Hmmm how to review this book. The premise is rather simple: vampires doing vampire things! But there was a lot of complexity, both in the characters and the story. I'll start off with the writing and prose, which was and gorgeous. There were many passages that I just read over and over again thinking "teach me your ways V.E. Schwab please I want to write like this!" I struggled with Addie LaRue because the prose was very fluffy and felt a bit overdone, but there was none of that here. Each sentence was crafted and sharp and the emotions of the characters bled so well through the pages. I also loved how the vampirism in the books played into some of the old tropes (drinking blood, wooden stakes, immortality, etc) and then also completely reworked some of them too (I particularly liked how the 'having to be invited in' was handled).
The characters were also excellent for me (well, almost). I really enjoyed how each had their own hidden motivations/desires as well as their vices and flaws. Nothing about them was surface level, every choice had hidden machinations behind it. I think I would have preferred the point of views to be a little more balanced. We're told that there are three protagonists, but one isn't featured until half-way through and Sabine really dominated the book for a while (which is appropriate to her character I suppose), and I just didn't find her point of view particularly interesting. It led me to feel like I was dragging myself through the book sometimes to get to the next point of view.
I think the main thing that means that this isn't a five star read for me is the pacing. A large portion of the book was dedicated to a particular character just sort of going around and killing people and I just found it a bit boring. It felt very aimless and I think a portion of it could have been cut and I would've enjoyed it more. In contrast to this, the ending resolution happened extremely quickly, a bit too quickly for it to feel entirely satisfying. Everything was wrapped up in only a couple of chapters and I just wanted a bit more. This won't be an issue at all for some people (I think a lot of people will really love this), but, personally, I would have preferred a faster pace at the beginning and a slightly slower one at the end.
So, in conclusion, I think a lot of people will really love this. And, though the pacing let it down for me a little, I definitely don't regret picking this up. VE Schwab is clearly only improving as a writer and I can't wait to see what else she puts out in the future, you could even say I'm hungry for more!

3 ★’s

This multi-timeline novel follows three women Maria, Alice and Lottie whose lives intertwine across centuries. The story spans many decades from 1532 to 2019 and takes place in many locations; Spain, Italy, France, London, Boston. We follow each character's journey and learn how they came to become vampires.

Victoria’s writing and prose is excellent but I had two issues which were the length and pacing. The book is character driven which I didn't mind at first because I found each journey interesting but when this book is over 500 pages and there’s no plot progression until around 80% it started to drag on and became sluggish. In my opinion this novel could have been edited shorter without sacrificing any story.

The ending was underwhelming and left me unsatisfied.

I enjoyed some parts but at times I was bored. If you like vampires, horror, LGBTQIA+ rep and historical fiction with gothic vibes this might be for you.

V.E. Schwab is one of my favourite authors and, of her books, “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue” is one of my all-time favourites. I went into “Bones” with high expectations (because it’s Schwab), but also assuming that nothing could match up to Addie. I should have known that Schwab always delivers.

I devoured this book in a single day. It is dark, delicious, disturbing, sad, compelling, and gorgeously rich. When I was a teenager I read “Interview with the Vampire” for the first time. I didn’t realise until I read “Bones” that this is the book I wished “Interview” had been. It was the book I wanted, desperately, when I was younger where the female narrative was centred. Where the characters, in all their spoiled, vain glory, aren’t victims or plot points or a way to move the story along.

Schwab balances the characters on a perfect tightrope of sympathetic and compellingly awful. (Toxic, as her tagline for this book says.) What makes them sympathetic is how much they WANT. Love. Belonging. Power. I could also feel echoes of Addie here, in this wanting to be remembered. In the wanting to have a story. It’s tragic to see how the humanity bleeds out of Maria (Sabine), because she is so vibrant, so human at the beginning. And Charlotte, whose story starts with love gone wrong, is undone by this in the end. I found Alice the least “toxic” of the characters, but, in some ways, her story is the most poignant. It is established that vampires lose their humanity as they age. Alice is at the beginning of her vampire journey, so everything we have seen happen to Maria and Charlotte is still to come for her.

The word I keep thinking in regard to this book is glorious. I read this books in February, but I have already mentally marked it as one of my best reads this year.

This is so much more than a Vampire story, it is enthralling. The time periods are so well researched spanning centuries, cultures and continents. However the different stories all melt so seamlessly together. You will need time after this to digest, and I have no idea what to read next because nothing will come close. Amazing.

4.5!
Not enjoyed a vampire book this much in years!

Wonderful writing and lots of women loving women.

There is a lot of the typical vampire traits - being affected by sunlight, needing to be invited in and being insatiably hungry for blood. However, they’re presented in a way that doesn’t feel cliche and with slightly different nuances than I’ve seen before. Honestly, I thought I was kind of over vampires, but I really enjoyed this one!

I was more captivated by the historical points of view, particularly Maria’s vampire origin story and early years. But the way the characters eventually come together works so well and I found the ending very satisfying (if rather sad and bitter sweet).

This was actually my first V.E Scwab. Been meaning to try their work for years and will definitely be diving into more!

If you want a sapphic vampire tale with lots of typical vampire goodness, but that will also feel refreshing…I recommend.

3.5 ⭐️
Bury our bones in the midnight soil is an incredibly captivating book that intricately weaves the lives of three women across history.
The story is enchanting and will have you glued to every page. The writing is beautiful and lyrical.
The characters are incredibly flawed, but realistic given the circumstances.
The romance however was very lust-forward, which is something I do tend to find with vampire books. I would’ve preferred a more romantic story that spanned decades. It had moments of romantic potential: “she’s heard a hundred songs and sayings about how the right person can make the world disappear, but the world is still there raging around them, only it is background noise, it’s set dressing, and for once in her life she is standing center stage, performing for an audience of one”. I would’ve liked to have seen more of this.
That being said, the messages were good. I particularly enjoyed the historical aspect of the story.
It has an interesting take on immortality, with explanations about how over time you will die, immortality is not real. Over time you lose the parts of yourself that make you real.
“Time doesn’t heal. It just wears you down. Tricks you into thinking, as the present slips into the past, that it will stay there. Safely buried in your wake”
My main issue with the book is that I really struggled to connect to Alice’s story, and whenever it was her POV I found myself looking forward to being in the other POVs.

I've had to sit and digest this one for a little bit before I wrote a review to get my full thoughts in order cause oh boy were there a lot about Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil. Spoiler: they're all good thoughts.

Oh V.E. Schwab, the woman you are, this was beautiful.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soils follows three timelines across centuries, Santo Domingo de la Calzada in 1532, London in 1837 and Boston in 2019. All three timelines grow together and twist into big gnarled roots that form one big chunky tree of beautiful prose. The branches coming off of each character in the story create little intricacies that create shadows of real people, in real places, doing very real things. Other than turning each other into vampires but more on that later.

What I really loved about this was that, although Schwab has described this as her "angsty lesbian vampire" novel, all of these characters are intricate, they love, they're jealous, and they're angry. They all exist in that morally grey zone, none of these characters are inherently good or evil, they just do things because it's what feels right and there should be more of this!! Give me more!!

The vampire aspect was really well done. So often, it's difficult to write vampires without it being cheesy (I'm looking at you Twilight) or making it so that it doesn't sound like something that has already been done. Whilst, in my head, this was reminiscent of S.T Gibson, it's not a mirror so it stands up beautifully on it's own. Each character has their own distinct voice without it being too distracting or sounding out of place because of the difference in set time.

Huge huge fan of what V.E. Schwab and S.T. Gibson are personally doing for the angsty gay supernaturals at the moment and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Another amazing book from V E Schwab!! The setting makes the book from the start and the plot is enrapturing throughout. Would definitely recommend

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc of this book!

I was so excited when this book was announced as I loved Schwab’s books so was intrigued for this one. I love stories with vampires and this one did it so well. The different timelines interwove with each other so well and I had a great time with all of the characters. The structure of the story as well of the pacing was done very well and kept me entertained the entire book.

I adored this book and already have several people that I would personally recommend it to! Sapphic, Vampires, and VE Schwab's beautiful writing! What's not to love??

I've loved everything I've read by VE Schwab so far. And everything she writes just feels so different, completely different vibes.
Fantastic book by an ever fantastic author!

I’ve loved basically all of V.E. Schwab’s adult books—she’s one of my favorite authors. She has such a talent for creating atmosphere without overloading the prose with flowery descriptions, and that holds true here. That said, vampires aren’t really my favorite, and I struggled a little at first with the jumping timelines and perspectives. The pace definitely started off slower, but by halfway through, I was completely hooked, eager to see how all the narratives connected. This is definitely a very character driven book. It’s a powerful portrayal of female angst and hunger.

