Publishers Weekly
★ 04/28/2025
Bestseller Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue) unfolds an epic and emotionally resonant tale about three lesbian vampires connected through the centuries. In 16th-century Spain, wild Maria avoids pregnancy and eventually escapes her lonely marriage with the help of a mysterious herbalist widow, but poorly rewards the woman’s offer of the gift of eternal life by killing her and taking on her name, Sabine. After centuries of wandering, only rarely finding others of her own kind, Sabine hunts and then turns Charlotte in 19th-century London—but Charlotte flees when their loving connection sours under mercurial Sabine’s jealousy. In 21st-century Boston, Scottish Harvard student Alice seeks novelty and reminisces about her sister, but after a postparty hookup with Lottie leaves her as a vampire, she is determined to find Lottie again and get some answers. Schwab crafts intricate backstories for her leads, beautifully balancing the humanity and monstrosity of all three women while chronicling their transformations over time. The result is a haunting and worthwhile story about cruelty, grace, love, and what it means to live forever. (June)
From the Publisher
Praise for Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil:
“Immersive… A time-sweeping, character-juggling, lesbian vampire mystery.” ―The New York Times
“A sensual and haunting look at women who refuse to be bound by convention and instead take what they want.” ―The Washington Post
“A mesmerizing tale of immortality… A beautiful supernatural story that grapples with loneliness, grief, and queer identity.” ―Town & Country
"Told in alternating perspectives, this is a lush, atmospheric story about love, hunger, rage and sapphic desire. Those yearning for a queer take on Nosferatu will sink their fangs into this seductive gothic horror."― People
“Schwab doing messy sexy vampires is a dream come true… It might be my favorite book of the year so far.” ―Lithub
“Phenomenal. V. E. Schwab absolutely smashes it out of the park in this beautifully written,considered dark fantasy novel about grief, revenge, and trying to fill the endless hunger inside.” ―Nerd Daily
“Vampire fiction the way it should be done.” ―Paste
"It’s bloody, lush, escapist fun — but it’s also a gorgeous meditation on female hunger."― Bustle
"Lush, Gothic, historical fiction meets fierce, queer longing. Genre defying [and] brilliant, this irresistible pick will haunt the reader through the very last page."― Esquire
Praise for The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue:
“Epic yet intimate, sweeping but not sprawling… As we live through these darkened days, I feel brighter for having added Addie to mine.” ― Slate
“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
Library Journal
★ 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
Kirkus Reviews
★ 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.
