V. E. Schwab’s latest novel, “Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil,” takes a bite out of vampire lore following three vampire women across several centuries: María, Charlotte and Alice.
Schwab first introduces us to Maria in 16th-century Spain, a fierce and flinty young woman who yearns for a big and bold life outside her poor village. To escape, she marries a viscount– only to find that even a wealthy marriage still feels like a prison to her. Maria meets a mysterious, ageless widow who works as an herbalist, and Maria envies the freedom that widowhood allows– owning a shop, traveling alone, making her own way in the world without anyone’s controlling influence. The widow tells Maria she could share in this freedom– with a bite– and a new vampire is born.
Next, we meet Alice in contemporary Boston where she is desperately homesick in her first year of university. Her storyline includes many flashbacks to scenes of her life and family in Scotland, mostly scenes with her older sister Catty. These moments are particularly poignant as they explore the novel’s overarching themes of loss, longing and loneliness. After an encounter with a lovely stranger at a house party, Alice wakes up sicker than she’s ever been, unable to handle light and sound in a way that makes no sense for a regular hangover. She’s hungrier than she’s ever been, but can’t stomach any normal food. Eventually she pieces together enough of the lore to realize what she has become, but still has no idea why.
As Alice reconstructs her memory of the events of the night that changed her life and retraces her steps, we eventually meet Charlotte, whose vampire origins are in 19th century England. As Charlotte shares her personal history– and her connection with Maria– we learn that she is the common link, the tie that now binds them all. Eventually all three of their storylines converge and race toward an explosive ending that I did not see coming.
Schwab crafts such nuanced stories for each of these three women in different timelines that “Bury Our Bones” might have been split into three separate novels. But ultimately Schwab is weaving a tapestry with these three characters and each one’s different response to becoming a vampire. How and when do they satisfy their need for blood? What do they owe each other as a community? To what degree can they mingle with humans?
Sometimes these vampires are vicious, and sometimes they are even evil, but Schwab always balances their humanity and their monstrosity. Sometimes feminist fiction goes beyond merely promoting women’s rights, but also permits us to vicariously revel in “women’s wrongs” and Schwab’s villains are truly delicious.
While we witness the transformations of Maria, Charlotte and Alice over time, Schwab asks us to consider how both aging and power sit differently in women’s bodies than men’s, how women’s hunger and desire is so frequently vilified, how we all might become a little monstrous when we’ve been isolated from and hated by the community.
Maria, Charlotte, and Alice are queer women searching for all kinds of things: freedom, power, love, inclusion, wholeness. They grow fangs and move through the shadows in a world that would deny their very existence. What began as an escapist vampire story became a haunting story about cruelty and power, love and loss, humanity and monstrosity.
• Alicia McClintic is a book seller at Inklings Bookshop. She and other Inklings staffers review books in this space every week.