‘’That night, it stormed. The wind stripped trees of their bark and branches. It howled, threw things, like a child having a tantrum. Raindrops cold and hard as bullets smashed against walls and windows and wormed their way into every nook and cranny. Soon, rain trickled down the walls and ruined the wallpaper or dripped from the roof.’’

A body unearthed from a bog sets in motion a chain of events that are simply too unfathomable to comprehend. A young woman struggles to help her sister who has found herself in the centre of an impossible fight. How can you battle demons and men at the same time without losing a piece of yourself in the process? This is the reality Lucy is facing in a novel that is the epitome of the word ‘unforgettable’.

I really, really do NOT have the words to describe my reactions as a chapter finished and another started. We are talking about moments that surpass the definitions ‘Dark’ and ‘Gothic’ and ‘Haunting’ and so on and so forth. What we have here is a novel that belongs to the Gothic genre but with a story that centres around female identity, oppression, loyalty and independence. The hunger for blood can be read as hunger for a life that is not dictated by marital and societal rules but by the familial bonds and the interests that cultivate our personality. The characters are deeply flawed - even Lucy, our amazing main character - but the way the narrative has been constructed makes you deeply interested in their fate. They will anger, shock, and frustrate you, but it will be impossible for the reader not to devour the chapters with a pounding heart.

Point one: If you are squeamish about blood, tread carefully. I am the most stone-hearted creature on the planet when it comes to gore and grim but even I had to avert my eyes from the page in certain parts.

Point two: ‘Female rage’ - and I have no idea why this absurd term was coined and why it should be considered a new literary genre - is for idiots. Labels are for idiots. Good stories are good stories that need to be told. Woke terms are for political agendas.

Yeah, not interested.

‘’By now, the sun had thoroughly set, but she had the light of the stars and moon to guide her. It was a thin pale light, painting everything around her in hues of gray and blue. Thin tendrils of mist crept from the earth and nipped at her ankles. It was said that they heralded the arrival of the witte wieven, white women who came out at night from the burial mounds that were everywhere on the Dutch heath, hungry for gold, hungry for souls. They were the restless ghosts of witches, or fairies wishing to lure people off the straight and narrow, or perhaps something else altogether.
They could be the ghosts of those unfortunates who have drowned in the bog.’’

Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/

The Netherlands, 1887. Lucy receives a series of increasingly alarming letters from her twin sister, Sarah, who seems obsessed with the mummified corpse found in the bog on her manor’s grounds. At Sarah’s husband’s request, Lucy arrives at the manor, only to find Sarah horribly changed, emaciated and raving about a “Marianne” who is “in her head.” Then an unthinkable, horrendous event happens… Terrified for her sister’s life and sanity, Lucy will try everything to protect her from harm, particularly from being sent to a lunatic asylum, which is a fate both sisters deem worse than death.

I’ve always thought I wasn’t fond of historical fiction, but as it turns out, historical horror might just be an exception! I really liked this book. It has so many elements that I love in my reads: letters, found journals, a dig, puzzled scientists, a cursed find – as there is no doubt there is something very wrong with the bog body. The novel also has an eerie and claustrophobic mood, in which the house plays a big part, as it is an old, leaky mansion sprawling across a partially drained bog.

However, the book’s strength are the characters and the multi-faceted horrors they are subjected to. I loved how the bond between the sisters was presented, as well as the slow unveiling of Sarah’s husband’s personality. The horror in the novel has many sources: there’s both psychological and supernatural terror, as well as body horror and gore. There is also a commentary on the condition of a female in the late-19th-century society, which in itself is terrifying.

The reason this was not 5 stars for me was the tone – it felt very uneven, with some sudden, awkward shifts, especially in parts with Lucy’s employer and with the family doctor. I would still recommend this book for those who love a Gothic horror of the “good for her” variety, with an added sapphic rep.

4.5 stars for me! I went into this book somewhat blind — thank you NetGalley for the E-Arc. I tend to request sapphic and thriller books and this combined the two right in my wheelhouse. I was never bored reading this, I was absolutely sucked in from page 1 completely to the end. I love that the author leaned into the crazy during the plot. It didn’t feel like the readers had to know if the main characters are potentially experiencing this supernatural thing or if it was in their heads for me to 100% root for them. These characters have flaws, but they were so relatable and tangible. Trigger warning the book is completely gory but in a way that felt somewhat necessary. I love the exploration of the very human question “how far would I go for my sister?”

