The story builds gradually, but if you stick with it, the payoff is worth it. The second half is particularly strong.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-arc for this absolute masterpiece of a book!
I thought no V.E Schwab’s book would ever touched me like this after Addie Larue, but she really outdid herself. I’m positively obsessed with the different point of views of the characters, getting to know Sabine and Charlotte through their struggles, their flaws as they get used to both each other and themselves. It’s also so important to get to know a character such as Alice who genuinely hates being one of the collateral damages caused by Sabine’s hatred towards Charlotte.
I need more time to recover from this reading.
Thank you V.E. for another one of those life changing novels I’d never forget.

10/10, Victoria you smashed it again. A centuries spanning epic of obsession, love, female rage and finding freedom in your own way. Personally I felt the ending was a little rushed, but I’m still hooked, so good, loved it

4.75 stars (rounded up)

Finding the right words to portray accurately how a book has made me feel, the impact it’s had and what I’m left with has never been the easiest for me and this book is no exception. V writes such incredible, visceral, deeply rich characters that I truly felt I was inside their minds, considering, tasting, delving into every thought and action that played out.

This story yearns of hunger - feral, raw, hunger to live, to want, to discover, to love. Bounds of lust and grief entangled in beautiful prose where the three main characters discover what it means to be a vampire (or buried in the midnight soil) whilst contending with grief, rage and queerness. Schwab uses vampiric tropes we know and love whilst extending and deepening our knowledge on what it is to hunt for blood and live among the night. It’s done so thoughtfully that you feel like you’re discovering all over again for the first time and some of them leave such interesting questions in my mind.

The foreshadow is truly incredible, immersive and stunning without feeling too repetitive and guided, it’s a testament to V’s ability to wrap you up in this gothic, dark , hungry world.

Each word feels so considered, each sentence built into paragraphs that grasp your attention, leaving you wanting more and more until your own hunger for the story is never ending to create this heartbreaking, bittersweet message of living freely.

I had the absolute pleasure of reading this with Bookbreak and a group of incredible people in a week long readalong and it has been the best experience. This review is all my own but the way my mind has expanded after the book and reading with these people is something that has changed me!! Thank you bookbreak for an advanced proof copy of this book!!

Absolutely loves this vampire book that featured two women from across time. The characters were filled with energy, and even side characters were amazing to read.

Absolutely beautifully written, completely immersive prose even in the slower parts of the narrative. I'm slightly convinced that Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a book that's too long, but I enjoyed every sentence even when I thought the story could have been reined in a bit. The dynamics of the characters and the development is fascinating, the reflective nature intriguing and philosophical but not too indulgent. I loved it!

V.E. Schwab’s Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is not a book you simply read—it’s one you feel, one that sinks its teeth into your chest and refuses to let go. This is Schwab at her most daring, most lyrical, and arguably her most unflinching.

Told through the fractured voices of three women across centuries, Schwab weaves a non-linear, feverish tapestry of sapphic desire, obsession, revenge, and rot. It's toxic, yes. Unapologetically so. These women are not role models—they’re sharp, feral, flawed, and heartbreakingly human. Their relationships aren’t redemptive romances; they are slow-burning disasters that you can’t look away from.

The narrative is slippery—jumping timelines, shifting tones—but it works. It demands patience and attention, rewarding both with a haunting atmosphere and devastating prose. There’s not much "plot" in the traditional sense; instead, this novel is powered by feeling. And what a feeling it is: longing that tastes like blood, grief that cracks through the centuries, and rage that burns hotter than holy fire.

Yes, some characters lean into archetype, and yes, not everyone will click with the pacing or the structure. But that’s the point. This isn’t a neatly tied-up story—it’s a haunting, a reckoning, a slow waltz toward ruin. It’s poetry sharpened into fangs.

