Review: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab

Blurb:

From V. E. Schwab, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: a new genre-defying novel about immortality and hunger.

This is a story about hunger.
1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
A young girl grows up wild and wily—her beauty is only outmatched by her dreams of escape. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. She vows to have no regrets.

This is a story about love.
1827. London.
A young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a moment of forbidden intimacy sees her shipped off to London. Charlotte’s tender heart and seemingly impossible wishes are swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow—but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined.

This is a story about rage.
2019. Boston.
College was supposed to be her chance to be someone new. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world, leaving her old life behind. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, her present, and her future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers . . . and revenge.

This is a story about life—
how it ends, and how it starts.

Review:

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, VE Schwab’s latest release. This comes on the tail end of a vampire kick for me, the final of three. Vampires are not exactly my thing (most “common” monsters aren’t, i.e. vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc…), yet this KNOCKED it out the park. 

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil was my introduction to VE Schwab, and I regret not reading more of Schwab’s works sooner. I adored this book from cover to cover, and will get into why in a little bit. The timeline is quite whacky, hopping around between three different characters. The first takes place in Santa Domingo many centuries ago. The second takes place in Boston within the past couple years, and the third takes place in London within the last few centuries. The Santa Domingo and Boston timelines take precedent for the first two thirds of the book, with the prior evolving throughout history as the POV travels throughout Europe.

This story is, of course, about vampires. Specifically, the making of them. We see how each character is turned into a vampire and how it changed every facet of their being. Some of the characters welcome it openly, some have their reservations, and some rage at this decision that was not their own. The three POVs all share that singular point of being a vampire, but could not be any more different.

This is a journey through the years, through the minds and hearts of our main characters as they navigate their new life as an unliving creature of the night. The standard vampire concepts are there (with some fun meta conversation) like needing to be invited inside homes, drinking blood, getting sick in the sun, etc…

My favorite aspect of this book is the prose. Each page sings. I know we are viewing these stories in familiar places, but that doesn’t stop Schwab from adding bits and pieces to make it all breath. Sure, we know what a villa in Italy or an estate in England might look like, but do we know what it feels like? Schwab makes sure that we do with every description, every page, every chapter.

The actual characters transform from their introduction to the various ways they bow out at the end. Sabine, who starts off with a different name entirely, is married into the life of a lady alongside a young lordling. She learns to hate it rather quickly, and befriends a widow. She learns of the widow’s nature and resolves to become a vampire herself. Her journeys are many, meeting friends along the way, traveling alone, finding friends and lovers and everything in between. And, of course, meals. She is aloof, for the most part, until she meets another of our POVs, and I shant say more.

There is so much grief in that one POV, it practically bleeds off the page. The emotions are sincere and the reader cannot help but feel each and everyone as the story goes along. We see Sabine evolve from an eager young girl, to a vengeful killer, to so many other things I could not possibly list them. Above all, she feels real.

The other main POV for the bulk of the book, Alice, wants to live a simple life as a college student with a fresh start. We get sneak peaks of her backstory along the way, and then she’s turned into a vampire. She doesn’t know why. She doesn’t know what to do. Most of all, she’s frustrated at her fresh start being taken away almost as soon as its begun. Her grief is different, yet for me it was easier to resonate with (I anticipate others might relate to Sabine more). She was perhaps my favorite character (and not because I was imagining a Scottish accent the whole time).

I won’t speak on the 3rd POV because there is a twist that is rather integral to the story with that one. But she, too, I did like. Though because we had less time with her, the others were more liked. Or hated, because the story weaves and winds around the lines of morality so much so we don’t know who to root for, against, or anything besides.

This book is, as you can probably tell, very emotional. There are bloody scenes of blood being drank, and sensual scenes of love being made between the undead and their prey or their lovers. This book, when weighed against all others I’ve read, is the absolute best at conveying a heartbeat to the reader. First of all, yes, I know the irony. Second of all, what am I talking about?

I mean the story moves you at even the slightest of provocations. Sure, it might not have the kick of a massive series where you spend an exorbitant amount of time with a single character. But it does pack a huge punch for a standalone. You feel as they feel, want as they want, love as they love, and hate as they hate. I truly was in awe each time Schwab imposed all this on me as the reader, and was overjoyed to find it happening again and again without end.

The atmosphere was masterful, setting the scene perfectly anytime we moved from one character to another, from one place to another. Even the side characters, there for a chapter or two, sometimes more, were so impactful in their movements and dialogue that you couldn’t help but wish they’d come back later, even if you knew it was improbable.

Its hard to compare, because the other vampire books I read were not exactly vampire books. One had a single vampire, the other had tooth-eating cyberpunk vampires. The Devils by Joe Abercrombie holds a special place in my heart when I read an ARC of it, but man does Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil put up a good fight. I won’t say their fan bases will be the same, but both were exquisite and Bury Our Bones will go down as one of my favorite reads of 2025.

If you like vampires and being emotionally devastated, I implore you to pick up Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab, you will not be disappointed.