DNF at 23%

I couldn’t connect to the characters and despite all the glowing reviews, I couldn’t make myself push through when I wasn’t enjoying it.

While a slow narrative is typical of gothic stories, the beginning was too drawn out for my taste.

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the egalley.

The book is set in the Netherlands during the 1950s, but the language and behavior of the characters make it seem like we're in the mid to late 1800s. The story follows Roos, a young woman who is being evaluated by a therapist to see if she is fit to stand trial. We don't know why she is being evaluated until much later in the book. The story is told through a series of interviews with the therapist, during which Roos recounts her life story.

Roos grew up with her mother performing seances with her spirit companion Ruth. She later meets Agnes, a wealthy widow who can also see spirits. The story explores how women were viewed during this time and touches on several themes including horror, gothic undertones, a sapphic romance, and mystery.

While this isn't the type of story the I may typically read, the darker themes provide a welcome change of pace. Roos goes through many difficult experiences throughout the story, which are hinted at through flashbacks and linear storytelling. Some parts of the story jump forward and then back, making you eager to find out what happened and why Roos is in jail.

The last quarter of the book is particularly intense and delves deeper into the darker aspects of the story. Overall, the story is engaging, with a steady pace throughout.

I was so excited to read My Darling Dreadful Thing. It has an interesting premise, an enticing cover and early reviews have been excellent. However try as I might I just could not get into the story and ended up DNFing it at 30%.

I felt confused by the setting as it appeared to be set in Holland but there was no clear explanation around this and when the protagonist would talk about her lack of understanding of English, it didn't really make sense.

There were parts that felt overcooked, like the author had added in an extra piece to explain something to the reader that could have been left for our minds to fill. Instead, it felt contrived, like being hit over the head with plot points.

I did not find the doctor believable, even for a man in the 50s. He injected so much of himself into the conversations, he didn't have the air of credibility I would have expected from an expert appointed to examine a potential defendant.

Overall, there was a lot of potential in this story but I could not get past the construction of the story.

My Darling Dreadful Thing isn't at all what I was expecting. While there are several ghosts in the book, they are more sad than scary making the story one of longing rather than a horror. While some moments are uncomfortable, sadness, love and loss are the main themes rather than jumpscares and horror.

You get drawn into Roos' story and her beliefs so completely but the interviews with the doctor also make you doubt everything. Is the story really about a young woman who can see spirits or is it about a young woman who needs help?

The writing is beautiful and I was right there alongside Roos as she discovered things, learnt and came into herself. I wanted her to succeed from page one and the author had me constantly rooting for her. The characters of Ruth, Peter and Thomas also became incredibly real, making me believe in Roos even with the doctor's notes trying to undermine that belief.

This book is all about survival and the different ways that people do that. I thought it was beautiful and poignant and I didn't want it to end.

I really enjoyed this queer, gothic horror and its unique storyline and characters. As someone who loves anything dark and macabre, the idea of spirit companions is so fun and interesting.

I found this to be a quick and easy read, especially through the first half. The second half lagged a bit for me, but I was always invested in what was going to happen to Roos, Ruth, and Agnes. The book tackled some tough themes (racism, discrimination, abuse, sexual assault) with sensitivity; I think it’s important that books not simply ignore the existence of such horrors, so I found the inclusion to be heavy and hard to read at times but never misplaced or exploitative.

I would recommend My Darling Dreadful Thing to readers looking for something unique with delicious gothic vibes throughout and lovers of tragic romance with queer characters at their center.

Thanks so much to Net Galley and Poisoned Pen Press for my advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a wonderful read! I enjoyed everyone moment of it. I enjoyed the elements of horror in this book as well as the representation. This book was not slow paced but I could not put it down! Thank you to Netgalley, Johanna van Veen and Poisoned Pen Press for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Historical Gothic Horrorsque LOVE story. Overall this was a lovely sapphic romance with some trauma and ghosties.

Roosje is just trying to get by and does seances for her mama to pay the bills. When a widow attends one to speak to her dead husband she becomes very curious about Roosje and pays her mother to be able to keep her as staff for her manor. Things get dark and twisted!

As the story goes we flip back and forth to some interviews with a psychologist and Roos. It added a really cool element of trying to figure things out about her psyche that I really enjoyed.

I loved it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned press for an eARC.

Very dark and mysterious story.
I was entagled by the characters and spooked out.

A very good and unexpected story

3.5 stars rounded down

READ TRIGGER WARNINGS
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With beautiful prose and a captivating story, My Darling Dreadful Thing was a great read.

