Well, shut me in a dark and dreary house and call me mad because I finally found a gothic story that I love. Johanna van Veen’s latest novel, Blood on Her Tongue, proved to me that a story can honor all the typical gothic tale dressings while finding new, complicated ways to shock and disturb its readers. I was bought in from the first page, and it all started when the bog body was discovered.

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

Johanna van Veen gives a fair warning at the beginning of Blood on Her Tongue, and I’ll reiterate here, too, that this story is bloody descriptive. There are horror and gore moments that may be difficult for anyone squeamish, including a lot of blood and some unfortunate situations with eyes. However, don’t let that dissuade you from reading this story. I consider myself pretty squeamish, and I could handle all of the content while only skimming some of the more graphic parts. Overall I don’t consider Blood on Her Tongue too gory as it doesn’t overindulge in these moments, but they are there to heighten the drama in this gothic tale.

There’s something so enticing about a bog body. Johanna van Veen calls out to us to trek through the muck and gaze upon the horror pulled from the earth. She grabs you by the collar and forces you to look upon it while you battle the disgust, pity, and fear that emanate from such a find. The events surrounding the bog body are a great precursor for the horror elements to come. Johanna van Veen relies on her descriptive prose to complicate the unfolding events for the reader, making us feel a multitude of emotions as the blood spills. You will juggle the aversion and sadness the bog body creates and then, much later, the alarm and love that surround Sarah’s ordeal.

Blood on Her Tongue is a story about codependency. This theme is most noticeable between the protagonist and her twin as the reader quickly learns that Lucy is a more compliant, subdued woman compared to her brash and demanding sister. However, their sisterly relationship is but the first stone thrown into the water, and the codependency ripples throughout many other relationship iterations in the story. What I found to be the most interesting is how Lucy and Sarah’s codependency gets more complicated as the mystery unfolds because it changes the rules of their relationship and the world that they know. Where does a person begin and where do they end? What are the things that make up a person, and if these things still exist but are warped, are they still the people you know and love? van Veen asks us these questions and more as we juggle the blurry lines between sisters, lovers, and friends.

Uncover the secrets between sisters in Johanna van Veen’s Blood on Her Tongue. The bog body will haunt you, the men will infuriate you, and the women will find their strength in a bloody, cruel world.

Rating: Blood on Her Tongue - 8.0/10

I had signed up for an ARC off this book and forgot what it was about. So when I began reading I didn’t know what to expect. I liked that this has mythical creatures that I had not heard of before. Meaning that all the guises of what was going on were wrong. Now about Lucy, the main character. She is the quiet twin and always looking after her sister but doesn’t seem to be in life where she feels fulfilled. As the story progresses it feels like it took her time to reflect upon her life decisions and shoe her true self. With this I can’t say she finally became bad ass but just showed what she is willing to do for her sister.

Con: As I began reading I had trouble following who was who because the character uses a nickname for her sister that I didn’t realize it was a nickname until later. So I kept confusing the sister with another character who is a relative of the brother-in-law.

Gothic and bloody tale of sisterhood. A gothic melodrama with grotesque imagery and a philosophical bent. Also a fair amount of eye gouging. I enjoyed this one for all it's imagery and emotion, but I will say I didn't love it as much as My Darling Dreadful Thing. Still a strong book, well worth reading if you are a fan of the genre.
Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC.

One thing I know about myself is that I do not like the experience of body horror and gore, so why do I keep doing this to myself? That said, there's definitely body horrors, but the number of times I wanted to metaphorically shield my eyes was comparatively few.

I read this almost entirely in one sitting. It's extremely atmospheric, broody, bloody, and queer.

We have two sisters - twins - one married to a man with extra teeth and living in a manor whose name translates to Black Water, one living genteelly as a companion for an elderly woman. One twin has a history of madness, an obsession with a bog mummy found on the estate, and now a terrible illness and rising hunger. The other has always been the rock, and runs to care for her twin.

