Gothic Literature My Beloved: A Review of My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen

Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.

It’s the last Pride Month post of 2025 here on RHRML. I hope all my LGBTQIA+ readers had a safe and happy Pride Month. Reading Has Ruined My Life has and always will be a safe space for the LGBTQIA+ community. I hope you always find some joy and respect here. And in the immortal worlds of Oscar Wilde, “Trans rights.”

So what’s the final read of Pride Month? What book is in the hot set today? Please give a warm welcome to My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen!

As always, a spoiler alert is in order. If you’ve read any other review on this site then you’ll know I simply love to spoil the entirety of the books I read. This is your one and only warning. I also have a content and trigger warning for this read. My Darling Dreadful Thing has mentions of sexual assault and rape, child abuse, and the stigmatization of people dealing with mental illnesses. My Darling Dreadful Thing is a Gothic novel in the truest sense of the word so please be forewarned that this story discusses a lot of dark topics and themes that I will leave in the shadows as to not spoil the secrets revealed in the book’s third act. With that, let’s get to the synopsis.

Roosje Beckman lives in a macabre world. Her mother, after finding out Roosje can indeed see and talk with spirits, forces her daughter to lead seances in their home. Even though Roosje can actually see spirits, her seances are about as real as a three dollar bill. The goal is to scam people out of their money for the chance to speak with their deceased loved ones one last time.

Roosje is not a fan of this plan. She simply wants to hang out with her spirit companion, Ruth, and live her life. Mother, of course, has other plans. Namely selling Roosje to the wealthy and recently widowed Agnes Knoop. From the moment they met, the pair felt a connection. You see, Agnes can also see the dead. This is the first time either woman has met someone else who could speak with spirits.

Ghosts are real, and they're kinda zombie like.

So Agnes takes Roosje to the beautifully rundown estate Agnes inherited from her late husband. Here Roosje finds herself surrounded by all sorts of dreadful things. There’s Agnes’s sister-in-law dying of consumption, dark secrets buried deep within the manor’s walls, viscous, vengeful spirits, and murder…? Yeah, that’s right, there’s a bit of a mystery afoot. Can Roosje discover the correct haunting secrets to unravel the mystery that’s playing out in My Darling Dreadful Thing? Read to find out.

The Haunting of Hill House. The Turn of the Screw. The Woman in Black. Dracula. Frankenstein. All Gothic literature classics. A small sampling of the required reading of the genre, and I would like to add My Darling Dreadful Thing to the required reading.

My Darling Dreadful Thing includes everything that makes me love this genre so. There’s the fabulously written unreliable narrator, the slow descent into madness, a haunting manor house setting, details for days, and those disturbing, dark secrets buried within the manor’s walls. Everything about this novel is glorious! The imagery is opulent and atmospheric, between that and the characters, I was fully engrossed in this read.

The slow pace, perfectly done I may add, allowed for the tension to build in the background as the drama between characters reached a boiling point and all those dark secrets saw the light of day for the first time in ages. The pacing continuously propels the story forward, forward into darkness, forward into hell on Earth; until readers are left questioning everything they’ve been presented. My Darling Dreadful Thing is a perfect example of a slow burn done well.

The amazingness that is My Darling Dreadful Thing doesn’t stop there because Roosje is a fantastic main character. She, having grown up in an oppressive and lonely home environment, enters into a new, dangerous world with the naivety of a child. Add in the question of if Ruth is indeed a real spirit or a figment of Roosje’s imagination, and Roosje makes for an incredibly interesting character. She’s one that readers have to question at every turn as they peer into her psyche through her own narration and transcripts of her later therapy sessions. While she’s a sympathetic character, she poses so many questions; many of which never receive a proper answer. An unreliable narrator in the truest sense of the word, and a masterfully written one at that.

I applaud Johanna Van Veen for everything about My Darling Dreadful Thing. The narrative Van Veen crafted is both heartfelt and disturbing as the story delves into themes such as love, trauma, and loss; which blend together so well, I may add. I truly believe this novel is a Gothic literature classic in the making. It deserves to be lauded.

Please give this novel all the applause. Please give Johanna Van Veen all the applause!

With that, I shall bid you all adieu. Thank you very much for joining me today, Book Nerds, I hope you’ve had a great time here today. I also hope all my LGBTQIA+ readers had a wonderful, safe, and happy Pride Month. I will see you all again next week with RHRML’s 300 post! I can’t wait, I have a great review lined up for all of you! If you can’t wait till then, then you can always follow RHRML over on Instagram (@ReadingHasRuinedMyLife). I post there almost daily. If you want something not related to books then you can check out my podcast Nothing to See Hear. The show stars me and two of my dearest friends and we talk about anything and everything. May I recommend my Barbie series which I started not too long ago? We’re slowly watching all the Barbie films and reviewing them. I highly suggest the series as the second episode should be dropping real soon.

Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.

See y'all then, bye!