Lucy's twin sister, Sarah, is bed bound after an encounter with a body preserved in the peat on her husband's property. While her husband, Michael, thinks it might just be a consequence seeing a corpse had on her delicate, feminine constitution, Lucy knows her scientifically minded sister better than that. Sarah has had some health scares before, and after their aunt died in an asylum, the prospect of losing her to the same cruel system is horrifying. Even their childhood friend and Sarah's current doctor, Arthur, is doubting Sarah's sanity, and her insistence that the bog woman is speaking to her inside of her mind isn't helping. The situation gets even stranger when Sarah dies... and sits back up in her coffin, as if nothing had happened.

'Blood on Her Tongue' is a delightfully disgusting gothic horror novel. Bog bodies are fascinating, and something I've never really seen explored in a horror setting before. Johanna van Veen takes a lot of inspiration from gothic horror, though the gore and language usage feels a bit extreme than what you'd find in a classic novel. If you're sensitive to violence, you might want to skip this book--I'm normally not squeamish, but the eye-horror had me feeling a bit queasy.

Lucy is an interesting protagonist, though not entirely likeable. I think she suits the narrative fine, being a quieter and more passive foil to Sarah, and she definitely grows into her own flavor of strange as the story continues. That said, she is the source of my biggest problem with the novel... I just don't get what she sees in Michael. He's unlikable within his first appearance, but it takes this woman who saves spiders so long to see the guy who throws his dog around for what he is. It does add to the gothic atmosphere of the book--this man who is awful to his wife has such a magnetic pull on her sister, but Lucy's angst towards her inability to be with Michael was the least enjoyable part of the book to me, since he really had nothing going for him.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with 'Blood on Her Tongue', and it felt like a great throwback to gothic classics like 'Dracula' and 'Wuthering Heights'. I definitely want to check out van Veen's previous novel, and I look forward to what she'll write in the future.

The first book completed of 2025 and what a read it was! Original. Inventive. Compelling. Unique. Scary. Gross. Full of twists. Memorable characters. Demented family dynamics. I could sing endless praise about this book. Has quickly become one of my favorite new horror writers.

Take three: Twins. Gothic setting. Hunger. This book has it all, in the most creepy and delicious way! Thanks heaps to @netgalley, @johannavanveen1997 and @poisonedpenpress for early access.

I don’t often read books with this setting - think old European manor houses with lords and ladies and whatever. Victorian era? I have never been interested enough to know. But this novel was different. I mean, besides the horror elements (which are awesome), the setting didn’t jar on my brain. Definitely going to grab My Darling, Dreadful Thing next month.

I just loved how over dramatic this was. It’s not funny, but it is fun. And you can imagine what the trio got up to after they left.

Book Review: Blood on Her Tongue

If you’re a fan of Gothic horror that truly embodies the essence of the genre, Blood on Her Tongue is an absolute must-read. This book was exceptional—every page dripping with an unsettling atmosphere that grips you from start to finish.

I devoured this in less than 48 hours, unable to put it down, and I’m already eager to explore more from this author. The writing is disturbingly vivid and masterfully crafted, creating a sense of dread that lingers long after you’ve turned the last page.

The author does an incredible job of staying true to the Gothic horror tradition, weaving together chilling imagery, haunting themes, and an oppressive atmosphere that is both mesmerizing and deeply unsettling. It’s rare to find a book that captures the dark beauty of this genre so effectively.

Blood on Her Tongue is everything I love about Gothic horror: dark, disturbing, and exceptionally well-written. This one will stay with me for a long time. Highly recommended!

4.5 stars.
This is my first book by this author and it was a great read. The author excels at creating the cloying, creepy dark atmosphere. It was so vivid for me that I could feel and smell the scenes at times. The way the story unfolds including through letters and articles is very interesting. I found Lucy to be a very interesting main character- I wanted her to succeed, felt empathy for her feelings and yet she managed to infuriate me with her choices and actions. No other character had as much depth as her but it was interesting to see how other characters like Arthur and Michael perceived her. The casual misogyny through the male characters spoke volumes and the author uses that deftly while able to show how belittling it must for be for a woman to face that. And yet the same woman then demonstrates her elitist biases when it comes to a maid. This was well done and felt appropriate to the setting.
I loved the story, the atmosphere, the superstitions and complexities of relationships between sisters as well the blurred lines of love.
Thanks for the advanced copy.

A gorgeously twisted dive into gothic horror, Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen weaves a tale of love, rage and the bonds of sisterhood. Lucy is called to her twin sister's side after Sarah is diagnosed with temporary insanity and consumed by anger with an unnatural hunger. But Lucy has secrets of her own and must decide how far she will go to protect her sister or risk losing her forever.

