V.E. Schwab books are like no other! I am always super intrigued by them and this one was no different.

The only thing I knew going into this book is that it was about vampires, it was sapphic, and it was VE Schwab. I'm kinda happy I went in blind to it. I've had both hits and misses with VE Schwab in the past. Loved Vicious and Vengeful, really didn't like Gallant. And while I haven't read Addie Larue yet, I imagine this book is much more in line with that in terms of the storytelling. It's very lyrical and atmospheric. This is not a super action-packed book. This is a character study with hints of gothic horror. Personally, I really liked it. It's quite long (nearly 600 pages) and I definitely took my time with it. I do think you have to be in the right mood to really enjoy this book or it could feel a bit slow. But I definitely recommend it.

V.E Schwab can really do no wrong.

I have just finished this book and I am having a hard time putting this into words but here’s a little bit about it. This book follows three women (vampires), the book is angsty in the best way possible, beautifully written (duh it’s V.E Schwab.
THIS is how you write vampires & characters. I hated some and absolutely loved some.
This should be on people’s most anticipated reads of 2025!

This book has me in absolute awe. It’s dark and twisty but also extremely emotional and pulls on your heartstrings. The poetic nature of vampirism metaphorically described as roses in the midnight soil was eloquently written. I especially loved how when a vampire is among the ground that contains the dead, it weakens them. The yearning and anticipation of both young Lottie combined with the vengeance and misanthropic nature of Maria/Sabine were my favorite chapters. We got to see a young girl falling in love with a mentor while the mentor slowly unravels into a cruel beast. The tragic past of Alice with her destructive and absent sister was heartbreaking. There were so many moments within this book that spoke to my soul and I cannot wait for this book to be unleashed upon the world.

Firstly, thank you Netgally and MPS for allowing me to read this early! I have always been a huge fan of Schwab. Schwab's Darker Shade of Magic series is one of the series that have affected and influenced me in life. I will always read whatever they write!

That being said, I don't think this was my cup of tea. Neither was Addie. Which makes sense as I can sense some similarities between the two. I think the odds were against me just because I don't enjoy multi narratives/time jumps. It does not keep me engaged and there is always one narrative I like more than the others. Sabine's story took up most of my attention when I was really more intrigued by Charlotte/Lottie. It felt sometimes longwinded and anticlimactic. That was something I struggled with in Addie is that there is never really a peak that you're reaching because it is a consistent flow of little things, some of which we don't even get to see (read.)

Overall, I will still highly recommend the book but I will preface the reading speed / multinarratives so that people can go in knowing. It is a beautiful feminist sapphic analysis of the vampire genre and I highly appreciate it and live for stories like these. Just because it was not my speed does not mean I can't love and support it.

I can't wait to see where this book goes and what Schwab writes next!

I'm a huge VE Schwab fan and was very excited for this book. Unfortunately,I don't think i was the intended audience for this one. Vampires have been done to death at this point and there's nothing particularly new about these vampires. If you've been through Buffy, True Blood, Twilight, and everything that came before those, this feels redundant. The only new thing is that it's much gayer which we stan, but when 60% of the book is "what kind of vampire are these ones, does the sun hurt? How do we die?" etc... no amount of sweet sapphic lust is going to make up for that. Also I have to say it. If I'm a 200 year old vampire I'm simply not going to choose to hang out with (and bang) 18 year old children.

V. is a readable as ever. I devoured this book. Vampires are so back this season. Still not sure if this has any Easter eggs for her Netflix show fans, so might be nice to mention somewhere.

A sapphic vampire novel from V.E. Schwab? Of course I'm giving it 5 stars. It's expertly paced, moody, sexy, and dangerous. It reads like velvet.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is another winner from V.E. Schwab!

While it has a totally different plot to The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, it has the same melancholy that was present throughout Addie's novel. We follow a few characters, Maria in the past and Alice in our present as they enter the vampire world and lives intertwine in Alice's present. The pace is leisurely, but the writing is engaging.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil was an extraordinary read. A story following three women turned vampire in three very different centuries; it was beautiful and heartbreaking. I really liked V. E. Schwab's take on vampire lore - how they're affected by sunlight, the compelling sickness of grave dirt, the unending thirst. It all came together to create strong and believable vampires. The stories of the main three women, Alice, Lottie, and Sabine, were really what made this book so engaging. Their lives and personalities were so vibrant that I cared a lot about them. This really had everything I would want in a vampire novel.

As with everything V. E. Schwab writes, I loved this. It was much more similar in tone to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, although with a bit more magical elements. I absolutely loved how the storylines of the three main characters were woven together through time. Unlike with a lot of books, I wasn't more or less interested in one character: every story immediately drew me in and kept me hooked.

I am a huge fan of Schwab's vicious series. Her immaculate writing and clever characters pulled me in from the start. However, recently I have found her latest novels to be focused more on lyrical writing and description over plot and characters. While you can't argue that this book is beautifully written, it lacks a captivating plot that packs a punch. I think the length is a bit long for the overall plot and I found myself struggling to finish. I think fans that loved The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue will love this though, it just wasn't for me. I would still say give it a chance if it sounds interesting to you!

This is purely my preference, but this genre of Schwab always reigns supreme. "Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil" follows in the footsteps of Addie LaRue and deals with the darker sides of the supernatural and those, who live through the decades. It jumps between 1532 Spain and 2019 Boston as two separate tales unfold. One is about a wild girl named Maria, who finds herself in an arranged marriage, and Alice, who wakes up from a one-night stand with more than she bargained for.

