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Book Summary and Reviews of Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen

Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen

Blood on Her Tongue

by Johanna van Veen

  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • Published:
  • Mar 2025, 368 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

"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.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Combining shiver-inducing horror with sharp-fanged social commentary, this more that merits comparison to Dracula." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Dark, indulgent, atmospheric, claustrophobic, Blood on Her Tongue is an unforgettable plunge into the depths of a sister's love." —Grimdark Magazine

"Johanna van Veen's artful and cunning use of the sublime will pull you into a sisterly web of terror, beauty, and horror, all of it sensual and dripping with the idea that death should be a kind of mutilation." —Nicholas Belardes, author of The Deading

"Gruesome, at times unhinged and deeply beautiful, Blood on Her Tongue is morbid in the best sense of the word. A vital addition to the gothic genre that will make you shudder with both pleasure and fear." —Katrina Monroe, author of Through the Midnight Door

This information about Blood on Her Tongue was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Johanna van Veen

Johanna Van Veen grew up in the Netherlands with her two sisters. She received an MA in English Literature with a specialization in early modern literature, as well as an MA Book and Digital Media with a specialization in early modern book history. She enjoys spending time with her girlfriend, her sisters, and her dog, though not necessarily all at the same time.    

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