Bury our bones in the Midnight Soil expertly entwines the stories of 3 young women over five centuries, revealing their truths, their pain, their passion but most of all their love.
As the course of time and circumstance take their toll, the characters reveal manifold layers. Their raw energy and depth of feeling drawing you in- only to ultimately spit you back out at the end.
This story adopts some, but not all of the usual vampire myths, and whilst these don’t entirely reflect those used by Anne Rice in her Vampire Chronicles it has a similar feel and would definitely appeal to her readers.
I find V.E Schwab’s writing style always draws me in and sweeps me along. This book is no exception, and I was trying to put the brakes on at the end to savour it for longer. This brings me to by only teeny negative point- that I felt everything wrapped up slightly too easily and quickly- though obviously being keen to read more, I am biased!
I will certainly be looking out to see whether the author makes this into a series and confirms her place as the new ‘Queen of the Damned’!
Many thanks to V.E Schwab, Pan Macmillan (Tor) and Netgalley for the ARC of Bury our Bones in the Midnight Soil in return for an honest review.

I love V’s work. Her way of writing creeps into my soul and settles in. Bury Our Bones is no different. It is beautifully written and wonderfully, gloriously indulgent. It delves into what it means (and has meant through time) to be a woman in a patriarchal society, and shows how toxic some relationships can be.

Only for V would I have picked this up (and I’m so glad I did). A large part of this is historical fiction and that really isn’t something I frequently enjoy. Nor do I enjoy vampire books! The latter was fairly easily dealt with - it doesn’t *feel* like a vampire book, it tweaks many of the tropes I hate, it ironically humanises the vampires, and it’s also a bit of a villains book. I also actually loved the way the standard vampire traits worked (or didn’t, or changed) for this. The former was harder. So much of Bury Our Bones is set in the past, and has to honour the way that society worked. Also, Sabine is very unlikeable. On purpose, but so much of the early book sits with her that it’s hard. So I will say that if this wasn’t written by V I may have walked away from it. I’m so glad I didn’t. This is the sort of book that proves it’s worth going out your comfort zone, trying something different, be it a trope, a genre or an author. Bury our bones is about how it makes you feel. And if you don’t feel anything reading this, then maybe you need to check you’re not a vampire? ;) There is so much angst, so much *want* from each of these women, and that is what makes this book powerful.

This also has the wonder of having unlikeable characters that you love reading about. For me, it was mostly Sabine, but Lottie and Alice weren’t as endearing as you’d often expect from main characters either. None of them are perfect, true to real life, and for Lottie and Sabine especially the Toxic Lesbian Vampires tagline so definitely applies! Their relationships are as much about obsession and control as love, throughout all of time, and that is utterly perfection. Alice is interesting, as the most modern so we get to see less of her overall journey while still having more pages than Lottie! I also have to mention how much I love Matteo and that section of the book.

For me, the ending was perfection. That was what made the book. I already can’t wait to let this settle into my soul, and reread it, knowing more about how it plays out. I feel it’s going to be one that improves with every read, which is incredibly rare. It displays just how much writing is a craft.

4.25 stars.

Actual rating 4.5/5 stars.

Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532.
London, 1837.
Boston, 2019

That is the three timelines of the three females whose stories are focused on during this book. How they converge left me breathless!

This book was beautiful and tragic in equal measures. I've read quite a few books by this author and come to realise that duality is undoubtedly her forte. She pens fierce yet fragile characters and imbues them with hope and yearning yet so much suffering and a sense of purposelessness. She has love come to them and then tears it away savagely, time and time again. I love and hate her for this!

Usually in split-perspective novels there will be favourites but, here, I adored all equally. The individuals might alter in outlook and personality but they were all of equal interest and I was so eager to learn how their seemingly disparate storylines met together. I did not see how this author would do it but never doubted it would be done in a stellar fashion - which it was!

Three women across centuries face a hunger that can only be satisfied by blood.

There’s almost a fairytale feel to this novel—or maybe a campside horror story? Or maybe something in between?

The switching POVs were masterful—by the time I got to the end of an Alice section, I was desperate to keep reading her storyline, but then within a chapter of a Sabine section, I was desperate to continue with that!

