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beauty_goesbeast 's review for:
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
by V.E. Schwab
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a tough review-
I wanted to love this, truly, but I just couldn’t get there.
It’s crazy because I enjoy the writing - the author builds interesting characters and immerses the reader into moments and memories so easily, “and yet”.
I found myself ready for the story to be over around page 300 or so. The author mentions a few times from Alice’s pov “good books and bad movies (or tv?)” as a reference to the lore of vampires and what culture has depicted versus “truth” but in all honesty on many occasions I felt like scenes from other stories were folded into these pages. I’d stop and “wait..didn’t I see that in..?” “ wasn’t that the character from..?” The mentioning of conviction being used to sway one’s mind , which later was deemed compulsion. The heightening of one’s emotions, mind reading, etc. I get it, it’s vampires, the stories are all kind of mimicked, but 500+ pages of it grew daunting.
The ending also sat odd with me, I guess it just fell a bit flat for the build up imo. Really flat.
That being said, I do think there were beautifully written parts to the story, I just wish I would’ve actually loved the book in its entirety as well. As I’m writing this it dawned on me the second bit of irony where Lottie says “But charlotte knows there is a moment when a piece can be overworked, when the artist goes a stroke too far” and this is what this story felt like as it was drawing to an end.
But all my opinions, grain of salt and all that…
3 stars for the beauty in the moments 🤍
I wanted to love this, truly, but I just couldn’t get there.
It’s crazy because I enjoy the writing - the author builds interesting characters and immerses the reader into moments and memories so easily, “and yet”.
I found myself ready for the story to be over around page 300 or so. The author mentions a few times from Alice’s pov “good books and bad movies (or tv?)” as a reference to the lore of vampires and what culture has depicted versus “truth” but in all honesty on many occasions I felt like scenes from other stories were folded into these pages. I’d stop and “wait..didn’t I see that in..?” “ wasn’t that the character from..?” The mentioning of conviction being used to sway one’s mind , which later was deemed compulsion. The heightening of one’s emotions, mind reading, etc. I get it, it’s vampires, the stories are all kind of mimicked, but 500+ pages of it grew daunting.
The ending also sat odd with me, I guess it just fell a bit flat for the build up imo. Really flat.
That being said, I do think there were beautifully written parts to the story, I just wish I would’ve actually loved the book in its entirety as well. As I’m writing this it dawned on me the second bit of irony where Lottie says “But charlotte knows there is a moment when a piece can be overworked, when the artist goes a stroke too far” and this is what this story felt like as it was drawing to an end.
But all my opinions, grain of salt and all that…
3 stars for the beauty in the moments 🤍
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder