Review by beanaroni - Blood on Her Tongue

beanaroni 's review for:

Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen

3.25

dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I was really excited about this one because I’m extremely fascinated by bog bodies and love a weird twin dynamic but it unfortunately fell flat for me. If I hadn’t received this as an ARC, I probably wouldn’t have finished it. The anachronistic language really stuck out and took me out of the story. I also think it didn’t go in any one direction hard enough for me. It wasn’t as gross, scary, gay, or gothic as I was hoping for. The first part of the book is genuinely good though. Van Veen really nails the atmosphere at the start of the novel and the epistolary parts were excellent but then it just sort of…deflated about halfway through. Unfortunately, you can really tell she struggled with writing this book, which she plainly admits in the afterword. I’d be interested to try to read her other novel to see if she just hit a snag with this one or if I just don’t like what she’s doing.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC for review.

Content Warnings