I love Schwab’s writing. Her prose is always a delight to read, and she truly masters the essence of vampirism; of what it means to be undying, and the three women of this story embody every possibility.

Everything she wrote flowed beautifully; tasted wonderful, but I never felt full. I never felt sated. It all felt too slow, too aimless, too lacking? At least in plot. This is definitely more of a character driven book, in my opinion. It’s the charting of their lives, their journeys, and I love that, but it has to be balanced with plot, and this just… didn’t have much of one? It isn’t until about 70% into the book that a plot takes shape, but it’s still not much.

I settled on 3 stars for the rating, because despite its slowness, I did really enjoy parts of it. Sabine’s chapters in the first half were downright delicious. She is the toxic lesbian vampire Schwab promised she would be, and she really did deliver on that front. These women — these monsters — are terrible people, if you can even call them people anymore, and the threads of their lives are tangled together towards an inevitable conclusion.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an ARC of this sapphic bloodbath!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this advanced reader's copy and the opportunity to this early. Review has been posted on Waterstones and Amazon.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Pan MacMillan for giving me the absolute pleasure of being able to read this ARC.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is not my first V.E. Schwab book and certainly won’t be my last. V.E. Schwab has the most miraculous way of making the ordinary into the profound. The way she writes characters, settings and stories is inthralling and beautiful. You feel transported into her work and so connected to the world she has created.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a gothic, sapphic, epic tale that spans over hundreds and hundreds of years about Maria, Sabine, Alice and Lottie and how their individual stories intersect and diverge. The tales are beautifully crafted depicting love, loss, humanity, inhumanity and the never ending need to find fulfilment. Having individual sections of each woman’s tale never once pulled me out of the story as I was craving to know more of each character and how their lives unfolded and what led to choices that were ultimately made or not made. Everything was so profoundly woven together

Much like The Invisible life of Addie LaRue, this book was thought provoking and will stay with me for awhile. I look forward to rereading it and discovering new things painted throughout and new thoughts it provides. What an absolute pleasure to read.

This sweeping gothic epic from VE Schwab has the potential to be an instant modern classic.

From the first page, Schwab's writing is like a breath of fresh air - lyrical and evocative but not 'difficult'. The tale of Maria, Sabine, Alice and Lottie spills out onto the pages and spans several hundred years as the many threads of plot intersect and diverge.

The tales of these women - their loves and losses, humanity and inhumanity - are masterfully crafted. Bury Our Bones is packed with sapphic longing, a neverending quest to find fulfilment and underpinned by something that looks like feminism. The flashbacks to Alice's relationship with her sister added a much-needed exploration of a non-romantic relationship and were some of my favourite scenes to read.

Where, in shorter books, the surprises come at breakneck speed, in Bury Our Bones they unfold almost leisurely, luxuriating in the thrill of the chase. The pace did slow a little too much for me in the middle but it didn't spoil the enjoyment overall. One I think I will want to re-read every few years and I'm sure I'll spot something new every time.

TOXIC. LESBIAN.VAMPIRES! Following three women through centuries and across countries, this is a character study on an epic scale. We first meet Maria, then Alice and Lottie - each of our main characters is introduced with their year of death, and you find out what happened in their lives before and after becoming vampires. Standard lore is adhered to but the title of the book is referenced very poetically to explain the origins of vampirism. This is such an unexpected delight of a book - it's dark and sad and frequently violent but the writing drags you right along with our protagonists, as section by section you are given more and more information regarding their histories. I loved it.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me a chance to read one of my most anticipated reads of 2025.

I don’t even know where to begin with this book. It wasn’t what I expected it to be, but I really enjoyed the story and I got hooked, I got mesmerized by the characters, especially by Sabine. What a story it was! I kept reading and reading because I wanted to know how the stories of the different women connect to each other and I was not disappointed.

Why did I not give it 5 stars? I wish I could tell you what was missing for me, but I cannot put my finger on it. There was just something that didn’t make me say YESSS THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD. It was a beautiful story and it’s obvious that Victoria has put so much work and so much of herself into this book and I know that people are going to absolutely love this lesbian vampire story, but not me. I liked it a lot, but I didn’t *love* it and I feel so sorry for that, because I truly wanted to love it. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is gruesome, angry and alive. You can feel how much heart and soul V.E. Schwab poured into this novel.
It is reminiscent of Addie La Rue in a lot of ways. It gave me that same breathless anxious feeling while reading it, like you’re lonely and nothing is ever quite enough. Even the ending left me unsatisfied. however I think that was the intention and Schwab has crafted a story where that’s the only kind of ending that fits.