❝𝘓𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘮𝘦! 𝘓𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘳𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘧𝘧 𝘐'𝘮 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘧,❞ 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐲 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝.

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𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚜/𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚜:

sisterly love
touch her & 🔪
cannibalism/blood drinking
female hysteria
queer love
1800s setting
feminine rage
betrayal & secrets

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The story follows Lucy, who received multiple letters from her twin sister, Sarah whose health has been declining and is asked to visit her. As time goes on she soon discovers something isn't quite right with her sister.

This book was giving me Venom & Jennifer's Body vibes 👌🏽

It was such an interesting read!

**𝚜𝚙𝚘𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚘𝚠**

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I for sure thought perhaps the bog body Sarah encountered was a vampire, but that was not the case. It was more like a parasite-like creature infected Sarah through the body and caused her to commit atrocious acts.

The way the main men treated the female characters was really accurate to the time period, and it made me rage ngl. It was so satisfying when Lucy k!lled them both to protect her sister.

This was my first time reading a book by Johanna van Veen and I really liked her writing style!

Blood on her Tongue is the most atmospheric book I’ve read in a long time. It’s set at a manor surrounded by bogs, and things are as creepy and gothic as you might imagine. Part of the story revolves around a frightening discovery made in one of the bogs, and the landscape plays a large role in the story.

The two main characters are twin sisters, which made for great commentary on sister relationships and female friendship. As one of the sisters descends into a mystery illness and her grip on reality. We watch as her twin grapples with these changes and tries to save her.

In 1887 Netherlands, Lucy's twin sister Sarah refuses to eat, mumbles, and is obsessed with a centuries-old corpse recently discovered on her husband's estate. It's being called temporary insanity caused by a fever of the brain, and Lucy fears that she'll be sent to a lunatic asylum. With secrets of her own, Lucy tries to unravel what happened to Sarah even as she changes. Is Sarah possessed or truly mad?

Gothic horror invokes a suffocating sense of place, secrets, longing, and often a bloody monster of some kind. Here we have the specter of mental illness and the lack of understanding of it in that time period. Men had power and prestige, and could do whatever they wanted to wives "in their best interest." As a result, asylums were feared places for women, where abuses could run unchecked.

It's in this world that we have Lucy summoned to help her ill sister, who fixated on the bog body found on the family property. Sarah had once been the more outspoken of the two but became a shell of herself. We find out more about the body, the relationship between the twins, the husband, the cousin by marriage, and the childhood friend who is their doctor. It's such a tight-knit cast of characters that secrets are hard to keep, yet they still manage it. The ultimate secret about Sarah is a bit of a surprise and not quite what we think it is. We get the full story about halfway through, and then it's a question of survival, identity, and loyalty. The ending is surprising yet not, and it kept me enthralled until the last page.

Blood on Her Tongue was every bit of gothic codependency I hoped for after reading My Darling, Dreadful Thing. Without any spoilers, "a girl's gotta eat" is my favorite sub-genre of horror, and this was such an excellent morsel of it! Recommend for anyone who wants something dark with more of a slow-build rage with a healthy dose of angst and hysteria.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an advance copy for review!

One thing about me is if there's bog bodies involved, I am going to be reading it! My Darling Dreadful Thing was one of my favourite reads last year so naturally I was excited to read what Johanna van Veen was releasing next. Blood on Her Tongue is gross, atmospheric, and oh so very atmospheric. The word "gothic" is thrown around too casually these days but not in this case. van Veen understands gothic sensibilities to their core and it drips from the page. This book is seeping, weather-ravaged, and full of creeping dread. I can't wait to read it again during spooky season! Johanna van Veen is an auto-read author for me!

The writing in this novel is gorgeous. I appreciated the true gothic vibes and was genuinely creeped out.

I was an absolute fan of “My Darling Dreadful Thing” when I read it last year and knew I had to read “Blood on Her Tongue” the moment I heard about it. Who doesn’t love a gothic little vampire story?!

Things I particularly enjoyed:
🖤 I was a huge fan of the horror itself! I think it did a great job of being creepy and disturbing without being so heavy handed.
🖤 Loved this take on vampires! It’s such a unique version, at least to me, and found it very interesting.