Naturally, as this is gothic horror, strange and terrible things happen. Dread pervades. Because this is not my primary genre, I don't know all the beats. There's a moment early-ish in the book, 30-40%, where I thought that it would be over and we'd move on to some different bit of story. But the author twisted it in ways I didn't expect or see coming (which I adored).

If this is your genre, absolutely give this one a go. If it's not... maybe give it a try anyway.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I think I like this one more than My Darling Dreadful Thing. WOW this is phenomenal work.

First off, the cover is stunning….obsessed. The writing just wraps you in a tight hug and doesn’t let go. It’s beautiful. It’s tragic. It makes you feel everything. The characters are SO entertaining and full of personality. It was such a strange and wild ride but I think it’s one that people need to read.

Shock factor was done so incredibly well too. EWWWW

5 stars!

"How horrifying. Is there anything more dangerous to a woman than to be beautiful when weeping?"

When I saw this book was written by a Dutch author and set in the Netherlands I was extra excited, because that's where I come from!

This book was set in 1887 and it perfectly describes the gruesome and difficult times of life as a woman in the Netherlands with a bit of a fantasy twist!

We follow the twins Sarah and Lucy. Sarah has peculiar interests for a woman at that time. She likes science, animals, plants and mysteries. When they find a bog body at Zwartwater the estate her and her husband, Michael, live at, she wants to be apart of every step of investigating the body together with her husband and his best friend who is a doctor. After dissecting the body Sarah starts to show weird signs, falls ill and writes unhinged letters to her sister Lucy.

Lucy decides to go visit her sister at Zwartwater to take care of her. Sarah starts acting weirder and weirder, is barely eating anymore and is showing signs of hysteria.

Will they find out who the body in the bog is? Will they discover what changed the behaviour of Sarah, and how to save her? While navigating the different romantic relationships?

This book is gothic horror, has some dark and very descriptive scenes. But on the other hand it also describes the difficult times for women during that age, and the unconditional love of twin sisters beautifully.

Netherlands, 1887. Lucy receives word that her sister, Sarah, is terribly unwell, and she makes it her utmost priority to care for her while she's ill and ensure that Sarah isn’t sent away to an asylum, because of her odd behavior. This becomes particularly challenging when Sarah starts behaving erratically, smelling of rot, and is inexplicably hungry.

I loved how unapologetically unhinged this book was. Blood on Her Tongue was a defiant, fever dream of a read.

This book was DARK, so it feels a bit weird to admit that I had a lot of fun reading it. But this was such a fun ride!

I love Gothic horror, and this book is very atmospheric. It’s set in the Netherlands, which is where I live, so I felt completely immersed in the gloomy, dark world of Zwartwater—the estate where the events take place.

I loved how the author balanced a gripping mystery with elements of horror while still bringing the characters to life and adding a touch of domestic drama.

One small reason I didn’t give this book full stars was that, while it started off really strong, it lost some of its intrigue in the final part when everything was revealed. I felt like that part could have been a bit more twisty, but overall I loved the book and highly recommend it.

I absolutely loved this gothic horror. There is definitely a feminist touch to this novel and I loved the ending!!! The gore/the horror really creeeped me out and I was so here for the dark/eerie vibes

*Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for the e-ARC! All opinions are my own.*

This book was a RIDE. I had to sit with it for a couple days before reviewing to collect my thoughts. I definitely enjoyed my time reading this book. It was twisty and more than once, I found myself physically tensing up and having to catch my breath while reading which is always a good sign. It’s unique in its tone and I’m far-stretched to think of a read alike in my personal experience. This book is fast-paced, the characters are complex and engaging (and next to impossible to like almost the entire time - by design, of course). The descent into madness that occurs throughout this plot is a marvel to watch. There’s themes of codependency, adultery, narcissism, and some just plain gross body horror. It also gave me some freaky dreams if I read a lil too close to bedtime - another good sign of a good creepy story.

Definitely not a book I’d go recommending to just anyone, but I will absolutely be keeping it in my back pocket.

