January Book Reviews: Bone of My Bone by Johanna van Veen
I received a free copy from Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for a fair review. Release date May 26th, 2026.
Van Veen's horror novel Blood on Her Tongue was one of my favorite books of last year, and I was very excited to get a chance to read her new necromancy nun apocalypse roadtrip book early. In Bone of My Bone, nun Ursula and ex-farmgirl Elsebeth join forces after an attack by a roving gang of soldiers in Bavaria during the Thirty Years' War. When the two women come across a saint's skull, they decide to return it to its body in a mad hope that the skull will grant a wish, all while pursued by a necromancer of Satan.
Bone of My Bone read very similarly to Starling's The Starving Saints, or like a more straightforward version of Anderson's Nicked. While isn't quite as much horror novel as van Veen's previous book, she brings her distinctive flair for graphic depictions of gore to the prose. It doesn't have as much of the looming sense of unease of proper horror, but there's several German folk revenants shambling around. With all of the eye gouging, flesh rotting, and maggot writhing, this is not a book for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach. Also like The Starving Saints, it's sapphic, but not with the romance novel intense focus on the relationship. Elsebeth and Ursula just fall together, albeit with a slight air of unwholesomeness that complements the horror plot nicely.
While the book has necromancers and the wandering undead, the actual monsters have nothing on the unrelenting carnage of the real Thirty Years' War. Wandering bands of soldier attack indiscriminately, plague strikes people down en masse, and whole towns starve of famine. Ursula mentions that her nunnery has been sacked five times in recent years, and Elsebeth's entire family was slaughtered by soldiers. Elsebeth says that there may not be a heaven, but there's certainly a Satan, which seems to be echoed by the book's take on Christian mythology. There is no divine intervention, but you can sell your soul to the actual devil for powers necromantic. I did ultimately find the magic system to be a bit too literal of a reflection of Christianity for my tastes. It's appropriate for the characters in the period, but an odd choice for the worldbuilding.
Overall, I think Blood on Her Tongue is the stronger novel due to the relative simplicity of Bone of My Bone's roadtrip structure, but the book is still excellently done, particularly the prose. A story that's not afraid of a bit of gore. Recommended.
