinking vampire. This isn’t the fault of the author, who clearly had a different vision, but I feel that classic vampire lore could’ve worked beautifully in this setting.

This is exactly what I was looking for in October (the most likely time of year for me to be reading horror). This pulled me into the gloom and doom from the start. I could really picture the estate (and the bog body) and I was physically uncomfortable with the gore at times, but in a way that made me appreciate how well it was written. Wish there hadn't been so many eyeball-related incidents, though.

Heavy on the atmosphere, light(er) on the character development - while I admired Lucy's unwavering devotion to her sister, I wish I better understood the dynamic between them. Still, a solid historical/horror read - excited to read more from this author!

Johanna van Veen, I was not familiar with your game.

Actually, that's a lie. My Darling Dreadful Thing was one of my favorite books of 2023 and I practically squealed when I saw that that I had been approved for an early copy of this book too. There's something about van Veen's works that just GET me and after going two for two of absolute bangers from her, she's been firmly solidified as an auto-buy author for me.

Blood on Her Tongue, first and foremost, reminded me of how much I love reading. I've been in a reading slump for a few weeks now and though I've managed to finish three other books before this one, I'm now officially cured.

This book is actually perfect. Truly immaculate. Normally I have notes: things I dislike, things I wished for more of, things that I thought were rushed. Not in this case. The pacing was perfect, the characters were so vivid, and the twists had my jaw dropping multiple times.

I love messy sibling relationships and there wasn't anything messier than the dynamic between Lucy and Sarah. They were codependent and terrible to each other (and themselves, in the process), but also so overwhelmingly tender that I rooted for them wholly and completely throughout the entirety of the novel. They were perfectly imperfect in their own ways and even at odds, managed to be loyal to one another.

What this book really does, though, is question what makes a person a person. I won't divulge too much because this is truly one of those novels that you should go into completely blind, but the discussion of the things that make us who we are are really, really fascinating and hit like a gut punch in the context of sisterhood.

I could probably go on and on and on about how much I loved this book, how much it's permeated my thoughts, how much I'm ITCHING to get my hands on a physical copy. Instead, I'll say this: read this book. It's gory and atmospheric and full of heart (even if that heart is a bit twisted) and you will feel awful after reading it in the best possible way.

Five stars. Lucy and Sarah, I'll be thinking about you for a very long time.

Special thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an early copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own :)

This is the most original vampire novel I have read in a long time, and it is spectacular. I love it and want to teach it alongside Dracula and other gothic lit. van Veen is a fantastic storyteller, spinning webs and creating expectations that she then utterly turns upside down with complete aplomb and even glee. You think you know where this is going until you don't, and that happens many delicious times in the novel. The entire set-up is gothic perfection: Lucy receives disturbing letters from her sister, and sets off to visit. Her sister Sarah has recently been involved in the autopsy of a bog body, and something else came up out of the ground with it. There's a young relation, an old woman who employs Lucy as her companion, Sarah's husband, with whom Lucy has had an affair, a well-meaning childhood friend-turned-doctor who wants to marry Lucy, and another entity, whose character grows and develops in surprising ways. Highly recommended.

I got this as a physical copy, but just got accepted for this digital one! I’ll give my review below:

4.5⭐️ loved loved this second book by this author!! Same author as my darling dreadful thing, and thank you so much to poisoned pen press for sending me an early copy!

This was a gory and wild ride! The early bits gave me autopsy of Jane doe vibes?? It took a paranormal creature like turn! The plot is unmatched- a twin who has been deemed insane? Yes please

Includes female revenge, which is my fav sub plot 🔪🩸

"A thought had come to her, horrible enough that she remembered it even now: What if she and Sarah were like those pieces of the worm? Sarah, vivid and alive, and Lucy, nothing but a weak imitation of the real thing?"

Honestly, I requested this book so long ago that I never thought I would actually get it. As soon as I got the email, I dived right into it. And let me tell you, it felt both like a classic and one of the best things I've ever read.

I love me a disturbing book, but you can easily make me uncomfortable by going into vivid vegetal descriptions. That's why House of Hollow was a big no for me. However, I've had no such problem with 'Blood on Her Tongue'. I took every grain of horror, macabre, and grotesque with a crazy excitement. It's not often you find a book that merges so beautifully the concepts I love most in fantasy and, as of late, horror.

Now, to get into more serious matters, this was a work of art of highest quality. And it's not for those looking to read something light. On the contrary, it triggers such deep emotions you can't help but shudder. From complex and obsessive siblings to relationships harbouring dark and twisted secrets, the author truly gave us everything, coating it in a layer of decay and deception.

