Still savouring this cherry pip of a book.

Schwab and immortal women are a perfect pair in my books. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a bruising, dark look at the cost of immortality, on love taken and freely given. It takes traditional vampire lore and spins it with just enough of a fresh twist that you will sink sharp teeth deeply into the world.

I love Schwab's historical fiction, it's atmospheric, vivid, and lights up on the page. But I must confess that I struggled with the modern chapters. I loved Alice's character arc in the end but it didn't quite have the same punch as Sabine and Lottie. Sabine was intoxicating and brutal just as she demands to be and her chapters were by far my favourite, even despite the darkness.

V. E. Schwab is a chameleon author. All their works, whether standalone like the awesome The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, novellas like the charming Gallant, or a longer series like The Fragile Threads of Power, are very different sorts of stories, linked only by the fact they are all in some ways a dark fantasy and all written by Schwab’s masterful pen.

Cover Image for Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil V.E. Schwab’s latest literary offering is Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, the story of three young women linked through the centuries, their lives twisting together like the roots of vicious flowers growing in the same patch of soil. Maria is wild, headstrong, sure there is more to the world than her tiny town, and desperate to escape. Charlotte is sent away to the city and feels herself being wedged into a life of conformity that she does not want. Finally, there is Alice, who crosses the ocean to escape her grief and start anew, not realising that heartache is not so quickly left behind.

It is so hard to go into a read when you have sky-high expectations; the risk of it not being quite what you dreamed of feels very real. Everything I had heard about Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil made me want to love it. V. E. Schwab writes a toxic lesbian vampire fantasy? I started reading it, expecting it to be awesome. Luckily, it was. This is Schwab’s writing at its best. Beautiful prose, characters that feel so real they could be just behind you, whispering their life in your ear, and a plot that danced across the pages. I am slightly in awe that I read over 500 pages in just over a day without it feeling like a chore.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a modern gothic novel with some light horror. Schwab masterfully handles themes of loss, love, loneliness, and many others in a delicate way. Schwab’s characters are the most central part of this story, rather than it being an action-packed plot, and stepping into the world was so easy. This is helped by the fact that at the start, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil reads like a historical novel, and we have Maria’s perspective fully established before the reader has any fantastical elements. It also feels hauntingly familiar because vampires are a foundation stone of dark fantasy. But Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil isn’t a retelling. Schwab has written an entirely new and entirely brilliant story.

This is the sort of book that will speak to people’s souls. It might not have epic battles, political manoeuvring, or a quest to save the world, but it will make people feel seen. Readers will see little pieces that are like them, dotted across the three narratives. It feels like Schwab has put their everything into Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, and reading it was an excellent experience.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is due for release in June 2025. Thank you to V. E. Schwab and the team at Tor Books for providing us with an ARC of the novel.

This review was first published in Grimdark Magazine Issue #42

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

If you're into sapphic vampire fiction with minimal plot, then this is the book for you. Schwab takes elements of vampiric lore and turns them on their head in this exploration of what it means to be alive through the eyes of three women across time. The ending is a sucker punch but also completely inevitable.

Went into this totally blind, so glad I did.

If the idea of historical literary fiction with a thread of vampire fantasy and a heavy dose of feminine rage sounds like your thing, you're in for a treat.

One of my favorite elements was the way hunger is portrayed. Not just the physical, monstrous kind tied to their nature, but the deeper, more human hunger: the longing for more, for autonomy, for freedom beyond the constraints of patriarchy. That kind of hunger feels relatable... or at least, as relatable as can be when you're dealing with vampires.

The writing? Gorgeous. Rich and immersive, exactly what you'd expect from this author.

Thanks to NetGalley & Pan Macmillan for the e-ARC.

Oh wow Victoria has done it again.

This was always going to be a slam dunk for me. Vampires, and lesbian vampires at that. I’m sold.

I absolutely adored this book and I highly recommend it

I don't really need to tell anybody to read this book. Truly an excellent masterpiece. Master storyteller.

I adore V.E Schwab and all of her writing, despite knowing that there are some of her books that I won't be able to finish. She is a master as gothic horror and unfortunately for this reader that is occasionally where I am unable to read her writing. Her characters and settings are glorious and I enjoyed the character perspective swaps and the slow linking of the different eras.