The three different POVs are unevenly split and we spent much of the first half with a woman that is deeply unlikeable, the middle with an unreliable narrator and the ending with a character I was a bit ambivalent about. I especially found myself wishing for more nuance to the main villain..
Much of this story is also quite repetitive, which again I think is intentional but I could see how readers might lose interest.

This book is first and foremost a love letter to female rage and loving women and with that the author definitely achieved what she set out to do.

If you loved Addie and toxic lesbian vampires and murder (seriously, so much murder) sound like you, you will love this. Otherwise maybe skip this one. I am sure this will be a very marmite book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

Absolutely phenomenal. I was so invested in these three interconnected stories, they hooked me in from the very beginning. Schwab’s writing is so considered and lyrically beautiful, while the plotting is pacy and twisty. There are moments of joy, tension, intrigue, and well-measured poignancy. Gorgeous, diverse settings across history and around the globe. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil was an unforgettable read, I’m going to be thinking about Sabine, Lottie and Alice for a long time. This will definitely prompt me to read more of Schwab’s backlist this year.

This is a sapphic story of vampires and how their history intertwines, starting in the 1500s and spanning across until 2019. I really enjoyed this story and seeing how the three women take to vampirism. Ultimately this is a story about monsters. Monsters and how they change as they slowly become more monstrous. Each character has their own story and motivations that works well. Of the three I would argue that Alice is the weakest character but that may be a consequence of her being set in the modern day compared to the other two so we spend literally centuries with some of the other characters.

I'll be thinking on this story for a long time.

"She is a flame in the dark, and the night is full of moths."

This book, this book. You're not ready.
It's bloody, it's ruthless, it's so so alive. These women are atrocious, gorgeous and angry, oh so angry.
Victoria writes like no other, and it's clear this was such another personal work for her.
It took the best parts of Vicious and Addie LaRue and intertwined it together. these phenomenal women and their journey.
The only thing that stops me from giving it a full 5 stars is the ending, while i devoured the entire book and appreciated the patience and slow narration, the ending felt quite abrupt and too easy as a resolution.
But overall it was such a fantastic read. I will think about this book for a long time for sure.
I am gonna need more MORE sapphic toxic vampires in my life or else.

Brutal, blood-drenched, beautiful, and breathlessly alive. This is going to be my best read of the year for sure.

We follow three women as their tale spans centuries and countries, each tale interlinking in ways you don’t expect. Thankfully there’s no ennui ridden vampires lamenting their immortality, no sir, 2025 is the year of Hungry Female Rage Vampires and I am Here. For. It.

This book feels like a natural progression of VE Schwab’s incredible talent, it is insistent and immediate and so, so rich. I can’t wait to read it again.

If The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo and Dowry of Blood by ST Gibson had a baby guided by VE Schwab’s dark, magical hands, this is what you would get.
Sapphic vampires, dual timelines, women ruling the night.

<b>“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.”
</b>
Here we have feral, hungry girls.
1521, Maria wants more from her small village. She sets her eyes on a Viscount passing through and is soon betrothed. Maria knows when to be the predator, and when to play the part of prey. However, the life as a noble is boring and more restrictive than suits Maria’s hunger for more.

2019, Alice is dedicated to becoming someone new moving from Scotland to Boston to attend university. She has a cluttered head and anxious heart, running from a past, waiting for her future.

The third timeline only comes into play after the 55% mark in London 1827. Debutante balls and secret debauchery and another wish for freedom.

<b>Why does Charlotte stay? That is like asking—why stay inside a house on fire? Easy to say when you are standing on the street, a safe distance from the flames. Harder when you are still inside, convinced you can douse the blaze before it spreads, or rushing room to room, trying to save what you love before it burns.
</b>
The writing was delicious. The characters were angsty, angry, and sometimes atrocious. The yearning was blood red. The *scenes* were sensual and sexy but not overly detailed.

The ending was too easy, convenient, and sudden for me and thus anti-climatic, however it was still satisfying knowing this had to be condensed for a standalone.

Glow-in-the-dark proof gifted by Book break PanMacmillan.