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‘Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil' by V.E. Schwab

Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is an intriguing queer romance, told from the perspective of three different (Very different!) voices with one thing in common – they're all vampires. Whether these voices are connected in some way is not something I'm about to spoil here, but suffice to say, Midnight Soil is as mesmerising as it is endearing and well-written. The story is split across three distinct timelines, blending Gothic horror with a more modern spin on vampirism. The main character for much of the story is Maria, an untamed girl raised in a patriarchal village in Spain, 1532. She's forced into marriage to a Duke and spends her days miserably hoping she doesn't get pregnant. When Maria becomes entangled with a mysterious, otherworldly woman called Sabine at an apothecary, her life changes forever. What follows is an epic, centuries-spanning journey as Maria adopts Sabine's name and sets off in search of meaning and identity far beyond her village walls. It's here where we're introduced to our second main protagonist, Alice. Alice is a loud, cynical college student who hates men and seems permanently annoyed with the world. After a one-night stand with the mysterious Lottie, who leaves behind only a cryptic post-it note, Alice sets off on a messy, erratic journey to uncover the truth. The third timeline belongs to Charlotte, whose story eventually bridges the gap between Sabine and Alice. This does arrive late in the book though, and Midnight Soil demands a fair bit of patience to untangle the timelines and flashbacks before things begin to click into place. What keeps Midnight Soil from crumbling under its own ambitious weight is V. E. Schwab's hypnotic prose and strong characterisation. Some of the descriptions are genuinely stunning, and Sabine's voice in particular has a dreamlike, almost siren-like pull. When Schwab is in her groove, she writes with elegance and beauty that will see the pages zip by, even when not very much is happening. However, that spell doesn't always hold. Beneath the gorgeous writing is a story that takes a long time to gain momentum. Maria/Sabine's arc is undoubtedly the emotional tissue holding everything together, but it's continually interrupted by Alice—whose sections are, unfortunately, the weakest part of the novel. Her rage rarely deepens into anything more complex, and despite being central to the story's resolution, she remains emotionally static. I won't get into spoilers here because there is a good reason for this anger, which is unveiled through layered flashbacks across her POV chapters. So in essence, we're not just dealing with three timelines but also flashbacks within one of those timelines to an earlier part… of the timeline. That said, Schwab's themes are loud and clear, and this part of the book is certainly not subtle. Midnight Soil is a book about womanhood, identity, power, queerness and survival in a world where men often take the role of aggressor. Most of the male characters here are either antagonistic or outright abusive, but Schwab avoids making her female characters flawless in return. Too often we see the usual trope of 'men bad/women good' but Midnight Soil mixes things up by basically making everybody a different shade of horrible. It's complex, messy, and deeply human – especially when it comes to Maria/Sabine's storyline. The book takes a lot of inspiration from Interview with a Vampire, in both the TV adaptation and the book format, and as the book continues, you can really see those influences shine through in a big way. Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil certainly won't be for everyone though. It's undoubtedly atmospheric and moody, but also overly indulgent, slow-paced and occasionally frustrating. However, if you're willing to let the prose guide you through its layered timelines and deeply flawed characters, the finale is explosive enough to look past some of the issue and see a lot of beauty in its bones.