Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil — V. E. Schwab
Contains spoilersSummary
In 1521, ten-year-old María in Santo Domingo de la Calzada became enthralled by a veiled widow who gathered herbs and spoke of miracles and medicine; a storm broke, a townsman died, and the widow vanished, setting a hook that would pull across years. By 1529, María maneuvered Viscount Andrés de Guzmán into marriage to escape small-town life, only to discover on their journey and first night that his power meant control and sexual violence; he prized her only as a vessel for a son. In secret, she sought an herbal abortifacient from a cook and later, at the Olivares estate, endured nightly assaults while asserting small day freedoms—planting cherry pits, opening windows, learning the house—and forming a tender bond with her maid Ysabel, even as Andrés forbade her from riding and threatened to hobble her horse.
Isolation deepened with a humiliating feast where the count and countess displayed their cruelty, then Andrés announced a campaign and sent María to live under his parents’ rule, casually “marrying off” Ysabel to a vassal. In 1531 León, María saw the widow again—unchanged—and found her in an apothecary: Madame Boucher, who let María pay for a contraceptive tonic and, in fortnightly visits, taught her herbs and letters, reframed names, and offered chocolate and identity. As Andrés returned and pressure mounted, Sabine hinted at engineered widowhood and invited María to leave; María came at night asking to be freed “by any means.” Sabine bit her, then gave María her blood. The transformation took: María’s wound healed, hunger and strength surged, and, unable to stop, she drank Sabine to ash. She returned before dawn, killed Andrés and the count, watched the countess fall to her death, set the estate ablaze, and walked out of León, claiming the name Sabine.
Learning the rules through trial—sunlight sickened her, food repelled her, blood restored her, and thresholds barred without invitation—Sabine fed and adapted. In Seville by 1542, she met Hector and Renata, others like her, who named their kind “roses grown in the midnight soil,” read minds, and taught her to hunt, sail, and stay ahead of corpses. Their violent revels ended when villagers trapped Hector and Renata; Sabine hid among graves that dragged at her until dusk freed her, and she fed to escape alone. Centuries rolled: in Venice, Matteo claimed the city by will and schooled Sabine in restraint, enthrallment, and territory; she learned to starve without decay, to hunt through society, and to savor delayed kills like Bianca at Carnevale. Later, Alessandro aged, refused immortality, and died, and Matteo, shattered, made Giovanni, whose carelessness led to public panic and death; Matteo sailed for the Americas, leaving Sabine to wander Europe and North Africa, refining her methods and shedding human feeling.
In 1823 London, Sabine remade herself as a young widow and hunter among the ton until, in 1827, she fixed on Charlotte Hastings, an imaginative ward under Aunt Amelia’s regime. Their witty, intimate lessons in dance and desire bloomed into love; when Charlotte fled a suitor’s proposal to Sabine’s house, Sabine revealed her nature, killed Charlotte, and revived her with blood. Charlotte awoke to hunger, killed George Preston at Sabine’s orchestration, and fled London with her maker. On the road Sabine taught harsh pragmatism—finish what you start, fear grave dirt and fire, guard the heart—and in Margate forced Charlotte to confront the costs of mercy by killing witnesses. Years of joy and violence followed: Charlotte’s curiosity grew, Sabine’s possessive anger surfaced when defied, and a terrible night in 1879 revealed Sabine’s empty-eyed cruelty as she toyed with and killed a young girl, after which Charlotte forgave her and promised never to hurt her. In Paris, war exposed their rift—Charlotte’s empathy versus Sabine’s detachment—yet they clung together as cracks spread.
By 1927 London, meeting Antonia and Jack at the Way Down offered Charlotte belonging, but Sabine’s jealousy turned violent. In 1943, Charlotte found Sabine drenched in blood, lifted a blade to end her, and discovered her own words bound her; unable to break the promise, she fled to the Way Down. With Jack’s counsel on decay and binding vows, she left England, lived years in fear, then tasted love again in Rome with Giada, where she learned to feed without killing and to choose differently—until Sabine tracked her down. Barred at Charlotte’s threshold, Sabine snapped Giada’s neck and left; Charlotte ran. In 1961 she crossed to Boston and confided in Ezra, who watched for danger as decades eroded vigilance. In the 1970s, women who loved Charlotte disappeared, a red rose marked Sabine’s signature, and Charlotte fled west into isolation. In 1994 New York she tried again and returned to find Penny turned by Sabine “as a gift”; Charlotte killed her swiftly with a silver-handled brush and vowed enough, then adopted solitude, keeping a ledger of brief encounters in Penny’s book and, believing Sabine had grown bored, stopped looking back.
