Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > My Darling Dreadful Thing

My Darling, Dreadful Thing (hereafter referred to as MDDT in this review) is an absolutely lovely, dark, and haunting piece of gothic fiction with delicious hidden pockets of horrid secrets tucked away like terrible treats right up until the end.

We’re in the Netherlands and it’s the 1950s (probably early 1950s). Our protagonist is Roos, who is being examined by a psychiatrist (sadly, a Freudian) to ascertain whether or not she’s mentally responsible for the death of her employer, a Mrs. Agnes Knoop.

Roos is of the opinion that she both is and isn’t. It’s a long story, and it starts when she’s only about five years old and her mother traps her for interminable hours underneath the floorboards of the house in order to better play a fake spirit medium.

MDDT is told in two timelines, with two formats: One is the main story, told from Roos’ first-person POV, and the other is in the format of interviews the psychiatrist has with Roos in order to evaluate her mental state. This format can be hard to nail, but I thought van Veen did an absolutely fantastic job showing both sides of the coin. The psychiatrist comes across as understandably and realistically skeptical, and even though he’s a Freudian thinker (yuck), he never comes across as vulgar. He also does also seem to be truly interested in understanding Roos instead of exploiting her.

The main story, Roos’ story, is the stuff gothic fiction dreams are made of. A cruel mother, a childhood full of suffering, and a rescue from that wretched existence by a rich and lovely widow who brings Roos to her estate ostensibly just because she they are so similar and she couldn’t stand to see Roos suffer in those conditions. However, in every gothic novel there must be a Manderley or Thornfield, and Rozentuin is the setting for where everything goes wrong in this book, because Rozentuin is where all those horrid secrets have been tucked away and left to fester. With Roos, Agnes, their respective spirit companions, and Agnes’ slowly-dying sister-in-law all inside this old house with all their combined secrets and personal ghosts it’s not too long until things start to go terribly wrong.

It was really a terrific book and satisfied every need I have when it comes to gothic fiction. I definitely recommend it.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/Gothic Fiction/Historical Fiction/LGBTQ Fiction/Occult Horror/Sapphic Romance