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.

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.

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.

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.

Thank you Pan MacMillan and NetGalley for providing an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It has taken me a few days to gather all my thoughts, because… wow. This is Schwab at their absolute best.

The story follows three women navigating the changes that the midnight soil brings to their lives. Three different settings, three time periods, and three very different characters. I don’t want to give any further details, because it is best to let the book guide you through the story.

To no one’s surprise, Schwab’s writing is poetic and enthralling. The story is immersive, full of melancholy, and incredibly well crafted. The characters shine so so beautifully, they’re all flawed and all follow a very well executed arc. I loved the scenes set in Spain, but of course that’s my very biased opinion! 💃🏻

Schwab is not trying to reinvent the genre, so do not go into this expecting a new take on vampires. She is utilising the lore as a tool to tell the story, and the love she’s poured into this book can be felt on every single page.

If you enjoyed Addie LaRue, you will definitely like Bury our Bones in the Midnight Soil!

Thank you Netgalley and TOR for the ARC of this book. I loved following Sabine, Charlotte and Alice’s journeys. This book spans centuries and has different POVs. Sometimes this set up can put me off but Schwab does it masterfully. An incredible vampire story but more importantly a beautiful and absolutely heart wrenching love story.

The writing was incredible. There is a fair bit of violence which is unsurprising given the topic but somehow it’s been expertly woven into a love story. I went into this book completely blind having loved Schwabs previous work and this did not disappoint. It’s a passionate and tragic love story with so many themes embedded. An absolute 10/10 and I will be buying it just for my bookshelf.

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.

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.

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.

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'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!

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!

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.

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!

TOXIC LESBIAN VAMPIRES !!! 🩸💀📚🍷🌑🏳️‍🌈

My most anticipated read of the year did not disappoint. I've been waiting to read Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil since 2023 when Schwab was writing it and talked about her "toxic lesbian vampires" when we saw her in Leeds.

* I was gifted an early copy in exchange for an honest review 🫡

I could say this book is like Killing Eve meets Anne Rice meets the Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. But that wouldn't quite be accurate. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a deeply rich and unique take on the vampire novel. Eerily familiar and refreshingly new.

I've always loved Schwab's style of writing, but something about the prose in Bury Our Bones is so magical, it practically sings. From Spain to Paris to London to Boston, this tragic tale spans centuries and thousands of miles.

Just when I thought I had a grip on where it was going, the story took a sharp turn. It takes you by the hand down familiar corridors only to suddenly find yourself at the top of a dark staircase, a pressure on your back.

It's about how people can have similar wounds but in different shapes. It's about humanity and how it gets eroded away. It's about the stories we get to tell, and the ones others try to tell for us. It's about hunger.

It's about control. The control men have had over women throughout history. Women taking back that control. The control loved ones have over us, healthy and toxic equally. Taking control over your own story.

I loved my time spent in these pages and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a bit of darkness.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab is out 10th June 2025 💀

Haunting, atmospheric, and beautifully written—V.E. Schwab once again delivers a story that lingers long after the final page. Dark, poetic, and full of emotion, this book is a masterpiece of gothic storytelling.

If you'd told me I'd accidentally read a 544 page book about toxic lesbian vampires I'd be like, 'nah bro, I don't have the attention span for that'.

I devoured this book. I let it slowly build and build and kept thinking, 'this doesn't seem toxic...this doesn't seem toxic...'

And then

Oh

This is horrifically toxic. This is all the toxic. This is women through history. This is the worst kind of revenge. This is no one right. Just lots of people living in shades of grey and then... wrong, wrong, wrong.

Read it. It's a treat. It's Lost soul and the Vampire chronicles but with female rage at the forefront. Beautiful.

5⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for this eArc.

Characters: 5/5
Setting: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Themes: 5/5
Emotional: 5/5
Enjoyment: 5/5

This book was everything I wanted it to be. As someone who liked Addie Larue, but didn’t love it, I was a little worried that another character driven book by V.E. Schwab wouldn’t grab me, but I absolutely devoured this and loved every second of it.

