“There was a beauty in it still, the way imperfect things can be beautiful, but it was a beauty of a dark and fading kind”

Atmospheric, enthralling, mind-bending, unpredictable to the end and disturbing in the best way.

Having never read from Johanna van Veen before, I had no expectations of *Blood on Her Tongue*, but it turned out to be one of the best gothic horror novels I've ever had the pleasure of reading. The eerie manor house setting was palpable — experiencing this story felt like wading through boggy water, trying desperately to get away from an ominous presence, but not minding very much because of how beautiful the surroundings are.

I'm more surprised than anyone that my own personal nightmares captured in book form — from being buried alive, to intense and descriptive body horror, blood, gore and *retch* bodily fluids — seized me from beginning to haunting end. I struggled to put this book down and whenever I did the characters haunted me until I picked it up again.

Blood on Her Tongue deeply and satisfyingly explores themes of sister dynamics (the complexity and messiness of them!), the mistreatment of mental health and misogyny, especially during the late Victorian era.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and to Sourcebooks & Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC!

Thank you to Johanna Van Veen, Sourcebooks and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of Blood on Her Tongue in exchange for a review.

I would recommend this for fans of Carmilla, Dracula, Nosferatu, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, Victorian Psycho and Interview with a Vampire TV Series.

Blood on Her Tongue is a vampire novel set in the 19th century but done a little differently. It's gothic horror with a queer subplot. The 'vampire' is a much more visceral, parasitic being, requiring both meat and blood to survive. The story felt old and new at the same time. Imagine Nosferatu, but the vampire is Ellen's twin sister.

The setting was claustrophobic with an acute sense of isolation. This added to the intensity of the novel as there were very few moments of relief for the characters because they weren't able to leave the estate.

At no point while reading this book did I have any idea of where it would go next. If you like your horror to veer less on the side of fear and more on disgust with some gore and body horror then you will devour this book!

I give Blood on Her Tongue 5 stars!

Few literary devices are as inherently uncanny as twins, their mirroring, their duality, the way they fracture the boundary between self and other. Blood on Her Tongue builds itself on that very premise.

The novel begins with promise; atmospheric, visceral, and unflinchingly sordid. There is something grotesquely fascinating about its sensory detail and slow-building unease.

Yet as the narrative progresses, it unravels. What initially feels carefully plotted soon collapses under the weight of its own excess. Structurally, the novel falters, veering into the ridiculous. Characters frequently internalize a thought only to act on it moments later, creating a repetitive rhythm that dulls rather than sharpens its impact. And though the novel gestures toward themes of misogyny, sexuality, and mental illness, it treads familiar ground without offering anything new to the conversation.

What could have been a richly layered exploration of the uncanny instead dissolves into incoherence. Blood on Her Tongue has moments of brilliance, its grotesquerie, its atmosphere, but ultimately, it promises more than it delivers.

Rounding up to 3 stars. When it's good it's very good but it's too inconsistent.

This book was horrific, and I loved it. I couldn’t put it down! I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

This was such a creepy historical novel where we have a woman travelling to look after her sister in 19th century Netherlands. Her sister has become deeply strange and unwell after a body was exhumed on their land.

We see our MC’s attempts to care for her sister alongside her sister’s letters which are dotted throughout the book and help us understand what happened with the bog body and how it has led to the current set of events.

The atmosphere was so oppressive! Everything in this book oozed darkness. The bog, the house, the patronising men, the ancient evil. Absolutely incredible atmosphere created here. This book felt for me like it was about female rage. Even the well meaning men in this book are condescending and deceitful and the women are forced into a corner where they have no choice but to surrender their freedom or take drastic action. We see this multiple times and it provides commentary on the poor treatment of women across the centuries.

The plot was so tight, unveiled so perfectly. This was a magnificent piece of gothic writing and I cannot wait to read more from this author!

Blood On Her Tongue was, for me, completely unexpected. By which, I mean, I requested it because it falls into the horror genre, but I didn't expect it to be so good. Johanna Van Veen has delivered an extraordinary story that flows lyrically from start to finish. Hypnotically.

Blood on her tongue publishes on 25 March.

My thanks to @sourcebooks and @netgalley for the free e-arc in return for an honest review.

obsessed!! this is the first time i've read a johanna van veen book, even though i've heard amazing things about my darling dreadful thing, and let me tell you!!!!!! i am rushing to buy it right now because this novel was INSANELY good. the perfect level of visceral, gritty, gory and gothic. spooky as hell and it did NOT go the way i thought it would but man, i am so impressed and so crazy about this.

i had a slow start for the first 40 pages or so while lucy's voice found its feet in my head, but after that i devoured the rest of the book in a day. and i'm a pretty slow reader, so that's a compliment in and of itself!!

this book was just the epitome of historical gothic horror, full of squelching mud, mist, creaking floorboards, terrible dreams, scribbling in the margins of books, letters hidden behind cracked mirrors, men assuming they know women's bodies better than they do (booo), women proving to said men that they do NOT (yaaay), and so so so much more that just makes this book an absolute classic.

left me feeling hungry - nay, *fucking starving* - for more. 5 stars, baby!!!!

