It's been a long time since I've been as captivated by a book as I was with this one. From the beginning of the story, I felt connected to Alice, a grief-ridden young woman who wants to reinvent herself at college and pursue a relationship with another woman. Schwab masterfully connects Alice's story with Sabine's, a 16th-century Spanish vampire who took her fate into her own hands, and Charlotte's, a trusting young woman who is seeking freedom from Regency era London's stuffy expectations. I don't always appreciate changes in POV, but the thorough world building and the connections between these women kept me hungry for more. Mysterious, sexy, and teeming with unhinged lesbian vampires? What more can a girl ask for?

I had the honor of reading an arc of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by @ve… and it’s going to stay in my heart forever.
As an avid reader of vampire books it’s rare that one sticks out as much as this book did.
This book follows three women over different time periods until their stories weave together.
Think Interview with the Vampire but sapphic and darker.
The manipulation and power dynamics are so gripping and had me on the edge of my seat the whole time.
But it goes so much deeper than toxic relationships. It really explores what happens when love truly consumes and deteriorates you.
Similar to other VE Schwab books it has historical elements woven into it which I adored.
All of the FMCs make such horrible decisions and are kind of evil but you can’t help but love them.
This book felt so cohesive. Every single sentence had a purpose and I left feeling heartbroken but so satisfied.

The writing in this book, just as it is in all of her books, was exceptional. This book was incredibly atmospheric. I loved the plot because it was haunting and layered, filled with secrets that kept me reading. Each character's POV was very distinct, and I appreciated how much time the story gave to each of them. I felt like I was there, with the characters, experiencing their love, fear, and nostalgia. This is a book I will never stop thinking about, right alongside Addie LaRue.

I was not aware of what this book was about when I picked it up. I avoided reviews and the description was only a few lines of text at that point. I love going into a book blind and relied on the praise V.E. Schwab has had in the past and hoped for the best. I was not disappointed. I was absolutely mesmerized the moment I picked up this book. I just absolutely loved V.E. Schwab’s storytelling. I was fully engrossed as we traveled through time. This was a toxic sapphic love story that spans centuries with the help of the women being vampires. The story is completely character driven and they were terrible but amazing women. You could feel their pain and completely understand the choices they made, even if they weren’t the best. It is told through different POVs til the characters meet each other. I just could not wait to find out how these characters came to be in each other's lives.
I can’t wait to recommend this book to friends.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil follows the lives of three young women as the navigate the world as vampires. This is a beautifully written book that will have you happy, sad, and just plain angry by all the lives that are affected by Sabine. I truely enjoyed this book from the first page to the last as it follow the lives of all three women and who they became.

1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada: Maria has always liked her freedom to do as she pleases. Maria also wants more out of life than the one she was born into. So when a Viscount wants to marry her she doesn't decline. However being a wife is not what Maria wants after all. She doesn't want children and dispises her husband so when she meets The Widow Sabine she thinks this will be her way out.

1827. London: Charlotte always knew she was different and tried to hide it. When her parents send her away for the season Charlotte finds that being a wife and mother is not what she wants. She meets The Widow Sabine and finds herself looking for her at every ball. Before the season is over Charlotte finds herself wanting to spend forever with Sabine.

2019. Boston: Alice meet Lottie by chance at a party. The next morning she finds herself ill . When she realizes what is wrong with her all she feels is rage. Her only goal is to find out who Lottie really is and why she did this to her. Once Alice finds the answers to her questions, she must make sure this doesn't happen again.

I would like to thank both NetGalley and Tor Books for letting me read an advanced copy of this book.

VE Schwab's writing will always be some of my favorite--it is some of the best prose around. I really enjoyed this story and all of the three main women. You could feel their longing, their grief, their exhaustion, and their desire for change. The ending isn't what I hoped for and felt a little abrupt, but that is kind of the point.

It pains me to say this, but this was hard to get through. Schwab has a very distinct writing style that you either love or hate. Usually I can manage through it because Schwab's storytelling is typically *immaculate*, but this one was very grating on the nerves. The repetitive, run-on sentences irritated me SO much that I had to put the book down for days at a time. Not to mention that this book is giant (over 500 pages), so be prepared to slowly meander a lot to get to the ending. Unfortunately, there isn't anything unique about this book, and it left me pretty disappointed.

Thank you to the publisher for an advance copy of this title.

unequivocally delightful. tantalizing to the senses and a great follow up to Schwabs standalone Addie LaRue. Hoping this one has even half the success!

“Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil” was supposed to be a homerun for me, being from one of my favorite authors and about vampires (my favorite monster) and featuring toxic sapphic relationships. On paper, this should have been one of my favorites of the year. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book, and the longer I think about it, the less I like it. It follows a series of protagonists throughout history, establishing their lives as women and their entry into vampire-hood; the focus shifts between these protagonists and the time period jumps around quite a bit. Several of these characters are unruly, villainous women, which is awesome! A lot of this reads as a “good for her” in novel format, and I think that there are some lines here that work pretty well (Sabine’s, for example, is particularly strong in its initial chapters).

