V.E. Schwab’s New Lesbian Vampire Novel Did Not Disappoint
V.E. Schwab’s highly anticipated new novel is available now.
As the best-selling author of over 20 novels and creator of beloved, yet short-lived, sapphic Netflix series First Kill, V.E. Schwab has become a force in the fantasy world. When she teased that her next book would feature “toxic lesbian vampires,” her fans were unsurprisingly excited.
With Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, released June 10, Schwab delivers on all counts. Dripping in darkness, complex characters, and unabashed sapphic longing, the novel guides readers through a generation-spanning tale with the spooky, addicting allure of a flickering candle down a dark hallway.
Throughout the novel we are introduced to three undead leading ladies—María, a young girl who rots into a dark and twisted figure in 16th century Spain, Charlotte, whose tender heart and yearning for love leaves her vulnerable in 19th century London, and Alice, a college-student with a lust for finding both herself and the violet-haired girl who left her longing in 21st century Boston. As the three timelines weave together, Schwab creates a world so detailed and introspective that each character leaps from the page and into the bloodstream of each reader.
When so much queer media gives us one-dimensional characters scared to be bad, Schwab refuses to give us easy answers. Each of her carefully crafted figures churns with intricate complexity, making the love, lust, hunger, blood-thirst, and death that much more gripping. Schwab demands that her heroines remain venomous, destructive, and frustratingly morally gray in the sweetest of ways.
As you venture into this fantasy world, I offer a fair warning that this twisted tale will sink its teeth into your mind and seduce you into obsession with these three insatiable sapphic vamps.
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is available now for purchase. Find Schwab on her book tour through June 30. More information at veschwab.com.