The contrast between the different main characters was also smart—Alice’s insecurity, Sabine’s confidence, Charlotte’s buoyancy all balanced each other perfectly, and without giving too much away, their developments also felt like mirrors.

A meditation on hunger, love, abuse and humanity, the threads of three different lives beautifully woven and pulled together into a tragic but complex tapestry.

Toxic Lesbian Vampires? Oh ok then……my first V. E. Schwab book and wow, really enjoyed it! Dark and atmospheric, the story follows the 3 POVs of Maria, Charlotte and Alice over a timeline that spans nearly 500 years, from 1532 to 2019.

Fantastically written with beautiful prose and a captivating storyline. Whilst the pace at times felt a little slow, the depth of the character development within the book offset, absorbing the reader in the personal journey of each key character, as the different POVs and timelines are expertly blended to reach an unexpected, but clever ending!

Thanks to Net Galley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

#BuryOurBonesintheMidnightSoil #NetGalley

I'm actually in love with this book - it was so beautiful and atmospheric and the writing may be VE Schwab's best so far. It is very character focused book but each of their voices are so distinct and lovingly crafted I found it impossible not to get drawn into it. Also VE definitely didn't lie about the toxic lesbian vampires!

This book follows our three lesbian vampires across the centuries as their stories intertwine and they grow in the midnight soil.
First there is Maria in 16th Century Spain - hungry for more from her life that what others try to limit her to. Next there is Alice in modern day Boston - filled with rage at the world when her life is irrevocably altered. And finally there is Charlotte in regency England - driven by her desire for love.

Honestly I feel like this is a book which is best if you go into it blind. The story is the characters and their journey through becoming vampires ("growing in the midnight soil") and with each other.

OMG WHAT AN ENDING!!!😱🤯

I absolutely loved this masterpiece of a book!! I knew it was going to be amazing since Schwab hinted that it’s similar to Addie in her newsletter like over a year ago and when I saw these page headers and Roman numeral chapters with a 1535 date stamp? I knew I was in for the time of my life!!😩🙌

It was amazing the way the story is laid out, beginning in 1500s and right up to 2019. There is 3 POVs and they are done spectacularly!! I love how the character development was done and that with each chapter a new detail or trait is revealed to us. The way it jumps from the start to 2019 and back again into the earlier dates was so smooth and I couldn’t get enough!

I love that plot twist at the end and it’s also so intriguing how differently the characters are pictured in my mind depending on which POV I’m reading 🤩 Schwab is a mastermind and her writing is one of the most beautiful and genius things I’ve ever read!!

Little things I loved from the story; I really liked the little snippets from Polish culture (especially the grosz) it really made it all the more special being Polish 🤩
I like how the word Vampire is almost taboo 🤭
They never really put a name to what they are, mostly choosing the metaphor of a ‘bloomed rose risen from the soil’ it really made the story all the more mystical which I absolutely loved 😍
I also really enjoyed the traits that Schwab gave to the vampires as some of them are so unique! (Will not say anything tho, so much more special to read it as the story unfolds!)

This was an absolute masterpiece that I will gladly reread many times over in the future and I know it’s mostly likely a standalone but damn I would read a thousand more pages just for the story to continue 🙌

Miss Schwab did not lie with the ‘toxic lesbian vampires’ and I am so here for it 😌

If you loved Addie, you will love this even more with a little bit of ✨dark✨ sparkled in there 🤭

*also did I purposely stop reading at times when I got close to the end because I didn’t want it to end? Yes, yes I did. And will do so in the future again cause this rearranged my brain chemistry 😚

Seductive, rebellious, and hungry, BURY OUR BONES IN THE MIDNIGHT SOIL is an adult gothic fiction novel which sets out a compelling premise from the get-go: three tales, three women, their beginnings and ends all intrinsically linked across hundreds of years, and each of them buried in the midnight soil. All of them feral in their own way. We follow Sabine (1532), Charlotte (1837) and Alice (2019) and their twisting tales of love, lust, and bloodlust, towards the eventual convergence of their paths.