Unfortunately, there are two main problems with this book for me: one, Schwab desperately needs an editor unafraid to kill some darlings. I had the same issue with her latest in the Shades of Magic series – too long, storylines that don’t go anywhere, scenes that are there to have pretty (and overwrought) writing repeated ad nauseum. The story behind the title of this book, for example, is hammered home with a fervor that borders on hysteria: “do you see the theme?? DO YOU?”. Yes, we do! I promise! The second issue I have with this book is that… Schwab has nothing new to say about vampires. The lore’s the same. The take on them as sexy, dangerous, and inhuman is the same. There is nothing in this book that looks at vampires in a new way in the least, even taking into account the sapphic substories. Perhaps if she had been coming at vampires from a new angle, the interminable length might have been justified. But no – this one was just a complete miss for me, and a profound disappointment.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have loved every single book I have read by V.E. Schwab and I didn't think she could top the Invisible Life of Addie Larue but I stand corrected. This was a fantastic novel that spans hundreds of years through the eyes of three different characters, each one from a different time until they all cross in the present. It was beautifully written and I couldn't put it down. This is a story I will definitely want to live again.

This is a story about hunger.
1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
Maria dreams of escaping the life she has been told she must live only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, and Maria follows.

This is a story about love.
1827. London.
Charlotte has grown up on her family's estate until a moment of forbidden intimacy causes her to be shipped to her aunt's home in London. Charlotte’s tender heart is swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow—but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined.

This is a story about rage.
2019. Boston.
Alice's chance at being someone new was suppose to start when she moved to Boston for college. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world, leaving her old life behind. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, her present, and her future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers . . . and revenge.

This is a story about life—
how it ends, and how it starts.

This book is a fresh take on a familiar tale. It spans across multiple timelines which I tend to avoid but it was done well here.

V.E Schwab can do absolutely no wrong in my eyes. I love everything they write and this was no different! The world, the story and characters had so much depth and newness to them. I felt like I was reading a truly new and unique idea. It was a whirlwind of emotions but I love holding on for dear life!!!

If V.E. writes it, I will devour it.

It is a very unique talent to not only write a story that is compelling and makes you want to keep turning the pages, but to do so in a way where the language itself speaks to your very soul. That’d exactly what this book was.

Not only is the prose beautiful, but the story is so inherently flawed that it’s perfect. And by flawed I don’t mean that the story has any issues— the characters do. This is a story that centers around three women whose lives are irrevocably connected. I’m not sure how V.E. has managed to write such complex characters.

At the beginning of meeting each one, I was rooting for them. I’ve felt sorry for them, and I saw myself in certain aspects of them. But the more the story progressed the more I realized how rotten time will make any person and I found myself rooting for their end.

Towards the end, I thought I knew which of these characters was the most flawed and didn’t deserve a happy ending. But with just one page, I realized what I had read about another was just as damaged.

Incredible story. Again. Beautifully written. Again.

3.5 Stars

It’s like Diablo Cody and Anne Rice wondered if they could write a dark sapphic vampire version of “How I Met Your Mother” together and thought, “maaaaybe…” and Schwab jumped in like, “I got this.”

An epic and ambitious novel but I stumbled over the pacing and plot structure. Even anticipating the long length, it still read very slow and I never quite found a rhythm. Interesting but took about 20% before it begins in earnest and hooked me. From there I had bursts of intense interest and depths of atmospheric indulgence but would then swing into a slow plod of pages. Repeat. But the chapters I zoned in on, oh I realllly loved. Didn’t want to stop the bloody villainous tale.

It’s not until about 50% that I saw a segment that sounds like the VES I would expect. But maybe that’s the point. This is a new VES. Exploring a different side, a new side, the side that she’s longed to let out. And I do respect that.

I liked the end. It was okay, expected once I got to the last 10%, where it was all headed. I mostly just want to remember and savor certain parts throughout, it will definitely stay with me, but as a whole it wasn’t a runaway favorite of mine.

I want to start this off by saying that while I was expecting to enjoy this book, I wasn't expecting to love it, simply because vampires are not my favourite subject and I tend to lean toward more balanced or plot-centric reads.

So you can imagine it came as a complete surprise that I not only loved every bit of this book, but I'm even going so far as to proclaim it a new favourite! I barely just finished it and I already want to pick it up again --- Will definitely be rereading it immediately once the physical copy is available in stores!!

It is entirely character driven, and it almost felt like more of a character study than a novel at times, but the characters are so interesting and have such depth that even now it's hard for me to believe they're not real people. Schwab's writing and use of timelines to gradually take you through the lives of these characters is so incredibly impressive. Even though you're only seeing snapshots of their lives, each and every one was so absolutely pivotal in creating who they were and who they became. While I could never have seen the direction the novel took towards the end when I first started reading, everything that happened always made complete and absolute sense. I cannot wait to reread simply to see if this time I can pick up on the cracks as they started to form.

'Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil' has the best character driven writing I have ever read, and Schwab has become an insta-buy author for me!

I would suggest first looking up the trigger warnings for this book as there are quite a few dark moments, but other than that, I fully recommend going into this book knowing nothing but the title and general premise. I really do feel like the entire experience was enhanced because I had no expectations and let the writing and characters carry me where they wanted to.

Going to recommend this novel to everyone, but especially for people who love character-centric writing, generally enjoy interesting characters, or love to read vampires doing what vampires do.

Many other reviews are describing this book as "toxic lesbian vampires", which is an accurate, if somewhat simplified, description of this book. I felt that it showcases the author's excellent writing style and storytelling skills. Character development and plotting were top notch, and the overall story was quite compelling. Similar to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, the author provides an intimate look at the inner lives of the main characters, their thoughts, feelings, motivations, regrets. And the multiple POVs ultimately coalesce into a satisfying, if not entirely happy, ending. In particular, I think anyone who has experienced an emotionally/psychologically abusive relationship will find that Charlotte's experience resonates. For that, I would include a trigger warning, but otherwise, I highly recommend it!

This is the darkly decadent and twisted sapphic vampire novel we’ve all been waiting for (even if you didn’t know you were). I didn’t expect to adore this as much as I did—the achingly bright first chapters of the book snapped perfectly into a cool midnight thriller that I found myself fascinated by, unable to put down. The women that Schwab populates this novel with are fully-fleshed and brilliantly bloody, in some places the epitome of Good For Her, in others, confusingly easy to sympathize with. Gorgeously queer, violent and tear-jerking by turns, and written in prose that’s guaranteed to make you hungry. Starving, even.

I didn’t want this book to end.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is nothing short of magical—a sprawling, centuries-long journey that grabs hold of you from the first page and never lets go. I’ve always loved stories that follow characters across the years, but Schwab takes that idea and blows it wide open, leading us across continents, through eras, and into the lives of three women bound by hunger, longing, and the brutal weight of time.

Each of these women is so compelling, so achingly human, that I found myself constantly torn about whose story I was most desperate to follow. But the brilliance of this book is how seamlessly these threads weave together—three lives stitched into one hypnotic, grotesque, beautiful tapestry. The narrative never feels disjointed. Instead, it pulls you deeper, feeding a hunger you didn’t know you had.

Schwab’s writing, as always, is gorgeous. Accessible but lyrical, never too heavy-handed, yet dripping with atmosphere and detail. The prose shifts beautifully between perspectives, capturing each character’s unique voice while maintaining a steady, hypnotic rhythm that makes it impossible to put the book down.

At its heart, this is a love letter to the ‘monsters’—to the women who refuse to be small or silent. Women who burn, who hunger, who rage against the cages built for them. It’s about desire, about obsession, about reclaiming power and carving your own place in the world, no matter how bloody the path.

This book wrecked me in the best possible way. I shed tears. I underlined passages that left me breathless. There are so many lines that hit hard and linger, echoing long after the final page. It’s violent, intoxicating, sexy, relentless—and everything I hoped for and so much more.

Schwab has taken gothic horror and drenched it in female rage, yearning, and defiance. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is not just a story. It’s a howl. A hunger. A reclamation.

I was obsessed. Still am.

This was quite literally one of the perfect vampire books to grace our world. I have a deep fondness for the genre and I can truly say that I absolutely loved this book.

We follow the lives of Maria, Charlotte & Alice spanning across centuries- all tortured in some way.
All these women have been struck by tragedy, but the most unique part of this story for me is how the characters handle and respond to it. V.E Schwab doesn't tell us what happening, she makes us feel what her characters are feeling. Things get messy and tragic and I honest to god could not stop reading- I had to know how it ended. It was so toxic and I don't want to spoil anything but the dynamic and complicated nature of these women was addictive.

Sometimes I struggle with multiple timelines, but this was laid out so well, that there wasn't a point where I wanted to jump back to someone else's storyline. The pacing was perfectly laid out. The writing was beautiful and lyrical but very approachable. Overall it was a great experience.

Addie LaRue is such a great book, but Victoria managed to top it with this one. I had no idea what to expect, but I was not floored by how much I loved it. This is the perfect revival to vampire literature and anyone who is a fan of it, will love this.

four stars!! i knew v.e. schwab would not disappoint. this book was so good and reminded me so much of addie larue. three women who have all different motives all crash paths in a very toxic but addicting way. it was giving vampire diaries katherine pierce and her many lifetimes. although i found myself mainly caring for sabine and lottie, alice i didn't really care for. still,i am absolutely obsessed and this book will stay with me forever.