I have never been a fan of fantasy books. It’s mainly because fantastical worlds require a lot of work mentally, trying to keep track of who’s who, and what’s where. And don’t get me started on a book with a map. Now is not the time. It’s because of this hesitation that I was hesitant to pick up a copy of V.E. Schwab’s Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil. But my fantasy loving friends told me her books often lean more toward lowercase “f” fantasy. While they contain fantastical elements, they’re so grounded in reality you almost forget about the fantasy. In the case of this book, the fantastical element is vampires. Toxic lesbian vampires to be exact. Schwab knows her way around lesbian vampires: She’s the author behind the short story that gave us the ill-fated Netflix show First Kill. As someone intrigued by vampire stories, I jumped in with both feet.
Despite my initial hesitation, I was hooked after the first page. This book is absolutely exquisite in its execution; I had to force myself to put it down so I could do things like eat and sleep. I would recommend reading this when you have a long stretch of time to do so. Because having to stop is the most heartbreaking thing you’ll do.
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil tells the story of three young women across hundreds of years. Maria, a wild, headstrong young woman in Spain who dies in 1532 knows she isn’t meant for the life she’s forced to live. But she’s also figured out how to use her power over men to get closer to the life she wants. However, she finds life as a married woman stifling. So when a mysterious woman offers her a way out, she takes it. In doing so, her already feral nature is only exacerbated, and she assumes the woman’s identity, transforming herself into the vampiress Sabine.
Charlotte, aka Lottie, dies in 1827. Living on her family’s English estate, Charlotte has an idyllic life as a member of the upper echelon of society. But when she’s caught in a compromising position with another young woman, she’s sent away to London. There, she meets Sabine, who offers her the love and devotion she desperately needs. But it comes at a cost: a promise of eternal devotion. She clearly doesn’t understand what she’s getting herself into,.
Lottie’s need to fill the void leads us to Alice in 2019. Alice escaped her home in Scotland after the loss of her mom and sister. She thinks Boston will give her the fresh start she needs. But there, she only discovers there will always be new depths to her grief. She begins to think the pain will only hurt her again and again. Alice isn’t one to engage in one-night stands, but there’s something about Lottie that makes her change her mind. In doing so, Alice is broken open, forcing her to confront who she really is.
The book alternates between the three women’s stories, and while much of it is linear, there are also a lot of flashbacks, especially for Sabine and Charlotte. Schwab sews such strong threads for each of her characters, showing how deeply interconnected their stories are, and how they shape one another. These three women feel so unbelievably real to me. They are desperate, hungry, ravenous to be seen and accepted for who they are. For better or worse (definitely worse), they find the fulfillment of their needs in each other. It often has disastrous consequences.
Vampirism acts as a substitute for time. Not dying, even if they felt like they wanted to, gives them the time to find all of the things they were searching for. It’s the same reason I believe Schwab made each of the characters become vampires in their late teens. There’s a burning desire you have in young adulthood that pushes you to get what you want at any cost. Even if the cost is immortality.
There’s a deeper cost to living forever. The longer Sabine and Lottie are alive, the more they lose the small parts of them that maintain some sort of humanity. Sabine’s hunger for control takes a deeper hold of her with every passing century, and by the time we get to Alice’s 2019 timeline, she seems like she’s just going on instinct, not really caring about whatever she leaves in her wake. Meanwhile, Lottie is consumed by the realization that she is tied to Sabine and can never be free of her control and power. Lottie feels like she has been slowly beaten into a pulp, and she’s losing her resolve to want to try and fight. And Alice is still so freshly a vampire that she’s basically an exposed nerve, waiting to drag anything that crosses her into the same pit of despair she’s been in.
Schwab describes the book as featuring “toxic lesbian vampires,” and while I can certainly see where she’s coming from with that, I feel like the toxicity comes from desperation. Maria didn’t have any power as a woman in the 1500s, so when she meets the original Sabine, a mysterious widow who offers her autonomy, she grabs it. Becoming a vampire exacerbates that need, causing Maria to kill Sabine and assume her identity. Lottie is desperate for someone to love her, because the woman she loves can’t love her out loud. Sabine offers her that love so fully, she doesn’t even think about the conditions attached. And all Alice wants is to feel good, which she does during her hookup with Lottie. She doesn’t even have time to think about the possibility that it won’t last.
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a rumination about the human condition and the desires of women wrapped up in a seductive story about sapphic vampires. V.E. Schwab has created such clear, present characters who jump off the page fully formed. If you’re like me and tend to shy away from fantasy because it feels like too much, do yourself a favor and pick this book up anyway. You won’t be disappointed.
Great review. Can’t wait to read this.