You can definitely see hints of Addie LaRue in this one, and it also gave me A Dowry of Blood vibes. Schwab’s writing is always something I look forward to, and I’ll read anything she puts out. This one didn’t quite have that extra something to make it a full five-star read for me, but it was still fantastic.

I am a huge Schwab fan and I’ll admit that for the first 20% I was unsure if I’d like the book, by 30% I liked it and by 50% I was hooked.

I found I struggled to initially keep up with the change of person and timelines and found it confusing (it also didn’t help as it reminded me so much of Lucy Undying which I was not a huge fan of) BUT then all of the pieces started falling into place and I loved it - definitely carry on if you’re feeling unsure.


If you loved a dowry of blood, and education in malice or hunger stone you will love this!

Brief summary: two lesbian vampires play cat and mouse for a century and some poor depressed girl gets caught in the middle.

In 1532 Maria is given in marriage to a man she hates. Her sole purpose to provide him an heir. When she meets The Widow, Maria finds a way to be free. A new identity and a new life beckons. A long life.
In present day Alice wakes up after a one night stand feeling different. Her life has been blighted by grief and now she faces a new battle.
The stories of Maria and Alice are separated by centuries but they are inextricably linked. A phenomenal story, that gripped me from the first page!

Thank you so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for the chance to read this.
Schwab has done it once more! The way the author is able to capture you with immersive writing and weave magic into words is amazing.

Schwab has done it again. She managed to write such a simple yet elegant story. At the heart of it, this book is about love. Love and loss and grief and rage. I initially liked Sabine, I found her interesting and complex. I especially enjoyed the scenes with her and other vampires, her time in Venice was my favourite. As the book carried on, I felt the very subtle shift in her character and found myself desperately wanting to read on and understand what was happening.

Charlotte on the other hand, took awhile to warm to. But yet again, a credit to Schwab’s talent for writing beautiful multi dimensional characters, I found myself rooting for her. Alice too, although I found that Alice’s chapters didn’t leave as much of an impression on me as Lottie and Sabine’s.

This book read like a tapestry, the scenes were vivid, the characters rich and every single description was dripping with life. I really didn’t want it to end. I loved every single second of reading this and I loved losing myself in this world of midnights and stolen memories.

I think my entire review for this book could be summed up as “I love it when women…”

This is so beautifully written I just know I’ll be thinking about it for days and someday it will make an absolutely stunning movie. The characters are all so well fleshed out that I have the most vivid images of them in my mind. We follow three women buried in the same soil, and what grows from it is just breathtaking.

As a Pan Macmillan employee I had heard lots of great things from my colleagues about this story of toxic lesbian vampires. I love how VE Schwab does different time periods and the way she describes the scenery - like the warmth that light can bring or how a room changes when a person enters it. The pacing is a little slow for the first two thirds but the last section is great.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab is haunting, lyrical, and utterly mesmerizing. From the first page, I was pulled into Schwab’s signature blend of melancholy and magic, where every sentence feels like it was carefully carved from darkness and longing. The story unfolds like a ghostly whisper, carrying themes of love, loss, and the inevitability of time in a way that lingers long after the final word.

What I love most is Schwab’s ability to make the supernatural feel deeply human. The characters, though shrouded in mystery, feel achingly real, and the atmosphere is thick with quiet sorrow and aching beauty. I found myself rereading certain passages just to savor the way she weaves words together.

If you love stories that feel like poetry and ghosts that haunt more than just the page, this one is for you. Schwab has once again proven that she knows exactly how to reach into a reader’s chest and leave fingerprints on their heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for providing me an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review!

I really love V.E Schwab as a writer, the way the writing pulls you in and keeps you engaged and intrigued is one of my favourite things. While I loved the premise of this book and the plot, I did find it very slow paced which I can appreciate there are two different storylines going so it's completely understandable but for me it just didn't work, If you are able to get through the first 200 pages though the last part certainly does pick up and moves rather quickly with the action and I found myself enjoying it a lot.

It is a really beautiful story and you can see how much V.E Schwab has put into telling the story of these characters and I know some will absolutely love it for the lesbian Vampire story it is.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this before publication, these are my honest thoughts.