I great look an hunger, female rage and a never ending loop of toxic relationships. I have and will continue to recommend to those who love vampires and similar stories that span generations

V.E. Schwab is one of my favorite authors and I will read everything she writes. I finished BONES a couple of months ago, and I'm still not exactly sure how I feel about it. I know it's not an immediate favorite, like ADDIE or SHADES OF MAGIC, but this bitter sapphic tale has stuck with me in a way her other books haven't. The ending of the book still makes me smile when I think about it.

Absolutely adore anything by Schwab and this is no exception! Cannot recommend this enough and will be recommending it to others!

The broad span of time and locations was quite interesting. I also liked learning each vampire's origin story. I recommend the novel to readers of fantasy and historical fiction. The characters, unfortunately, were not as memorable as I hoped.

I am a library associate and received an advance copy from #NetGalley.

Eat your heart out Twilight🖤. These are not cutesy vampires. These are not the do-gooder vampires drinking donated blood bags they stole from a hospital.
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These are *VAMPIRES*.
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This book gave me Grady Hendrix vibes. It’s a gorgeous slow-burn sapphic gothic fantasy, but I would also argue it’s the furthest Schwab has ever waded out into the horror genre. These vampires felt *real*.
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Three women across time: 16th century Spain, 19th century London, and 21st century Boston. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice couldn’t be more different, but their stories will all collide.
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This is a feminist book about women forced into roles they did not choose. It’s about queer female vampires who use their immense immortal power to fight back against the violence of the patriarchy.
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They feed for revenge, but they also feed just to satiate their all-consuming hunger. The characters are varying shades of morally dark grey.
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Schwab explores feminine rage, power, agency, and toxic relationships. She effortlessly weaves haunting lyrical prose into magical realism within a gothic atmospheric setting. Like in Addie LaRue, time seems to fold in on itself. I did have trouble with the pacing at times, but the phenomenal character development drew me back in.
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I may have set a record for owning every format of this book 😆. Thank you @torbooks for the gifted ARC and e-ARC! All first edition copies come signed by the author so had to have the hardcover. And I had to have the audiobook because @justjuliawhelan @_katieleung_ and @marisacalin brought stunning narration magic to this story.
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I’ve been a @veschwab fan for eight years now and read and loved everything she’s written. This one is no exception!
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Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil - Schwab
4.5/5⭐️

I feel like it is safe to say that V.E Schwab is my favorite author. Despite her wide range in writing, I have never been disappointed by a book of hers. I devoured this book in the course of 4 days and loved every second of it. The variety of characters made it feel so quick to read and loved that it was not just the more "stereotypical" version of a vampire that are in fantasy books. All the characters that we meet over the course of this book helped to engage me in the setting and lore easily, whether they were only around a few pages or multiple chapters.

One thing I thoroughly enjoyed about this book was that Schwab was not afraid to get into the toxicity of her main characters. I loved to read from the perspective of imperfect characters.

I highly recommend this to anyone who wants a mysterious, slow paces, toxic fall read this year!

“The world will try to make you small. It will tell you to be modest, and meek. But the world is wrong. You should get to feel and love and live as boldly as you want.”

“Is it life,” he counters, “if there is never death to balance it? Or is its brevity what makes it beautiful?”

Did I consume this book or did this book consume me? I read this for 6 days and was absolutely enthralled. This is a SLOW book and I have seen reviews where people DNFed because “nothing happened”. Don’t be one of those people. Take your time with this. Let yourself get lost in this story. It’s worth the effort.

To keep this brief, this is a story of toxic love, of rage, of female resilience, of taking the power back when you feel weak and confined by your circumstances, and being willing to take charge of your life and rewrite your own story, consequences be damned.

This is a toxic lesbian vampire story that spans hundreds of years following the POVs of a few women who ultimately become vampires themselves. The way their stories play out and how they interconnect was genius and I loved every minute of this. This is the kind of book that will have you so immersed in the world and emotionally connected to the characters that when it’s done you will feel a loss. You will feel like you need to turn back to page 1 and start all over again.

This was one of the best books I have read this year and I’m not sure if anything will top this. I’m mad that she won’t be writing more books set in this world. I. Want. More.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor for this arc!

VE's latest is atmospheric, mysterious and so captivating! There are three POVs and timelines and you can just feel the hunger from each woman. They are sensual, toxic, and enthralling.

Read this book, SAVOR it.

Thank you so much to the author and Tor Publishing Group for my gifted ARC.

𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜: Morally grey sapphic vampires? SAY LESS.

This book just had immaculate vibes, as you can expect from a book written by V.E. Schwab. We follow three women (María, Lottie, and Alice) and three different timelines that eventually collide.

This book explores themes such as obsession, death, revenge, and hunger. I seriously couldn’t put this one down.

The reason I didn’t end up giving this book a 5⭐️ was because two things didn’t quite work for me. One, the pacing. I felt like the book could’ve been 100 pages shorter. The middle dragged longer than needed, in my opinion. Two, the ending. I saw it coming but still didn’t want to believe it. I was left wanting more fight; more action from our characters.

As a vampire lover, this book scratched an itch I didn’t even know I had. Again, the vibes were everything. Schwab’s writing is pure magic. Ever since I read 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘓𝘢𝘙𝘶𝘦, I knew I had to read more from this author.

All in all, I cannot recommend this book enough!

3 words: Toxic Lesbian Vampires. Regardless of whether I liked this story, I knew I would enjoy the writing of this book because V.E. Schwab never disappoints in that end. Luckily, I did like the plot of this book, though it wasn't my favorite by her.

