What a ride. Sweeping through centuries with vivid settings and deep character exploration, Schwab delivers an excellent take on a timeless terror that feels fresh and exciting. She knows the origins and the stories you've heard before, but as the narrative slowly unfolds you wait in anticipation of what fate has ahead for the characters of these different timelines, all with their own distinct pasts and burdens to bear. Alice, endearing in her frustration and stunted anger and the struggle to live against, or despite, the loss she won't name. Charlotte, elusive and forlorn, a mystery that must be resolved. Maria (and all she becomes), so aware of her hunger and yet unaware of how it's her failing and downfall in both the world she grew up in and the world she comes into.

What Schwab makes new in her refiguring of age-old myth coheres within the world of the book to create interesting avenues and interesting limitations that are put to use in the unfolding story. Detailed and distinct settings throughout Europe create a culture that the protagonists move through seamlessly without forgetting where they came from. The characters we meet along the way always feel full and interesting, with lives of their own that exist beyond what we've peeked at. Alice and her sister are particularly compelling, and the end of the story--all the ends of all the stories--wraps up in a way that is astonishingly bittersweet and befitting, with costs tallied and accounted for.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing for the digital ARC of “Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil” by V.E. Schwab! I’m torn two ways with this book. On one side I thought it was great, and on the other I felt unfulfilled by its ending. I’ll mention what I did like, the historical settings were lovely, and there were some great poetic lines. The recurring midnight soil poem is beautiful. There’s also the toxic sapphic vampires of it all, along with the wrestling with immortality and morality that I love from vampire fiction. I enjoyed the side characters they met throughout the book. Sabine was the standout POV, a wild girl from 1532 Spain who dreams of freedom from the restraints of society. It’s as the other characters remark, when she’s in the room your eye is immediately drawn to her. Charlotte’s backstory as a regency era debutante is interesting, and Alice the small town Scottish girl at Harvard college has potential. I was interested in both their POVs as self-loathing and reluctant vampires compared to Sabine who is definitely not. Unfortunately that potential is abruptly cut off by the end of the novel and Sabine’s POV is completely lost to us after she meets Charlotte. After building up the story of these three women we reach the conclusion where they come together. (Skip next paragraph to avoid spoilers).

SPOILERS: Ultimately Alice is manipulated into killing Sabine by Charlotte and then Alice also kills Charlotte in revenge. As Alice walks away into the night I was left wondering what the point of this story was. Is Alice ending a line of emotional abuse by killing her potential mentor? Had Charlotte, like Sabine, really lost too much of her humanity? What exactly was it trying to say about life? We’re led to believe Alice is going to truly value the life she still has and let go of the past, but I don’t feel the hope that Schwab is trying to elicit, I just feel tragedy as Alice walks the streets of Boston alone.

While this was an interesting take on vampires, I’ve been spoiled by better takes on the toxic queer vampire genre by Anne Rice and S.T. Gibson. I truly enjoyed reading the novel up until the end and perhaps if a sequel ever appears I can forgive the potential that was wasted if Alice was given a community to support her journey with immortality going forward. If you like other books by V.E. Schwab or are looking for another take on vampire lore you will probably enjoy this book, don’t let my pickiness deter you, there’s still plenty to love!

Moving through three women's lives, and three timelines "Bury Our Bones" follows the lives of Sabine, Lottie and Alice as young women struggling with their lives, and then their vampiric after lives until their come culminating into one intertwined story.
Epic and rather ambition, it still felt rather slow moving in parts and despites being interesting, none of the characters really gripped me. Sometimes I can't make myself put a books down, especially one by Scwab... this one I had trouble picking back up. It was okay, but, and I'm sure others will disagree, but just not my cup of tea this time around.

Thank you to Net Galley for an eARC for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for providing the ARC.

Yes. Yes. 1000x Yes.

I love V.E. Schwab's books and this book is one of her best. A sexy, sapphic vampire thriller that spans centuries? Sign me the hell up.