Despite only being about to get a third of the way through, this is still something I would recommend to everyone (with careful consideration of your own limits and comfort level).

My first VES book and 100% won't be my last. I was dubious about a vampire novel as usually they aren't my favorite but it 100% delivered! The writing style was beautiful and haunting and I couldn't put it down!

What a haunting and twisted but fascinating story! I was immediately captivated by Maria, Lottie and Alice's stories and how horribly their lives were all intertwined. VES did an excellent job with these toxic lesbian vampires and I hope she writes more books with this kind of tone in the future

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil was my first introduction to V.E. Schwabs writing style and I wasn't disapointed. It wasn't my usual type of book, but I enjoyed it all the same.

This book has been with me for a long time. Now, that i finished it, i can feel this emptiness creeping over me. I’ll have to think about this book and the way i feel about it but i know that it was a 4,5 stars for me. Is it my favourite V. E. Schab book? No. But was it good? Did i like it? Did i love it? Yes. For all of it.
When the author said that it was about toxic lesbian vampires, she was right and she couldn’t have described it better. All three of the main characters had their flaws and strengths. And while sometimes i hated their actions or disagreed with them, i respected all three of them. The past. The present. The future. And all of the other representations they came with. I won’t spoil that, but for me each of them represented so much more than just these three characters that they actually were. And i found that beautiful, like i do with all of Schwab’s writing. She is extraordinary. And so is this book.

This book follows three women from different times, all connected by a single thread. Hunger. One is a great beauty, a prize sought after by men. One lives a pretty life on a pretty estate, but is sent away to the city after a moment of forbidden intimacy. And the last seeks a fresh start in a new country where people don't know what she's run away from.

Alice was my favourite of the three main characters in this book. Having moved to Boston for a fresh start, she finds herself well, not herself, one morning. Her story was so layered and her personality was very distinctive and complex.

Maria, however, I did not like. I don't think she is supposed to be likeable, but it was more than that for me. I just didn't enjoy reading her chapters. She felt like a 'not like other girls' character, and ultimately every vampire trope in one person.

I also don't think the book handled the multiple POVs as well as I would have liked. It felt very unbalanced, especially after the introduction of Charlotte. I did like Charlotte, and I enjoyed reading her journey, but it was very long and detailed compared to the other two and I think it should have been introduced a lot sooner, because it pushed out Alice's POV quite a bit. The three timelines, while connected in theme, felt overall disjointed.

What shines the most for me here is the writing. It's rich and dark and lends so much atmosphere to the story. The backdrops feel decadent and alive. I also liked the underlying themes of the book. While on the surface it is vampires, below it is about women and how they try to regain their power in a world that was not made for them.

This is very much a character story, and a drawn-out one at that. It is slower reading, so if that's not something you enjoy, then I would hesitate to recommend this. The writing is delicious, though, and if you liked Addie LaRue, then you will probably enjoy this one too.

Thank you to @netgalley @panm for an earc to read and review.

V.E. Schwab’s hauntingly beautiful style has become a personal obsession. I haven’t read all of her work yet, but ever since Vicious and Vengeful I’ve been steadily building a shrine to her books.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil feels both like a departure from her usual stories and yet entirely familiar. Schwab’s signature prose—yearning, lyrical, and just the right amount of bittersweet—remains front and center. The pace is undeniably slow, but definitely not in a way that drags.

One of the things I’ve always admired about Schwab’s writing is her nonlinear storytelling—her ability to move fluidly through time across chapters, as she does so well in Vicious and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. That strength is on full display here, too.

I also couldn’t help but enjoy the Drusilla-Darla-Angelus / Louis–Lestat–Claudia dynamic between Sabine, Renata, and Hector. Their relationship is one of the book’s most compelling elements—morally tangled, emotionally fraught, and absolutely fascinating to watch unfold.

That said, I did struggle with Alice’s character. When Maria is introduced, I immediately got a strong sense of who she is—her personality, her motivations, her weight on the page. In contrast, Alice felt more elusive, and not in a deliberately mysterious way. Charlotte’s enigma is clearly intentional, but the lack of balance between Alice and Maria’s arcs made Alice’s sections feel thinner by comparison.