Slow-paced and often introspective, this is a carefully considered novel with a cast of richly imagined characters, a beautiful prose style that - very cleverly - shifts depending on our time period, and which helps emphasise the gothic elements without obstructing the actual plot in the way that some prose, when it is too purple, can do.

Our three women are all mirrors of each other in different ways. The narrative is deliberately cyclical, with clever repetitions surfacing throughout and which makes this novel benefit from a close, deliberate read.

Schwab described Sabine as the 'hunger' of the novel, while Charlotte is the 'heart' and Alice the 'head', and feel that this is an excellent framing of their stories, their unique characteristics, and how they interact with each other (eventually).

Sabine was the character who I enjoyed the most, despite her challenging my own personal beliefs - she is the epitome of a character I deeply enjoy despite knowing that I would not align with all her choices. Stubborn, strong-headed, emotionally reclusive, Sabine is who we spend most of our time with during BURY, and so we see her character arc the most clearly. Her story was cathartic, in a way, as it is through Sabine that we see the expression of true want.

I began Charlotte's narrative convinced that she would become my favourite, but what Schwab does so well is is create an inescapable sense that even the very best people can be worn down in the right circumstances, whether through external influence or by time.

The 'head' of the story, Alice's hunger is for herself rather than anything else, to reclaim what was taken and to understand the nature of her turning; she is a much-needed foil to Sabine and Charlotte, offering a unique contrast to the women who had chosen their paths.

My only criticism for this novel is that I would have liked a little more involvement of our three women overall. While our 'toxic lesbian vampire' hook is very much satisfied given the complex relationships that Sabine and Charlotte have over the decades, and the eventual merging of our three women's stories in the novel's 'present day', I do feel that the was opportunity to join Sabine and Charlotte earlier, especially. Having them meet earlier would have allowed a little more 'space' in the ending third of the novel, which is where for me, this toxic dynamic becomes much more central to our plot.

BURY OUR BONES is an incredible story of hunger, it is an exploration of compassion, a question on the enduring qualities of the human soul when mortality (and morality) is removed. It is a story of three women who hunger for freedom, choice, self-expression, and self-acceptance, rattling the cages of their unique circumstances and then tearing into the flesh of whatever opportunities they are presented with in order to escape. Though this could be classified as a tale of feminine rage, I would consider it more a discussion on want; who is allowed to want visibly, and who is not, and how the answer is usually not women. Especially not queer women. Without a doubt one of my reads of the year!

Long live women’s wrongs! Long live queer villainy!

"TOXIC. LESBIAN. VAMPIRES" was all I needed to see before I knew I HAD to read this.

Thank you Tor/Pan Macmillan, Netgalley and V.E Schwab for the ARC of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil!

This was everything I wanted it to be, I loved it and I can easily recommend it to anyone who thinks they have similar media tastes to me or is up for vampiric relationship drama.

The settings were so vividly described, the characters: Sabine and Charlotte, so fleshed (ha?) out and the plot/relationships so captivating I couldn't stop reading. I do wish we got a little more Alice but I enjoyed the jaunt through decades and centuries regardless.

There is no arguing that V E Schwab is an amazing writer. They have a beautiful way of writing that we have seen across many of their books.

I really appreciate certain representation- particularly struggling with the death of a family member and struggling to understand how others process that grief, and anxiety!!

This book, while sort of unique in its own way- didn’t given me anything new. I felt like I was rereading past books. At times I truly felt like Schwab really said “let me copy your homework, I promise I won’t make it obvious”.

In Maria’s POV I see Ava Reid’s Lady Macbeth especially with a lot of over exaggeration on how women would have been treated back then. Women back then were definitely held to the standard of mostly being wives and mothers. However, a woman of Maria’s status would not have been trapped the way she was. She would have been able to receive an education, she would have been able to take certain employment roles, and she would have had social mobility. The only thing missing from this is Ava’s constant need to add xenophobia into the mix.

The rest of the book very much read to me like S. T. Gibson’s writing in both ADOB and AEIM.

