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memeraryfiction 's review for:
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
by V.E. Schwab
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a mess, and I do not understand the hype around it. The concept is fine (though not especially exciting, more on that later), but it suffers from a number of poor writerly choices.
A couple crucial bits of characterization are left out until the moment they're needed, then sprung on readers as a twist/reveal. (That's not a reveal, it's just bad writing!) Plot reveals take way too long to resolve, and the whole thing feels far longer than it needs to be; realistically, the plot could have been delivered in two hundred pages, and it would have been a better novel for it.
The writing style is lovely, but Schwab relies on the same two or three techniques throughout the book to conjure this air of loveliness, and it gets tiresome, while also further dragging down the pace of the plot. Also, if I have to hear the phrase "cupped her face" one more time I will claw my eyes out - surely, as a professional writer with years of experience, Schwab could have come up with a second phrase? Or perhaps chosen other ways that characters could be physical with each other? The book also includes one of my biggest prose pet peeves - tossing a handful of non-English words into monolingual conversations meant to be in a language other than English (e.g., "Mi señora, I thought you were a ghost."). Multilingualism can work really well in fiction if done carefully and critically, but these lazy little bits always give me the impression that the author wishes to be congratulated for spending a week on Duolingo.
The book is also low-key weird about race. There are several Black minor characters, but they flit about the edges of the story and are never foregrounded. One in particular is the only character to speak in dialect (Southern American-sounding colloquialisms), and they feel like a caricature as a result. It is hinted that a more central character might be mixed race, but this is never resolved (the book leaves open the possibility that they could just have brown hair, brown eyes, and a tan), and that is a strange choice in 2025, yes? The race component of the book left me feeling awkward and uncomfortable, and not the productive kind of uncomfortable.
Most damningly, though, Bury Our Bones is simply unoriginal. It feels like a pastiche of media I've read or watched before (it appears to be especially inspired by Interview with the Vampire, but there are also bits of Promising Young Woman and - weird choice from a vibes perspective - Bridgerton, among others). Nothing in it feels fresh, exciting, or new, and the result is ultimately quite forgettable. While all vampire stories at this stage will be referential, the good ones always give readers something new; Bury Our Bones doesn't. There is so much good vampire media out there in 2025, but this book isn't among them.
A couple crucial bits of characterization are left out until the moment they're needed, then sprung on readers as a twist/reveal. (That's not a reveal, it's just bad writing!) Plot reveals take way too long to resolve, and the whole thing feels far longer than it needs to be; realistically, the plot could have been delivered in two hundred pages, and it would have been a better novel for it.
The writing style is lovely, but Schwab relies on the same two or three techniques throughout the book to conjure this air of loveliness, and it gets tiresome, while also further dragging down the pace of the plot. Also, if I have to hear the phrase "cupped her face" one more time I will claw my eyes out - surely, as a professional writer with years of experience, Schwab could have come up with a second phrase? Or perhaps chosen other ways that characters could be physical with each other? The book also includes one of my biggest prose pet peeves - tossing a handful of non-English words into monolingual conversations meant to be in a language other than English (e.g., "Mi señora, I thought you were a ghost."). Multilingualism can work really well in fiction if done carefully and critically, but these lazy little bits always give me the impression that the author wishes to be congratulated for spending a week on Duolingo.
The book is also low-key weird about race. There are several Black minor characters, but they flit about the edges of the story and are never foregrounded. One in particular is the only character to speak in dialect (Southern American-sounding colloquialisms), and they feel like a caricature as a result. It is hinted that a more central character might be mixed race, but this is never resolved (the book leaves open the possibility that they could just have brown hair, brown eyes, and a tan), and that is a strange choice in 2025, yes? The race component of the book left me feeling awkward and uncomfortable, and not the productive kind of uncomfortable.
Most damningly, though, Bury Our Bones is simply unoriginal. It feels like a pastiche of media I've read or watched before (it appears to be especially inspired by Interview with the Vampire, but there are also bits of Promising Young Woman and - weird choice from a vibes perspective - Bridgerton, among others). Nothing in it feels fresh, exciting, or new, and the result is ultimately quite forgettable. While all vampire stories at this stage will be referential, the good ones always give readers something new; Bury Our Bones doesn't. There is so much good vampire media out there in 2025, but this book isn't among them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Abortion, War