Is it perfect? Most certainly not. The writing can get a *little* repetitive if you’re paying too close attention - Johanna likes certain phrases and that shows. But the reality of reading, at least for me, is that sometimes shit like that just doesn’t matter.

SO. In conclusion, proceed with caution but my god have a funky freaky good time.

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for letting me read an eARC of Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen. Having read Johanna's first novel, I was eagerly anticipating her second, and it does not disappoint. I loved the unique twist on the vampire Johanna gave and the more historical setting of the late 1800s this novel provided. What made My Darling Dreadful Thing so successful in my opinion was the terrific character development, and that continues in Blood on Her Tongue. You really come to connect with Lucy and the plight she is dealing with concerning her sister because of the way the characters are written. The additional plus of connecting with them is that it only ups the gothic horror that grows as the plot moves along.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book pulled me in quicker than peat in a bog, but you find out what’s going on with Sarah pretty early on and then it really slows down. I appreciated the relationship between Sarah and Lucy but in my opinion all of Lucy’s actions were annoying and childish. It’s kinda hard to review Van Veen’s novels as they’re just a WHOLE GOTHIC VIBE above all else. As a whole I liked this book more than her debut novel (which I also liked!) as it was waaaaay bloodier and involved bog bodies which totally fascinate me🩸 The cover is also beautiful! Song pairing is My Immortal by Evanescence ❤️‍🩹

PUB DATE: MARCH 24TH 2025 🥳

How far would you go for family?

I devoured this book. I would say it's a read-alike to The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones, but it also had similar vibes to What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher, Our Hideous Progeny by CE McGill, and Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Van Veen was a new author to me, and I know you aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover – but that’s what I did. Browsing NetGalley and seeing ‘Blood on Her Tongue’ with its Gothic cover - I was immediately sold. I will also be going back and adding her other backlist titles to my TBR, and if you follow her in social media, you will see why.

I also love the preface, which is a super personal touch from Van Veen talking about some of the trigger warnings in the book, which shows how much she values her readers and their current mental states.

I’d read this off the back of things like ‘The Lamb’ by Lucy Rose, ‘Hungerstone’ by Kat Dunn and ‘Victorian Psycho’ by Virginia Feito, so I think I am deep into in my ‘Feminine Rage’ era, and I’m loving it.

Intimately exploring the mystical relationships of twins, we follow our protagonist after she receives word her sister has become unwell. Rushing to Sarah’s side, Lucy finds her twin gravely ill, raving nonsensically and obsessed by ‘The Bog Body’ – a corpse Sarah’s husband found out in the peat lands they own, buried with a stone in its jaws and all joints staked.

As Sarah descends into madness, we see the affect it has on her twin and the house at large, how the ripples spread and the people Sarah’s illness grips. We see Lucy fight and witness the lengths she will go to in order to protect her sister but the things she will do for her own gain too…

I loved that everything pointed in the direction of vampires and is even categorised as vampire fiction, but then took a sharp left turn into something new and refreshing. A real puzzle-piece story of family, betrayal, mental health and an undercurrent of sapphic romance, this is one I will be actively trying to sell as much as I can.

The perfect read for fans of T. Kingfisher, S.T. Gibson and Sheridan le Fanu!

As always, an enormous ‘thank you’ goes out to both the author, NetGalley and the publishing team at Sourcebooks Inc for an advanced reading copy, in exchange for an honest review.

“𝘐’𝘮 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦.”

This novel is an eerie Victorian gothic laced in elements of body horror, relationships that decay as others strengthen, cloying sickness under the guise of love, the unveiling of secrets and hidden deception of character, and parasitic creatures raised from the darkness.

🩸Gothic Horror
🩸Victorian Setting
🩸Mysterious Sickness
🩸Body in the Bog
🩸Feminine Rage
🩸Mental Illness
🩸Secrets
🩸Body Horror
🩸Sapphic Rep
🩸Twins

2/5

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!