This book is masterfully written (as all of Schwab's books are), and the imagery she invokes is mesmerizing and evocative. You can really dive into her characters and her world and be consumed by them in the most magical way. And this book is no exception. The characters were incredibly flawed and toxic, the overall vibe of the book screams gothic even though part of it is set in a relatively modern time. It is a powerful look into relationships and loneliness that leaves you feeling exhausted, but still thirsting for more.

This book is immaculate and I am absolutely here for it.

This is just true masterful beautiful storytelling at its finest. VE is an all time favorite author and this didn’t disappoint. The way she used different POVs to develop the storytelling and character growth was SO well done. And the sapphic queer rep, I need more of this by her because I loved it. It was gothic, it’s toxic. It’s romantic in ways. I felt I understood each character and their choices. And Sabine oh Sabine what a beautiful tragic character but did it to herself sorry not sorry babes. I’m at a 4.5

This is a sweeping gothic tale of toxic relationships, loneliness, and power. I really liked the structure of this book and the changing timelines that interconnected at the end to give Alice some sort of answer she was looking for as to what happened to her. Overall, I enjoyed the premise and will always continue to read Schwab's books - I do feel like this book could have been about 200 pages shorter though!

I was taken in by this dark, emotional tale of struggling to find freedom in life without fully understanding the consequences to achieve that freedom. V.E. Schwab creates complex characters who are paradoxically easy to understand in their desire for living freely, yet complicated to relate to in their willingness to go to extreme lengths to live out this desire. And then there are the characters who are faced with consequences without being allowed to make the choices for themselves. I had a hard time putting this book down, wanting to find out what would happen next and to find the connections between the main characters. It is one of those books that has left me thinking about the characters, the lives they led, and the choices they made long after reading the last page.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an early galley copy of the book!

oh this was just *chef’s kiss*

toxic lesbian vampires that span across five hundred years?? i was so mesmerized that the 500 pages flew by like nothing. these characters are morally gray and juicy and sexy and blood-thirsty. this plot is shocking and sensual and thrilling and bone-chilling and shockingly philosophical. what a treat from start to finish.

v.e. schwab continues to lure me with her immaculate writing, and keen skill for storytelling. the writing is at once simple and complex, surface and hidden, rich and lush. and the story she is able to craft with such beautiful prose sweeps you away like a bit of ash.

this is such a smash. SMASH 💥

written review found on my Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7279401217
video review found on my TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@bookswithjm/video/7512291037658860842

Are the flaws of the characters a main focus of the book? The flaws are the entire focus of this book. I think it was a really interesting way to look at how we hurt people and does it matter, does it make us better if we don’t intend to hurt others vs. if we take pleasure in hurting others. 

I think the following quote really sums up the entire book:

“You want me to feel sorry for you? Because you had a toxic ex?” Lottie lets out a small sound, half sob, half laugh, but Alice just throws up her hands. “I’m sorry she hurt you,” she says. “But it doesn’t make up for what you did—”

Ultimately who doesn’t want to read about toxic lesbian vampires.

V.E. Schwab may have single-handedly cured my hatred of vampire books. The women in this book are fierce, flawed, and deeply sympathetic, making for an engaging, unpredictable journey. While the ending left me conflicted, it doesn’t overshadow the novel’s intricate storytelling and emotional depth. A beautifully crafted, if occasionally bittersweet, read.

𝒯𝑜𝓍𝒾𝒸. 𝐿𝑒𝓈𝒷𝒾𝒶𝓃. 𝒱𝒶𝓂𝓅𝒾𝓇𝑒𝓈. 𝐵𝓊𝒸𝓀𝓁𝑒 𝓊𝓅, 𝒷𝒶𝒷𝑒𝓈, 𝓌𝑒’𝓇𝑒 𝒷𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔.

