This is one of my favourite books of the year. It's slow-paced and character-driven so if you don't find the characters interesting then you may find this boring. However, I was HOOKED. These characters were so complex. More complex than I'm able to get across in a spoiler-free review.

I loved seeing how the past timeline eventually caught up with the 'present day' timeline in 2019.

The atmosphere was immaculate. I will be obsessed with this book for a while.

I was taken in by the hype, unfortunately. Beautiful, gorgeous prose, but with very little substance. I was really bored.

One of the best book I've read this year. V.E Schwab, you've done it again. The atmosphere, the pacing is perfect. I felt so connected to each character. Yeah it was.. incredible

this wasn't for me unfortunately. i'm usually not one to turn away from a character driven story, but i found this one to be very boring. i thought maria/sabine was a very strong character, and i enjoyed her pov the most, but alice and charlotte were not as well developed and it felt like a chore getting through their povs. the ending was also weak and completely unsatisfying.

Bury our bones in the midnight soil was such an anticipated read for me. It was filled with lavish descriptions and the storyline gave us everything we needed. The way it played out was fantastic and I was really invested in the characters and everything that was happening. I loved how everything tied up together giving us a satisfying ending

Sadly, this book didn’t work for me. I believe it had a really good start but soon got bogged down in way too many trivial details. I DNFed this halfway through.

What a delicious novel.

From queerness to power to lust and yearning and time, this book was lyrical at every step and the prose sucked me in just as much as the characters. The characters of Interview with a Vampire, meets the gothic settings of of Dowry of Blood, meets the prose of Addie LaRue. I ate this up, every bit of it.

I loved the time jumps between our characters, and found it so satisfying when the lose ends began to intertwine. It was like an intricate web being woven across three centuries by three power-hungry women. You could see when one started, and see when another ended, foreshadowing each woman’s ending.

Every paragraph was rich with colour, every sentence dripping in suspense. Definitely a treat to sink your teeth into when October roles around, when the mist beckons on your doorstep, and the morning due reaches for your shoes, the mud making it across your threshold.

“Sincerely, bite me.”

An excellent vampire novel that suffers for its similarly to Schwab's far superior The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - both tackle the downside of immortality and Midnight Soil feels like a bit of a retread.

Vampirismus als Female Empowerment.
Ich fand diesen Zugang zum Thema Vampir erfrischend anders und durchaus zum Nachdenken anregend. Dass Maria im 16. Jahrhundert ein Leben als Vampir dem mit einem gewalttätigen Ehemann vorzieht, weil es ihr ein gewisses Maß an Macht und Freiheit gibt, ist nachvollziehbar, auch wenn ich die Figur nicht gerade sympathisch fand - was wohl auch nicht so angelegt war, wenn man die weitere Geschichte betrachtet. Nämlich die im Heute unfreiwillig zum Vampir gemachte Alice, die das als Verbrechen an ihr empfindet. Und irgendwo dazwischen die junge Charlotte im England des frühen 19. Jahrhundert, die als Bindeglied zwischen diesen entgegengesetzten Polen fungiert.
Fazit: Packende Frauengeschichten mit ein wenig Blut und Sex.

The book starts off real strong, VE Schwab’s writing is always really compelling. It’s a tree-POV book but I liked one better than the others.
Alice’s chapters were my least favorite especially be the flashbacks: a story that already contains three point of views and 300 years of life didn't need flashbacks into one of them on top of that, it felt too much.
That being said, I loved how the vampire lore is written. The author didn’t try to remake all the rules we’ve heard about vampires, she introduced them quite well and incorporated them in the story so cleverly!
I don’t read much MM romance because the ones I’ve read were usually dull or forced or there was always one of the mc that I didn’t like. Here, the lesbian romance is really good. It’s hot and very well written! Definitely the best sapphic representation I've read!
Another thing that bothered me though was how repetitive the story was. Three POV was too many! Some scenes: the transformation, the hunger, the feeding etc were mentioned and explained several times and it bored me sometimes.
The first half was so good and then I felt that it repeated itself a bit; but the ending is really strong and rewarding, albeit a bit rushed.

I’ll be honest—I didn’t expect to enjoy Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil as much as I did. Schwab is quietly, confidently solidifying her place as one of my favourite authors.

If Addie LaRue was a soft ache, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a sharper, darker kind of haunting. It carries that same dreamy, lyrical tone but twists it into something more eerie and emotionally raw. And I’ll say it—I liked this one way more.