I definitely recommend the audiobook if you are able to get it because the different narrations made the book so much better. Listening to the different voices and accents made the points of view so distinctive. I loved how the book continues the metaphor of vampireism and queerness that has always been at the core of vampire stories, but explores the female side of it. It shows how a deal with the devil would be appealing to women trapped in a society that gives them no freedom. I kept wanting to see how these new vampires would interact with vampires from other media (iwtv, etc.) and what happened after the last page. I personally like the author's other stories more because I am much more of a magic person than a vampire person, but this is still an enjoyable book.

Mostly vibes, some plot, all character. Though Schwab uses vampires to tell this story, it isn't about vampires. It's about control, power, wanting, taking, and grief. Stunning.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

I LOVED this, my goodness! It was lush and dark and sinfully delicious - the writing was gorgeous and the story compelling, even while the characters were murderous and ethically questionable. I loved the multiple POVs and the way the story built both from the beginning and the end, the past and the current, and how they clashed together in beautiful chaos.

Honestly, I have no notes - not a thing I would change. It was wonderful in all elements, the fantasy and historical fiction blending beautifully. I was captured in the story's thrall from the very beginning, loving the downward spirals and descents into madness as much as the exultations of freedom.

I seriously didn't expect to love this book and story as much as I did, but now I can't recommend it highly enough. Don't sleep on this one!

This book was easily a five star read for me until the last couple chapters! Schwab’s writing is absolutely mesmerizing the whole way through. The imagery and poetry was beautiful, the characters rich backstories were well written.

We spent a lot of time getting to know this detailed backstory of Maria/Sabine, Charlotte (Lottie) and a bit about Alice and when the stories all came together I was ready for the ultimate showdown but.. that didn’t happen. When I finished the book, I was honestly so devastated with how Schwab chose to wrap up this story. And truthfully, the vampire lore is all textbook except for the ending. These are century old vampires up against a newbie and… the outcome… it just didn’t really fit with the rest of the book!

Prior to the ending disappointment, I was counting down the hours until I could get back to reading this book. I got lost in these pages and I loved the multi-timeline aspect, the female rage, the morally grey characters and the entire dark haunting atmosphere.

But that ending… v disappointing. And not because it’s not what I expected - because I did - but because it was just an absolute let down.
5 stars for the writing.
3 stars for the book overall due entirely to the hurried and disjointed ending.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced electronic version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of those stories that make you think after reading.
V.E.Schwab writes this story beautifully and weaves the stories of these three characters together perfectly.
This book pulled me in and made me forget how much time had gone by. The more you learn about the characters the more you want to know.
I don’t think I’ve read a Vampire story like this before but leave it to V.E. Schwab
If you a V.E. Schwab fan you’ll love this if you haven’t read this author pick up this book or one by her she is a great author

I have loved V.E. Schwab's other titles, especially The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. This one ranks right up there. It was fascinating to watch these women's journeys and how their stories intertwined.

Amazing. I have read other VE Schwab titles and loved them, because she is a beautiful writer, but Addie Larue was a bit overlong. This has no such issues, and lesbian vampires in a new way too? So so good.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil feels like a haunting lullaby. It is equal parts beautiful and unsettling. V.E. Schwab’s signature lyrical prose is on full display, wrapping grief, longing, and transformation in velvet darkness. The atmosphere is rich and immersive. You can practically taste the damp soil and feel the weight of forgotten things pressing up from beneath the surface.

The novella format works both for and against it. It’s a compact punch to the gut, but at times I wished for more space to explore the characters and world. Still, the emotional core hits hard, especially if you’ve ever loved something (or someone) that didn’t love you back in the way you hoped.

It’s not a story for everyone. It leans heavily on mood, metaphor, and melancholy. But if you enjoy quiet horror and poetic storytelling, this one will stay with you long after the final page.

Ok, I ate this one up (pun intended?). This is my second Schwab book and I’m fully convinced I need to read them all now. This was such a lush and deep and captivating read, with characters that were flawed and dangerous but so extremely interesting. It felt like a fever dream and I just really loved how beautiful the writing was. I had some issues with the plot, and it feeling kinda stagnant in places. But I think it was more than made up for by the end. Definitely recommend!

Thank you so much to @torbooks for my review copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I thought I would like this a lot more than I did.

While I did like some of the characters, I think we sent too much time with others. starting one of the main character's story over halfway through the book took me out of the story and made me feel like I was starting a new book. While I get why the author may have done it, I did not like it.

I did not like the main villain much, and for most of the book there seemed to be no overarching conflict. The ending was satisfying, but it did not feel earned.

Something petty, but something that I don't like in books is math errors. One example of bad math in this book, is Sabine knows Alessandro and Matteo for nearly 60 years (mentioned in the book). When they meet, Alessandro must be an adult so maybe 18 at least, yet when he dies it is said that he dies at 59.

This novel is a haunting exploration of identity, desire, and the complexities of love across time. Spanning centuries and told through the perspectives of María, Charlotte, and Alice, Schwab weaves a tapestry of interconnected lives marked by transformation and longing.

The prose is lush and atmospheric, drawing readers into each era with vivid detail. The intertwining narratives are compelling, though the pacing is deliberate, allowing for deep character development and introspection. Themes of grief, power, and the human condition are explored with nuance and sensitivity.

While the novel's slow burn may not appeal to those seeking fast-paced action, it offers a rich, meditative experience for readers who appreciate character-driven stories with emotional depth.