Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

by V. E. Schwab

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Set over 500 years, this tale of three sapphic vampires is a story about hunger, rage and the ways in which women are told to be satiated even when they aren’t.

ALL first edition copies will be signed by the author! Signed copies available while supplies last.

From V. E. Schwab, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: a new genre-defying novel about immortality and hunger.

This is a story about hunger.

1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada.

A young girl grows up wild and wily—her beauty is only outmatched by her dreams of escape. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. She vows to have no regrets.

This is a story about love.

1827. London.

A young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a moment of forbidden intimacy sees her shipped off to London. Charlotte’s tender heart and seemingly impossible wishes are swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow—but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined.

This is a story about rage.

2019. Boston.

College was supposed to be her chance to be someone new. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world, leaving her old life behind. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, her present, and her future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers . . . and revenge.

This is a story about life—

how it ends, and how it starts.

USA Today, 15 Most Anticipated of 2025

BookBub, Most Anticipated of 2025 (and Reader’s Pick)

Readers Digest, 20 Most Anticipated Books This Year

Paste Magazine, Most Anticipated Fantasy Books of 2025

BookRiot, Most Anticipated Books of 2025

Men's Health, 25 Best & Most Anticipated Books of 2025

The Nerd Daily, SFF to Devour in 2025

Goodreads, Readers' Most Anticipated Books of 2025

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250320520
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/10/2025
Pages:	544
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.25(d)

About the Author

VICTORIA “V. E.” SCHWAB is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books. Schwab's series and standalone titles for readers of all ages have made her a major literary figure, whose notable works include the Villains series, the Shades of Magic universe, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. When not haunting Paris streets or writing in the corner of her favorite coffee shop, she lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Editorial Reviews

"Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil crosses centuries, continents, and cultures to tell the story of three women…. whose afterlives are not what they expected. Vampire fiction the way it should be done, and a compellingly dark companion to the more life-affirming Addie LaRue." — Paste Magazine

"Schwab delicately intertwines the three storylines, which are compelling individually even before the reader knows how they will connect…..A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop." — Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Schwab's fantasies are always a big draw, and this enticing tale of lesbian vampires that crosses centuries [is] irresistible." — Booklist

"Schwab’s haunting prose and character-driven plot will keep readers up until the very last page." — Library Journal (starred)

Praise for The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue:

"Completely absorbed me enough to make me forget the real world.” — Jodi Picoult

“A dizzying kaleidoscopic adventure.” — Naomi Novik

“Perfectly suspended between darkness and light, myth and reality.” — Alix E. Harrow

“One of the most propulsive, compulsive and captivating novels in recent memory.” — The Washington Post

“Epic yet intimate, sweeping but not sprawling… As we live through these darkened days, I feel brighter for having added Addie to mine.” — Slate

“Warm and intense… I rooted for Addie throughout.”— The New York Times Book Review

“Beautifully explores what it means to be alone.” — USA Today

“Irresistibly contagious.” — Locus Magazine

“An achingly poignant romantic fantasy about the desperate desire to make one’s mark on the world.” — Oprah.com

“The kind of book you encounter only once in a lifetime.” — Peng Shepherd

From the Publisher

★ 03/01/2025

In 1521 Santo Domingo, Maria notes the arrival of a widow to her town. A decade later, after Maria marries, the same widow gives Maria the opportunity to escape the confines of her marriage, which has turned abusive; the escape is to be effectuated in a way Maria could never have imagined. In 1827 London, Charlotte meets a young widow who entices her to choose a life of freedom from expectations. In 2019 Boston, Alice meets a young woman for a passionate evening and wakes up to discover that her life has been changed irrevocably. Three young women with stories of grief and loss, of freedom and madness, of death and blood, become entwined with each other through the centuries. The only way they can escape each other is to face each other. Using alternating points of view, offering rich worldbuilding, and leaning into themes of obsession and humanity, Schwab (The Fragile Threads of Power) creates a memorable vampire story. VERDICT Schwab's haunting prose and character-driven plot will keep readers up until the very last page.—Kristi Chadwick

Library Journal

★ 2025-03-22
Three women deal very differently with vampirism in Schwab’s era-spanning follow-up toThe Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020).

In 16th-century Spain, Maria seduces a wealthy viscount in an attempt to seize whatever control she can over her own life. It turns out that being a wife—even a wealthy one—is just another cage, but then a mysterious widow offers Maria a surprising escape route. In the 19th century, Charlotte is sent from her home in the English countryside to live with an aunt in London when she’s found trying to kiss her best friend. She’s despondent at the idea of marrying a man, but another mysterious widow—who has a secret connection to Maria’s widow from centuries earlier—appears and teaches Charlotte that she can be free to love whomever she chooses, if she’s brave enough. In 2019, Alice’s memories of growing up in Scotland with her mercurial older sister, Catty, pull her mind away from her first days at Harvard University. And though she doesn’t meet any mysterious widows, Alice wakes up alone after a one-night stand unable to tolerate sunlight, sporting two new fangs, and desperate to drink blood. Horrified at her transformation, she searches Boston for her hookup, who was the last person she remembers seeing before she woke up as a vampire. Schwab delicately intertwines the three storylines, which are compelling individually even before the reader knows how they will connect. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice are queer women searching for love, recognition, and wholeness, growing fangs and defying mortality in a world that would deny them their very existence. Alice’s flashbacks to Catty are particularly moving, and subtly play off themes of grief and loneliness laid out in the historical timelines.

A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.

Kirkus Reviews