My Darling Dreadful Thing

A Novel

By: Johanna van Veen

Narrated by: 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

All the Gothic Goodness!

This novel is absolutely saturated with gothic goodness, and for the most part it is an enjoyable read for fans of the genre. As is the case with too many horror novels, though, the ending was lackluster. The story is a slow burn, creating the expectation that something intriguing will ultimately happen to horrify or, at least, unnerve the reader. No such luck, though, and the final chapters of this books are simply dull, the landing botched. That said, everything else about this novel is absolutely on point, so I'm trying not to be too mad. The decaying estate surrounded by a treacherous bog mirroring the mental decay of its inhabitants...all great stuff. Fans of Turn of the Screw will delight in this story, which draws heavily from that classic. In addition, everything about this novel was made better by the exceptional narration of Jess Nesling.

Wonderful!

The narrator is perfect. The story is fascinating, haunting, and surprisingly sweet. I love it! Definitely will revisit come next Halloween.

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 👻❤️👻

What a beautiful book

This was an absolutely amazing experience! This book was a loving dreadful adventure. Very well written and very well read.

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.

Sapphic ghost

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

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.

haunted...?

the thoughts expressed are solely the thoughts of the author. any attempt to reprint or cancel the author will be uncalled for
written like an attempt of Emily Brontë to complete a Poe novel. the story was enjoyable but also felt from two separate decades. written after the events in the story, it also suffered from 'doctor notes" the broke the flow of the story