Things I wasn’t necessarily a fan of:
🖤 Personally, I just didn’t understand why Lucy made certain decisions she made throughout the book and I found that to be super distracting for me.

Overall I did enjoy the book and think it is definitely worth a read!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for making an advance copy available to me in exchange for an honest review!

Overall Rating | ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Set in the Netherlands in 1887, Lucy finds out that her sister, Sarah, is unwell and heads to see what is happening. Sarah seems not to be eating, mumbles a lot, and has a strange obsession with the bog woman. The bog woman is a corpse that was found on Sarah and her husband's property, which the doctor was doing an autopsy on once it was removed from the bog. The doctor, a childhood friend, has reported that she is temporarily insane due to fever of the brain. Due to past family history with trauma around insane asylums, Lucy must figure out what is causing her sister to act so strange before she is carted off to an asylum. Sarah is hiding something, but Lucy has her dark secrets too.

This book was interesting. At times it felt a bit slow, but at others it was intense. I thought this was a vampire book, but it was an excellent gothic horror showing a bond between twin sisters tested through illness, grief, and something lurking from beyond. I think the author did a great job of staying within the time period while weaving in queerness as well with Sarah. There are definitely some gruesome scenes, which don't bother me, but if you can't handle blood and guts - maybe stay away.

If you’ve been searching for a book to satisfy your endless craving for gothic stories, look no further than Blood On Her Tongue.

This book was beautiful, eerie, and atmospheric. I truly enjoyed my experience reading it. I could go on and on endlessly about how much I loved it. Suffice it to say, I devoured it. In just a few pages, I was enthralled and I found it hard to put the book down. There was a line at the beginning when I knew I would love it because it reminded me of Jane Eyre. If you’re like me and you can never have enough gothic stories, the this book is for you.

This is a book about two twin sisters, Lucy and Sarah. Lucy rushes to her sister’s side when she receives an alarming letter from her sister. It seems that Sarah is gravely ill after finding something on her property. Lucy is quickly drawn into the mystery at Zwartwater and things soon take a turn for the worse. Lucy is then left to decide how far her devotion to her sister goes.

Van Veen took well known gothic tropes and breathed new life into them. This had everything one could hope for in a good gothic novel from mystery, a bit of body horror, gore, and even bog bodies. The story kept me engaged throughout the novel. The atmosphere was so vivid that I felt I was in Zwartwater with Lucy and her sister. This book was as easy to fall into as a puddle of water. Once it has you in it’s grip, it won’t let go until the end.

This was my first experience reading this author’s work and it definitely won’t be the last. I look forward to reading My Darling Dreadful Thing next. If you’re someone who fell in love with the story in Crimson Peak and has desperately been trying to find something that feels similar, I’d highly recommend Blood On Her Tongue. I'd recommend this book to horror lovers, especially those that love gothic books.

Thank you to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press, and the author for providing me with an ARC for review.

4/5 ⭐️

This had the most gothic, dark, mysterious, creepy, and grotesque vibes. This is the second book by Johanna I've read and I really enjoyed both books. I don't want to say too much to give anything away but if you're into gothic/horror books I would recommend this.

Thank you to NetGalley, Johanna van Veen, and Poisoned Pen Press for my early access to this.

Miss Lucy Goedhart looks forward to letters from her twin sister, Mrs. Sarah Schatteleyn. The letters have been interesting as of late. Sarah provides all the grotesque details, and even a haunting drawing of the bog body recently found on her estate. While out of the ordinary, the bog body is not what concerns Lucy enough to travel to her sister’s side. Sarah’s letters become increasingly unintelligible. Lucy travels to her sister’s lovely but damp home, fearful of what she may find. Is her sister ill and dying? Has she suffered from another mad episode? When Lucy arrives, she will uncover the bloody secret of what truly ails her twin.

The author gives a fair warning at the beginning of “Blood on Her Tongue,” that this story is bloody descriptive. There are horror and gore moments that may be difficult for anyone squeamish, I don’t consider “Blood on Her Tongue” too gory as it doesn’t overindulge in these moments, but they are there to keep the drama in this gothic tale. The novel is about codependency. One sees it between the twins. There are secrets between sisters. As one finds the secrets, will it satisfy you?

