A vampire story that starts in the 1500s when Maria is married off to a man she doesn't love, and trying to experience a life she can enjoy. In 2019, Alice meets an enigmatic Lottie at a nightclub that leaves her with the worst kind of STD.

Look, I love a vampire book and I read a LOT of them, but this really seemed to fall short for me.

For what it's worth, Schwab's writing is really engaging. But she talks a lot without really saying anything. I am still unsure of what the actual motivation behind any of the characters really was? I know this has been marketed as "toxic lesbian vampires" but that doesn't really happen until the last 100 pages so like....what's the point.

Going off that, there is SO much exposition with little prolonged conflict and quick resolution. I also fully didn't care about Alice's backstory and I kept waiting for it to make sense for he character, but it never seemed to mean anything for Alice? (I know there's a turning point for Alice in which it should, but it wasn't worth the pay off). The book could have been 100-200 pages shorter and tell the exact same story.

Other than being on the boring side, the vampires themselves were alright. They're traditional vampires, and I'm glad Schwab didn't try to reinvent the wheel with their lore. That being said, a few vampire-related bits happen that.... don't really check out with vampire lore and I couldn't let go.

And for anyone picking this up because it's been called a "sapphic version of Interview with the Vampire" - be warned, as it is NOTHING like Interview with the vampire.

I think for fans of Addie LaRue, this one's for you. All this complaining makes it sound like this was just downright terrible, and it wasn't! I did enjoy my time with it. I just thought overall it was a little bland, and a lot slow.

Thanks Tor for the advanced copy! Vampires forever.

This follows the story of three different women across time. All women are looking for something outside of society's expectations; all looking for freedom. We start with María in 1532, who is destined to be wed to a man in order to produce an heir. In 1827, Charlotte gets shipped off after a forbidden moment of intimacy where she meets a mysterious widow. And in 2019, Alice is just looking for a fresh start in college when a strange encounter at a party leaves her changed forever.

Three women, three different times, but all interconnected through a desire to control their own destiny.

Thanks to Tor Books, NetGalley, and LibroFM for an advanced copy of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab to review! I actually listened to an advanced copy of this through the LibroFM librarian program, and the three different narrators did an excellent job! It helped that Schwab crafted three distinct voices that instantly draw you into the story.

Vampires seem to be making a comeback in the year 2025, and I'm not mad about it. María, Charlotte, and Alice are all deeply flawed characters. They each make decisions based on their own desires rather than anyone else. The story isn't told linearly. Schwab switches between each point of view throughout the story. Thus, we gradually see how each of the three women are connected. Honestly, this made the story more suspenseful because I was curious how everything was going to come together at the end.

If you're someone who reads for action, this is definitely more of a character-driven story. You're more focused on these three women and their lives rather than a driving plot. However, this allows Schwab's lyrical prose to shine through, strongly depicting the emotions each narrator is going through.

Not sure if this tops The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue as my favorite VE Schwab book, but it is definitely up there! If you're looking for a fantasy featuring chaotic lesbian vampires this summer, definitely check this one out.

Fantasy — 4.5⭐️

This one’s hard to review because I truly don’t want to spoil a single thing if you’re like me and love going in totally blind. I finished this in New Orleans, and it perfectly matched the heat and gothic vibes of the haunting and electric city.

The prose is gorgeous—aching and sharp. A slower burn but pulls you in deeper with every page.

Bury Our Bones is a story about women and hunger—a hunger for power, for love, for more than what’s been handed to them. I’m all about a story fueled by female rage and angst, and the messy, toxic relationships woven throughout only deepen the moral complexity in the best way.

Addie LaRue is still my favorite Schwab, but this one certainly left its mark and falls just short of five stars from me by only the comparison game!

“Because you are the kind of bloom that thrives in any soil. And who knows, perhaps you will meet a worthy gardener.” 🖤🪏🥀

5 massive, heart-breaking stars

I am sitting here with tear tracks drying on my cheeks as I try to find the words for what this book made me feel.

I don't think I can write it down.

Hope, despair, anger, disgust, pity, and yet I clung to every happy moment, capturing them like little trinkets to try and remember those moments while I watched other moments crash and burn.

V.E Schwab has a way with words, that is for sure. Her prose is just so masterful, it's like reading a painting. She writes things in a way that always surprises me in how perfectly she can capture a feeling or a sound.

I don't know. I loved this. And it breaks my heart.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of Buy Our Bones in the Midnight Soil.

"Bury my bones in the midnight soil,
plant them shallow and water them deep,
and in my place will grow a feral rose,
soft red petals hiding sharp white teeth."

A hauntingly, beautiful tragedy, woven through time and told from the perspective of 3 different women. Big Addie LaRue vibes here but also somehow also exactly the opposite?! I found myself flying through parts, while lagging in others, which I imagine must be a bit what being a vampire is like. I definitely found 2 of the 3 characters more interesting than that the other, but I loved seeing how all the different parts came together to explain Alice's circumstances. The ending was PERFECT. I don't want to give anything away, so I'm keeping this short, but as always, I highly recommend this and anything else that V.E. Schwab writes because it is always beautifully poetic and heartbreaking in the best way. Plus, you know, toxic, sapphic vampires- what's not to love?!