This book has a little bit of everything, from horror to gore to love. It shouldn’t work quite so well, but it really did here. The story was unique and well envisioned. The writing was beautiful and engrossing. I was sucked into the story easily and quickly. The atmosphere was certainly creepy, playing into the book very well. I loved the sort of sordid queer representation we get. The incorporation of the interviews added a new level of depth to the book, as well. I loved the balance of action and interview style writing.

I found the characters to be sort of surface level. They're given interesting back stories that I enjoyed when we got them. We just saw the same amount of depth for them as we did with their spirit companions, which was good and bad at once. I wish we had gotten more, I guess. I wanted to love them and while they fit within the story, they could have fit better.

This was a really strong debut and I can’t wait to see what the author writes next.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book ahead of publication! My review will appear on my blog on (5/6/24). I will also feature the review on Instagram that same day and post my review to Goodreads, The Storygraph, Fable, and retail sites.

It's no secret that I love a creepy book, and when I read the synopsis for this one, I was immediately intrigued. Ghostly companions, seances, and murder? Sign me up! Overall, I found this to be a haunting and atmospheric tale that kept me turning the pages well past my bedtime.

The story follows Roos Beckman, a 20-something woman who, for the last several years, has acted as the "spirit conduit" for her "mother's" seances. These started with Roos being stuffed beneath the floorboards to pull levers and knock on the floor to trick the customers, but one day, when she is particularly distressed, Roos cuts herself and suddenly finds that she has attracted a mysterious spirit companion named Ruth, who changes the trajectory of Mama's business.

Years later, Roos (with Ruth's help) pretends to be possessed by the spirits of grieving customers' dead loved ones. Roos isn't happy with her life, but she sees no alternative until a beautiful woman named Agatha appears. Agatha offers Mama a hefty sum of money to hire Roos as a companion and whisks her away to a crumbling estate where Agatha resides with her dead husband's dying sister, Wilemijn. Roos finally begins to thrive now that she is away from Mama's abuse, but it's not long before Roos learns the truth about why Agatha brought Roos to the manor, and just as things have started to look up for Roos, a new danger finds its way to her.

From the very first page, van Veen sets the stage with vivid descriptions that transport the reader to the eerie world of Roos. The author's writing style is both beautiful and chilling, creating a sense of unease that lingers throughout the entire novel. If there's one thing this book has, it's a great atmosphere and constant feeling of dread. Ruth is a corpse-like spirit who has been dead for centuries, yet she is the only source of solace in Roos' tumultuous life. van Veen masterfully explores the dynamics of their relationship, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. I also loved that Ruth was both loving and dangerous. I felt that at any moment, she could have killed Roos just as easily as she loved her if she wanted to.

As the story unfolds, Roos finds herself caught in a web of deceit and betrayal. Why was Agatha drawn to her? Was it to reconnect with her dead husband, or was there something even more dangerous at play in the manor? As we learn at the beginning of the book, at least one person that Roos had contact with is dead, and she is being interrogated in connection with the alleged murder. As the book progresses, the tension mounts as Doctor Montague, a psychologist tasked with evaluating Roos' mental state, tries to uncover the truth behind the mysterious death. The book alternates between past and present, and as it does, we hear things from Roos' first-person perspective with Dr. Montague's transcripts peppered in.

As the novel plays out, Van Veen expertly weaves elements of mystery, romance, and the supernatural to create a captivating and chilling story with an amazing cast of characters, each with their own motivations and secrets. From Roos and her connection with Ruth to the enigmatic Agnes Knoop, the ailing Wilemijn, and Agnes' dead husband, Thomas, every character feels fully realized and adds depth to the story. The crumbling estate where much of the action takes place is a character in itself, adding to the overall atmosphere of suspense and foreboding.

Throughout the novel, van Veen raises thought-provoking questions about guilt, innocence, and the nature of reality. Is Roos truly communicating with spirits, or is she simply a troubled young woman in need of help? Roos suffered a lot of emotional and sexual abuse as a child, and there were times when I wondered if maybe Ruth was just a coping mechanism for Roos and if the story that she relayed to Dr. Montague was only real to her. The author mostly leaves it up to the reader to decide, adding an extra layer of complexity to an already engrossing story. I think my only complaint with this one was that I wanted a little more tension in the third act. I felt it could have been much creepier, and honestly, I felt it dragged on a little too long.

Minor issues aside, I found this to be a creepy and engrossing read. I would definitely recommend this to fans of gothic fiction and mysteries. Johanna van Veen's bold and creative storytelling will keep you riveted from beginning to end and leave you thinking long after you've turned the final page.

This was such a creative story with interesting characters and a captivating plot. Super unsettling slow burn romance!

