Verdict: A lush, dark, centuries-spanning sapphic vampire epic — gorgeously written and deeply queer, though its slow-burn, literary pacing won’t suit readers chasing high heat.
Best for: Fans of atmospheric, character-driven fantasy who want three complicated women, gothic hunger, and prose to sink into.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️ Low–Medium Spice (sensual and suggestive rather than explicit)
Rating: 3.9 / 5 — a beautiful, divisive standout; adored by many, “overhyped” to some.
Tropes: Sapphic vampires, dark academia energy, multi-timeline, morally gray women, slow burn.
Some sapphic fantasy comes at you with claws and heat; others sink in slowly, like blood into soil. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab is firmly the second kind — a dark, atmospheric vampire saga that follows three queer women across centuries, tracing what hunger does to love and what love does to monsters. It won the 2025 Goodreads Choice Award for Readers’ Favorite Fantasy, and it has become one of the most talked-about sapphic releases of the year.
A quick note for our spicy sapphic fantasy books readers: this one earns its place on the strength of its queerness and craft rather than its spice level. It’s a slower, more literary read than most titles here — closer in mood to our review of The Book of Blood and Roses than to a high-heat romantasy. If you come for the atmosphere and the yearning, it delivers in spades.
What Is Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil About?
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil weaves together three women across different eras, each transformed by an immortal hunger that reshapes who they are and who they’re allowed to love. Schwab braids their timelines into a single story about desire, control, and the cost of never dying — a gothic meditation on how monstrousness and womanhood tangle together. It’s a standalone, dark fantasy told in Schwab’s signature lyrical, slow-building style.
What Makes This Sapphic Fantasy Work
Three women, three eras, one hunger. The multi-timeline structure lets Schwab explore queer desire across very different worlds, and the way the threads converge is genuinely rewarding.
The prose is the main event. Schwab’s writing is lush and image-drenched — “drowning in shadowy metaphors,” as one reviewer put it — and readers who love atmosphere will devour it.
Morally gray women, front and center. These aren’t tidy heroines. The book leans into toxic, hungry, complicated relationships between women, which is exactly the point.
It’s unapologetically sapphic. The queerness isn’t a subplot or a garnish — it’s the beating (or un-beating) heart of the whole novel.
Book Synopsis
Across the centuries, three women are bound by the same dark gift and the same insatiable hunger. Each is pulled from the life she knew into an existence of endless nights, learning that immortality is as much a cage as it is a freedom.
As their stories unfold in parallel — separated by decades and geography yet echoing one another — Schwab examines what these women are willing to do, and to become, for love, survival, and control over their own fate. Desire and violence sit uncomfortably close together throughout.
Their timelines gradually draw toward a single point, revealing how their fates are entwined. It’s a standalone gothic fantasy — dark, atmospheric, and built on the slow accumulation of dread and longing rather than fast plot twists.
My Review
I understand why this book landed the way it did. When Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is working, it’s hypnotic — Schwab’s prose wraps around you, the three women feel distinct and dangerous, and the sapphic longing is drawn with real ache. As a piece of atmospheric, character-driven fantasy about hungry, complicated women, it’s the kind of book you sink into rather than race through.
It’s also, unmistakably, a Schwab slow burn. The pacing takes its time — more than one reviewer noted it doesn’t fully ignite until the last stretch — and the pleasure here is mood and language, not plot velocity. If you want a propulsive, twist-driven romantasy, this isn’t that, and going in expecting one is the fastest way to be disappointed.
I’ll be honest about the divide, too: for every reader calling it a five-star favorite, there’s another who found it overhyped or the central relationships too toxic to root for. Both reactions are fair — this is a deliberately prickly, morally gray book. And on spice specifically, temper expectations: the sapphic scenes are sensual and suggestive rather than explicit, so it’s a quieter heat than most titles on this list. Taken as a dark, literary sapphic vampire story, though, it’s a genuine standout.
Tropes & Themes at a Glance
| Element | Details |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Queer women across timelines, F/F |
| Core tropes | Sapphic vampires, multi-timeline, morally gray, slow burn |
| Setting | Multiple eras; gothic, historical & modern |
| Heat level | 🌶️🌶️ Low–Medium — sensual, not explicit |
| Series | Standalone |
| Content notes | Violence, blood/gore, toxic dynamics, mature themes |
How Spicy Is Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil?
Heat rating: 🌶️🌶️ Low–Medium Spice. This is the one place to set expectations clearly. Despite the sensual, blood-soaked premise, the sapphic scenes here are more suggestive and atmospheric than explicit — the intimacy is present but rarely graphic. Some spice trackers rate it around a mild open-door 3/5, but most readers experience it as lower heat than that suggests. Come for the yearning and the gothic mood, not for wall-to-wall explicit content.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: you adore atmospheric, literary fantasy, you’re drawn to morally gray sapphic characters, you loved Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and you want queerness at the core rather than the margins.
You may want to skip it if: you want fast pacing and high heat, you dislike slow burns or multi-timeline structures, or you need likeable, easy-to-root-for leads rather than complicated, toxic ones.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil a standalone?
Yes — it’s a self-contained standalone fantasy, with all three timelines resolving within the one book.
Is it a true sapphic story?
Absolutely. It centers queer women throughout, and the sapphic relationships are the emotional core of the novel rather than a side thread.
How steamy is it, really?
On the milder side. The intimacy is sensual and suggestive rather than explicit — expect atmosphere and longing over graphic on-page spice.
Is it a romance or a fantasy?
It’s a dark, character-driven fantasy with strong queer romantic threads, not a traditional genre romance — so there’s no guaranteed tidy HEA in the romance-genre sense.
Why do some readers call it overhyped?
Its slow, literary pacing and deliberately toxic, morally gray relationships divide readers. Fans find it hypnotic; others wanted faster momentum or more likeable characters.
If You Loved Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, Read These Next
Craving more dark, atmospheric sapphic fantasy? Explore our full spicy sapphic fantasy books list, and don’t miss our reviews of The Book of Blood and Roses and The Weight of Her Gaze for more moody, morally gray queer romance.
The Bottom Line
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a gorgeous, divisive, deeply sapphic vampire epic — a slow-burning gothic mood piece rather than a spicy page-turner. If you read for atmosphere, aching longing, and complicated women, it’s an easy recommendation; if you read for heat and speed, go in with eyes open. Check the latest price on Amazon →