This one was not for me. Started off really interesting and then lost me towards the middle. I was lost with a few of the characters! And I couldn’t get back on track with it.

Thank you so much for this arc copy!

2 stars

Finally, after over a month, I've finally finished this book. Unfortunately though I didn't enjoy it, and I think that the time it took to read it shows that. Which is a shame because I absolutely devoured My Darling Dreadful Thing in a matter of days and rating it pretty highly. I don't have a lot to say about this one though. I didn't really connect to any of the characters and felt like the fmc's personality was unclear.

Like I genuinely didn't know what to expect from her nor could I like read her well?? Despite in the beginning this book literally telling us what her character is, I feel like that doesn't stay consistent throughout the book. Every other character though was fine, although very single faceted. There was a lot of gore and body horror but no actual horror and I didn't really feel tension, I didn't feel scared or properly freaked out, just shocked at times. I also didn't understand like the tick vampire thing that Sarah was supposed to be but I kinda just stopped trying to understand pretty early on to that whole reveal.

Generally though I found this story to be very slow and boring and if I hadn't had the audiobook (which btw is good) there's a high chance I would've dnfed this. I really feel like barely anything happens and the ending wasn't very satisfying, or very anything really, and just had be feeling very indifferent. Like I genuinely didn't care about the ending. There were a few things that I enjoyed tho. Like the moments that were genuinely like wtf to me (although this aspect was also lacking towards the end, like those scenes didn't shock me anymore) and I also liked this sort of feminine rage that Lucy portrayed towards the end.Like she was sick of people belittling her so she just kinda lost her shit (slay).

So yeah I'm definitely gonna be checking out Van Veen's next book coming out this August so she's still on my radar but overall, I thought this one was pretty boring and wouldn't really recommend it

Love the gothic atmosphere - this was a really great take on a sapphic vampire story. The way the sisters' relationship and shared psychosis played on each other really made this story gripping. Despite the Victorian atmosphere, the "messiness" of the conflicts between characters kept it fun. Rating 3.5 simply because the historical setting makes it hard for me to hold interest

Thank you to Tantor Audio for an ALC, and Poisoned Pen Press for an e-ARC of this novel. Here are my thoughts!

Sarah and Lucy are twins in the Netherlands in 1887. Sarah has fallen ill so Lucy travels to her home to try to help take care of her. But this isn’t the usual illness, she refuses to eat and doctor’s want to send her to an asylum. Lucy must figure out what’s wrong with her sister before she is sent away forever. But Sarah learns this isn’t just sickness, something is in her sister and it’s hungry for blood.

Do you ever read a new to you author and think, “how did I not know about this author earlier?” That was the case for me with Johanna van Veen. I love books, especially horror, that take place in the late 1800s. It’s such a crucial time in literary history for horror, the grotesque and feminism. Van Veen took all of that and wrapped it up with a nice little blood-red bow and called it Blood on her Tongue.

There is just the right amount of blood and gore, with some uncomfortable body horror moments that fit the plot and setting just perfectly. I liked the aspect of Sarah ‘s investigating what is possessing her sister’s body and how it is affecting those around her. I was intrigued to the very end to see how everything would play out and it truly did not disappoint.

The narrator’s voice was perfect for the story and helped to immerse me into the world and story. I can’t recommend this one enough, perfect for spooky season!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book!

Given how long it took me to get immersed in the story, I certainly didn't expect to end up liking it as much as I did.
I went into this book thinking it would be about the love story between the protagonist and the vampire, but this was infinitely better. As a sister myself, so many themes hit close to home.
All this being said, "Blood On Her Tongue" isn't quite a five star read. The slow begging and sudden end take it down a notch, but it's still an excellent read.

Blood on Her Tongue milked its introduction and it led to be being bored, thankfully, the plot picked up after Sarah was revealed to have gone mad and that led to her demise. Only for her to be clawing at her coffin and back as something.

The novel follows Lucy and her twin sister Sarah who becomes a changeling of sort and is desperate to rip into a warm body to satiate her thirst. There are moments of intrigue and body horror but not long enough to keep me invested as a reader.

I support women’s rights and most importantly I support their wrongs.

