“There is a kind of ache only immortality can sharpen. A hunger only centuries can stretch.”

Firstly I cannot believe I am one of the first people on earth to read this book?! Thank you SO much book break!!

This book sank its teeth into me from page one and it never let go. Dark, lyrical, devastatingly beautiful, it is not just a vampire novel. It’s a tapestry of grief, rage, longing, and power, stitched together with blood-soaked threads of femininity and desire. A story about what it means to be a woman, to be consumed, to consume, to burn, to endure.

Told across timelines and lifetimes, we follow three women whose lives have been twisted by time, choice, and the cruelties of the world. Their stories echo each other, raw, jagged, and strikingly human despite the monstrous edges. There’s so much pain in their pages, but also resilience. A stubborn flicker of hope that refuses to go out.

The prose? Hypnotic. It slinks across the page, sometimes soft and aching, sometimes sharp as fangs. Every chapter felt like a poem with claws.

It reminded me of the first time I read Addie LaRue, that sense of something sacred and savage blooming beneath the words. But this one? It’s wilder. Angrier. Sharper. It’s Schwab untethered and unapologetic. And I adored every unholy second.

At its heart, this is a story about freedom, about the cost of it, and the hunger it leaves behind. It’s about women who refuse to shrink themselves. Who devour the world on their own terms. It’s about monsters and lovers and everything in between.

This will stay with me. Haunt me. And yes, I’m already desperate for a sequel. Please. I am not above begging.

Thank you again from the depths of my feral heart to Book Break for the early copy. I will be shouting about this one for a long long time.

4.5/5 stars! I absolutely loved this book. VE Schwab writes characters so well I was sucked in from the first page. I really enjoyed the multiple POVs and getting to know each woman throughout their life/the book’s life. I think Alice was my favourite overall though, she was strong and had so much depth! The time periods were very interesting to read through as well, so much happened within a few centuries!! I felt the ending was a bit quick for my liking, but overall I adored this book, and would happily pick it up again tomorrow and start again!

This book emotionally ruined me.
VE SCHWAB IS A MASTERMIND IN STORY TELLING. She weaves us complicated and flawed characters that you both love and somewhat dislike all at once. It’s messy and it’s so beautifully human.

The different timelines and stories kept me engaged and hooked. I was gobbling up every word and then being shocked and heartbroken (CRIES) with the changes in direction.

Thank you so much for letting me read this masterpiece and dare I say, my new favourite V BOOK!!!

What an absolutely incredible book! Without a doubt one of my favourite reads of the year. It has the classic Schwab feel but is elevated to a whole new level. The writing, if you’ll excuse the pun, is to die for.

There wasn’t a single character in this book, side or main, that didn’t make me f e e l . Each POV was a journey unto itself, despite being entangled and inextricable from the others, and I can’t form coherent thoughts about any of them. It’s a testament to Schwab’s writing to have such complicated feeling about each character. I thought I knew a hundred times who my favourite was before having that sentiment turned on its head over and over again.

Easily my favourite of V’s books, the female rage was *exquisite*. I am desperate for more this world and I know that this will be a book I will read again and again.

18hrs read time

I am grateful to Netgalley and Tor for the gifted e-arc in return for an honest review

A slightly different take on the vampire genre, a sweeping epic spanning centuries. We start with Maria/Sabine in the 16th century, a young girl, in the world of men, determined to get the finer things in life. Then, in the 19th century, we have Charlotte/Lottie, a sheltered but adventurous teen, sent to London to learn the ways of attracting men. Finally, we have Alice in the 21st century who wakes up one morning a vampire; she will stop at nothing to track down the person who has killed her...for revenge. All three's destinies are intertwined, they just don't know it yet.

Likes
⭐ The structure of the story ebbs and flows effortlessly, capturing you, sucking you in and keeping you there eager for more
⭐ The relationship between the central characters and the supporting cast are all excellent, their isn't a single character that is out of place.
⭐ The way Schwab uses old vampire folklore but adds her own take on them

Dislikes
❗ Alice's backstory was a little weak and felt like an afterthought.
❗ I felt like some of the secondary characters deserved a bit more page time.

I do like Schwab's more adult focussed books, BOBITMS is an enthralling epic destined to be the read of the season.

Okay now that I've given myself a few days to digest everything I finally feel ready to review this incredible book.

Thank you so much to @bookbreakuk for letting me be a part of this readalong I absolutely loved it and getting to chat to lots of like minded people was a real highlight, not to mention getting to chat to V.E. Schwab and ask questions about Bury Our Bones 😭

Honestly, it felt like grief sinking in when I turned the final page, I adored all three of the protagonists in this story and could have read a book on each individual one.

The female rage was the main draw for me, and the 'Toxic, lesbian vampires' tagline couldn't be more appropriate. The story was dark in that comforting way that appeals to some deep part of a woman's soul that wants to scream and rage at the injustice of the world.