Ok, so I have always LOVED vampire books, but this is a new level of love. Shall we call it a Sabine level of love. IYKYK. It's slow, it’s weird, it’s GORGEOUS, and it’s full of women making terrible life (and afterlife) choices. And I ATE. IT. UP.

It’s not a romance. It’s not even close. It’s longing and obsession and rage and bad decisions that feel so right in the moment. Like, yes, we’re going to ignore the red flags, taste the danger, and burn it all down. The writing was as beautiful as Addie Larue but instead of being sad and timeless the characters are hot, unhinged, toxic and definitely messy.

I’m not going to spoil the ending, but it left me hollow in the best way. Just vibes and trauma and a lingering sense that love is a trap and freedom is a myth and women are tired and furious and still burning.

𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀: It’s a beautifully written, emotional, and messy book about love, freedom, and the monsters we become (or love) along the way. Maria deserved peace. I did not get peace. No one is at peace. Loved it.

What a journey this was! My short review of this is sapphic vampires out for love, revenge, and to satiate their hunger throughout time, make for a phenomenal story. This was well-plotted and paced from the 1530s to present day and following 3 main characters - all of whom are lesbian vampires. I enjoyed every second of this and found the bits where certain revenges occurred to be particularly delicious.

4 stars rounded up from 3.75
The elevator pitch of this book is so intriguing. Follow four sapphic vampires through centuries, learning and navigating what it means to be planted “in the midnight soil”. I was SO excited to devour this book, but sadly, it fell a little flat for me. V. E. Schwab is a beautiful linguist, sentences flowing into one another like braided grass. The plot, on the other hand, simply moved too slowly for me. I came to dread picking up the book, afraid of running into another long retelling of an uncaring character mercilessly killing and being annoyed when they are taken advantage of.
Morally grey (or morally cruel) characters abound as we learn the 400+ years of events leading up to a more modern-day timeline where a young girl in college is turned while passed out. Unaware of what she is or what the rules of her “death” are, exactly, all she wants to do is find the mysterious woman she brought home the night before and learn what the hell she is supposed to do now.
The only likable characters are the modern day girl, who we get to hear very little from, and one who is introduced more than 50% of the way through the book.
The ending was satisfying in a way but happened too quickly and with very little conflict imo. I would have loved for the scenes to be more suspensful.

I received an advance reader copy of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab from NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

For those who romanticize the haunted and the undead, and love so bathed in blood that nobody can let go, this one's for you. If you're into a gothic fever dream drowning in grief, yearning, and toxic situationships that stretch across centuries, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab might be for you.

This poetically haunting novel follows three women across three timelines, weaving a lyrical tale of love, loss, and the toll eternal existence takes on the soul.

I've heard many great things about V.E. Schwab, namely The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and I was itching to read her work. As a lifelong vampire lore obsessive, I’m so glad Bury Our Bones was my entry point. Read on for my full ARC review.

Overall Impressions 😊

I'm not much of a horror reader, so I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. To my surprise, I didn’t feel afraid in the traditional sense. There were no jump scares. I'm not sure if literary horror is even supposed to include those, but for me, this story explored what I’d call emotional horror. It’s the kind of fear rooted in loneliness, and how the dread of being alone can drive someone to do extreme things.

It was an unexpected read for me. This is a character-driven novel, far more than a plot-heavy one. It felt like reading a slice of life that spans five centuries on a dry summer night, with bonfires cackling in the distance. It was poetic and ethereal, like you were moving fluidly alongside the characters as they passed through time.

I felt unsettled at times and cozy at others, and every time I felt cozy, I felt the unease lurking in the back, waiting for the next shoe to drop. I assume that was the intent.

Perfect For Fans Of 🌟

This book reminded me so much of the quiet unease Leigh Bardugo layers into some of her more mature works, where slice-of-life storytelling in historical or contemporary settings gets interrupted by magic and suspense. If you enjoyed Ninth House or other adult dark academia reads, this might be your cup of tea, even though this isn’t technically dark academia, it hits some of the same emotional and atmospheric beats.

