My Darling Dreadful Thing

A Novel

De: Johanna van Veen

Narrado por: Jess Nesling

Goodreads Most Anticipated Horror of 2024

Spirits are drawn to salt, be it blood or tears.

Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth—strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries—is the light of Roos' life. That is, until the wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop visits one of Roos' backroom seances, and the two strike up a connection.

Soon, Roos is whisked away to the crumbling estate Agnes inherited upon the death of her husband, where an ill woman haunts the halls, strange smells drift through the air, and mysterious stone statues reside in the family chapel. Something dreadful festers in the manor, but still, the attraction between Roos and Agnes is undeniable.

Then, someone is murdered.

Poor, alone, and with a history of 'hysterics', Roos is the obvious culprit. With her sanity and innocence in question, she'll have to prove who—or what—is at fault or lose everything she holds dear.

"A Sapphic seance of preternatural proportions, My Darling Dreadful Thing summons a stunning new literary voice to be reckoned with. Johanna van Veen reaches beyond the veil to conjure up a gothic shocker like no other."—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters

©2024 Johanna van Veen (P)2024 Tantor

Sapphic ghost

Beautiful, heartbreaking and haunting. Engrossed throughout the story, beautiful depictions of love, grief, death and what it means to live.

In my opinion, wasn't the worst.

The story was pretty slow to start but was interesting enough to keep my attention long enough to finish it. It was fairly predictable, I feel the narrator did a decent job, it was cartoony or too animated at times, I felt. But overall it was not too bad. Not a bad book to pass the time with.

Outstanding Writing

I absolutely loved this gothic queer romance. The plot is so easy to get sucked into and the flawed and morally gray characters are absolutely unforgettable.

Tragically beautiful

I'm a sucker for a good ghost story, and this delivers on that. I'm also a sucker for a good sapphic story, which this also delivers on. It left me heartbroken, but not in a bad way. I'm going to revisit this many times I think.

Everything about this book was exceptional. I did not expect what happens!

I would love to see a series with this type of storyline. Maybe not this specific one but others with spirit companions.

Heartbreaking, but couldn’t put it down

A ghost story with twists and turns of love, lies, betrayal, murder, and sex all told from the inner monologue of a traumatized child-like main character, this book took hold of me from the first chapter. I truly couldn’t put it down and was questioning throughout the pages whether it was real or all in her imagination. Heartbreaking but so good.

The narrator’s performance was elegant and soft creating a picturesque atmosphere and really made listening a peaceful delight.

👻❤️👻 5 stars all around 👻❤️👻

Heartbreakingly beautiful

This isn’t a horror story, but a love story. I really enjoyed how the author portrays spirits and how it is they come about, the companionship, relationships between human and spirit. The narrator done a wonderful job with all the characters. The author did such a great job as well with her descriptions of everything that I felt like I was part of the story.

The main character was written so well.

Pleasantly dark. The plot of this book is very well written. The narrator does a great job. I will look for more of her readings.

Beautiful and creepy

Loved it! If House of Hollow and Little Eve had a baby it would be this book.

Sapphic ghosts? Count me in.

From page 1 I was captivated. The relationship between these women crescendos early but builds to a darling love I will think of often.