Lyrical in the way that you expect from Schwab's stories, the most incredibly dark and horrifying thing could happen and it is still put down so beautifully on the page.

The characters are so well lived in, I truly loved every single person that we meet in this book whether it was Sabine, Alice, Lottie or one of the side characters they meet along the way. Even the ones that only had a few pages in the story somehow managed to linger in my mind and that is no easy thing to accomplish.

I don't want to say very much more because I think this is a story that has to be read and appreciated without knowing much context but, truly this has become one of my all time favourite reads. I didn't think I would ever love a V.E.Schwab book more than I love Addie Larue but Bury Our Bones has definitely taken the top spot and I fully expect it to become a comfort read (does that make me as dark and twisty as Sabine? I guess so)

This is the first book I've read in a long time that has made me want to pause before jumping straight into another book as soon as I finished it, and I cannot wait to put it into the hands of as many feral humans as I can find in my bookshop when it publishes 🖤

4.5⭐️

V.E.Schwab is one of my all time favorite authors and every book while different still seeps into your soul!

This book is being described as toxic lesbian vampires, which it is but its also about feminine rage, love, loss, finding yourself and all against this eerie gothic background!

I absolutely loved the timeline starting in the 1500's all the way to 2019. I also needed to keep turning the page to see how these 3 women were all connected.

Thank you so much Pan Macmillan for approving this ARC.

One of my favourite reads of the year. The prose is wonderful, with quotes so good I wish I could tattoo them on my heart. Deliciously dark, with the characters being wonderfully interwoven with each other.

I have reviewed Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil for book recommendation and sales site LoveReading.co.uk

I have chosen this title as a Liz Pick of the Month and you can read the full review via the link.

Thank you to NetGalley and PanMacmillan for the arc.
Honestly, I would happily give this more than 5 stars if I could.
This is the first book I’ve read by VE Schwab and I will be hurrying to a bookshop to buy more of her works as this was such an enjoyable read (if you can class brutal, bloodthirsty, toxic relationships as enjoyable…).
The intertwining stories of three women over several centuries and countries, Schwab crafts a twisty narrative fuelled by Sapphic, vampiric, female rage. Their stories are gripping from the start and the characters of the three women are expertly drawn and developed. Atmospherically gothic and also an absolute page-turner. I loved this.

A character study with twists worth of a thespian tragedy. VE Schwab has done it again.
It is magical how her writing can differ so much between books but Bones takes us back to the beloved inward looking worlds that we found in Addie, while being completely and utterly different. Slow and lyrical, this book is just perfect.

This book is so wildly, outrageously toxic it should come with a safety label. ‘Consume if you want to get the hots for toxic lesbian vampires’ I mean I’d drink it every day of the week.

BOBITMS spans across decades and follows the lives of 3 women, our ‘feral roses’. Told through their 3 separate POVs, it perfectly encapsulates the essence and beauty of womanhood and also the lamentable nature of growing up as a woman in certain eras. You instantly find yourself cheering for our first fmc, Maria, we come across. Her feral, head strong mind and heart makes for an excellent introduction to the feral women in this story.

The writing is phenomenal. Unmatched In their prose, Schwab delivers yet another unforgettable and unforgiving storyline. The female rage and feral-ness cannot be beaten. The depth of the characters and the way their stories intertwine with one another. The emotive language. The originality of the story alone.

It is undeniable that BoB’s carries a lot of personal weight and emotion, I see myself in each of the characters individually and I truly believe this was one that was written from the heart!

Schwab has successfully resurrected Vampire fiction and I am NOT mad.

Ve schwab is a master at storytelling being able to interweave 3 different characters stories from 3 different eras of time for them to all converge together and have this sort of domino butterfly effect in each other is incredible! Sabines transition from human to vampire in a bid for freedom, but ultimately becoming the one taking others freedom as the book progresses. I loved following her character through the centuries, and how slowly you see her soul rot from corruption through the longer she lives. We also follow in tandem Alice in the modern day, who deals with being turned into a vampire in her own way in comparison to Sabine, and are hinted at an introduction to our third and final female protagonist, Lottie, a sort of mystery that haunts the shadows of the narrative until her story interweaves with our other two characters ! I really honestly loved following the different povs and how lyrically poetic the phrasing and explanation of vampiric terms/ descriptions were
“Bury my bones in the midnight soil, plant them shallow but water them deep, and in my place will grow a feral rose, soft red petals hiding sharp white teeth”
One of my only complaints was the ending, after the buildup over the last 20 percent I was expecting something greater with the penultimate few chapters, and I feel like it was somewhat anticlimactic in my opinion ! But other than that I throughly enjoyed the entire book ! And i definitely will be reading more from Ve schwab in the future !!
Thank you to Pan Macmillian and Net galley for this early e-arc copy ! This will definitely be the vampire read of the summer !

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is beautifully eerie in that classic V.E. Schwab way. The writing is absolutely gorgeous — poetic, haunting, and full of that soft, aching kind of magic she does so well.

