Title: “Blood on her Tongue” by Johanna van Veen

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Summary: When Lucy receives a letter, saying her twin sister, Sarah, is unwell, she rushes to her side. Sarah is bed ridden and seems to be going through an episode, which could see her being committed to an asylum. Fearful for her sister's sanity, Lucy decides to try and understand what's caused her sister's illness and how to help her.

Thoughts: This is an ARC from Netgalley and I'm leaving this review voluntarily.

I enjoyed this book a lot. Very gothic, and reminded me a little of “Crimson Peak”. With the atmosphere and the story, I was hooked.

I wanted to know what was going on, and what actually happened with Sarah. The story revolves mostly around Lucy, with diary entries, letters and newspaper articles now and then.

It's not what I was expecting but I still couldn't put it down. The twists were great, and the build up of some scenes was tense. I flinched at one point during a scene; it's well described.

The plot can be heavy but thankfully the author has put in some content warnings in the author's note, which I always appreciate. I think for me, the ending was kind of abrupt, but I would happily read this again.

Good luck to the author, and thank you again to NetGalley for the ARC. I believe this title comes out: 25th March 2025.

WOW.

Blood On Her Tongue is a very gothic, macabre horror set in 1887. Our main character Lucy's twin sister Sarah, becomes violently unwell not long after becoming obsessed with a mostly decomposed body, unearthed on her and her husbands estate.

This book is written beautifully, so skillfully so that I gagged reading one scene and winced at others. It is rife with bloody horror.
It is also diverse, each character interesting and fully fledged, with their own flaws and personalities and motivations.

There could definitely be great book club discussions about the allegory to mental health, the treatment of women, and how life is for different members of society (I particularly enjoyed interactions between Miss Lucy and Magda) but all in all, you can still sit and gorge yourself on this as a mad horror story.

I loved this so much. Digusting, moving, eerie work that I think might be my new favourite. I will absolutely be checking out more of this authors other work.

Thank you for allowing me to read this arc!

Oh gosh this was great! Awfully, deliciously dark, from start to finish. If you want complex sister relationships and you want them twisted, this gorgeous book is for you. Oh the power of a sharp fountain pen eh?

Horrific! But so much fun to read. I really took my time with this, and I have to admit, I struggled with the first 20% or so. But after a certain thing happens (I won’t reveal what, you’ll want to go into this blind) I was hooked. Sarah and Lucy were two sides of the same coin, although Sarah was the only one diagnosed as being truly mad, Lucy was just as unhinged. Their sister bonding was what kept me reading, they took sisterhood to a whole new, bloody level.

The writing was easy to digest (pun intended) and gory, with some beautiful bits of writing and some incredible action and high stakes scenes. There was a really nice balance of horror, description and character development to keep me interested. I also enjoyed the commentary on mental health, women and hysteria. A fun, bloody and eerie story!

Lucy's twin sister Sarah is unwell.

This is a severe understatement.

Blood on Her Tongue is exactly what is advertised: gothic, eerie, and built on sisterhood. It also has some pluses that weren't advertised: namely, a bog.

This is very much a horror story, with some very bloody imagery and a lot of building, atmospheric dread in its writing. I love stories with a familial bond as the driving force, and this certainly features that, all wrapped up in codependency and lots and lots of blood.

Johanna van Veen has very quickly established herself as one of my favourite horror authors, and I cannot wait to see what kind of gothic, supernatural, supportive of women's wrongs, and bog-adjacent horror she comes up with next.

Thank you to the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press, and to NetGalley for the ARC.

Possible spoilers

Theres that strong sibling bond, and there's taking things too far.
This one takes it too far, but honestly glad it did.
It gives us the vampire story we are all after, but throws in the strongest bond there is, twins.
There's plenty of gore, and a wince inducing moment or two , and some great surprises along the way. I very much enjoyed both Sarah (all versions) and Lucy as characters.
Their fear of the asylum though, seemed over the top, in comparison to everything else happening in the story.
Overall, I was very entertained by this read.