Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil review

Book: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

Author: V.E. Schwab

Pages: 533

Date(s) Read: July 4th, 2025 to August 24th, 2025

Date Published: June 10th, 2025

Rating: 4/5

Genre: Sapphic, Horror, Vampires

Characters: 4/5

Writing style: 4/5

Story: 4/5

Ending:  2/5

Cover: 2/5

Format: Hard Cover

Date Bought: June 1st, 2025

Book Cost: 18.00

Review:

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil was for me what blood is to a vampire—enough to slake the thirst, but far from satisfying the hunger. It's a gothic horror novel that oozes atmosphere and is compulsively readable. This book is a good novel but after binging this book over the past few days, I’m left feeling oddly hollow and unsatisfied.

 

In Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil we follow three vampires, and bits and pieces of their lives. I can't really say more than that without giving much of the plot away as the stories are interwoven. This is an interesting story in that it's a very character driven story about 3 different protagonists you aren't going to like. You're going to love—to hate Maria, Charlotte will leave you feeling confounded and underwhelmed, and you'll be trudging through Alice's dull story and even duller personality just to get back to the other two. There are plenty of interesting characters in this book, but they all feel woefully underused. Whole books could have been written about just the other characters who're far more compelling and likable than Maria, Charlotte, and Alice.

 

The book is an addictive and compelling narrative that really falls apart in the last 50 pages. It could have been so much more, I would loved more elaboration on their travels and histories but we only get the briefest of glimpses into various decades and time periods that most people would be dying to know about. That's the thing with this book, it feels like a giant missed opportunity.

 

That all being said it has plenty of atmosphere and if you're looking for a sapphic vampire story this will scratch that itch but you're going to walk away feeling a bit unmoored by the end result. If you want a satisfying sapphic vampire novel Lucy Undying edges this one out story wise, though again this one is good it's just not great.