The men within this novel were atrocious and honestly glad to see them meet their demise at the end. I just felt the finality of the novel meet its conclusion very suddenly and not a lot was explained.

I wish that we got to understand more of the twins and their personalities, especially because of how codependent they seemed (psychologically) and I feel like Van Veen really lacked in that regard. The novel lacked in its intimacy and the characters emotional depths to one another and its readers.

Overall, the novel had an intriguing premise but didn’t live up to its potential.

[Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for being sent an ARC in exchange for a honest review]

Atmospheric. Dark. Unnerving. How far would you go for the ones you love? This story follows twin sisters as they navigate a sickness taking over their simple lives. Both gory and emotional, the reader learns to love even the monster.

I tandem read the physical book with the audio. The audiobook narrated by Emily Tucker perfectly voices these characters. She has a desperation that brought life to the story. There were pronunciations I never would have gotten on my own. She is also easily understood at faster speeds.

Thank you NetGalley, Tantor Audio, Poisoned Pen Press, and author Johanna Van Veen for the ALC, eARC, and published copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an advanced copy of this book.

Who doesn't love a creepy gothic parasitic, vampiric, sapphic, madwoman tale of secrets and bloodshed? Lucy is worried for her twin sister, who is deeply ill with a "brain fever" after the discovery of a mysterious bog body on her husband's estate. Neither Lucy nor Sarah want to be seen as mad or hysterical; their aunt was send to asylum when they were children and she died there, so both twins will do anything to keep the other from the madhouse. They are fiercely protective of each other at all times, in fact, even though they've not always been truthful with one another. Blood on Her Tongue explores Lucy and Sarah's relationship amid a good amount of patriarchal nonsense and true body horror. I was hooked from the beginning and finished very quickly.

firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc and an alc!

4.5 stars

blood on her tongue is a fantastically disturbing and haunting gothic novel perfect for summerween or spooky season, or just a regular old rainy night. blood on her tongue was full of mental health awareness (or perhaps the lack of such), gorey and unsettling deaths, sapphic lovers, betrayals by sisters, as well as the bond between families.

also, perhaps most importantly, i love the dog.

as for the audio, the narrator did a fantastic job!

this book was so incredible, captivating, and such a peak entry into the genre of gothic literature. i really loved van Veen’s take on vampires in this, something all consuming and that takes over the body in such a way. if i could make everyone in the world read this book, i would. so eerie and addicting, and not at all what i thought i would be getting into when i first started it. one of my most anticipated reads and lived up to everything i love about gothic literature.

thank you netgalley for a copy in exchange for a review.

After finishing this Book it still lingers in my mind. Johanna van Veen's writing is raw and poetic, blending beauty with brutality in haunting imagery. It's not an easy read but I appreciated that. It didn't try to soften anything. Instead, it embraced the messiness of desire and identity in a way that felt very real to me.

Sadly, I had to DNF this. The weird writing took me out of any immersion that would have been possible. The characters were drab and I couldn't get into this at all.

Three stars because the horror in this was so grotesque, I had to keep taking breaks to go, "ewwwwwww" (positive). I haven't read Johanna van Veen's previous work, but I did enjoy this and am curious to pick up more of her work. Where this book thrives is in its gothic atmosphere and body horror, as well as the good for her components. Where it didn't land for me was how predictable it all was and the way the mythology in the book fell away in the second half.

Gothic + sapphic + vampire - it’s a bookish combo I crave. Blood on her Tongue by Johanna van Veen is categorically gothic, sorta sapphic, and very nearly vampiric. Did it placate my cravings? Almost.

Thank you @poisonedpenpress and @netgalley for the eARC.

She had me with the Author’s note at the beginning. I love how cleverly she set the stage, like a candle flickering in and out of the shadows. She also gives content warnings here. I generally don’t need them, because, most of the time, it’s not the content itself that bothers me, but how it's handled. And it just so happens her warnings include some of my favorite topics in books - mental illness, misogyny, and toxic relationships - to name a few. The author mentions her commitment to handling mental illness with care and sensitivity, which I deeply appreciate, and I feel she did accomplish that.