Van Veen is a master of gothic ambiance and the macabre. The dark, visceral descriptions pull you into the heart of the story. Every shadow feels alive, every setting steeped in menace, and it's not just a sense of dread. This story is dripping in blood with moments so vivid they'll make you flinch.

All this creates an oppressive yet mesmerising backdrop for the exploration of societal expectations, mental health, and madness, as well as the bonds between women especially sisterhood. The relationship between Lucy and Sarah is at the heart of the novel, twin sisters whose bond is as fraught as it is unbreakable. Van Veen masterfully captures the complexities of sibling love and rivalry; the fight for your own identity within a relationship with someone who is as close to you as your own self while also asking how far you would go to protect them.

That said the story closely follows established gothic tropes. Those familiar with these story beats may be waiting for a twist that never comes. Some of Lucy's decisions, particularly regarding Sarah and the change she undergoes, felt hard to believe even though they fit the gothic style. While the journey remains engaging, and Lucy's climax in particular is deeply satisfying, the overall conclusion may feel a little lack lustre.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for providing a DRC in return for an honest review via Netgalley.

Set in the 1800s Netherlands I loved the historical fiction setting with a twist of dark gothic horror vibes. Johanna really sets you into the characters spaces gives your team to feel for the characters. Even grasp emotional attachments for those who could be considered morally grey. It’s a story of grief and what would you do to protect the ones you love.

Gothic, eerie, murky, swampy, unnerving, and completely addictive. Only the smallest teasers are given - enough to keep you hooked. A slow burn horror with characters you aren't sure you like or dislike. The setting is immaculate and you feel chilled the entire time. A slower-paced book overall, but worth the extra push to get through. The horror is certainly there but it isn't exorbitant or excessive.

Highly recommend it overall, especially if you're looking for something gothic that feels like stepping into a musty and creepy old gothic mansion where you aren't entirely sure you're alone. Can't wait to see other readers picking this up after publication date, and hope to see it on a few "most anticipated reads of 2025" lists.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the digital advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen

4.5 stars (rounding up)

Thank you to Net Galley and the author for this review copy.

So while this will technically be my first finished book of the new year, I did start this at the very end of last year. I ate this book up (no pun intended) once I got into it a bit, but it honestly hooked me from the start. If I had had the time when I first started, this would have been a bingeable one day read instead of 3 (as I read 75% of it in one day haha).

This book exceeded my expectations for sure, and was a delightful read. I knew this would be a great read for me, but I didn't realize it would be THIS good. I haven't read other books from this author (but I will be later) and It would have been an easy 5+ stars, but sometimes it felt a little repetitive, so -.5 star just for that. That is pretty minor overall though, which is why I'm okay with rounding up.

The writing was eloquent and beautiful AND perfect for the setting. This was dark and creepy and perfectly gothic. This is a genre and a vibe I constantly look for and strive to find, but rarely do I end up loving the books as much as this one.

The authors writing and world-building really was immersive. I felt like I was swept back to the 1800s. Her writing was really amazing in this, I can't state that enough. The body horror elements were perfect. That is something else I don't often find in horror books, but this one really hit it out of the park.

I love that this was different than almost anything else I have read. This isn't quite vampires per say - but it is enough that its uniquely interesting on its own twists and turns. I absolutely love when books use lore, but make their own ideas with it.

Read this right after watching the new "Nosferatu" film and my god this satiated my hunger ( ;) ) for something similar in book form that wasn't juse re-reading "Dracula". The characters were all flushed out really well, including the unlikable ones, and the twin bond and sisterhood that the author wrote about was very good. I especially liked that it showed a deep and complex relationship, one that wasn't always good.

This story had a lot of layers to it and was a bit of a slow burn mystery that really built up to something crazy and beautiful and while I'm assuming this would be a standalone story, I think it easily continue into more books (though it also doesn't need to, it just would be interesting if it did).

Anyway, again, perfect gothic/horror novel. Very happy I got to read this. I will pick this up at publication and let everyone know how amazing it is. This is a must read for fans of the genre. Everything about this was excellent and perfectly atmospheric. I'll be thinking about this one for a long while.

Thank you again to NetGalley for the ARC copy in exchange for the review!

“What is a person if not the sum of all they had ever thought and felt and lived through?”

I somehow finished this before the end of the New Year and what a review I get to start the New Year with! I really enjoyed this book and just absolutely ate this up. I feel so lucky to have received an ARC to read this, I did a happy dance when I saw I was approved (Thank you to Netgalley, the amazing author, and the publishers)! I have to say the vibes I got from watching the new Nosferatu movie is EXACTLY what this book had. It had all my favorite gothic vibes, a writing style I love, letters, obsession and honestly a dash of unhinged women. What else more could I ask for.

