My Darling Dreadful Thing is a sapphic gothic horror novel and the debut book by Dutch author Johanna van Veen. Set in the 1950s Netherlands, it is a highly atmospheric, dark, and macabre story that blends psychological dread, folklore, and a romance that is as tender as it is deeply disturbing.

🌟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.