Review: 'Blood on Her Tongue' by Johanna van Veen

Last year I read Johanna van Veen's My Darling Dreadful Thing, which I greatly enjoyed. I always love me a Gothic novel, full of mysterious mansions and dark hauntings, and van Veen provided all of that, creating a sumptuous atmosphere. So naturally I wanted to read her next book, which gave me the same delightful, Gothic shivers. Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 25/03/2025
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

"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.

As with My Darling Dreadful Thing, Johanna van Veen's Blood on her Tongue is set during the late 1800s in the Netherlands. Certain other aspects are shared between the two, such as the eternal sogginess of parts of the Netherlands. It is worth mentioning that a good part of what you now see on the map for the Netherlands was once sea, which was drained to create farmland and land for building. van Veen has a lovely knack for setting her Gothic mansions on this land, perpetually wet and damp, sinking away slowly but surely in the ground, but also consistently revealing secrets of the past. Zwartwater, the estate and mansion of Blood, also makes its money from peat harvesting, in the process of which a bog body is found. Unusual, sure, but not extraordinary. Except that this provides the perfect setting for Johanna van Veen to ask questions about identity, love, and what it means to be alive. I myself am Dutch and so I love how van Veen uses her setting, both the Netherlands themselves but also the late 1800s. In this novel, it is especially the latter, and its attitude to women and (mental) health, which is given special attention. I've done a bit of reading on how mental health was treated in the previous centuries and van Veen weaves this knowledge into her narrative pretty seamlessly. 

Lucy is on her way to Zwartwater, where her twin sister, Sarah, has become ill. Unsure of what to expect, Lucy is shocked when she sees Sarah on the brink of death. The illness, physical and mental, came suddenly, two weeks ago, after a bog body was found on the estate. But this is not Sarah's first battle with her own mind and Lucy is determined to take care of her sister and not lose her to institutionalisation. Blood on Her Tongue is largely told, in third person, from Lucy's perspective but is occasionally interrupted by letters or news articles which Lucy herself reads. I love this touch of materiality, of giving us what Lucy is given and allowing us to draw our own conclusions and then watch Lucy do the same. Lucy as a protagonist is intriguing, as is Sarah as her twin. She is fiercely devoted to her sister but also full of her own conflicted desires, at once shy and withdrawn but with an iron spine. Where Sarah is a bright flame, Lucy is like a quietly glowing ember, and the interplay between the two was one of my favourite aspects of the novel. The other characters are worked out to the extent that you need them to be, fulfilling their purposes in the story with aplomb. Again, the setting of a soaked, sodden mansion, dark rooms lit by candle light, and cold, impersonal chapels, was excellent. 

In Blood on Her Tongue, Johanna van Veen retains everything I loved about My Darling Dreadful Thing, while ramping up certain aspects. It definitely felt darker, not necessarily in content, but in its exploration of what makes us human and what makes us us. Roos, from Darling, is also a little naiver, perhaps, while Lucy, although young, is an adult with a certain understanding of the world around her. This is clearly a Gothic novel and with that comes a certain level of dramatic energy, which the novel itself pokes occasional fun at. There have to be midnight dashes, dark desires, and a past that refuses to be buried; it's Gothic! I also liked the interspersing of other material, as I mentioned above. I also felt that the writing was a little sharper than in Darling, which I took as a sign that van Veen is ever improving and innovating her craft. She clearly has her genre and setting within which she is comfortable, and certain elements that she loves playing with, but while much of Blood is reminiscent of Darling, it stands solidly on its own and shows an expansion of van Veen's craft. 

I give this novel...

4 Universes!

Blood on her Tongue is exactly what you would want a modern take on Gothic novels to be. It has all the atmosphere and drama, but also demonstrates an awareness of the time period and a responsibility when it comes to dealing with trauma and hurt.