Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil was a pleasant surprise for me. I am a librarian so I am familiar with V.E. Schwab, yet I do not read fantasy at all. There was little to no info on Amazon (or anywhere else) regarding this book but it was a hefty book and that's what I was looking for.
This novel is told in alternating voices/timelines and that is a favorite for me. Always a winner.
Alice, a Boston college student from the UK, meets a young woman who intrigues and attracts her. Little does she know that her 'life' will be forever altered by that one passionate night together.
Maria, a young woman from the 1500s is married off to a man who turns out to be a brute. She meets and is attracted to a woman named Sabine, a hypnotic beauty who runs an apothecary - mainly after dark...
Maria is dawn to her again and again and when they share a passionate interlude, her life is forever altered as well.
Lottie, a young girl from 1800s London, sent to her aunt's to learn some culture and hopefully unlearn her attraction to her (female) best friend, meets a woman who she is physically and emotionally drawn to and her life is forever changed.
This is a violent, romantic, sometimes chilling novel about vampires, women's rights, family dynamics and how to learn to live a different life than you had thought would be your future.
How these women's lives interacts is at turns unexpected and surprising.
No spoilers here but suffice it to say that for a reader who NEVER reads fantasy or anything remotely resembling that genre, I was transfixed from the start.
Highly recommend.

Bury My Bones in the Dark is an atmospheric and haunting novel that beautifully weaves together themes of loss, resilience, and the enduring ties of family. The author’s prose is evocative, painting vivid imagery that immerses the reader in the story’s dark, mysterious world. The characters are complex and deeply human, and their struggles resonate long after you’ve closed the book.

That said, while the story is compelling, I found it to be overly long. Certain sections, though well-written, felt unnecessarily drawn out, which occasionally slowed the narrative’s momentum.

I love Schwab, and Addie Larue is one of my favorites. I want to love this story, but it was too long. The first 40% was incredibly slow and boring. The last 20-30% were good but the conclusion I actually
Would babe liked more exposition.

V. E. Schwab never misses, and this toxic lesbian vampire novel is truly one of her best yet!

There are not a lot of books that can confidently depict an abusive lesbian relationship, while exploring elements of female rage and power, but this does just that. I think it will be empowering and healing for any queer woman who has ever gone through something similar but has only ever seen these relationships explored through a heterosexual lens. Moreover, despite their flaws, these characters are impossible not to root for. They're sexy, they're powerful, they're a little unhinged, and even when you question their actions, you understand them deeply.

This is the perfect combination of Addie LaRue and Vicious, and I will be talking about it for a long time.

Listen, when VE Schwab colloquially called this book Toxic Lesbian Vampires, I wasn't actually expecting it to be as absolutely SPOT ON as it was. The way she weaved together the three narratives was remniscent of previous books, and still it was fresh. Knowing that this was born in her mind from the barren spot where Addie came from, really gave creedence to the spooky and otherworldly vibes abutted to the real world.

I would love to interview her on my podcast for this book, not only because I love her writing, but because she is a master of her craft wrapped in a humble exterior.

She’s done it again! How incredible! And how does she do it?!?!?! The people are going to EAT THIS UP! It makes me happy that this book is given to us.


She’s a Queen and she’s truly done it again.

✨ R E V I E W ✨

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ .5

Thank you so much to @torbooks for the extremely anticipated e-ARC!

VE Schwab has done it again! Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil very much has similar feels to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

Though it feels quite slow in the beginning, once the pieces begin to fall into place, the story is so riveting and atmospheric.

Schwab wrote on @goodreads, “After Addie, I swore I’d never put so much of my actual self into a book, and then I went and did this. Stripped down to my heart and bones and built a novel out of it. Everything I loved and everything I wanted and everything I feared.”

I read this after finishing the book and can honestly say I felt this as I read it. I know I said to myself at some point, “This feels DEEPLY personal.” Schwab literally paints the page with so much feeling that you can damn near taste it. Smell it. Feel it in every possible way.

And the sapphic-ness all around. CHEF’S. KISS. It’s like the sapphic sort-of-romantic-but-also-not-at-all tragedy I didn’t know I needed. But I feel like I’m getting borderline spoiler-y here, so let me stop while I’m ahead.

Aside from being beautifully sapphic, the overarching story of what it means to be a woman and literally seeing womanhood evolve over the centuries is amazing. I already see a re-read in my future.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil publishes 6/10 and will be the perfect pride month read, unless you choose to save it for October. 👀

This is a story about women, about coming out, about being yourself, and about women taking power for themselves. Beautifully written with wonderful feminist themes, but I never really felt attached to the story. From what I read about V.E. Schwab in interviews, I can see her in this book and how her experiences shaped this story. I do not want my 3 star rating to belittle her experiences or the experiences that other women have gone through. However, I just felt like I've read this story before and the lack of balance between the three women's stories bothered me. I wanted more from Alice the most because her story interested me the most. Overall, I would recommend this book to people, but it just wasn't a love. This will be a book people talk about for a long time.