I liked this and thought it was good but it didn't change my life. I have only heard good reviews so I think my expectations were really high and not quite met. I found the first half really really slow and I didn't really care about the characters until we got to Lottie. Her chapters pulled me right in and were the most enjoyable part of the book. I found the plot very loose and not easy to follow but I do feel like it worked well with the structure and how everything came together at the end. The writing was obviously amazing, Schwab is a true talent. I think this will be loved by many.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a dark and deeply emotional exploration of love, identity, and the hunger for freedom. This is V.E. Schwab at her most intimate and raw, delivering a vampire story that is rich with atmosphere, layered character work, and hauntingly beautiful prose.

The novel moves through time, following the lives of women who are shaped by grief, longing, and a desire for something more than survival. Their histories are soaked in pain, but also filled with moments of tenderness and connection. The emotional depth builds gradually, and while some parts of the story are slower than others, the final act brings a payoff that is powerful and well-earned.

This is a vampire novel, but one that feels entirely human. Schwab uses the vampire myth to examine the violence of growing up as a girl, the societal expectations placed on women, and the desire to escape them. There is queerness woven through every chapter, both subtle and overt, with a central sapphic romance that is as messy and toxic as it is meaningful. The portrayal of toxic love, obsessive longing, and the fight for autonomy will resonate with readers looking for something raw and real.

V.E. SCHWAB HAS WRITTEN A MASTERPIECE. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a sharp-toothed, slow-burning masterpiece that sinks in deep and stays. By the final page, I wasn’t just emotionally devastated—I was half in love with a monstrous, messy vampire and questioning everything I thought I understood about power, love, and identity.

This book is intimate and epic all at once. Spanning centuries and continents, Schwab weaves a haunting, multilayered narrative about obsession, grief, and the hunger to be truly known. The story unfolds in a way that feels both inevitable and completely surprising, with timelines and characters slowly converging until you’re left breathless by the full picture.

“And how is a miracle different from a spell? Who is to say the saint was not a witch?”

And the characters—don’t even get me started. Schwab has always written morally gray with precision, but here, she gives us something even more raw: people who are angry, yearning, selfish, lonely, tender, terrifying—and so, so human but also not. The three main characters in this book - Sabine, Charlotte, and Alice are all so deeply complex. For the latter half of the book, one of the characters became what I believed was pure evil but in Schwab fashion, by the end of the book I was questioning everything I knew. For all of these characters, I hated their choices. I ached for their pain. I wanted to scream at them and hold them all at once. The power dynamics and struggles between these characters is just beautiful.

“Because there are too many kinds of hunger, and I can’t pick them apart”

You can feel Schwab's soul on the page. She’s said this is the most personal book she’s ever written, and the vulnerability here is palpable. It’s in the quiet grief, in the jagged longing, in the defiance that runs beneath every choice the characters make. I kept stopping to reread lines that felt like they came from somewhere bone-deep—moments that made me feel seen in ways I didn’t expect. Schwab’s magic as an author is that she makes the reader feel seen. There were so many moments in this book that felt like they were written for me and my life. I mean truly, the number of lines I have highlighted is obscene.

“But what good is a soul, really?” ….It lives in the mind. A piece you cannot see or touch. A prize you are told to shield for a time you cannot know. Easy enough to part with something so abstract when the alternative is freedom. When the promise is love.”

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil isn’t just a story about vampires—it’s about transformation, memory, and the parts of ourselves we’re told to bury. It’s sexy, it’s violent, it’s deeply sad and stunningly beautiful.

And honestly? If a toxic lesbian vampire showed up on my doorstep tomorrow, I would simply say thank you. Final note - I knew Scwhab would be a Secret History girlie. Thanks to Tor and Netgalley for the advanced copy!

This book was very good. Better than Addie LaRue? No, but that’s such a high bar. The writing is beautiful and the characters are complex, but it felt about 100 pages too long. The vampire killing scenes were repetitive and there was one sub plot that seemed wholly unnecessary. Toward the end those two issues were starting to cloud my overall extremely positive feelings about the book. This will likely be a novel I think about for a long time.

Three story-lines intricately woven together. I loved that this was a vampire story where the main characters were all female.

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

It was nice to see a book of vampires that is based on all female characters. I enjoyed the book and the years that it covered.

4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

V.E. Schwab has once again proven her talent for weaving intricate, emotional narratives in Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil.!
This book offers a lush, atmospheric take on the Vampire myths, focusing less on horror and more on longing, memory, and connection across time..

Told through alternating timelines, we follow Maria (also known as Sabine), Charlotte, and Alice, three women whose lives (and deaths) are tangled in grief, desire, and quiet resistance.
Schwab’s prose is as lyrical as ever, and the pacing, though slower than some may expect.. allows each character’s transformation to really feel earned. The themes reminded me of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: the ache of immortality, the hunger for meaning, and the beauty found in fleeting human moments!!

