Review: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab

A lot of vibes, very little plot. Much disappointment.

The prose, descriptions and the writing was beautiful and the bones (no pun intended) were there for a good story; 3 women connected through time, cycle of abuse, and toxicity. But while I understand that this is character-driven story, it did not need to drag like this. Her other book The Invisible life of Addie LaRue (also character driven) was almost as boring as well.

Side-note: Vicious and Vengeance by the same author is very action packed and plot driven so it’s not like she can’t write a fun book.

We absolutely did not need all the backstory we got and honestly about 200 pages of the book could’ve been edited out. Also why is Maria/Sabine such a hard feminist and progressive for someone born in the early 16th century?????

The book only starts to get “good” at about the 70% mark (about 400 pages in) and even then it still was very meh, (nothing groundbreaking happens, we just get more backstory and context) and is rushed to the end.

**Highlights of the book:**

-Mostly true to vampire lore

-Matteo and Venice

-Renata and Hector (except them dying so quickly and abruptly? They seemed smart enough?)

-The promise that Renata made Sabine do and how it mirrors the promise Sabine makes Charlotte makes.

-Sabine as a character treating women the same way Andrés treated her. Shows people are just waiting for their turn to be the oppressor man or woman. A point the author should’ve explored more for a better book but I digress.

If I’m being fair though, it is probably a bit of my fault for thinking this was going to be Interview with the vampire wlw edition but I think the book would’ve also benefitted from going full vampire camp and not just skirting the edges.

Reading this book felt like every bit of the 500 years it spans.