“Though if God disagrees and you are damned and restlessly must roam, please, Saartje, please come and haunt me,”

Twin dynamics are my guilty pleasure, I must admit. Even taking that into consideration, Sarah and Lucy were so fucked up. Sometimes I wonder, aren't we all siblings a little fucked up though? Sharing a love so fierce, capable of turning mountains to dust, but letting ourselves build up frustration until it bursts open and makes a mess. Our young women were exactly like that. Sarah, born to be the leader, ever restless, ever protective of her twin, Lucy, who's a quiet thing, hiding among her darkest, unfulfilled desires and the need to please those around her. One has it all, while the other drowns in the remains of a life unspent. They are inseparable until Lucy's fear pushes her into exile. But when Sarah, unwell again, seeks her aid, what can Lucy do but obey? Madness is in the family, and one dead child later, she's terrified her sister will end up in a mental facility, just like their aunt.

I'm dying to tell you some spoilers, but what I can tell you safely is that Lucy is not what she seems at all. There are so many secrets between these two sisters and it all unravels with the appearance of a bog body, a woman who's apparently come to haunt Sarah, a woman who will reveal the dark nature of this obsessive and frayed relationship, putting it to the test. Will their love prevail, or will Lucy finally rise to be something more than Sarah's sister? When I tell you this book won't let you put it down, IT WON'T LET YOU PUT IT DOWN.

THESE TWO WOMEN HAVE ME IN THEIR CLUTCHES AND I LOVE THEM TO RUIN.

As to the other characters, the author portrayed so nicely different types of people. We've got the standard, but not that standard, shitty husband who's got an extra pair of teeth, which I've never seen done before, but it was a really appreciated detail (at least someone liked it very much😉). He was hell-bent on getting on my nerves with his 'proper' woman bullshit, thinking himself some intellectual while dirty talking to a certain someone I won't name. Then comes the good doctor, aka the childhood friend. He might've annoyed me even more than the shitty husband. THE WOMAN SAID NO MY GUY. SHUT UP. And Katje! How could I forget about her? She is the light of my life, my forever sun and moon and everything. What j really liked in terms of side characters is that they were so well defined you could always take a liking on the most unexpected individuals. Everyone got their well deserved attention.

The action was a mix of betrayals and fighting for survival in a world where intelligent women exhibiting great interest in the sciences were considered fit for the madhouse. One wrong move, one out of proportion display of grief or curiosity, and you were done for. Lucy and Sarah fought against society, unwilling to let themselves share their aunt's fate.

Don't get me started on the aesthetics because I will never shut up! I'm convinced this is how a gothic novel should read like. Disturb you in such a way you will never recover! The vibes were immaculate, teleporting you into the past, bring a chill down your spine and having you addicted to the act of death and blood spilling. It was grotesque, macabre, brutal, charming and rotted to the core!

'Don’t you see your promises don’t mean anything if you’re only willing to help me when it doesn’t inconvenience you?'

There is so much more to this book you will have to find for yourself, but you must know this author is brilliant. If you're a gothic fan, what are you waiting for????

With a slow-burn, unsettling tension, Blood on Her Tongue is a must-read. As Lucy digs deeper, trying to protect her sister from whatever is taking hold of her, the story takes dark, unexpected turns that will keep you hooked. The eerie atmosphere and growing sense of dread build throughout. This gothic horror is seriously chilling and will stick with you long after you finish it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press, and most importantly, Johanna Van Veen, for this early ARC. Expected publication: March 25, 2025

I don’t know how Johanna Van Veen did it, but she has taken everything that made her debut so remarkable and elevated it to something absolutely extraordinary. This book is nothing short of a masterclass—gothic, haunting, and entirely consuming. Where her first novel was brilliant, this one is a force of nature.

The characters here are so vivid, so exquisitely realized, they feel like flesh and blood—ghosts of themselves lurking at the edge of your vision. Their struggles, their desires, their desperate choices ache on the page. You don’t just read this story—you live it. Van Veen’s gothic prose is pure sorcery, wrapping itself around you, dark and hypnotic, until you’re completely enthralled.

At its heart, this is the story of two sisters—identical in every way and willing to risk everything to save one another. It is a story of sacrifice and resilience, of unyielding love forged in the fire of impossible choices. It is a tale about how far someone will go to save the person they cannot bear to lose, even when the world turns cruel and unrelenting.

Every chapter ratchets up the tension, weaving together a narrative that is equal parts elegant and savage. It’s a story that doesn’t let you breathe, doesn’t let you look away, and leaves you gutted yet grateful by the final page.

To confine this story to a single label would strip it of its brilliance. What Johanna Van Veen has crafted is something far more profound—an unrelenting, blood-drenched tapestry of shadows and secrets, stitched together with a masterful hand. It is gothic horror at its most ambitious and consuming: a story that seeps into your bones, cloaked in dread and dripping with elegance, refusing to be forgotten.

