"I'm in your blood, and you are in mine…"
Body horror, death, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, child death (off-page).
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.
Don't just take our word for it...
“Gothic horror for the ages…Combining shiver-inducing horror with sharp-fanged social commentary, this more that merits comparison to Dracula and other genre titans.”
– Publishers Weekly, Starred Review 🌟
“Johanna van Veen takes up the mantle of Stoker and Le Fanu with this seductive tale of hunger, transgression, and the violent power of sisterhood. Sumptuous, disturbing, and sensual, Blood on Her Tongue is queer gothic fiction at its audacious best. A bloody and decadent feast of a novel.”
– Elliott Gish, author of Grey Dog
“A new gothic masterpiece. Blood on Her Tongue is decadent, full of gore and rot, and viscerally, relentlessly engaging. I devoured this one. Once you’ve tasted a little, you’ll need more, then more, then more…”
– CJ Leede, author of Maeve Fly and American Rapture
Taste the very first page
The train left the station at noon.
By then, so many little things had gone wrong that Lucy couldn’t help but wonder whether her journey was ill-fated. Firstly, she had intended to be on an earlier train, the one that left at ten, but one of the horses pulling the carriage taking her to the station had thrown a shoe, delaying her by almost two hours. When she finally arrived, the heel of her left boot snapped off, causing her to sprain her ankle. Once she was seated within the train, she thought herself momentarily safe from the common misfortune that had dogged her that morning. This proved to be an illusion when a fellow passenger, a middle-aged woman who smelled strongly of rose water, dumped her travel bag onto Lucy’s lap.
Startled, Lucy jerked in her seat. The book she had been idly flicking through, a collection of gothic tales translated from English, fell from her lap. In between its pages, tucked there carefully to prevent loss and creases, lay the most recent letters from her twin sister, Sarah. They spilled onto the floor and under the seats.
“Oh my!” the woman said. She snatched up the bag as if afraid…
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