Immortality sounds glamorous right up until you start tallying the cost.

V.E. Schwab’s Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil isn’t interested in the sparkling fantasy of eternal life. Instead, it asks harder questions. What would you sacrifice for freedom? What parts of yourself would survive centuries of loss? And what happens when the thing you’ve wanted most finally becomes yours?

Spanning nearly five hundred years and following three unforgettable women, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil blends gothic atmosphere, sapphic romance, and vampire lore into something far more introspective than I expected. It is a story filled with yearning, rage, loneliness, and the impossible tension between who we are and who we wish we could become.

This is not a book to race through. It is one to sink into.

*Spoilers will be hidden and labelled so you can choose to read or skip.

The largely typographical cover of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil grabs the eye with its bold lettering choices and atmospheric palette. The rose imagery harkens to the central lyric that repeats like a refrain through the text, as well as calling the thorns and petals into contrast. It is worth noting that the author’s name is equal in size to the title, indicating that the author is well known and readers are likely to buy the book based on name recognition.

Color Story

Monotone blues hint at dim lighting and the cover of night, while the yellows sing like moonlight. The palette is simple, but the depth of the tonality creates an evocative sense of the gothic setting.

Typography Notes

A unique font choice combines sharp, thin lines with nearly perfect circles. It is a study in contrasts, much like the book itself. The serifs provide elegance, while the varying widths create dynamism and movement on a relatively static image.

Genre Signals

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a dark fantasy, and that is reflected in the tones of the palette, but it isn’t overtly fantastical. One might mistake this for a dark romance, which it is and it isn’t.

Hidden Details

As I mentioned above, the roses are symbolic within the story, but I didn’t catch any other easter eggs. Did you?

Mood Check

The cover is definitely giving dark and moody vibes.

Beyond the Dust Jacket

Under the dust jacket, the cover is black cloth with an embossed metallic blue rose. Stunning.

The interior of the hardback edition of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is beautiful! The POV swap pages are ornately illustrated with filigree-style line drawings. The character death date below their name in parenthesis a delightfully morbid touch.

Each POV switch starts a new chapter number, which is delivered in elegant serif Roman numerals, often with a date or place name below. The reading experience is luxurious. Worth the splurge on the hardcover.

There are three pages near the end of the book that each have only two lines. These three pages gave me goosebumps. Typographically setting them apart was really impactful to the reading experience. Well done.

Did the design affect whether I bought the book?

No. I received my signed hardcover copy of Bury Out Bones in the Midnight Soil as a gift. However, had this not been the case, the cover certainly would have impacted my purchase decision.

Each of the main POV characters in Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is so remarkably different!

They contrast so starkly while still believably fitting into each other’s lives.

Maria/Sabine is striking and headstrong. What she offers in sex appeal, she makes up for in lack of empathy. She’s selfish and disdainful, but somehow still relatable and at moments likable.

Charlotte couldn’t be more opposite. She’s highly empathetic and hates so much of the curse that allows her the freedom to live as she pleases. Her story is endearing, but also frustrating.

Alice gets a lot of hate for being unrelatable, but I think that she simply embraces things that we don’t want to see in ourselves- the disposition that allows life to happen to her instead of actively choosing it.

The side characters add loads of color and frame the main characters in a way that allows the reader to see them as they are. This takes the shiny veneer off the typical vampire story. These folks are as messed up after 500 years (give or take) as they are as youths, if not more so.

Sprawling, lyrical, poetic. Schwab’s writing is so easy to fall into. The setting is gothic and dark, as would be appropriate for creatures of the night. The pace is slow, languid almost. You feel the passage of time even when jumps are taken.

Freedom to be your true self, especially as a woman and a lesbian, is the heartbeat of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil. This is underpinned by a general disdain for the patriarchy.

Humanity is deeply explored through the lens of love and loss, yearning for things one cannot have.

Choice and change. Taking an active role in deciding what your life will be.

What Worked:

The cost of freedom is really strongly drawn. What each person misses from their past life, the things they long for after the turn is beautifully articulated.

The themes have depth and nuance.

The characters, while deeply flawed, remind us of ourselves or people we know.

What Didn’t Fully Click:

The phrase “pressed in amber” was used two times too many.

Overall:

Excellent. While this does bear a lot of similarities to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a gorgeous standalone fantasy novel that invites you to savor it.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil evoked a melancholy feeling. I was on the verge of it already, but these 500+ pages allowed me a good wallow. Full of aching and longing with a swift undercurrent of tightly controlled rage.

Coming off a nose fast-paced far Romantasy, this felt downright savory.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil challenges you. The mood here invites in uncomfortable contrasts and leaves you thinking about what you really want, what you are willing to give up to get it, and if having it is worth the cost. This one will certainly haunt my thoughts for a time.

Read if you like:

• Simmering female rage
• Bittersweet stories that balance yearning and heartache
• Interesting takes on vampire lore

Skip if you dislike:

• Slow-paced tales with long timelines
• Sapphic romance
• Multiple POVs

I love the brief nod to The Secret History by Donna Tartt. While the books are dramatically different in scope and setting, they share something that I can’t quite put my finger on. They evoke the same types of feelings.

I chose to read Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil to fulfill the Playing Card Reading Challenge prompt: Read a fantasy book. It would also fulfill: Read a book with LGBTQ+ representation or be a great fit for Pride Month (another reason I chose to read it over other fantasy options this month). Technically, it could also count toward: Read a book with dual timelines.

If you were turned into a vampire what would you miss the most about being human?

May your life be as full as your bookshelf and as long as your TBR list.

Happy Reading!