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  • Book Review

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

  • V.E. Schwab

Credits

Age Range

  • 18 and up

Publisher

  • Tor Publishing Group
  • Length
  • 544

Awards

  • #1 New York Times bestseller; #1 USA Today bestseller; #1 National Indie bestseller

Year Published

  • 2025

Reviewer

Bob Hoose

Book Review


“Bury my bones in the midnight soil,

plant them shallow but water them deep,

and in my place will grow a feral rose,

soft red petals hiding sharp white teeth.”

We all know at least something about the word vampire. But in 1521, it isn’t a thing that the beautiful and fiery-haired Maria cares much about. She simply knows that she wants more than a woman’s life has to offer.

She’s able to use her beauty to rise above her family’s humble standing. But even her marriage to a viscount leaves her as little more than prey in a prettier skirt.

But then Maria meets a strange woman who offers her more than just a way to endure a husband’s harsh sexual visits; she offers Maria a way out. And Maria, now called Sabine, gulps down every drop of it she can.

In 2019, Alice is a young college student who tends to hang back in the shadows. She’s a nervous sort who doesn’t make waves or, for that matter, leave an impression. But then she spots a violet-haired girl at a college party. This young woman smells of wet earth, wrought iron and raw sugar. And she sweeps Alice off her feet.

After a quick night of unexpectedly rough and torrid sex. Alice wakes up in her dorm room to find nothing but a note from this elusive lover. No, wait. She also discovers one other thing: She no longer has a heartbeat.

In 1827, 19-year-old Charlotte is actually quite satisfied with her life on her parents’ estate of Clement Hall. But she gets shipped off to London after her brother catches her and her best friend sharing much more than a chaste kiss in the garden.

Charlotte’s life goes from running free on her family’s rolling grounds to preparing for debutante balls: learning of proper manners, flowing gowns and breath-crushing corsets.

Then Charlotte meets a beautiful widow who slowly draws her attention away from the idea of dancing with awkward young boys with sweaty hands. She introduces her to the love of a woman and the power … of a god.

The paths of all three of these alluring women will link at some point in the course of 500 years. But truthfully, hours, days and years no longer matter to any of them. And like a thorny vine, their hunger and desire, their longing and rage, will all intertwine and clash.

For they are feral roses grown from the same patch of midnight soil. And their soft petals hide sharp and dangerous teeth.

Plot Summary

Set over the course of 500 years, three lesbians find that vampirism gives them the power to reshape and control their lives. But they are, in turn, controlled by hunger, desire and rage.

Christian Beliefs

The church and faith are casually mentioned in the stories of the three women at this book’s core. But for the most part, they are either seen as pointless, man-made constructs or used as an opportunity to encounter large groups of people.

Early on, for instance, Maria disdains a caravan of believers who travel to a nearby monastery to “cleanse themselves of sin.” And later, a bloodthirsty vampire dons the robe of a priest and locks a group of parishioners in a church where he and his fellow bloodsuckers butcher them.

Other Belief Systems

The real belief system here centers on vampirism. We learn how that state of being takes place, as well as what its abilities and limitations entail.

Many typical vampire tropes are in play here. The major drawback to the superhuman state being that as hundreds of years pass, the once-human vampires slowly lose touch with the emotions they originally had. Eventually they become little more than heartless beasts, creatures of “hunger and rot.”

Authority Roles

Each of the three central protagonists have parents in their lives when their stories begin. But most of those adults are rather feckless and seemingly uncaring. The sole exception is Alice’s stepmother, El, who makes an effort to connect after marrying her widowed father. She reaches out and tries to care for young Alice and her older sister Catty, but Catty rejects her and tends to drag 9-year-old Alice along behind her.

Much of Sabine, Charlotte and Alice’s clashes with authority figures center around their mutual sexual orientation. They are all lesbians who push back against the norms of their given time. In fact, it’s the power of vampirism that gives them the power and freedom to pursue the lifestyle they all desire.

It should be noted, however, that none of these women are good or even very nice people. Not only do they carry emotional and physical slights and grief from their past, but the injection of vampirism amplifies those negative qualities. And it shapes the women into vicious monsters who don’t care who they hurt or kill.

The three women live for their hungers, their pleasures and little else. The book describes that transition like this:

“We are hollowed, bit by bit, as all that made us human dies. Our kindness. Our empathy. Our capacity for fear, and love. One by one, they slough away, until all that’s left is the desire to hunt, to hurt, to feed, to kill. That is how we die. Made reckless by our hunger. Convinced we are unkillable until something or someone proves us wrong.”

Profanity & Violence

Profanity isn’t a constant part of this lengthy book’s story, but there are regular uses of f- and s-words and other crudities in the mix. There’s also a great deal of alcohol flowing, but the vampires only consume it if it is mixed with blood or in the bloodstream of a victim.

As you might imagine, drinking blood to survive entails quite a bit of deadliness over the course of 500 years. And Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil doesn’t flinch away from describing that flesh-tearing bloodiness in detail. Throats are ripped open, bodies are rent, and people die en masse, sometimes in gruesome ways.

All three central characters initially quail a bit at the thought of drinking blood. But in time, the book shows how each of them relish the experience of blood gushing down their throat, giving them an orgasmic rush as the victim’s heart weakens and eventually dies.

Sexual Content

For all of this book’s exuberant verbiage about the female vampires’ killing ways, those descriptive passage pales in comparison to how the story enthusiastically portrays their sex lives. Bury Our Bones is nothing short of a lesbian fantasy.

The story’s plunging teeth and bloodsucking consumption repeatedly gives way to a symbolic declaration of euphoric sexual bliss. The story floridly addresses characters’ intimate same-sex interactions.

Discussion Topics

None.

Additional Comments

This YA novel from award-winning author V.E. Schwab currently sits at the top of a number of bestselling lists and has drawn the attention of many young readers. And there’s no denying that Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a compelling read with a driving third act.

This lusty vampire tale thoroughly objects to the oppression of women. However, parents of younger readers—and, really, readers of any age—should note that this is very much a lesbian fantasy that’s focused as much on normalizing sapphic eroticism as it is on flesh-tearing horror.

You can request a review of a title you can’t find at letters@pluggedin.com.

Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not necessarily their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.

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Bob Hoose

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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