Van Veen’s debut novel was one of my most surprising reads of 2024, and Blood on her Tongue was no different! Perfect eerie, full of unexpected horror so perfectly executed that I refused to read this book in the dark 😂 it was gruesome and enthralling, always keeping me on my toes and Van Veen just has such a unique narrative voice that you can’t help but be riveted by every word… even every gory detail.

I can’t wait for what she produces next!

I've come to realise I love a good gothic horror novel. I was expecting this to be a dracula novel, but what I got was just as good. I won't ruin it as it's a really good twist.

This book is macabre, it has elements of betrayal, love, deceit, body horror and a splash of sapphic love. Lucy travels to her sisters home following some letters she receives of her sisters ill health. While there she discovers not everything is as she expected and that there is something drastically wrong with Sarah.

Lucy was very flawed. She had a deep love for her sister, but she was also very jealous of her and this lead her to do things she wasn't proud of. In hindsight Sarah was also very flawed and, I believe, was also jealous of Lucy.

I hated Michael and while I didn't necessarily hate Arthur, I hated that he seemed to have no backbone when it came to the twins or Michael. He could have been a fantastic ally but ultimately was a man and believed he was entitled to certain things that Lucy couldn't provide.

The twins relationship was flawed, as every sibling relationship usually is, but the two loved each other fiercely and despite everything happening with Sarah you could tell how much they loved one another.

Thank you to the publishers at Poisoned Pen Press for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Blood on Her Tongue
Horror
Johanna van Veen
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• ꜱᴜᴘᴇʀɴᴀᴛᴜʀᴀʟ • ɢᴏᴛʜɪᴄ • ᴘᴏꜱᴇꜱꜱɪᴏɴ •

I really enjoyed My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen so I was looking forward to reading this one!

I found this book to be quite slow to start with. The letters between Lucy and Sarah did confuse me a little but they soon made sense.

I couldn't put this book down! The plot drew me in and I finished reading it in about 3 hours because I was so eager to find out what really happened to Sarah.

There were many twists and turns that I didn't see coming. I kept trying to predict the plot twists but I was wrong every time.

The characters were great and I felt sorry for Lucy. Especially because Michael was so misogynistic and prone to outbursts. I was glad when a certain character got what he deserved. I wish it had happened sooner 😂.

The vibes were perfectly gothic and creepy at times.

Johanna van Veen is a brilliant writer and she has become another of my auto buy authors.

*Thank you to @Netgalley, the author, and the publishers for providing this ARC. This is my own opinion and an honest review, which I am leaving voluntarily*

I found it to be a dark gothic/horror and suprised myself that i actually enjoyed it!.
Thank you for the arc.

“Finally,” she said. “I’m fucking starving.”

3.75 ⭐️

Thank you to the Author, NetGalley & Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed this read, I felt like it definitely hit the gothic/horror mark & at times I was almost audibly going “ewwww” at some of the gore. I enjoyed the morally grey main characters - it feels like in the end, none of the characters really were truly ‘good’ and were all flawed which made for interesting reading experience, seeing their character growth and their flaws exposed layer by layer.

I did struggle to sympathise with Lucy towards the end… I think that the theme of sisterhood is definitely prominent in this book (as it claims to be I guess) and I think that it’s the main focus of it, it almost describes that unconditional love and loyalty, that despite all the things that happened and the fact that Not-Sarah is not quite Lucy’s sister anymore, Lucy’s loyalty and love for her sister is so strong that she’d do anything for her. However, it did make her seem like a bit of a pushover which was a bit frustrating to read.

Overall, I thought it was an easy, dark & gothic horror read! It was slightly slow to begin with and picked up just after halfway.

Frankly, this was freaky as hell and I cannot recommend this to anyone who is squeamish about eyes, blood, self-harm, and did-i-mention EYES.
However, if you're interested in Dracula by Bram Stoker, 2024 Nosferatu, or you ever studied bog bodies in your secondary school history class, you'll love this to bits. From the first line this book had my attention and I found it hard to put down - although I won't lie towards the end I had to take a few breaks for my weak constitution because, as I may have mentioned, there was some pretty yucky stuff in here (or maybe I just haven't picked up a horror in a while? Hard to tell tbh). The pacing in this was fantastic and there wasn't a single moment that I wasn't either horrified at the situation the characters were in, or more often horrified at the characters themselves. A wild ride from start to finish, definitely interested in reading more of van Veen!

One of the first books to make me go "<i>oh god, EW</i>" out loud while reading, and GAG!!! (COMPLIMENTARY)

I loved this book - a sort of Dracula inspired paranormal horror that's not really about vampires but uses them as a starting point. I loved how inventive this was! I can't go into too much detail for risk of spoiling it.

