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A review by etemp
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
dark
- Loveable characters? No
4.0
i think fundamentally this is a book about freedom and choice, about the illusion of those things and the desire for those things and the harm we bring to others over those things. schwab twists the stories of three women-turned-vampires from the 1500's to the 1800's to the present day, each of them chasing the freedom they lacked in life but finding a different set of limitations and weaknesses after their first death. the story is brought to vibrant life with pulses of feminine rage, brutal revenge, crippling codependence, wlw love, and heartbreaking loss.
with fewer exceptions than i could count on one hand, nearly all of the men in this book are disgusting, lust-driven pigs. it was personally very difficult to push through, especially during maria and alice's pov's; maria for obvious reasons (she being the only MC forced into marriage) and alice because we got to see so much of her childhood before she is turned and experiences two of the aforementioned pigs. it was hard to see all of these wronged women slowly become desensitized to the same flavor of violence as the pigs, and i think i would have liked to see more commentary on avoiding that fate.
if vampirism is a metaphor for hunger and want, does that automatically mean those things are inherently selfish and harmful to others?mateo lived happily with alessandro, as did charlotte with giada, but both mateo and charlotte had to feed elsewhere, and both relationships were, by human nature, temporary. are we doomed to live alone in our hunger? is that what this book is trying to say?
this book will definitely stick with me for a long time, and i'm very glad to have read it. that said, i do not think that i would be able to read it again. it is very dark and sad and no one really escapes unscathed. it puts me to mind of rf kuang's babel, in a big way. at least the way i felt after reading it.
with fewer exceptions than i could count on one hand, nearly all of the men in this book are disgusting, lust-driven pigs. it was personally very difficult to push through, especially during maria and alice's pov's; maria for obvious reasons (she being the only MC forced into marriage) and alice because we got to see so much of her childhood before she is turned and experiences two of the aforementioned pigs. it was hard to see all of these wronged women slowly become desensitized to the same flavor of violence as the pigs, and i think i would have liked to see more commentary on avoiding that fate.
if vampirism is a metaphor for hunger and want, does that automatically mean those things are inherently selfish and harmful to others?
this book will definitely stick with me for a long time, and i'm very glad to have read it. that said, i do not think that i would be able to read it again. it is very dark and sad and no one really escapes unscathed. it puts me to mind of rf kuang's babel, in a big way. at least the way i felt after reading it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Pregnancy, War