First things first I sadly didn’t love this as much as My Darling Dreadful Thing, but you can’t love everything an author puts out. Although I thought this was a pretty solid story.

In the Netherlands in 1887, Lucy receives word that her sister, Sarah, is gravely ill. Determined to care for her during this difficult time, Lucy makes it her top priority to ensure that Sarah is not sent away to an asylum due to her unusual behaviour. This task becomes increasingly challenging as Sarah begins to act erratically, exhibiting a foul smell and displaying an insatiable hunger.

This book was very unhinged, and I was drawn in from the very first chapter. It’s full of gore, sisterly love, mental illness, and self-worth; also, the gothic theme was on point. It presents a great take on vampires! If you are a fan of Carmilla, I think you would enjoy this one.

Thank you to Netgalley for my Arc!

Preliminary feels: a bloody good time.

I have a feeling this is going to be one of my top reads of 2025. It's got all of the trappings of a historical gothic - a restrictive era of behavior, family drama, dark secrets, a supernatural twist, body horror, vampiric acts, and a moody, broody locale. But it's also got dynamic women who are loyal to each other, and have no qualms about overruling the controlling and patronizing men in their lives to do what they believe is right.

Despite the older cadence of the time, the writing is dynamic and pulls you in quickly, sucking you into the estate of Zwartwater, the complex dynamic between lead Lucy and her twin sister Sarah, and the both allure and repulsion of the bog woman, having very specific appetites, and how far we would go for the people that we love.

I also love the underlying thread that darkness and selfishness can be forgiven. While I still think Lucy gets the shortest end of the stick even if she's got a chance for happiness in the end, there's so much about how we all act selfishly or make mistakes, and that there's room to move on from them. That we aren't damned forever by the majority of our choices.

This was so excellent. A bloody, slutty, vicious good time.

With Blood on Her Tongue, Johanna Van Veen took everything in the vampire genre and turned it all the way over, providing such a unique and fresh perspective I’ve yet to see.
From page one this was everything I could hope for in a twisty gothic horror novel, dark and creepy, mysterious, and vaguely sexy in a strange, indeterminate way. Right away it’s clear something eerie is going on, but as we delve into what has happened and things progress, the anticipation builds to a heady tension that shatters everything in such a delightfully violent way.
The female rage vibes are immaculate and I love the perspective of what happens when girls stick together in the face of dismissive, self important men. I 100% recommend you dig right into this one like it’s a girl dinner 😉

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with an eARC via NetGalley.
Publication date 3/25/25

Thank you to Net Galley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC of Blood on Her Tongue in exchange for an honest review.

"If this is what death tastes like, and death is as it tastes, then it is a dull thing indeed."

This is a fast-paced gothic horror that I enjoyed reading. We're starting the book with Lucy coming to Zwartewater to care for her unwell twin sister. Sarah becomes obsessed with a bog body that was found on their estate and is not refusing to eat. Lucy is trying to unravel the mystery of the corpse while Sarah keeps getting worse

The book had me in the first 2 parts, but then I was lost when we got to part 3. (Spoilers) This book was just chaotic. The description of how the parasite operated was annoying. Lucy needs to grow a backbone and should have lived happily ever away from all of that foolishness. Sarah was a horrible human being before and after the parasite and did not deserve that bling support from her sister.

Overall, I rated this book a 3.5. It's a cool book if you don't look too deeply and are just here for entertainment.

“𝙜𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙛 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙪𝙨 𝙙𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨.”

i do not have the words, wow, i did not anticipate that ending at all.. like.

weirdly creepy, dark at times, but!! such a good read. aside from her main characters, the side characters really stood out to me (i am trying so hard to not spoil this). the writing flowed well, didn’t feel at all overwhelming. slow start but that ending! pls, overall enjoyed reading this. got me out of a reading slump a bit.

recommend looking up some TWs before reading -

𝘵𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘤 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 :’)

This is a splentactuar gothic horror novel. Johanna van Veen knows how to write dark, gothic novels that make me uncomfortable. This is a great story of a sisters' love that know no bounds. If you love bog stories, vampires, gore and body horror following strong and determined women, you need to add this book to the top of you TBR.