I did have some issues with the pacing; this is a very character driven story and as much as I enjoyed this, the plot doesn't really kick in until we are about 2/3 of the way through the book so at times it felt a bit slow going. Once the plot kicked in, it felt a bit rushed and I didn't love the ending,

If you love V E Schwab's writing, you will probably enjoy this book - nobody writes characters quite how she does

SAPPHIC??? VAMPIRES??? This was everything I needed and more. V.E Schwab hit it out of the park yet again. Auto buy author for sure

I couldn’t believe my luck when I was accepted for this ARC. I have read so many VE Schwab books, and they have all been sublime. Within a few pages I knew that this would be no different. What a completely beautiful piece of work.

So many interweaving stories fail because links are made so obvious, but these were subtle at first. The way the experience of the characters was depicted felt so real - each moment of joy or suffering almost tangible. I don’t know how the author does it - each story is so unique, so touching.

Request it now and read it immediately:

Toxic lesbian vampires?? I'm in! This was my first Schwab book, and my god, what an introduction. A lavish, magnetic novel with poetic prose and charming, complex characters, Bury Our Bones is a story to sink your teeth into.

What an incredible, angry, heartbreaking book. An astounding addition to the vampire genre and an all-time favourite read for me.

The standout part of this book is its writing, which I think might be V.E.Schwab's best yet. The Gothic atmosphere, the visceral descriptions, the slow build-up of the three POVs before they collide and culminate in tragedy. It's all so good. As soon as you start reading this, you are completely transported into a world of vampires, queerness, horror, and female rage. The POVs are so well-paced and used so effectively. Schwab always chooses the best character at the best point in the story and isn't afraid to linger in one character's head or abandon a character when necessary.

Speaking of the characters, they are all so complex and interesting, and I loved them all to death. Sabine in particular, in all her dark, hungry glory, is one of my new favourite characters in all of fiction, and Alice's story with her sister also had such a strong emotional impact on me. The transformation all three undergo, both literally in becoming vampires, but also in terms of how they change throughout the story, is so powerful, and the way it relates to queerness and immortality is fascinating.

This book has a little bit of everything: vampires, lesbians, homicidal exes, sisterhood, female rage, and centuries' worth of character development and history. All that wrapped up in exquisite writing and fascinating characters make this a book I'll be thinking about for a long time. I did wish the action at the end had been drawn out a bit more, but the emotional impact of the ending makes it impossible for me to take away a star. I would highly recommend this to absolutely anyone, but especially if you like your books very dark, very gay, and very feral.

Thank you so much the publisher and the author for sending me this ARC in return for my honest review!

3.5

This book is described as genre-defying and I have to agree that it ably straddles historic fiction, fantasy, paranormal and contemporary fiction. And due to Schwab’s lyrical skill it also dips its toe into literary fiction with its beautiful writing. This is a story worth reading based on the synopsis alone.

I went into this story relatively ignorant of the book’s story and I think that was a good thing. It made the historical fiction side of the opening more potent and when the twist came and stepped into the paranormal it was a nice surprise.

The story focuses on Maria, who we meet in 1520s Spain, Alice who we meet in 2019 and Charlotte in 1830s London. These three main characters all have their POVs, although we don’t properly meet the third til about half way through and the only voice we have throughout is Alice and I felt like her voice was the least compelling of the threes When we get that third character we then lose the POV of our first character and I think the book is lesser for it as we have spent so long in Maria’s head and seen her journey that to have her final acts reported to us left me feeling like I’d missed something.

Maria and Charlotte’s stories were my favourite. I loved reading about their lives and how they learn to be what they are. I have to be honest, I struggled with Alice and I’m not sure if I ever really connected with her and as a result her story and journey left me unfazed. I think it took away from the impact of the ending for me. It’s for this reason and the fact that I felt a lot was lost by cutting off Marias POV that I would give this 3.5 stars. However, I would also add that all the glorious elements we’ve come to expect from Schwab’’s writing are all here. The beautiful writing, the atmosphere, the toying with time and rich characters.

Well, when Victoria said that toxic lesbian vampires were coming, she wasn’t kidding! Except they’re not really called vampires per se, they’re thorny roses of the midnight soil and that’s such a Schwab way to describe it.
It’s all in there; the rage, the passion and the hunger for more. The need to be seen, heard and understood. Even grief has its place. It’s dark and yet, a bit too real at times. Morally grey doesn’t begin to cover it.
The timelines, the povs, they’re all intertwined. You’re quickly drawn to the story and intrigued by what’s happening. I would say the pacing felt a bit strange at times but fitted the story somehow. After all, that’s the whole vibe!
As for characters, they all had something relatable, something touching. Sabine with her resilience. Lottie with her conscience, her emotions. Also, I loved Alice’s evolution. As for the ending, I found it quite satisfying.

If you loved Interview with a vampire and A Dowry of Blood, then this book is definitely for you. Even more if you love Florence + The Machine on top of it.