Johanna van Veen – författare

USA Today bestseller and Bram Stoker Award nominee Johanna van Veen unveils a sapphic folk horror tour de force—perfect for fans of The VVitch and The Salt Grows Heavy. A skull’s grin is eternal…The year is 1635.Sister Ursula, a young nun fleeing the ruins of her convent, and Elsebeth, a sharp-witted peasant, escape a band of marauding soldiers and disappear into the Bavarian forest. War scorches the land, and no one survives it alone. Amid the devastation, they find something in the arms of a dying man: the gilded skull of a saint.It is said that if you reunite the saint’s skull with her body, a wish will be granted. Desperate for salvation, and each with secret desires of their own, Ursula and Elsebeth follow a ragged map across the blighted countryside. But darkness follows them. A necromancer, drawn to the relic’s power. The saint herself, whispering at night. And as the lines between blessing and curse blur, the women must face a harrowing truth: the magic they seek comes at a cost.At the journey’s end, they’ll face an impossible choice—one that could tear apart everything they know…or bind them to each other forever.As beautiful and tender as it is dark and terrifying, Bone of My Bone showcases one of queer horror’s most exciting writers in her most chilling tale yet.TropesFolk Horror FantasyDark FairytaleSapphic LoveHistorical FictionSupernatural BooksLGBTQ+Also by Johanna van Veen:My Darling Dreadful ThingBlood on Her Tongue

*** Winner of the British Fantasy Awards Best Horror Novel 2025 ***If the dead can wake and walk among us, how can we know what is truly real?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 at night, 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.

"Gothic horror for the ages…Combining shiver-inducing horror with sharp-fanged social commentary, this more than merits comparison to Dracula and other genre titans." – Publishers Weekly, Starred Review***"I'm in your blood, and you are in mine…"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.A haunting gothic tale for fans of all things supernatural, Blood on Her Tongue is refreshingly biting and unashamedly chilling, taking its place as a horror story for the ages.TropesGothic HorrorSapphic LoveLGBTQ+Supernatural Books

After an evil witch steals their aunt in a deal gone wrong, Nell and her sisters must embark on a fantastical journey to take the beldam down in this first book in a middle grade trilogy for fans of Coraline and the Sinister Summer series.Although triplets Nell, Annet, and Hannah were born only minutes apart, Nell is the eldest, which means it’s her job to protect the others. But she doesn’t know how to defeat an enemy like the typhoid draining her sisters of life. Desperate, Nell will do whatever it takes to save them, even going to Hagstone Hill and making a deal with the evil witch—the beldam—who lives inside it. Beldams are slippery to bargain with, known to cheat to get what they want—souls to feast on—but Nell has no choice. She and the beldam strike a deal: the beldam will save Nell’s sisters in return for something precious. Nothing Nell owns matters more than Annet and Hannah, so she’s prepared to give up whatever it is—especially once she sees her sisters getting healthy again. But when it’s time to pay, the beldam acts true to her nature and cheats. She doesn’t take something precious, but someone: the girls’ Aunt Lena. Nell and her sisters must embark on a dangerous journey full of ghosts, goblins, and other dangers to save the only mother they’ve ever known from becoming the beldam’s next meal.

When their father sends a letter saying he has remarried and no longer loves them, Annet and her sisters set out across the treacherous Sea of Teeth to find him in this second book in The Triplets Grim illustrated middle grade trilogy, perfect for fans of Coraline and the Sinister Summer series.To save her father, she'll have to survive what lurks beneath. Annet is in shock. She and her sisters, Hannah and Nell, have just read a letter from their father, who is away at sea. He says that he has a new wife and never wants to see his daughters again. The triplets are hurt and angry until Annet realizes that though it's their father's handwriting, the words aren't his. Convinced their father is in danger, the sisters sneak off across the deadly Sea of Teeth to rescue him. Their journey is filled with peril, as the triplets look for help among the weird creatures at the Goblin Market, go sailing with piratesboth living and deadand find themselves stranded in the middle of a sea filled with hungry mermaids. Annet is kind and clever and good at solving riddles, but will that be enough to outsmart a sinister sea witch and fight all the dangers of the deep?