I couldn’t the whole time I couldn’t predict where it was going and I just HAD to keep reading! For those of you that are anticipating vampires, I wouldn’t go in with that expectation. This was very unique and for sure something I personally have never experienced in a story before. I can say some of it though does give off those gothic vampire vibes so don’t let that keep you from wanting to read this! The setting was perfect and can I add how deeply impressed I was with the dog body language that was written in this story!!

Ugh, what a book to end the year with. Truly, I don’t want to say more and give away anything that could ruin the experience I had while reading this. Go pick this up as soon as this releases (after checking trigger warnings of course)! I really REALLY need to go pick up the author's other book A Darling Dreadful Thing now!!

Johanna van Veen cannot miss.

When I saw she had a new title coming out, I could not contain my excitement. I read “My Darling Dreadful Thing” back in May 2024 and loved it. The book is brutal and visceral and deliciously sapphic, which is the perfect recipe for a story I am guaranteed to like. “Blood on Her Tongue” followed that same model, with a fresh plot and a unique monster. I loved the dynamic between the main character Lucy and her twin sister Sarah - just as codependent and toxic as was promised. Their relationship was the star of the show, the motivating factor behind every terrible choice made throughout the novel. While the sapphic relationship was a secondary plot point, unlike in “Dreadful Thing”, I still enjoyed experiencing it alongside the horrors.

Johanna van Veen is quickly becoming an auto-read author for me.

Blood on Her Tounge is a dark gothic novel that takes place in the Netherlands, 1887. Lucy and her twin sister, Sarah has always been close. Now Lucy is summoned to her brother in law's estate due to Sarah's declining health. The letters that Lucy has recieved from Sarah in the week prior detail the discovery of a corpse that was found in the bogs on Michael and Sarah's property. Sarah was fascinated to find out what and where the corpse came from and why it had a rock shoved down it's throat and stakes through the torso. Once Lucy arrives she fears the worse for her sister who is on her death bed from a fever that wont come down and also thirsty but not for water. As with My Darling Dreadful Thing, Johanna van Veen paints a grapic gothic horror book that will keep you up at night just to finsih the book. Blood on Her Tongue is a must for anyone who loves books about strong female leads, horror and a bond between sisters that will not falter no matter what happens. I would like to thank both NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for letting me have an advanced copy of this book.

I loved this author’s their previous book so it’s safe to say that I was very happy to be able to arc read their next one. I feel like this one was even more scarier and eerie than MDDT. The writing is incredible and you’re completely submerged in this gothic atmosphere. I gave this book 4 stars!

thank you netgalley for the arc! sadly, despite the great title, cover and general premise, this was a disappointing story the more it went on. the only merit being it was a fast read, for the majority quick paced but overall a hit and miss for a gothic horror. the book was full of the classic elements of the genre but it feels like the author didn't know what to do with this. the bog had huge potential, too. this is also tagged as historical fiction but having stereotypical and recurring sexist and misogynistic remarks, doesn't make it historical fiction. the sexism (from both male and female characters) was bland, lazy and too much on the nose, too direct and came off as the author going "see, women were threatened bad back then. mental asylums were a thing.", while holding the reader's hand.

the first half of the book was good, there was suspense and it felt like something sinister was happening both with the house, the bog and the characters. but the tone of the book completely changed once sarah resurrected. it was no longer a suspenseful or gothic horror novel but supernatural parody. the characters aren't fully fleshed out, forgettable (anyone that's not lucy or sarah) and too self-aware. there was no rhyme or reason to characters' actions, whole chapters were spend on the issue of not-sarah having to eat. i don't understand why she couldn't go and kill/eat people herself but had to rely on lucy's help. she just waited around for someone else to feed her, while lucy was doing (very poor) mental gymnastics on how to feed her not-sister. i just don't see or understand this reasoning. it feels like a plot hole.

when lucy initially started having suspicions about her resurrected sister, and confronting her about it, i wish sarah had bothered to deny it or gaslighted lucy, played around with the gothic genre a little. not almost immediately give up the act and ask "what gave it away?" and for the two of them to have a series of cringe dialogues intermixed with casual body horror. the elements of body horror in the beginning were good, it added to the atmosphere and the madness. but at one point it was so frequent and random, it became overkill.

the descriptions and dialogues were also too modern, to the point where i had to remind myself that i wasn't reading a present day supernatural YA but a story set in 19th century netherlands. if i didn't know from the blurb that this was set in the netherlands, i would have never been able to guess. everyone behaved and talked like they were english. what was the point of this setting if you aren't going to take advantage of it? there were errors with the dates of the letters and newspaper articles. for example, the letter arthur got from his doctor friend is dated 19 nov 1887, and the story ends with an article from 31 oct 1887 about events that were happening in mid-late november. the article even mentions the evens took place on 19 nov. this could have easily been picked up at beta.

the ending was shallow, too make belief and childish, a gory happy end for sarah and lucy.

