Johanna Van Veen

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 harbouring secrets of her own too. 

Then, the worst happens. Sarah’s behaviour 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 

Blood on Her Tongue

Oh my god I love when women write sick sapphic stories. 

Simone Martin

Hannah Bateman

I really liked the author’s previous book, ‘My Darling Dreadful Thing’, so I was very excited to get an ARC for her second novel. Told partially in the epistolary form that hearkens back to the 19th century, this novel is nevertheless thoroughly contemporary in its treatment of gothic tropes and use of scientific imagination.

Lucy has always been Sarah’s paler, duller twin sister but they have a mutual bond that surpasses all else. When Lucy receives word of Sarah’s grave illness, she rushes down to Sarah’s matrimonial home to be with her, but this also means confronting her past—she had an affair with Sarah’s husband after their only daughter passed away and Sarah had a psychotic break. The issue hanging over their heads is that madness runs in the family and their maternal aunt was sent away to an asylum where she died unaccounted for. The sisters are deadly afraid of the same happening to Sarah, both then and now.

The event that triggered Sarah’s recent condition is the unearthing of a mysterious bog corpse. Sarah became fixated on it but soon fell ill and started writing of an insatiable hunger. We can intuit what for: human meat and blood. Is she genuinely mad? Is this undiagnosed schizophrenia? Is there a supernatural reason (e.g., spiritual possession?) Or is there a believable scientific explanation for this with a basis in the natural world? Regardless of the true reason, Sarah’s change is synonymous with her breaking from the expected heteronormative role of a wife who submits to her husband, and is about to be the catalyst for Lucy’s own liberation.

The ending was kinda meh and I feel like I have more questions then answers but it was still a good read 

Blood on Her Tongue

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