The characters are so well written and thought out, and I absolutely loved each one (I mean… I also loved to hate a certain character…) I thought the prose was just fantastic and it kept me hooked every time I picked up my Kindle, and the way each characters individual stories intertwined with each other was just absolutely brilliant. I did think the ending was a little abrupt, but that may just be because I was so immersed in the story I never wanted it to end!

I felt so many emotions whilst reading, particularly anger and sorrow and I just have to give props to Schwab for being able to illicit such strong emotions from me as usually when I read I don’t tend to feel so strongly but there’s just something about her writing that brings out all the emotions in me!

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and would recommend to absolutely everyone. V. E. Schwab has been my favourite author for a while now and I will read anything she writes, whether that be a novel or the phone book!

One of the best books I’ve EVER read. It captivated me from the first page, hungry for more just like the women in the story. I adored how complex the characters were, they were so multifaceted you couldn’t help but love and hate them at the same time. The writing was flawless, the pace excellent - I devoured this in two days and I was thinking of it whenever I wasn’t reading it (isn’t it ironic how the women were so hungry while I was hungry for their stories?). I ate it all up and still want more!

A very good VE Schwab. Her writing gets stronger and stronger, and she in this book showcases her impeccable grace with words and turns of phrase. A slower start than some of her other books, and much more similar to Addie LaRue than anything else I've read of hers, but once it hit 60% the tension rises as the different timelines weave together. A rich depiction of vampirism, obsession, and what it means to be alive.

Have I come back down to earth since finishing this book? Not quite 😩 This is EVERYTHING!!! Bury Our Bones was one of my most anticipated reads of 2025 and getting to read it early was the honour of my life 😭🖤

This is a standalone multi-pov toxic lesbian vampire novel and Schwab delivers on EVERY front. We follow three main characters and they are so individually distinct - the prose style shifts for each character and it’s MASTERFUL! This book takes place across hundreds of years and the way V adjusts the prose for each time period truly transports you to each new time/setting. The beautiful writing style really brings the gothic elements to life and this book is such a valuable addition to vampire media.

V was very inspired by Louis and Lestat’s dynamic in The Vampire Chronicles which, as a huge Anne Rice fan, made this book even more incredible to read. These characters have such turbulent relationships and the emotional extremities are captured to perfection. Through our different characters and time periods this book explores female rage, hunger, and the longing for connection throughout the dark stretch of eternity 😩

The story is so intricately crafted and the way the plot weaves together as the narrative progresses is so satisfying. I audibly gasped multiple times and just FELT everything. I’ve definitely got a new favourite V. E. Schwab character, but I’ll let you decide who that it when you pick up the book 😉🫶

This book is turbulent, violent, obsessive, monstrous, and honestly everything I needed from what the premise promised. It’s a book about monsters which feels so very human, and it just spoke to me on so many levels 🥹

Thankyou SO much to @panmacmillan and Netgalley for the e-ARC - you made my entire year 🖤

A beautiful sapphic, vampire story through the ages. I started reading this with no idea of the plot, just as a fan of V.E. Schwab and I completely loved it- highly recommend for fans of her previous work. The concept of “bury our bones in the midnight soil” as a metaphor for vampirism is such a fresh take and supported with such a diverse, richly written cast of characters meant I flew through it.

Honestly, I’m speechless 😭😭😭😭😩😩😩😩

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil had my heart beating out of my chest the entire time. Jaw on the floor. Sweating like crazy. I just didn’t want it to end, I was truly savouring every single page because I was so obsessed with the story, but particularly Sabine. She was actually terrifying but also my favourite, and I just loved as we followed the three girls across centuries and continents to figure out how they’re all connected.

It was just full of yearning, obsession, pining, danger, bloodlust pure hunger. Everything a sapphic gothic lover girly wants in a lesbian vampire story.

It’s Schwab’s best book to date. Pure artistry.

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.

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!