Oh this would have been a 4 stars if not for the last third of this book. It completely ruined the novel for me, which is unfortunate. Horror novels I find really need to stick the landing and this one did not at all. That being said this had some very well done body horror and some scenes that are for sure horrific.
Lucy was insufferable but I held out hope she would have some character development. She did not. Like she literally has zero self agency and no personality to speak of.
Personally I would have killed Not-Sarah, or rather, let her starve. Sorry but that is NOT your sister!! She KILLED your sister yet Lucy is like ‘she has Sarah’s memories so she just be Sarah in some way’ NO. It is experiencing those things that make you the person, not just seeing the memories. The parasite was not there at the time, so she didn’t live it out! Either way I can’t say this was the best take on vampires I’ve ever read. I honestly wish we had more lore about what sort of vampires they even were because it was really vague. Where do they come from, how are they made, how do they know how to imitate a human, etc?
Furthermore, the ending was just messy. Why did Arthur go evil in the span of 5 pages? And why was he even deemed ‘evil’? Like he saw Not-Sarah EAT SOMEONE’S HAND. Why would he NOT think she was insane?! 😭
I get the point the author was trying to make about how women would be thrown into institutes and asylums for anything abnormal but I’m afraid Arthur was justified in thinking Sarah had to GO. Him doing a 180 and trying to manipulate Lucy into marriage was just so out of character for him and it felt very much forced in.
I think this book was hitting the message of ‘men were misogynists back then!’ a bit too hard because it felt like the men had no personalities outside of being rude to women, which is not at all how things worked back then? They had full personalities along with sometimes being misogynistic and just having Micheal’s whole personality being having him be supposedly abusive just kind of undermines exactly why misogyny is so dangerous -> because it occurs with men who have full interests and lives that do not indicate it at all at first.
I honestly liked Micheal a bit like he served his role well but again I felt he was too cartoon villain ish. He had the best dialogue of anyone for sure, though.
The ending was so abrupt and again, I felt that the reasoning for the characters to do what they did was out of wack. Five chapters ago Lucy was having a panic attack over the thought of killing someone and then she kills two people in the span of like twenty minutes??? We see no jump in her thoughts to justify this and she just acted so stupid.
I personally hate characters who make another person their whole life and that was Lucy. Like girl your twin did not like you half as much as you liked her and the relationship was toxic to the point that it became unbearable.
Lots of people say the novel lost stems after Sarah came back and I have to agree. The mystery of what she was was far more engaging then the plot line of ‘if and how do we feed the parasite using my sister’s body?’
I just UGH was so pissed that Lucy fell for Not-Sarah’s act. I would never have helped her.
But also the second I saw a body with stakes in it I would have ran away so I’d be safe from the events of this novel anyway.
The huge positive of this novel is the writing. Stunning and gorgeous. I only wish the last third of the novel wasn’t the disaster it was :(

Yes yes yes. I LOVED this! Blood on Her Tongue is definitely going to be a top book for me this year. Gothic, gory, perfection. Everything about this just absolutely worked for me. Also cannot wait to have this book on my shelves with those bloody edges!

Once again, Johanna Van Veen masterfully officiates a most unholy marriage of the macabre, the supernatural, and the tragically beautiful in her second horror novel, Blood on her Tongue. There are bleak days ahead for Lucy Goedhart and twin sister, Sarah Schatteleyn. This horrifying tale begins with Lucy rushing to Sarah’s side after learning the news she has contracted a mysterious illness and lies on her death bed. The only thing Lucy knows for certain is her sister’s illness was immediately preceded by the discovery of a bog-body---a naturally mummified human cadaver whose body exhibits shocking evidence of unspeakable violence left abandoned and entombed in the sucking mires of the Schatteleyn Estate. Upon her arrival to the Schatteleyn manor, Lucy also learns that Sarah’s disease is quite…peculiar. She refuses to eat but acquires a bizarre taste for human flesh, and she suffers from a psychosis that fixates around delusions of obsession and possession. Lucy immediately evaluates her twin’s circumstances as critically dire and knows a fate worse than death could be in store for her should Sarah survive without the secrets behind her perplexing condition unearthed. It would mean a one-way ticket to an 1800s insane asylum, truly a waking nightmare. Both Lucy and Sarah are tiptoeing around secrets they are reluctant to disinter, even though it could provide the salvation they so desperately need. The stakes summit at their highest when Sarah’s condition sharply deteriorates, her hunger becoming irrepressible and her secrets impossible to hide any longer. Lucy can no longer ignore the feeling that Sarah isn’t really Sarah anymore, a premonition that she decides can only be attributable to another mental break, like once before…or supernatural possession. Either way, Lucy is suspicious of Sarah: is she mad or bad? To save each other, both sisters must find each other again, sharing the most shameful parts of themselves and confronting hard-to-digest truths, long ago abandoned and deeply buried just like that mysterious bog-body...

