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Book: “My Darling Dreadful Thing” by Johanna van Veen
Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, May 2024
Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher.
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: In a world where the dead can wake and walk among us, what is truly real?
Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth—strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries—is the only good thing in Roos’ life, which is filled with sordid backroom séances organized by her mother. That is, until wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop attends one of these séances and asks Roos to come live with her at the crumbling estate she inherited upon the death of her husband. The manor is unsettling, but the attraction between Roos and Agnes is palpable. So how does someone end up dead?
Roos is caught red-handed, but she claims a spirit is the culprit. Doctor Montague, a psychologist tasked with finding out whether Roos can be considered mentally fit to stand trial, suspects she’s created an elaborate fantasy to protect her from what really happened. But Roos knows spirits are real; she’s loved one of them. She’ll have to prove her innocence and her sanity, or lose everything.
Review: Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for sending me an ARC of this novel!
I do love me a scary story that involves a séance or two, as the idea of speaking to the dead is a trope in horror that I have been a fan of ever since I saw “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey” as a little girl (the BEST Bill and Ted story, in my opinion, and not just because of Missy’s séance club). I also love Gothic horror stories, and Gothic shenanigans and séances go together OH so very well. Because of this it shouldn’t be any surprise that I was super game to read “My Darling Dreaful Thing”, a Gothic horror story about a young woman who has a spirit attached to her, and who catches the attention of a wealthy young widow after performing a fake séance. Though our protagonist’s ability to take her spirit friend inside of her to perform is very real. Or is it? Which is the question at hand after someone ends up dead. YUP, I was SOLD.
There is so much to like about this book. First and foremost, I really loved the setting of 1950s Netherlands, with the Second World War still bearing wounds. It is the perfect set up for Roos, our protagonist, to be used for grieving people in fake séances at the behest of her mother, because of COURSE a fascination with speaking to those who’ve been lost would be palpable in this setting. Roos does, however, have an actual spirit attached to her. This spirit, Ruth, appears to Roos as a decaying corpse (as it seems that she was alive centuries prior and thrown into a bog), but is her only companionship as her mother is severely abusive and their clients are either desperate with grief, or shady and violent. So when a wealthy young widow named Agnes Knoop meets Roos during a séance, and is so taken with her that she wants to bring her to her dilapidated country manor Rozentuin, Roos jumps at the chance to escape her life with her mother. It is there that she confides that she also has a spirit guide, and the two women form a bond. I really liked this set up, and I REALLY liked the descriptions of Ruth, the grotesque physical imagery being well described and yes, super scary, even if Ruth is something of a comfort for Roos. But we know from the jump that something isn’t right, as Roos has been accused of a murder and those around her believe that Ruth is actually a hallucination of a psychotic mind. The mystery about the murder is an engaging one, and went in a direction that I wasn’t expecting, which made for a more satisfying read because I was genuinely surprised and shocked by a few of the twists at hand.
And, like with any good Gothic horror novel, some of the greatest strengths of “My Darling Dreadful Thing” is the ambiguity and unreliability of our main character Roos, whether it’s regarding Ruth as a presence that is haunting her, or the mental state that Roos herself is in as the story unfolds. We are given a view into her own perspective through her first person narration, but we are also given an outside view through the notes of the doctor assessing her in preparation for her trial. The doctor sees a very mentally unwell woman with delusions due to a massive amount of trauma, and what I liked about this aspect is that 1) it makes for a mystery within the mystery of who has died and whether Roos did bit, and 2) this could ALSO be unreliable because of the time and place of the story and the way that medicine has a tendency to write women off as hysterical. I always love the way that a Gothic story can create more questions than answers, and this one does that very well and in unexpected ways.
If you like Gothic horror as well as Sapphic romances, “My Darling Dreadful Thing” is sure to be a winner. Just know that, like so many great Gothic horror tales before it, there is tragedy to behold, from many sources. So steel yourself for that as well.
Rating 8: A creepy and unnerving horror story peppered with a tragic story of love and loss, “My Darling Dreadful Thing” is a Gothic tale that will please fans of the genre.
Reader’s Advisory:
“My Darling Dreadful Thing” is included on the Goodreads lists “Sapphic Fiction 2024”, and “Queer Horror”.
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