A review by kerasalwaysreading
My Darling Dreadful Thing: A Novel by Johanna van Veen
4.0
A beautifully dark debut!
From a young age, Roos and Mama have been performing seances, rigged to give unwitting customers what they desire, speaking once again to their deceased loved ones. While these are falsehoods, Roos does have a spirit who has latched onto her. Ruth is a long dead girl and the two have a somewhat symbiotic relationship, finding comfort and companionship in one another.
A widow named Agnes Knoop attends a seance and soon requests for Roos to come and live with her in the estate left to her by her late husband. The attraction between Roos and Agnes is quickly evident, and the two seem to have a lot in common. But, a brutal death occurs in the house and Roos is blamed.
Told between transcripts between Roos and her psychologist, and the story that has happened, how Roos unfolds it, not sparing a single detail, we learn of Roos’s life, her hardships, and her time with Agnes. In order to see if she can stand trial, Dr. Montague seeks clues and answers to the question of Roos’s sanity.
This was a dark and intelligent read. I find that horror can be so subjective to an individual, with people not always finding fear in the same books dubbed as horror. This one is truly enthralling, with great visual and psychological horror intertwined. I suggest if blood is something that makes you squeamish, this might not be the book for you, as it talks a lot about it, as it is an integral part of the story.
From a young age, Roos and Mama have been performing seances, rigged to give unwitting customers what they desire, speaking once again to their deceased loved ones. While these are falsehoods, Roos does have a spirit who has latched onto her. Ruth is a long dead girl and the two have a somewhat symbiotic relationship, finding comfort and companionship in one another.
A widow named Agnes Knoop attends a seance and soon requests for Roos to come and live with her in the estate left to her by her late husband. The attraction between Roos and Agnes is quickly evident, and the two seem to have a lot in common. But, a brutal death occurs in the house and Roos is blamed.
Told between transcripts between Roos and her psychologist, and the story that has happened, how Roos unfolds it, not sparing a single detail, we learn of Roos’s life, her hardships, and her time with Agnes. In order to see if she can stand trial, Dr. Montague seeks clues and answers to the question of Roos’s sanity.
This was a dark and intelligent read. I find that horror can be so subjective to an individual, with people not always finding fear in the same books dubbed as horror. This one is truly enthralling, with great visual and psychological horror intertwined. I suggest if blood is something that makes you squeamish, this might not be the book for you, as it talks a lot about it, as it is an integral part of the story.