Johanna Van Veen has written the ultimate gothic love letter—beautiful, unsettling, and dripping with tragedy. It’s a book that will haunt you long after you close it, and it solidifies her as a rising master of the genre.

This is one you need on your shelf!

To be a woman is to hunger for freedom.

Blood on Her Tongue embodies gothic horror to a degree rarely held by its contemporaries. It begins in 1880s Netherlands, with Lucy boarding a train to visit her ailing twin sister, Sarah; then quickly spirals into a mess of gore and conspiracies.

Johanna van Veen, with her exact talent for imagery, takes you along a complex tale of sisterhood and womanhood, constantly redefining the concept of hero and villain until you are left at the end simply too stunned to care.

Chilling, thought-provoking, and above all bloody.

I loved this gothic horror! Tense family dynamics, secrets, body horror and a unique setting.

A body is found in a peat bog. A woman is haunted by voices. Her sister must try to save her, but that may mean sacrificing someone else.

🥀 ARC review 🥀

Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen

Synopsis:
“I’m in your blood, and you are in mine…” The Netherlands, 1887. Lucy’s twin sister Sarah is unwell. She refuses to eat, mumbles nonsensically, and is increasingly obsessed with a centuries-old corpse recently discovered on her husband’s grand estate. The doctor has diagnosed her with temporary insanity caused by a fever of the brain. To protect her twin from a terrible fate in a lunatic asylum, Lucy must unravel the mystery surrounding her sister’s condition, but it’s clear her twin is hiding something. Then again, Lucy is harboring secrets of her own, too. Then, the worst happens. Sarah’s behavior takes a turn for the strange. She becomes angry… and hungry. Lucy soon comes to suspect that something is trying to possess her beloved sister. Or is it madness? As Sarah changes before her very eyes, Lucy must reckon with the dark, monstrous truth, or risk losing her forever.

Genre:
Gothic Horror

Fav Quote:
“Though if God disagrees and you are damned and restlessly must roam, please, please come and haunt me.”

What I Liked:
* A long time fan of horror, and a recent fan of gothic horror (thank you Brom), this was the perfect continuation of my descent into this genre
* The prose and descriptions in this novel really fed into the atmosphere of this story. I don’t often physically react to what I’m reading but there were several times where I felt uncomfortable/unsettled - which is exactly what I’m looking for in a horror novel!
* This book delves into the meaning of individuality, the morals of love, devotion and loyalty, and the impact of gender roles, which are so powerful in a horror story
* Slightly biased but I loved the touch of historical forensics/anthropology/archaeology as a tool to drive the plot!

For Fans of:
* Brom
* Stephen King
* Shirley Jackson

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Thank you to #netgalley and #poisonedpenpress for this ARC 🫶🏻 I honestly gasped when I got the email notification!

‘Blood on Her Tongue’ by Johanna van Veen
4.5 ⭐️

ARC REVIEW ‼️

Lucy’s twin sister Sarah, is unwell. She refuses to eat, mumbles nonsensically, and becomes obsessed with a centuries old body recently discovered in the bog. As Sarah continues to become more unwell, Lucy begins to suspect something more is happening to her sister than a simple illness.

Gothic horror at its finest, Blood on Her Tongue grabs you by the throat and tosses you in a beautifully dreadful story. I haven’t dabbled in gothic horror much since I’ve started reading, but after this I think it’s something I need to dive more into because I loved it. Gothic horror seems to have this dark but beautiful story telling about it, and Johanna van Veen just hit it on the nail with this release. Aspects of grief, mental health, and misogyny are explored in this tale, the characters are flawed, even the twins and you might find yourself thinking what makes us who we are?

The reason I’m not giving it a full 5 stars is the second half seemed to lose its steam and the overall vibe for me personally. The first half however makes up for a lot of that because I craved for more answers every chapter.

Blood on Her Tongue is a book that is written to show it’s not afraid of its own genre, and I love that. ‘My Darling Dreadful Thing’ has been on my TBR list for a while and now I am so excited to dive into it.

I will for sure be picking up a beautiful physical copy of this book.

*Blood on Her Tongue* by Johanna van Veen is a dark, atmospheric thriller that delves into themes of revenge, power, and identity. The story follows a woman who embarks on a dangerous and mysterious journey after a traumatic event, using her voice as both weapon and shield in a world full of deceit. Van Veen’s writing is sharp and evocative, creating a sense of tension and unease that lingers throughout the narrative. The protagonist is complex and morally ambiguous, making her journey both compelling and unsettling. With its blend of psychological suspense, gritty realism, and an exploration of female agency, *Blood on Her Tongue* offers a gripping, thought-provoking read for fans of dark thrillers.