For me, the overall feel and tempo of the book reminded me a lot of Addie LaRue’s story. However, I can’t say I enjoyed it more. The mood is similarly melancholic, and while that usually works for me, this time I wasn’t quite as emotionally tethered to the narrative.

At first, I actually disliked the final chapters. I felt disconnected from the flow and unsure about how the story was wrapped up. But after letting it sit with me for a few days, I came to the conclusion that I’m not even sure what kind of ending would have satisfied me. Schwab gave us closure—her version of it—and whether or not it met my expectations doesn’t really matter. I’ve made peace with it, and maybe that’s the whole point.

Overall, while this might not top my Schwab-o-meter, it’s still a bold and uniquely atmospheric piece. The themes and ambiance—ones I usually find a bit tired in recent fiction—were handled with care and grace here. I genuinely enjoyed the experience and was only rarely pulled out of the story.

And yes, I am laughing at all the people yelling “Toxic lesbian vampires!”—because honestly? It pretty much sums it up.

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

When people compile lists of books published in the last 20 years or so that they believe will eventually, with time, become classic literature, they will compare Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil to Carmilla. They carry similar themes: sapphic vampires in a historical setting, which is what links these two novels; but it's also because what Schwab has crafted here is, essentially, an epic.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil follows three protagonists in different periods throughout about 500 years. We're introduced to Maria first, our protagonist who hungers for more, in Spain, 1500s. We're also introduced to Alice, 2019, who has just moved from Scotland to Boston for university. We follow Maria through her life, and Alice as she starts hers and I kept asking myself "I've read 300 pages, how are these characters connected?"

And then we're introduced to Charlotte.

It's 1800s England and Charlotte, after being caught having affairs with her childhood best friend, is being shipped off to London to debut on the ton. There she meets a familiar woman.

This has cemented Schwab as one of my top authors. Having only read her Vicious prior, I do have A Darker Shade of Magic and The Fragile Threads of Power sitting on my shelf. One of the best books I've read this year, by far.

This was another amazing book from Schwab. I was swept away on another amazing adventure. Schwab always writes such captivating characters - and this book has 3 main leading women who were amazing. Everything is so poetic and it was just exactly what I hoped it would be. The flow through time felt perfect - it didn't feel rushed and I enjoyed all the different eras. The vampire element felt so elegant and it was a main focus, but also not at the same time. So don't let that put you off. I struggled to put this down and am excited to reread when I have more time.

I was so excited for this book that at the end of the day, it was kind of a let down for me. I guess I have read too many vampire novels prior to this one and therefore, I felt like I've read this story before. I really loved the writing and Maria/Sabine's perspective. But whenever I had to read from another perspective, I was really bored and did not care for them. I wish it would have been darker and a little more unique, that's all.

I have seen this book all over social media, decided to give it a go and I am glad I did.

I have never read a book by V. E. Schwab so I did not know what to expect. V. E. Schwab writing is so good. The way the characters angst and yearning was written kept me wanting more.

It was really interesting how V. W. Schwab wrote three women's timelines and perspectives. There is one that I prefer but I loved being able to follow the three POV's.

The only thing I didn't enjoy is how the book ended. It seemed very anti-climatic to me.

V.E. Schwab, the master that you are. V.E. Schwab never fails to captivate my attention and Bury our Bones was no exception. Everything was just so perfect. V.E., I BEG of you, give us more sapphic vampires!!!

The author sums up this novel best in just three words – Toxic Lesbian Vampires.
This time-straddling sensation features three fierce females who are very different in personality but very similar in their taste for blood. We meet Maria/Sabine from 1500s Spain, Charlotte/Lottie from 1800s London and Alice from 2000s Ireland and learn the background of each. How they lived, how they met their natural end and what happened next.
Exquisite and poetic writing which never felt forced or overdone. A beautiful tale of three feral roses from the resplendent garden of Schwab.
My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own unbiased opinion.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil feels like Addie LaRue’s twisted, vampiric cousin—haunting, poetic, and soaked in centuries of longing, hunger, and feminist rage. V.E. Schwab weaves the stories of three very different women, each with unique origins and paths, yet all drawn toward the same inevitable, blood-soaked end. It's a tale that pulses with quiet fury and aching beauty, a gothic exploration of what it means to be forgotten, to endure, and to reclaim power in the most brutal of ways.