I thought this book was gripping with so many twists and turns and stomach churning moments, the characters were fleshed out (ew) and their relationships toxic and fascinating. My only issue was the pacing dropped a little in the middle.

This was harder for me to get into but when I did I couldn’t stop reading! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

Oh Johanna van Veen I adore your dark and twisted gothic stories so much!!

THIS is how you handle gothic horror. It's eerie, mysterious, and yet so emotional. I truly loved the philosophic discussion about what makes us... US? Our memories? Our emotions? "What was a person if not the sum of all they had ever been through?" UGHHH so thought provoking and fit so well into the dynamic between Sarah and Lucy. (I wish I could go more into it but I don't want to give away any spoilers)

At one point I actually felt frightened and that hasn't happened to me in a LONG time. It was the ending of a chapter where Lucy had figured out what was going on - if you know, you know.

Also, I need to mention how perfect Johanna van Veen's author's note was at the start of the story. PLEASE do not skip it, especially if you are new to this genre. This is gothic horror... it's going to be full of extremes, it's going to be emotional, and strange, and maybe not for everyone.

CW's: sickness, death of a loved one, body horror/gore, the stigmatisation of the mentally ill, misogyny, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, cheating, and toxic co-dependent relationships.

Heavy on the gore by the way, even I couldn't handle the eyeball popping erghhhh

Anyways, to wrap this up - I think this is one for the girlies who enjoy a weird and unhinged story that's full of dark and creepy things!

I do find myself thinking that there is something more I would have liked for this story... but I can't quite put my finger on it. Possibly a little more work/depth into Michael as a character? (he is an absolutely horrific person by the way, be warned) Or maybe more show rather than tell.

But either way, I am LIVING for Johanna van Veen and her creepy gothic mind!!

-Sarah

*Thank you NetGalley + Sourcebooks UK for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

I went into Blood on Her Tongue with high expectations, hoping for a deeper, more unsettling take on vampire mythology. Unfortunately, what I found was a novel that promises a lot but never quite delivers. While it’s certainly atmospheric and the prose can be haunting, the story itself lacks the depth and complexity I crave in a vampire novel.

The protagonist, a woman struggling with monstrous urges, is intriguing in theory, but ultimately falls flat. There’s an intimacy in Logan’s portrayal of hunger, but it’s more poetic than meaningful. I want to feel the tension of a vampire struggling with their nature, but here, it’s mostly an excuse for overly descriptive passages that often slow the pacing to a crawl. The writing is lush, but it leans too heavily into atmosphere rather than building real tension or giving the characters any real emotional depth.

The treatment of the vampire mythos is where this novel really lost me. There’s an attempt at reimagining the classic vampire story, but it feels more like surface-level experimentation than an evolution of the myth. The vampire lore is muddled, and instead of offering new insights or deepening the horrors inherent in vampirism, the book gets bogged down in metaphor and mood. The result is a hollow version of the myth that never really digs into what it means to be a vampire in the way that I would expect.

The characters also never really rise to the occasion. The protagonist is more of a vessel for the story’s atmosphere than a fully realized person with inner conflict. I never got the sense that her struggles were anything more than narrative devices to prop up the book’s aesthetic, and the supporting characters feel just as disposable. This lack of depth in the people you’re meant to care about makes the whole book feel more like an exercise in style than substance.

Overall, Blood on Her Tongue doesn’t have the bite I was hoping for. It’s more style than substance, more mood than meaning. If you’re looking for a vampire novel with rich mythology, complex characters, and psychological depth, this one might leave you feeling empty.

This book was everything I wanted it to be! So dark, atmospheric, gothic and compelling.
Beautifully written.
Would love to read more from this author!

"She imagined hell as an eternal waiting room whose doors would lead to planes of pain hitherto not experienced."

Johanna van Veen's novel is set in 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.

This was a gripping mysterious thriller that I could not put down. Straight away the reader gets the sense that things aren't quite as they seem. There's people and events to be suspect of and Sarah's decent into madness comes into question until things begin to somewhat make sense.

Is this all a delusion shared by two sisters or is there something darker lurking? From chapter to chapter I could feel the creepy and disturbing behaviours of Sarah and other characters leading to something devastating.

This was an addictive and disturbing gothic horror novel that I would definitely recommend.

Blood on Her Tongue is a compelling and atmospheric read that will appeal to fans of gothic horror. Johanna van Veen’s ability to intertwine psychological depth with supernatural elements results in a novel that is both unsettling and profoundly moving.

Slow to start, however it continued to pick up pace throughout.

A young woman must investigate her sister’s mysterious madness which is brought on by the discovery of a bog body at their secluded country estate. Fast-paced, atmospheric and creepy, this is a gothic body horror which nods to Carmilla. Not as strong as Van Veen’s debut, My Darling Dreadful Thing, it’s still a wonderfully gory romp through the Netherlands during the late 1800s.