Characters 👥

This book has three main characters, and all of them shine in their own right. Maria, from 1500s Spain, is by far my favorite character ever. Her hunger and greed practically drip through the pages. Her relentless need for more, and the extreme lengths she’s willing to go to get what she wants, made her a compelling and unsettling point of view to read.

Charlotte is practically the girl next door, straight out of 1800s London — which, by the way, gives major Bridgerton vibes for a short while. That is, if there were vampires involved. I adored her love for life in the beginning. However, as the plot progressed, I started to sour on her, and I’m so curious if others will feel the same. To me, Charlotte was almost the most toxic of them all.

And then there’s Alice, who is buried in her grief but trying to work through it. I didn’t really connect with Alice, but she definitely played her part, and I liked where she landed and why. However, some of the side characters from her timeline felt overly detailed and repetitive at times, so I struggled to stay fully invested in her arc. I was mostly following Alice’s chapters to see how the original timelines would echo into the later ones.

More on the side characters — there are a lot of them. The story stretches across five centuries, so naturally, many names and faces are dropped over time. Some of them play major roles in the plot, but others end up confusing the story a bit, even though they add beautiful, floral detail. I actually liked it. I love when authors almost get sidetracked by cursory details because it feels like they’re pausing to share pieces of their world with us. But it definitely takes us on a roundabout path away from the main plot at times.

Plot 🗺️

As I mentioned earlier, this is more about character development across centuries than it is about plot. But that doesn’t mean we’re not getting any events, they’re just more like glimpses of slice-of-life moments, showing who each character is and how they’ve changed over time, rather than action being the central theme.

We jump between timelines like changing TV channels, getting a peek into different eras and emotional states. I really enjoyed that structure. It keeps things fresh, fragmented, and deeply human.

The toxicity between characters is front and center. Yes, there’s love, but it’s rotten. Yes, there’s hunger, but… also rotten. The side characters? Toxic. It’s all so messy, but you can’t look away. The biggest seed of rot, though, is fear. Fear of being alone. Fear of being left behind. And the way that fear manifests in each character is different enough that it almost feels like a social experiment dressed up in a toxic vampire love story.

Even though there isn’t a traditional plot with big turning points, the characters keep you engaged. If you enjoy watching people unravel, rebuild, and shift over time, this book is a treat. There’s tension, but it simmers more than it snaps.

Writing Style and Narration ✍️

This was the first book I’ve read written in present continuous tense, which made the experience feel much more urgent. It was an odd combination at times, because the book isn’t plot-driven, yet I still felt like I was moving with the characters, just inside their heads. Every thought they had seemed to echo in mine as I was reading. It was unsettling, and I assume that was a deliberate narration choice.

There are a lot of half-finished sentences, often stacked together. Many end in punctuation that mimics interruption, like a thought breaking off. That structure emphasizes presence and immediacy. I found it to be a really fresh and interesting choice compared to my usual reads. At the same time, it was a bit disorienting, like watching something move while not moving myself, if that makes sense.

The overall writing felt ethereal and poetic, like sticky summer heat. I just couldn’t shake it, not while I was reading and not after I’d finished.

Closing Thoughts 🧃

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is enchanting and haunting, while also delivering one of the most toxic and messy love stories I’ve read in a while. I’m pretty sure I rooted for the person I wasn’t supposed to and disliked the one I was meant to like, so it’s definitely open to interpretation who you’ll connect with.

If you want to dive into a fever dream of hunger, love, and rage, and enjoy feeling uneasy while turning the pages like it’s an itch you have to scratch, this is a must-read I highly recommend.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review. This has not impacted my rating. [3.75⭐️]

This was an emotional roller coaster of a read. And the Lesbians are MESSYYYYYYYYYYYY ❤️‍🔥

Before we get into the delicious parts, lets talk about trigger warnings; which were for me unexpected in some ways {SA, marital 🍇, stalking, panic attacks} this is a horror and there are other things that are expected but these are the things that stuck out to me the most.

