I finished this a week ago and I think I'm finally ready to put my thoughts down.

My main thesis is if you're a reader/consumer of Schwab's source inspiration (namely Interview With the Vampire) you may have mixed feelings about this book, as I did.

I think I should note that Schwab is an author I have mixed results with. Addie LaRue was the first book I read by them and that remains one of my all time favorite god-tier level books: I've read it multiple times and sobbed each time. I've dabbled in the other worlds/series Schwab has written with varying degrees of success, but nothing has hit the high of Addie for me. On the other hand, I've also not actively disliked any of their books or even regretted reading them. I also think Schwab's books are all very different so honestly there's probably something for everyone in their catalog. They do tend to write more character-driven work which is not everyone's cup of tea, but definitely can be for me when executed well...

My main issue with Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is that it's at least 100 pages too long, and has some pretty glaring pacing issues. The first 20% of the book I really enjoyed being in Maria's pov and that historical setting juxtaposed with Alice's modern setting. Initially Alice's first chapters at the party were super relatable to me. Being an 'Addie' fan it was giving a similar narrative structure, and reading to figure out the connection between these timelines/povs was intriguing. At about the 30-40% mark the pacing becomes like sludge and we follow Sabine through 100s of years of daily life just being a vampire in the world which I found to be rather uninteresting.

I understand that Schwab has written this book to be "in conversation" (I believe is the phrase used) with Interview With the Vampire / The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice: the book series, and the subsequent recent tv adaptation. The problem for me was I'm deep in that source material. I've read the first 4 books in the series, have watched the 1994 movie countless times, and watched the first two seasons of the show multiple times. And unfortunately beyond Schwab writing a sapphic version of Lestat and Louis's (or possibly others, there's many) toxic relationship into the vampire canon - it didn't do enough for me as someone super steeped in vampire lore. On top of my love of Anne's vampires, I've consumed tons of other vampire-media for most of my teen and adult life. Ultimately I didn't really find that Bury Our Bones was expanding upon vampire canon in any way, which I guess is what I wanted? I could tell while reading that Schwab was inspired by Anne's series (even if I didn't know for sure until after finishing and looked up interviews), but I think the comparison has done a disservice to Bury Our Bones, at least for me. 'Toxic vampires can be sapphic too' just wasn't quite far enough for me.

Any initial connections I felt towards these characters were left behind by the pacing, and so by the ending I wasn't emotionally invested in them. I think Schwab bit (lol) off a little too much by trying to tell 3 characters long complex back stories and it was a lot to fit into one book. For example, Alice's whole backstory with her sister. It's pretty clear you know where it's headed, but I'm not really sure why it was included? Did her sister really impact the overall storyline that much? IMO no besides giving some reason as to why Alice is a 'sad girl'? or is it the sole reasoning for her to logistically be in Boston? I think it feels especially disjointed since it's so separated from the rest of the book (these are only told in flashback's of Alice's memory in her mind).

Part of the pacing issues is that it took too long to get to the "toxic lesbian vampire" parts of this book. Because we have to wait until a certain reveal which happens

almost 60% in

for that part of the 'plot' to happen. And even then it feels like a completely different book because the main pov is completely abandoned. In theory I understand why this choice was made, but it feels like two completely different books.

I'm not rating this any lower than 3.5 stars because there is some beautiful writing in here, and I respect the attempt at what Schwab was trying to do. But ultimately, this was a disappointment for me which is a bummer because I've heard a LOT of chatter about this book and I'm sad that it didn't hit for me.