Spoiler Review Ahead- You’ve Been Warned…
You know those books where you start reading at 8 p.m. and then suddenly it’s 1 a.m., you’re in the kitchen stress-eating cookies, and you’ve got about fourteen theories spinning in your head? Yeah. That was me with Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil.
It’s dark and dreamy and just a little bit cruel—the kind of story that makes you question which parts are love and which parts are possession. And spoiler: in this book, they’re often the same thing.
Spoiler Corner (You’ve Been Warned)
Here’s where we dig our hands into the dirt.
Sabine isn’t just passing through these women’s lives—she’s the thread connecting them. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice all fall under her spell in different centuries, and none of them truly escape.
When Alice meets Sabine in Boston, there’s this sharp moment where you realize history is repeating itself. It’s unsettling and a little heartbreaking, because you want to believe Sabine could be different for her… but she’s not. She’s the same: alluring, controlling, hungry.
One of the most chilling moments for me was with Charlotte. She thinks she’s broken free from Sabine, but instead she’s just shifted into a different kind of cage. That realization—that the freedom you’ve been chasing is still wrapped in someone else’s shadow—stuck with me long after I closed the book.
Why It Stays With You
This isn’t a fanged-and-sparkly vampire romance. This is the kind of love story that makes you feel like you’re standing on the edge of something deep and dark, knowing full well it will swallow you whole—and leaning forward anyway.
V.E. Schwab’s magic is in how each timeline feels alive in its own way. You can almost smell the garden soil under Maria’s fingernails, hear Charlotte’s floorboards groan in the night, and feel Boston’s icy wind against Alice’s cheeks. The tension never lets go, and neither do the characters.
Absolutely — that comparison fits perfectly with this book’s atmosphere.
Here’s a paragraph we can weave into your blog post right before the “Why It Stays With You” section:
For Fans of Interview with the Vampire
If you’ve read Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, you’ll feel echoes of it here. Not in plot, but in mood — that heady mix of beauty and decay, love tangled with cruelty, and immortality as both a gift and a curse. Like Rice’s Louis and Lestat, the relationships in Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil are dripping with obsession and power imbalance. Sabine, much like Lestat, is magnetic and dangerous, a creature who offers love but delivers control. And just as Interview lingers on questions of morality, hunger, and identity, Schwab’s novel burrows deep into what it costs to belong to someone who will never truly let you go.
Got it — we’ll add a spoiler-marked section that covers the vampire rules and origin lore in Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil so your readers get that extra layer of worldbuilding insight.
Here’s how it could fit right after the “Spoiler Corner” section:
Vampire Rules & Origins (Spoilers Ahead)
Schwab’s vampires aren’t glittering immortals lounging in castles — they’re bound by their own set of rules, most of which are more about hunger and control than beauty.
Where They Come From:
In this world, vampirism isn’t romantic — it’s an infection of the soul as much as the body. It’s passed through blood, but it also seems to take root in moments of desperation, pulling in those already half-lost. Sabine’s own origin is shrouded in mystery, but what we know is that she’s been moving through centuries, weaving herself into the lives of lonely, hurting women, offering connection that comes with a terrible cost.
The Rules:
- Hunger Above All: The need to feed is constant. You can deny it for a time, but the longer you wait, the more it takes from you.
- Invitation Matters: They can’t cross a threshold without being asked — but once invited, they’re bound to you in unsettling ways.
- Memory Fade: Those they feed from often lose pieces of their memory, making the truth slippery.
- Immortality Without Change: You’ll live forever, but you’ll never grow beyond the person you were when you were turned — your wounds and flaws frozen in place.
It’s a system that makes these vampires less about brute force and more about psychological entrapment. The danger isn’t just the bite — it’s the way they dismantle you, piece by piece, until you’re convinced you can’t live without them.
Books & Bakes: Midnight Edition
Recipe: Black Forest Midnight Cupcakes
These are rich, messy, and just a little bit dangerous—perfect for this book.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 egg
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ½ cup hot coffee
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup cherry pie filling
- Whipped cream for topping
- Dark chocolate shavings for garnish
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin tin with paper liners.
- In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
- Add egg, buttermilk, and oil—mix until just combined.
- Stir in hot coffee (the batter will be thin—don’t panic).
- Fill each cupcake liner about ¾ full and bake for 18–20 minutes.
- Cool completely, then use a spoon to scoop out a small center of each cupcake.
- Fill with cherry pie filling.
- Top with whipped cream and dark chocolate shavings.
Best Enjoyed: during a thunderstorm, with low light and a blanket you can hide under when Sabine starts acting too charming.
Final Thought:
If you like your vampire stories gothic, queer, and dripping with atmosphere, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil will leave bite marks. It’s not about happy endings—it’s about the way love and danger can feel the same when you’re in the middle of it.
This read was a solid 3.5 /5 for me, as I tend to go for more plot based novels, while this was a character driven novel all the way!
Happy Reading!
Taylor