I loved the story of this book! Reminded me of my favorite classic, a bit more darker, but that's even better. Set up in a Gothic scenery, we follow two twin sisters and the unconditional love between them. And even when one of them is not sherself anymore, possessed by something, it gets even more extreme and twisted. Really enjoyed the letters and newspaper bits included. There are so many eari and horrifying scenes, it will keep you on edge till the end.

Thanks to the publisher for this ARC! I was very excited to read this book based on its description, beautiful cover and title and most importantly because I’m a huge fan of Dracula and the gothic however this book didn’t quite reach my expectations. I love that the ambience is beautiful, dark, cold and gloomy and the author makes a great job of maintaining tension and mystery throughout the whole story and the actual reasons for Sarah’s illness (don’t want to spoil it) is very original, I never thought of it and never would have guessed it. On the other side, some of the characters were flat, no one seems to have any kind of development and the protagonist’s actions seemed completely illogical and unnecessary. I feel like the premise of the plot is an amazing idea but it didn’t deliver.

A young woman named Lucy receives a troubling letter from her twin sister Sarah. Her twin seems convinced of some sinister influence, from a bog body recovered in an area around her house. Is Sarah becoming mad, or is there some truth to her letters and wild claims?
I loved the semi-epistolary format, with some chapters prefaced by letters (the one describing the initial discovery of the body was SO good), or newspaper articles (one follows after the last chapter concludes).
There's such a delicate balance here, in evoking (and balancing) both very beautiful and grotesque elements. It's sometimes done with only a handful of words.
Even when the confrontation between the sisters happens, and it was revealed what happened between the bog body & Sarah, the reader is still left wondering. The ending comes without easy answers, and feels very open ended. You're left to wonder what happened to the sisters, about all the different possibilities of their future plans, and that's always a sign of a good novel. Nice to see the gothic horror genre alive and well.

Gripping, gothic, creepy, eerie, and hard to put down! Blood on Her Tongue exceeded my expectations with its interesting take on sisters, relationships, mental health, bog people and vampires. I enjoyed this authors previous book, My Darling Dreadful Thing]! I'm mean she literally killed it with this bloody amazing book!

The Netherlands, 1887

Lucy has traveled to her twin sister Sarah's home to help care for her after she has become ill. Sarah's behavior has changed since she attended the examination/dissection of a centuries old body that has been found in the bog. When Lucy arrives, she is alarmed at her sister's condition.

I enjoyed how this book is told through letters and with the 1887-time frame. I also loved how the complexities of the sister’s relationship were shown - the love, the devotion, the fights, the inflicted pain, and the bond. There is also the mental health component. Sarah lost a child previously and suffered depression and did some questionable things. When her behavior came into question again, her mental health came under scrutiny.

The vivid description, the imagery, the intriguing characters, the originality, the plot, the gothic setting, and the writing were off the charts! I found this book to be wonderfully written, well thought out, and perfectly executed. There are some gruesome scenes so be warned. This book will not be for everyone, but for those that enjoy gothic horror with a bit of blood, this may be the book for you!

Dark, addictive, gothic, and bloody!

4.5☆
As much as this book talked about hunger, it ate.

Considering I don't read this genre very often, I was surprised by how engaged I was with the story, the grip it had on me, and how much I was rooting for the characters. A perfect story for lovers of Mexican Gothic and The autopsy of Jane Doe.
The story follows twin sisters, Lucy and Sarah, wildly different but bound by such a strong sisterly love it seems unnatural. Beneath the fictional narrative, set during the Victorian era, the author talks about problems we still encounter in our century: misogyny, abuse and how it changes it's victims lives, what society deems as being an undignified relationship, etc.
In the end, the story comes back to an universal fact: blood is the strongest link between people making them sacrifice more then they could ever imagine.
Even though the ending felt a bit rushed, the novel was able to make us question our morality, support ✨️women's rights and wrongs✨️, and leave us satisfied.

Johanna van Veen's writing talent is insane: the novel kept me hooked and guessing the entire time; writing was grim almost in a poetic type of way; the surroundings were described so well i could picture them vividly; it included letters and articles that made the story more dynamic. I appreciated greatly the we were cautioned about the gory scenes because, once again, they were so well written, my stomach got queasy every time.

My thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A different twist on a vampire story. Definitely kept me interested, but I didn’t love the story line.