The writing is lush and atmospheric, dripping with dread and beauty in equal measure. Beautifully bittersweet and steeped in nostalgia, it reads like a memory you’re trying not to lose. The story doesn’t rush; instead, it builds this simmering sense of unease that keeps you turning the pages without quite knowing why.

This is very much a character-driven novel, and María completely stole the show for me. Complex, flawed, and deeply human (and then inhuman), she was the beating heart of the story. Every interaction, every internal conflict felt so real and quietly devastating.

It’s not a fast-paced book, but that’s the point—it’s a slow, poetic burn. This is the kind of story that lingers, like dirt under your fingernails or something just out of sight in the woods.

If you loved Addie LaRue but wanted something a little darker, more grounded in grief and memory, this is absolutely the book for you.

Thank you, NetGalley and Pan Macmillan, for the ARC!

V E Schwab does lesbian vampires? Sign me up. I adore V E Schwab’s writing and this did not disappoint. You are following 3 different characters through 3 different timelines. I loved all 3 characters and what they were going through. My only complaint would be that the ending felt like it was quite abrupt. Something happens, then it’s over quite quickly and the book finishes. Overall I would recommend if you liked Addie Larue.

This book was sold to me as "toxic lesbians" and oh boy, was it true! Told in stories, we are introduced to three women across the centuries. Three women whose lives, and deaths, are all wrapped up in each other. I laughed, I gasped, I didn't want it to end.

Ended up listening to this and loved the audio.

Since then I have learnt there's two possible ways that readers are reading this - as published and chronologically. I think I would prefer it chronologically just for what parts I enjoyed more than others.

Flowery prose, great character focus v world focus (which I was not expecting). Think it's one I'd enjoy more on reread.

I was a bit slumpy when I read it, but I did really enjoy it and looking back I can't think of anything I disliked? So let's round it up to 5.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest opinion.

I love V.E. Schwabs writing and couldn't contain my glee when I heard that they were writing a toxic lesbian vampire book!

I was so engrossed in the historical side of this novel, and I loved the villainy. I support women's rights, but I also support women's wrongs.

Please read this book if you love two timelines colliding, and with such violence and toxicity.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Was soo excited to have this ARC, expected to love it but was underwhelmed.
It was fine?? 

🧛🏻‍♀️ My expectations here were maybe buried too deeply in the fantasy aspect of this book. It had all of the gothic, moody vibes I expected, but the plot itself felt minimal and repetitive. At times there was a dramatic build up of tension, for nothing to happen but a change in perspective.
👀 Multiple POVs saved this IMO, but they just came in a bit late? I was more interested when reading from Alice’s perspective, because Maria/Sabine started to grate.
🐢 The pace was pretty consistently slow - not ideal for a 500+ page book. I enjoyed the similar pace off Invisible Life of Addie La Rue, but this didn’t tug at my heartstrings in the same way I guess?
🖋️ The chapters were sooooo long. We love a short chapter.
🗝️ It definitely swayed more towards the ‘historical fiction’ element than the fantasy/horror vibes. If you love pretty writing, character-driven stories with a touch of vampires, then this is for you.

The interweaving of the two different stories before bringing them together was exquisitely executed. The characters, setting and world were so immaculately built that I was utterly immersed.
I was captivated with this book, a usual vampire tale, and it completely lived up to the hype and expectation.
Thank you for allowing me to read this prior to publication.

The vibes were so good! Honestly me 🤝 toxic lesbian vampires. I couldn't put this book down once I started

V. E. Schwab has done it again, she never disappoints and every book of hers is a masterpiece. I could not put this book down, I was immediately hooked and desperate to see what happened next. The vibes of the story reminded me a lot of 'Interview with a Vampire' (another book I love) with the dark Gothic vampire atmosphere. I could read a whole series of this, I really never wanted the story to end. Shwab's books suck you in and don't let you go. I can't recommend this enough, to people who like history, fantasy or Gothic horror it's perfect for anyone.

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and sadly I finished it feeling somewhat underwhelmed. I enjoyed the writing style and the characters but I had a big issue with the pacing. It felt like for three quarters of this book we were just meandering and the three stories felt very disparate. It made it feel like a slog to get through until the final quarter where things started to come together more. Overall I liked aspects of this book but the overall execution just didn’t work for me.