This is a Victorian gothic transfused with the grotesquely horrifying and the nightmarishly supernatural, giving you a propulsive page turner that is totally engrossing, absorbing the reader entirely inside a story shocked to life from all the chills, thrills, and kills. Van Veen offers up a refreshingly original perspective on vampirism and takes the reader down a path littered with bog-bodies and monsters---most of whom come, unsurprisingly, in the shape of regular men---oh the misogyny of it all! This book is powerfully evocative, sparking feelings of incredible loss from grief and stolen autonomy. Additionally, compounding grim circumstances and Lucy’s blinding anguish from impossible choices creates a physical, pulsing ache that bleeds over to the reader! There is a good amount of body horror, so that is definitely something to be aware of before starting this book. I loved that Lucy proved to be a resilient main character, and I was totally stunned by the ending. I devoured this story in just a few days, and I already thirst for more!

I am an identical twin, and I feel I experienced a deeper connection to the sisters and a greater understanding of some of their more shocking choices: I will always choose my twin over anyone or anything else. Frequently, I found myself in Lucy’s shoes, and it only heightened the thick miasma of dread I was already suffering for them both! I think it is difficult to really capture the unwavering devotion identical twins can have for each other alongside the complex, contrasting struggles they might naturally experience when society at large likes to invasively gorge on curiosities: examining, comparing, and picking apart the strange and unusual. Having identical twin sisters herself, the author captures these juxtaposing ideas and emotions incredibly well. Once again, I highly recommend reading this book. It’s horrifying and tragic, equally unsettling, but twice as lovely.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC and the opportunity to share what I think! All opinions are my own. The publication date is tomorrow, March 25th! I will be posting this review on my Goodreads and Instagram accounts.

Another spin on the vampire novel, Johanna van Veen has created a new tale for vampire lore. Sarah and her husband, Michael, live on a swampy estate. A body is found in one of their bogs and buried in a most peculiar manner. Sarah is fascinated and ends up with a sickness stemming from finding the body. Her twin, Lucy, quickly makes her way to Sarah's bedside and after believing Sarah has succumbed to this strange illness, Sarah awakens. And she's not really Sarah anymore. Lucy is torn between morality and her sister/not sister.
Lots of body horror in this one. And I'm not going to give any of the story away. Parasitic would be a good way to put this.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this digital e-arc.*

Blood on Her Tongue is a gothic horror novel, featuring bloody scenes, a twin mystery (love this trope) well-mixed with both bog creatures and vampire legends. The gothic atmosphere was perfect! It set the mood and worked very well with the plot. The introduction with trigger warnings was excellently written and made me even more interested in the book (well done by the author!). I think the author has done a thorough, fantastic job with the text. The story is very well written and perfectly executed. It is beautiful and almost poetic at times. The descriptions are extremely atmospheric and bring the story to life. Johanna van Veen is an exceptionally talented author, and the editorial work on this book is likely very professional and meticulously done. I have read several gothic horror books over the years, and this book definitely fits well into the genre. Some scenes were surprising and downright scary, but I think it is the atmospheric buildup that makes this book so good. Highly recommended to anyone looking to read a dark, eerie tale.