It is a slow burn and it follows in the tradition of Anne Rice's "An Interview with a Vampire" in that the lives of the characters, their motives, and histories unravel through the pages. This is not an action-packed title, but instead, the world-building and events take place through each character's perspective and how the environment forces them to make decisions that ripple through time. The only issue is that the different perspectives receive uneven attention and while it works, it does not completely flow seamlessly.

Reminiscent of Interview With The vampire, this book is dark, reflective and beautifully written. 3 women through time as their stories weave together.

This was a really great book. I was hooked from the beginning. I love how Schwab writes and how it honestly feels like these stories could be real in a way. I don’t want to spoil anything so just a short review. This book follows three women who are inevitably intertwined. Their stories span lifetimes, different countries, different cultures and centuries. It was a nice slow burn on how we found out about each of the characters and how they were interconnected and it really propelled the story forward and a pleasant pace. This is definitely a story full of toxic lesbian vampires, longing, hunger, loneliness, grief and love. I think fans of Addie and Schwab’s other books will enjoy this one too but it is a bit different from her other stories. It definitely still reminded me of her other books though. It had the viciousness and vengefulness of Vicious and Vengeful, and it had the longing to be remembered of Addie in its pages.

Schwab became one of my favorite authors as soon as I got a copy of 'Vicious' in my hands. Her words swirled around in my head weeks after completing one of her books. To say that I was spellbound would be an understatement. So, when I got the chance to read this book early, I was over the moon—who wouldn't want to dive into one of their most anticipated reads ahead of time?

No one look at me as I say this because I don't even want to state this but sadly it is the truth. I did not enjoy this as much as I had hoped and I almost gave up numerous times because I was bored. Ugh! Just light a match and throw it at me already!

Blood-sucking toxic vampires are something that is right up my alley. I didn't think you could ever go wrong with that but here we are. This book dragged and dragged and dragged some more until my eyes bled. I didn't find most of the characters fascinating nor did I connect with them easily. The only one my heart went out to was Maria and we all know how that ended. Other than that, I felt nothing as I continued on this body rot of a journey.

Before anyone criticizes me for not liking this book, I want to clarify that I have read her other works and absolutely fell in love with her writing. I still talk about Addie to this day, so don't come for my throat. Unfortunately, this particular book just didn’t engage me or break my heart in any kind of way. I expected to encounter some toxicity, but instead, I found myself feeling bored, with a party or two thrown in here and there.

"Bury Own Bones in the Midnight Soil" sadly did not live up to the hype. This book just wasn't for me and it really pains me to say that. I will always love the work of Schwab but this one is not one of those works.

DNF %31
I was hooked on this book at the beginning and I loved Alice and Maria. I felt like once Maria changed into a vampire though, I had a difficult time connecting with her. I first viewed her as independent and strong at the start of the novel, but when she changed, she became callous to the point of uncomfortability as a reader.
This being said, I do want to try this story again, but I think I am going to listen to the audiobook when it is released. I think listening to someone else read it aloud and providing vocal inflections will help me be more invested in the story.

Thank you for the copy of Bury our Bones in the Midnight Soil. This was definitely a very unique and interesting story involving Lesbian vampires with that enemies to lovers vibe. You get three different points of views and three different centuries of time but yet all of their stories combine into one and all of course are Buried in the Midnight Soil. The story was set at a nice pace and was well written and it is definitely one story you won't forget.

Bury Out Bones in the Midnight Soil by Victoria E. Schwab is an extraordinary historical fantasy story. We follow three women from three different eras, with three very different, and yet similar, points of view. It covers a timespan of 500 years. And, we know from Addie LaRue that Victoria handles the passage of time, and jumps in time, extraordinarily well. The writing is gorgeous, the plot and the pacing are well done, the three women are well drawn and developed characters. You like and dislike each of them. They can be sympathetic and they can be annoying, but isn't that what we all are? Complex human beings trying to make our way through life. So three women, and three pov, but really there is one FMC, and her story is the undercurrent, dare I say heartbeat(?) of the story.

To talk about the writing, I just want to give you some quotes from the story that will not spoil the story. The first line of the book: "The widow arrives on a Wednesday." I was hooked. Who is she and why is she there and what has happened/will to her.

Later on in the story, "Death comes, and sometimes it is kind, and often it is cruel, and very rarely it is welcome. But it comes, all the same." And, then: "It is easy, isn't it, in retrospect? To spot the cracks and see them spread. But in the moment, there is only the urge to mend each one."

And, for all of us readers, there is this one: "Reading as much as Charlotte did, she knew there were words, and words between workds, ones that hid in the spaces, the pauses, the breaths. They hung on sentences, weighed them down with all the things that were not being said."

I absolutely loved this book, this unique story and I give it 5 stars. I need to thank #netgalley and Tor Publishing group for my e-arc in exchange for an honest review. Preorder this book.

3.5 stars
V.E. Schwab's latest is intentionally mysterious. The blurb for this book was pretty short and that's what caught my interest. I think it enhanced the story to go into with vague details and so I won't be giving a summary of this book.

I definitely enjoyed it and I've read and liked other books by Schwab. The writing is fantastic and the characters are complex and fascinating and fun to read about even when I want to shake them. I think my main issue with the book and why it's not a 4 star read is that it's just a little too long. I know it has to be long since its taking us from 1532 to 2019 but there were definitely some parts that lagged or scenes that just went on a little bit too long.

Overall though I did enjoy this book and will definitely recommend to my horror and fantasy readers.