The Verdict
Today I’m reviewing Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, by V. E. Schwab, a dark, lyrical vampire novel that spans five hundred years.
Is it worth reading? Yes, if you like gothic romance with a bite. It is beautifully written and surprisingly sad, though the middle slows down. I give it four out of five. This whole review is spoiler free. Content note: it has explicit scenes, violence, and themes of death and grief.
What It’s About
Alice is a young Scottish student, just starting at university in Boston in twenty nineteen. At a party, she meets a girl named Lottie, and one night changes the direction of her whole life.
The book braids together several stories. A young woman named María in sixteenth century Spain, a girl named Charlotte in nineteenth century London, and Alice in the present. Their lives are tied together by a creature called Sabine.
It was published in twenty twenty five, and it is about one hundred and seventy thousand words, with chapters labelled by each woman’s name and the year she died.
What Works
My first favorite thing is the structure. Schwab alternates between Alice in Boston and the stories of the women who came before her. The timelines echo each other, and each flashback adds to what is happening in the present.
My second favorite thing is the prose. It is rich, atmospheric, and often painful, with the kind of lines you want to underline. The descriptions of hunger, light, and cold are especially vivid.
My third favorite thing is how it uses grief. Alice’s own losses are woven through the story, and they make the supernatural parts feel emotional instead of flashy.
The Characters
Alice is the heart of the book. She is lonely, stubborn, and sharp, and her voice is easy to follow even when the story turns dark.
Lottie is a magnetic, complicated character, and I will not say more. Sabine is the book’s shadow, powerful and unsettling, and every scene she is in has a charge.
The historical women are given room to become real people, with their own wants and mistakes, and not just backstory.
Writing And Pacing
The writing is lush and deliberate, with short, striking lines between longer passages. The pacing is slow in the middle, when the long flashbacks take over, and it picks up again in the last stretch.
What Doesn’t
My first criticism is the middle. The historical sections are well written, but they pull you away from Alice for long stretches, and some readers will feel impatient.
My second criticism is the familiarity. If you have read a lot of vampire fiction, some beats will feel known, even with Schwab’s twist on them.
My third criticism is the mood. It is bleak, and the romance is tangled up with danger and manipulation. If you want a gentle love story, this is not it.
The Scorecard
Writing: four and a half out of five. Structure: four. Characters: four. Pacing: three. Ending: four. That gives an average of three point nine out of five.
Who It’s For
Read Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil if you love gothic fiction, vampires, and beautiful, sad prose. It is an adult book, so expect explicit content and violence.
Skip it if you want a fast plot, or if themes of death and grief are too heavy right now.
If you enjoyed it, try Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice, or Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab herself.
Where To Get It
Links to the book are in the description below. Tell me in the comments: do you prefer your vampires romantic or terrifying? Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time.