Alice is a new college student who finds herself having a one-night stand with a girl she spotted at a party. However, when she wakes up, she is left with a note from the girl and the only thing she knows is her name. After that night, her life spirals into chaos.

From there we get alternating POVs spanning over hundreds of years. The careful way that we move through time was absolutely delicious. The weight of every situation is rife with tension; wanting what is best for each character as she seeks freedom in ever-changing social expectations. Years of lost love in between life times is sad. love-lost-love-lost-love. What else do we expect from a life made immortal?

What will make this book a hit is its self-awareness of the horror genre. This definitely deserves a good reads choice award! It sticks to some tropes within the vampire horror genre but plays with them in other ways, setting a hard fantasy structure. I liked that it broke some of those rules intentionally, as it created a more dynamic vampiric monster.

Schwab's writing was wonderful. The prose were lovely and atmospheric. Careful attention to expression and tone set every scene beautifully. I am enamored with her writing style and totally see why this author is as loved as they are 💖 I could feel the dust settling in time and space. Magnificent.

The time spent before the events of the 2000s were my favorite. I was wrapped in each of these women's stories. The one in the present was my least favorite. Though I see why it was necessary to have another character outside of the events through history, I think their ultimate involvement could have been better utilized. The ending was a bit too abrupt for me in that sense.

This could have also benefited from some editing down. Flashbacks were interspersed throughout the story that while adding tension for Alice, I could have done without. It felt like it was too many layers for me and I was already sated between Maria, Sabine and Charlotte. I would have taken these our entirely because at a certain point the story becomes too convoluted and gaps between hard hitting moments where my attention wavered.

I will say, however, that the moments that took me by surprise were pleasant. I audibly gasped a few times. I love a fun character death. I would have rated this much higher if it was just edited down.

Actually a 4.5, big thanks to Tor Publishing and author for the ARC!

I think that I first heard this book mentioned as gay, historical, vampire fiction, and I was in! (Also, literally anything by Schwab and I'm sold). It did not disappoint! I loved the characters (as characters, not as actual people, because oh my god vampires are toxic), and the historical settings were really interesting, believable, and written in such a way that I just clicked with. I also adored the side characters! (Ezra, my boy, I'd take a book about Ezra)

It also made the vampires really simple? (I mean that in the best way possible). There wasn't any large, "Actually the lore is wrong," stuff. Stakes through heart, blood, the easy stuff. The couple rule additions/changes that Schwab did use made sense for the plot, and gave it an interesting dimension.

The only reason this is only 4.5 instead of 5 is because the ending felt a little rushed, especially compared to the rest of the book, but still highly, highly enjoyable!

Solid vampire romp, through myriad generations.. Suspenseful and dark with an especially satisfying ending.

This was absolutely enchanting. V.E. Schwab is one of my favorites. This book was deliciously dark and the whole atmosphere was delectable. I was sucked in from the very first chapter all the way to the end. I'm not a huge gothic reader, but I will never ever skip one of these.

As always, V.E. Schwab has written a beautiful, atmospheric, thought provoking novel. My only complaint is that I didn't really connect with any of the characters until I was 3/4 through the book which was a disappointment. The most interesting character didn't get fully introduced until then and I wish that she had more of a focus throughout the whole book.

I'll still be recommending this to library patrons.

Thank you to the publisher for the eArc.

I loved pretty much everything about this book. The writing is slower paced (very similar to Addie Larue) and lyrical without feeling overdone. The characters and the way the three arcs intertwine at the end was so interesting to read.

I immediately requested this after seeing it was sapphic vampires and it didn’t disappoint in the slightest.

I will be recommending this to anyone who loved Addie Larue and/or is looking for their next favourite book.