I thought the first half of the book was excellent. The atmosphere and the mystery were tense and interesting, I cared about the sisters and their struggles. But then, things took a turn. And I don’t know any other way to describe it other than unhinged, but not actually in a good way like I LOVE. This was more like an unintentional unhinged. The men acted exactly as you would expect sexist and misogynistic men of that time to act. The sisters just kinda stopped making sense. But, maybe that was intentional

The gothic elements were on point, and I loved the commentary on class, power struggles, female hysteria, and the defiance of societal norms. And I have to mention how much it reminded me of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. I reread it last year, and I decided that someone needs to write a retelling from Rebecca’s point of view. This wasn’t it, but maybe someday…

3.5 stars

Deliciously gothic.


I loved the gothic elements and setting to this story and I found it to be wholly immersive and a quick read. I wouldn't say that this book is scary by any means, but it is gory (and I loved that part of this). I loved the world-building elements of it and thought this was a unique take on horror that's been done before.

The reason why it wasn't a higher rating is that I had a hard time rooting for the characters at times and the sister relationship is a complex one that made it difficult for me to find the ending as satisfying as I had hoped.

This is the second book I’ve read by this author and once again i’ve been left speechless by how enthralled this authors writing has me. I couldn’t put it down and even went out of my way to immediately buy my own physical copy!

Blood on Her Tongue had all the elements of a gripping psychological thriller—an eerie atmosphere, a mysterious death, and a protagonist with a haunted past. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite deliver.

The pacing dragged, especially in the middle chapters, and I found it hard to stay invested. While the writing is atmospheric at times, the plot feels muddled and overly reliant on familiar tropes. Characters lacked depth, making it difficult to connect with their motivations or care about their fates.

There were glimmers of potential, and a few twists kept me curious enough to finish, but overall, it fell flat. Not the worst I've read, but certainly not as compelling as I hoped.

I really enjoyed this gothic horror novel. Thank you so, so much to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for allowing me to read this title!

Blurb:
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.

Title: Blood On Her Tongue
Author: Johanna van Veen
Genre: Horror
Format: eARC
Series: NA
Star Rating: 3.5 stars

A special thank you goes to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with a copy of this book. Please know that this does not influence my rating or thoughts on the book itself.

tw: sickness, death of a loved one, body horror/gore, the stigmatization of the mentally ill, misogyny, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, cheating, and toxic codependent relationships.
*These trigger warnings are located in the book as well. This author also took the time to get sensitivity readers for the mental illness aspect of the book. We stan a queen who cares about mental health rep!

When I started this book, I thought it was going to be like a typical possession horror story, but it ended up being way different then I thought it was going to be. While I did enjoy it, it wasn’t my absolute favorite, and I had a slight problem with the pacing of the book, which I’ll talk about later.

One of the best things about this book, though, was the body horror. This had some of the best body horror I’ve ever read about. It’s right up there with Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It had disgusting eye injuries, very grotesque descriptions of injuries and the body, and more. I was so grossed out, but I was also living for it. Just be mindful if you are squeamish. This book does not hold anything back.

I can’t quite put my finger on why I wasn’t more in love with this book. I think I didn’t love it because it wasn’t quite the typical possession book. Which, normally, I would enjoy, but I think it was the pacing. There was a very dramatic event that happened in the middle, and then it was very slow up until the very end. It just seemed off to me.

I think my other problem was that I was mad I didn’t quite guess the twist, although I’m not sure if there truly was a twist. There was mention of a particular unusual mental illness, and once it was mentioned, I’m like, oh that totally makes sense! But then the book made you think something completely different, and I’m still unsure what the ending was truly about.

Overall, this was a good book, I just think it suffered from pacing issues a little bit. I was a little annoyed with the way the twist was handled. But it redeemed itself with the excellent body horror, and I’m glad I ended up getting a copy. I think I’ll reread it again and see if my opinion changes.

Johanna Van Veen has moved onto my auto buy author list because this was spectacular. This slow burn was incredibly atmospheric and creepy as the story strolled through this grim, gothic setting. This is a horror that is going to linger in my brain for a LONG time. Thank you so much for my arc! I cannot wait to buy myself a trophy for my shelf!