Thank You to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press, and Johanna van Veen for the advanced copy. I leave this review honestly.


And I honestly wish I could give this a better review. This book had so much promise. I was so excited by the premise of this book when I first read about it on NetGalley. I just wish wish this book hadn't missed the mark.

This gothic/horror/LBTQ+ story is set in a eerie world of characters with spirit friends who are attached to their human counterparts. My main issues with this book is that the characters, Roos, Agnes, Ruth, etc. are superficial. I wanted so much to learn more about Roos. What her back story is, etc. And I just didn't get that.

Also, the beginning of the story is really incredibly slow. The meeting between Agnes and Roos, and the events around the meeting, could have been so much more than they were. It just didn't hit for me.

I'm really really sad that I couldn't love this one more.

Holy crap!
"My Darling Dreadful Thing" absolutely exceeded my highest expectations.

This book is haunting and atmospheric. It is one of the most beautifully well-crafted pieces of modern gothic literature I've read in years.

Roos Beckman is a young woman with an unusual talent in the form of a "spirit companion."
[She is kind of haunted. Instead of a place being haunted, she is. By a singular ghost who is fiercely protective of her and can occasionally take possession of her body altogether.]

Unfortunately, from a very young age, Roos's own mother exploits this talent to bring an air of credibility to the sèances she pedals for a meager living. That is until Roos is sold to a wealthy widow named Agnes Knoop, joining her and her infirmed sister-in-law in their degenerating inherited estate.

This one truly hit all the right notes for me. It is delightfully gothic, haunting, psychologically intriguing, dark, and grotesque. It has a twist of "murder mystery" with lovely character development and doomed love—ALL the good things and ALL wonderfully done.

I adored this one! An easy 5 stars.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

A well written creepy and involved horror story. I really enjoyed the way it was written and would love to read more from this author. Horro is just not my thing and some of the themes are quite disturbing. Great book for people that like horror genre. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

I had a little bit of a hard time following this one, but none the less I enjoyed it. It was really good at building atmosphere and I love how Ruth is both horrifying and comforting at the same time, much like this entire genre of fiction.

This book was so enjoyable! Roos Beckman has a friend named Ruth, only Ruth is a spirit that inhabits her in order to make money for her "adopted" mother in seances. Throughout the book a psychiatrist is interviewing Roos because of a murder that happened. The psychiatrist believes her to be schizophrenic as she hears and sees things (spirits). There is build up throughout the book because we as the reader know that something bad has happened. and while reading, we are trying to figure out what it is.
This is a perfect read for people who love paranormal entities and horror.

My darling dreadful thing review

Solid 4.5 stars

Oh, how I felt sorry for poor Roos having to live with a mother like that! In a way, I’m glad she had a spirit companion.
I liked Ruth, I guess she had a lot of spirit in her (no pun intended).

I have to say I was confused about what era this story was set in, In the first 2 chapters I was convinced it was the 1800’s and it turns out it was in the 1950s.

It was beautifully written! Creepy, gothic and haunting. The cover of this book is also amazing and creepy at the same time.

I can’t fault this story and the ending made me even cry! I can’t recommend this book enough.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this arc!

4.5 stars

Warnings: gore, SA, parental neglect and abuse, death, incest (not on page and not with main character), cannibalism/blood sucking


This is a fantastic creepy gothic book. I was caught up with Roos from the start, and was surprised to see where the story lead you. There are vivid descriptions of the setting and characters, pulling you in further. I think the doctor’s notes sort of gave away a bit earlier than I would have liked, but by the end I was still finding a little tension still left in the plot to uncover. If you like sapphic gothic horror I would certainly give this one a try.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy for me to be able to share my honest opinion.

A young lady, Roos, in historic Netherlands has a spirit companion, an emotional support ghost. They found each other while Roos was confined in the floorboards during her 'mother's' seance performances. But after an infamous yet mysterious Asian lady visits for a seance, Roos is whisked away to discover that this lady too has a paranormal visitor. Roos goes to live in Agnes' mansion, with Agnes' sister-in-law, and the memory of Agnes' recently dead husband. But not everything Roos learns about the Asian lady is true.

What an amazing story! I found myself very invested in the characters and enjoyed the dark gothic atmosphere. The main character was such a broken individual but still had a spark of defiance and self preservation that came together in one highly memorable package. I was not sure, at first, how much I was enjoying the structure of the story telling. The chapters of doctors notes threw me off at first, but as the story progressed they offered a great balance to the unreliable narrator. Overall an excellent read!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me access to an advanced readers copy of this title free of charge. I am leaving an honest review voluntarily.