Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil Review: Toxic Love, Vampires, and V.E. Schwab’s Darkest Fantasy Yet

“Toxic Lesbian Vampires.” Those are the words V.E. Schwab used over and over to describe Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, and honestly, it’s pretty accurate. Although, the story is also so much more than that. If you’re looking for your typical vampire-romance story, swipe left ‘cause this is not it. This is a story about women and about love (mostly toxic love), relationships, and what life (and death) is like for women in different time periods. Another masterpiece by one of my all-time favorite authors and one of the most talked-about gothic fantasy books of 2025.

What Is Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil About?

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil recounts the lives (and deaths) of three women — Sabine, Lottie, and Alice — from three different countries and three different centuries, whose lives intertwine in deadly and unexpected ways. It’s about their secrets, their grief, their trauma, and their desires, and how it all collides when they inevitably meet.

There isn’t one single plot, but three different storylines that move in separate directions until they intersect — and when they do, let’s just say nothing good comes out of it.

Is Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil Worth Reading?

It depends… if you ask me, I’m going to say HELL YES! But I must admit I am a little bit biased. When it comes to V. E. Schwab I’m like a Swifty and in my eyes she can do no wrong. However, I must admit that both the praise and the criticism Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil has received are valid. Let’s talk about it.

The Characters

The three main characters — Sabine, Lottie, and Alice — are wonderfully constructed. Their personalities are shaped by their origins and traumas, and their lives are guided by their deepest desires:

• Sabine is ambitious and greedy, reflected in her love for luxury and her insatiable hunger.
  
• Lottie is passionate, compassionate, and deeply emotional, defined by her constant longing for love and the guilt she feels when killing.
  
• Alice is insecure and anxious, deeply scarred by her past. She wants to leave her trauma behind and reinvent herself as someone confident and strong, even if she doesn’t believe she possesses those qualities.
  

They’re complex, layered, and very different from each other. The only thing they have in common is that everything they do, they do in the name of freedom (whatever that looks like for them) and that’s what ultimately brings them together. 

On paper, these characters sound like the perfect prototypes for morally gray fantasy heroines, with complex backstories that make them all the more resilient. However, these women are not likable. In fact, “Toxic lesbians” is an extremely accurate way to describe them. With the exception of Alice, who is more introverted, which makes her come across as  naive, they’re terrible people — the kind who excuse their horrendous behavior with trauma and grief as if the only way to deal with it is by hurting other people. Don’t get me wrong, they are interesting characters, but I can see why they won’t sit well with every reader.

The Plot

This part is complicated because Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is very much a character driven fantasy and doesn’t follow a traditional plot structure. At times, it even feels like there are three different stories, almost like it could have been a trilogy, with each book focusing on one character.

It made the pacing feel slower, but to me it works. I can understand why readers who prefer a more linear story might struggle. Even I thought it felt a little disjointed at the beginning, and only later did I realize why the story was told this way.

The Writing Style

If the unlikable characters or the slow, fragmented plot didn’t completely sell me, the writing absolutely did. I don’t know if there’s a literary term for V.E. Schwab’s style (and honestly, I don’t care), but the way she creates images in my head — the way she makes me feel — it’s almost like a three-dimensional experience. 

Most books feel like I’m watching the story through a window, like a stage play where I’m only looking at things from one angle. V.E. Schwab’s writing makes me feel like I’ve stepped through the glass and into the middle of the action. It’s like watching a movie in my brain, full of shifting perspectives, crazy camera angles and a lot of details that add vibrance, intention and meaning to the scene. Reading her books is never just about the story — it’s about the experience of seeing how she crafts powerful images and emotions with words. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil: Final Verdict

I read somewhere that Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil was “too many lesbians and not enough vampires,” and honestly, I think that’s fair — but I’m not mad about it. The vampire element plays an important role, and Schwab adds some new cool twists to the already overused lore. But at its core, this story isn’t really about vampires. It’s about people damaged by trauma and grief, and how that shapes the way they live and love. Personally, I found that much more interesting.

I don’t know if this is my favorite V.E. Schwab novel, but it’s definitely one of my favorite dark fantasy releases of 2025.

If you enjoy stories with not-so-nice characters, messy relationships, and dark, complicated romances, I think you’ll love this one.