While I wouldn’t call it my absolute favorite of Schwab’s, it’s an undeniably rich and moving story. Some parts lag slightly, and I found myself more drawn to certain characters over others (Sabine’s chapters in particular were standouts), but I do feel like the payoff in the final act is worth the patient build up.

This is a must read for fans of thoughtful vampire lore, historical fiction, and sapphic romance!
There are echoes of Holly Black and Leigh Bardugo, but unmistakably Schwab’s own haunting voice.

Thank you to Macmillan publishing for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

Loved! Loved! Loved! Not only is the premise so original but the way it was written blew me away! if I had to give feedback I would just want more time with Sabine and just the world that they live in.

Toxic lesbian vampires is right!! The writing was rich to read. The build-up felt a little slower, but when all three timelines converged, I was fully into it. I couldn't put it down for the last 100 pages!

This is one of those books that I had the highest expectations for and ended up so very disappointed in. VE Schwab definitely drew us in with a fascinating set of characters and great atmosphere. I was ready to sink my teeth into whatever was coming- no pun intended! But… nothing came. At 27% I finally admitted that I couldn’t identify even a shadow of a plot. Sentences and scenes ran together in a repetitive cycle and it had lost all of its glimmer for me. I still think she’s an incredible author, but this one needed some editing and reworking.

Thank you to NETGALLEY for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

If I could give this 18 stars I would. No one writes a heart wrenching lonely girl quite like V E Schwab.

Every line was poetic, every character flawed, every plot device well thought out. I haven’t read a book in a long time where I finished a book and wanted immediately to pick it back up again. I was terrified to finish it in the first place to be quite honest, I didn’t want it to end. Honestly, I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to write in this review for ages and it still stays the same - I cannot even string together words to describe how much I adored this novel.

In English class I argued with teachers who claimed that every sentence on a famous novel needs to be studied. I was a wholehearted believer that sometimes the curtains ARE JUST BLUE (iykyk). V E Schwab defied this logic for me. Every single sentence was premeditated and poetic.

Leave it to her to write another one of my favourite books of all time.

Sabine, Lottie, and Alice. They 3 women from different countries and 3 very different time periods. If that’s the case, how tf could their stories possibly be connected? Well, they very much are, and let me tell you, it is a wild ride.
From being turned into Vampires, to navigating everything that comes with it (food, drink, sunlight, not aging, relationships, finding love, etc.), this story is gripping from start to finish.
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I’m sure none of you need to add to your TBR but: Go. Buy. This. Book. NOW.

I LOVE Victoria’s books. All of them. But when I tell you this one is one of my faves, I’m not even exaggerating.
I am a big nerd, but I am NOT a vampire girlie (no twilight, no true blood, none of that stuff for me) by any means. I am also not typically someone who is into stories with romantic plot points, but when I tell you that this story SUCKED ME IN (no pun intended), I am not even exaggerating. There is also a lot of girl power and I am SO here for it. AND imo it gives Addie Larue vibes (which I loved).

Honestly: I was putting this book off because of the vampire factor (I didn’t know that was the storyline until after I was approved the ARC). I listened to the 12-chapter preview and I am SO glad that I did! It got me hooked enough to have me speed through the hard copy.

If you like any of her other stories, I definitely recommend giving this one a try.

I’ve never read a V.E. Schwab book that I didn't love and this book is no exception.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil might just be my new favorite vampire story. It's filled with complex characters, love and heartbreak, grief and tragedy. Readers will be whisked through time as they explore the backgrounds of Maria, Charlotte, and Alice, navigating their human lives before becoming vampires. Like Addie LaRue, the characters want more than just survival, they want love and connection. As we bounce back and forth between their history, we begin to see how all their stories tie together.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is brilliant!
Readers who love vampire stories and Addie LaRue are going to love this book.

I fell in love with V. E. Schwab after The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and started reading everything in her catalog. Her earlier books are not as strong as the later ones, but she has grown as a writer and I truly enjoy her more recent work. This book is no exception! (I was lucky enough to read an advance copy on NetGalley.) The character I thought I would love, I ended up hating... and the one I loved betrayed me in the end. I enjoyed the slow burn pace right up until the end, which unfortunately felt rushed. Still a fantastic read and I'm hoping there's more to come in the form of sequels! #BuryOurBonesInTheMidnightSoil #netgalley

Sapphic Interview with the Vampire x A Dowry of Blood x Lucy Undying x Carmilla

A Sapphic Vampire tale filled with the trials of girlhood throughout history, the violence of men, and the desperate hope to escape womanhood and all of the horrors it entails. It showcases toxic gays and sapphic abuse in a way that made me feel deeply seen. It uses vampire metaphor as hunger for freedom from gender/societal norms, for seething obsession and toxicity that sucks the very life out of you, for queerness, for life, and for love.