If you liked Johanna van Veen’s debut novel, My Darling, Dreadful Thing and would’ve even stuck around had things gotten bloodier, weirder, and more sexual, then you’re going to love Blood on Her Tongue. 

I’m telling you all, at about 22% of the way through this book I found myself saying, “Johanna van Veen, you filthy lil’ hussy!”

I love a great twin story, and BoHT delivers one full of that tremendous twin attachment, sibling infighting, family superstitions and lore, avarice, manipulation, grief, weaponized emotions, infidelity, secrets, lies, domestic abuse, gaslighting, misogyny, violence, and forced medicating. Oh, and we can’t forget the bog body. 

If My Darling, Dreadful Thing felt almost like a fever dream at some points, Blood on Her Tongue feels like a blood-soaked gothic horror film in technicolor. Nothing but the reddest of reds would do to match the rage and pain the women in this book both experience and mete out. Sometimes it just feels good to gorge yourself on the violence. 4⭐️

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Body Horror/Feminist Horror/Gothic Fiction/Historical Horror/Horror/LGBTQ Horror/Sapphic