What a different (in a great way) read. Not at all what I was expecting and I was truly horrified by most of it. But days later I’m still thinking of this book and also did not guess the ending correctly (I accurately guess endings of most books so this was a really pleasant surprise). Highly recommend

Three different female vampires, three different time periods, one cohesive storyline. Something about the way V.E. Schwab writes makes me feel whimsical. Even if the book is about bloodshed.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys V.E. Schwab and Leigh Bardugo. The subject matter is dark but corresponds so accurately to the struggle that women had and have in society that you find yourself saying "good for her" when they commit their dark deeds. I don't want to ruin the story, but I was hooked from the first page and didn't want it to end. I hope the next readers are too.
If I had a small constructive criticism to make it would be that the ending did not have enough backstory to it. What exactly made one person triumph over the other? But other than that, chef's kiss. I savored it!

How do I even express how much I loved this book?! I was lured by the promise of toxic lesbian vampires and I was given it and so much more. What a beautiful, sexy, sad story.

First off, thank you to the publisher for an ARC of this!

Secondly, this is my eighth V E Schwab title and it hit just like the others. This one is for my vampire friends, for the ones who support women's rights and women's wrongs, and the readers who yearn for unlikeable characters.

BIBITMS follows three young women on their journeys in the midnight soil (aka vampirism) and the way they each handle the unwieldy powers of immortality. Maria was a force to be reckoned with and I never felt like I got enough of her story. Lottie was a soft heart with sharp teeth & made me sit and think about the world for a moment. And Alice...Alice just kinda hurt my heart. The whole novel hurt me in various ways and I haven't stopped thinking about it since.

This novel showcases the entire spectrum of human emotions and morality, and the way different people in our lives change us, for the better and the worse. No spoilers, but my flabbers were gasted. MULTIPLE times.

As I neared the end of this one, I thought it was a solid 4 stars, maybe a 4.5. And then the ending happened. And it rocketed up to 5 stars because THAT blew me away. No spoilers, but I support women's rights and women's wrongs

I'd been meaning to read VE Schwab before (and now I'm planning on reading A Darker Shade of Magic because of this book), but this was SUCH an excellent to her writing. I loved how messy, dramatic and often unlikable the protagonists are. The first half feels a little slower and more dense, but the back half of the book just GOES. I went from struggling to keep reading (focus issues, not the book's fault) to just feeling glued to my ereader.

I've seen how nuts people have gone for her other recent-ish books (especially The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue), so I think I can safely say this book is gonna be absolutely humongous when it comes out next year.

Superb, immersive writing. I loved the character development and the alternating stories. Even though the book is long, I feel like you never get bored. There's a lot of story packed in there.

Schwab has done the impossible - she has made vampires cool again. A beautiful and heartrending take on the vampire legend from the author of the equally bittersweet The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. The plot revolves around three different women, all of whom are struggling against something keeping them pinned down - when they suddenly receive this curse/gift granting them tremendous power, eternal life, and constant hunger. An epic and satisfying tale spanning centuries and the globe - Schwab brought tears to my eyes more than once.

V is a forever favorite of mine and I died when I received this early copy!

I love the premise, the violent love, the strong women, and the twisted goals they try to achieve. Schwab's writing, as always, is beautiful and you can feel her heart beating on the page.

The three MCs were totally different, yet all desire the same thing. To live a life of their choosing. To be loved and to be able to love on their own terms.

My only hiccup is the ending. It moves much faster than the rest of the story and seems too easy a resolution. We follow these characters over hundreds of years and then come to a crashing stop within minutes.

An epically dark and sapphic tale of three women across time, united by their shared vampirism. All three women are flawed and desperate, all eager to escape the bonds society has put on them - instead of being a wife, mother, stuck in a small town, never experiencing what life has to offer. The stories of each woman across their lives (in one instance, one that has lasted for hundreds of years) entwine with each other, but you are still able to get a sense of who they are (and were), both alive and dead. I loved learning their histories, their desires, and their struggles. It was a really interesting glimpse into what same-sex attraction has been like, across time and cultures, and how being buried in the midnight soil (aka becoming a vampire) brings both a freedom to these women, and also chains them in an entirely different way. I loved this book, and honestly wish it were longer. I haven't liked a book about vampires this much since Anne Rice!

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Publishing June of 2025.

I will continue to read anything V.E. Schwab writes, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is one of my top recommendations to customers. I didn't love this book as much of that one, but my statement holds true. The characterization was so strong and I loved Alice's arc. This book is for anyone who loves morally grey characters, rich and lush settings, and toxic exes that just won't let you go — and learning how one might get to the place where it's impossible to leave the ones you love behind, even when they hurt you. While some parts felt half-baked, I still found this to be an engaging page-turner and will likely order it for my store.

I loved this! Atmospheric and riveting, with three complicated characters that make up the main cast. This was a joy to read.

This was really fun but also a bit muddy for me. The characters were not like able and yet I couldn’t help but stay transfixed. I liked it but it wasn’t my absolute fave. I think it’s a fun addition to the vampire canon.