We also of course see the heavy Carmilla influence.

This book is about 500 pages. Please tell me why it was paced so slowly? When we were finally getting somewhere we get thrown another characters backstory, Charolette’s. Speaking of POVs, while I get why Schwab made the decision to lose sight of Sabine’s POV, I don’t agree with it. In fact I found it to be lacking and quite lazy. It completely made me lose any real impact the ending could have had on me because I simply just did not care. I truly felt like we teleported from a point where Sabine was just a vampire and then all of a sudden she’s “The Rippah”-that’s for my TVD girlies! 😏 (I do however see how a lot of people are gonna think it’s masterful and that’s alright! What works for some doesn’t work for others!)

Overall, I gave this book a 3.5 stars. I think everyone is gonna love it. Truly. I wish it was a 5 star from me but it was just lacking for me.

Phew. This was...a big book.

My history with Schwab's previous books has been very up and down. I LOVE her concepts, but I always struggle with feeling the execution is lacking, and the endings often fall flat.

This one will definitely be a big hit for most people, so only read on if you want my 3 star thoughts.

I think this book needs to be chopped by 100 pages, and the story would feel so much tighter, because there's a great deal to enjoy about it, overall, but the pacing is so inconsistent between the three POVs.

What I liked: The concept. Three vampires and three suffering lesbians? AMAZING. I also loved Maria/Sabine's voice was by far the most interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed her chapters, and the pacing was PERFECT here as it covers the biggest amount of time, and we explore her relationships with other vampires and humans who make an impact/fade away quickly.

What I didn't: I found Alice's POV so dull. I'd literally be zoning out half the time. She suffered deeply from the story just telling you things that have happened to her, rather than making us care about Alice as a character. Without any major spoilers, I felt the 3rd POV didn't really add much to the story as she was developed so late into the story, and then it was like Schwab suddenly decided to change her from a victim to a villain without much warning? Anyway. Didn't work for me, unfortunately.

3.5 ⭐️

Anything Schwab writes, I will read. She is an auto-buy author for me and when I saw this was being released, I jumped at the chance to read it.

I raced through the first 75% of this. I loved the story of Sabine/Mari. The different identities she took on and the different lives she led. The beginnings of her life as a vampire and how she coped. Then how she met Charlotte (Lottie) and how their lives became entangled.

We get snippets of Alice and her sister, Catty as well. These parts of the book felt disjointed and whilst they were interesting to read at the time, I felt myself rushing through them to get to what I felt was the main part of the book.

Then all of a sudden, Sabine is dead and so is Lottie and you have no idea what is happening with Alice. The ending felt a bit rushed and it definitely could have been tighter. I also think the involvement of Alice felt unnecessary as points. The whole point of her story arc it felt was to kill Sabine. Which happened so quickly you’re left wondering what else could happen.

Like I said, I did enjoy this one. I definitely could have just focused on Lottie and Sabine though.

It was a slow start, very lyrical, magical. This is my first book by this author, and its clear that they have confidence in their writing. The story is scattered across various time periods, following three young women as they explore themselves, their power and push against the desires of men. It was a feral female scream against men who think they own women and a delicious exploration of what could happen to a man who tries to take too much.

The plot doesn't really start until over halfway through the book, when we finally start to see timelines come together. I did struggle at times with the first half. It was very 'vibes' and amazing little snapshots - the time in Venice was a personal highlight - but I didn't really understand why we were on this journey or even the point of the modern girl until we properly meet the third girl and things snap together in a very satisfying manner.

It was a bit disappointing that we lose Sabine's pov before the end of the book. When it becomes more about how others perceive her and her actions, when she becomes a force in someone else's story, we are denied her views on what is happening. I would have loved to have known what was going through her head in some of those scenes, how she justified and explained things.

Then it all comes together in a bit of a breathless conclusion, which sits oddly against the languid pace of the rest of the book, but an ending that makes sense and could have really been the only way this story ends. And starts. Over and over again. Bury my bones.

A tragedy of epic, gothic proportions.