In 2019 Boston, eighteen-year-old Alice Moore arrived from Scotland, anxious and closeted, and met violet-haired Lottie at a co-op party; a rain-soaked chase became consent and intimacy. By morning, Lottie was gone, a note left, and Alice was violently ill. An assault by Colin provoked a blackout and blood-tinged tears; Alice woke discovering no breath or pulse, rapid healing, and fangs. Starving, she lured and killed a predatory man, then learned on campus that Colin had been found dead. Following a cryptic hint to “follow the music,” she reached White Thorn Black Roast, where Ezra recognized Lottie and—through Melody’s vision—sent Alice to the Taj, where Lottie denied compelling or killing her and named Sabine as culprit. As Lottie narrated her centuries—the love and rot of Sabine—Alice reeled, sedated by Ezra, then agreed to a plan: because a maker’s bond still tied her, if she killed Sabine soon she might sever it and reclaim her life.
Lottie dressed Alice to bait Sabine and insisted Alice fix her thoughts on Lottie as they performed closeness at a nightclub. When Lottie stepped away, Alice, panicking, bit a girl and stopped—then Sabine appeared, snapped the girl’s neck, compelled Alice, and whisked her to a penthouse. There, Sabine demanded Alice help trap Lottie, wore chain mail against attack, refused decanted blood, and promised a cruel end. Alice feigned pliancy, retreated to the shower, and, as rain and Catty’s death braided in memory, waited until Sabine removed her armor; turning in Sabine’s arms, Alice drove a jagged shard of slate into Sabine’s heart, and the ancient predator fell to ash. Lottie arrived to find Alice unchanged—no heartbeat returned—and drank from a glass Alice had tainted with grave dirt. Knowing only the heart could die, Alice took Lottie’s own silver-handled brush and, after a struggle, drove it into Lottie’s heart; Lottie crumbled, leaving more than Sabine but still only ash.
Afterward, Alice walked into the Boston night, spoke by phone with her father while pretending normalcy, and tested the rhythm of breath and step against the stillness in her chest. She admitted there was no going back—Sabine dead, Lottie dead, the promise of restored life broken—and felt the old hunger return as she kept moving forward into the dark.
Characters
- María Olivares (later Sabine)
a red-haired girl from Santo Domingo who marries Andrés, learns apothecary arts from the ageless widow Sabine, is turned into a vampire, kills her husband and in-laws, and spends centuries as the predatory, manipulative Sabine.
- Sabine Boucher (the Widow)
an ageless apothecary who first meets María as a child, later turns her by blood and dies when María overdrinks, setting María on her immortal path.
- Andrés de Guzmán (Viscount of Olivares)
María’s controlling, violent husband who rapes her, restricts her freedom, and is later killed by her after her transformation.
- Count and Countess Olivares
Andrés’s parents who belittle and control María; the count is killed by Sabine/María, and the countess dies fleeing the fire.
- Ysabel
María’s gentle maid and likely the count’s illegitimate daughter; María’s companion whom Andrés marries off to a vassal.
- Alice Moore
a Scottish first-year student turned vampire against her will; she navigates hunger, new rules, and grief, then kills Sabine and Charlotte to reclaim agency, though not her mortal life.
- Charlotte “Lottie” Hastings
a 19th-century debutante turned by Sabine; lover, mentee, and later fugitive who becomes Alice’s lover and would-be mentor before Alice kills her.
- Ezra
an older vampire who runs White Thorn Black Roast in Boston; steadies Alice and Lottie, supplies blood, and offers counsel.
- Giada
Charlotte’s beloved life model in Rome; she survives a consensual feeding but is later murdered by Sabine.
- Hector and Renata
elder vampires who find Sabine in Seville, teach her creed and craft, and later die in an ambush (Renata) while Sabine survives.
- Matteo (Don Accardi) and Alessandro
a powerful Venetian vampire and his mortal lover; Matteo mentors Sabine in restraint and territory, Alessandro refuses immortality and dies.
- Catty Moore
Alice’s older sister, a fierce, formative presence who runs away and later dies in an accident, anchoring Alice’s grief.
- Colin
a student who assaults Alice; she kills him during her first uncontrolled hunger.
Chapter Summaries
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter I
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter III
- Chapter IV
- Chapter V
- Chapter I
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter III
- Chapter IV
- Chapter V
- Chapter VI
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter III
- Chapter IV
- Chapter V
- Chapter VI
- Chapter VII
- Chapter VIII
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter III
- Chapter IV
- Chapter V
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter III
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter III
- Chapter IV
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter III
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter III
- Chapter IV
- Chapter V
- Chapter VI
- Chapter VII
- Chapter VIII
- Chapter IX
- Chapter X
- Chapter XI
- Chapter XII
- Chapter XIII
- Chapter I
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter III
- Chapter IV
- Chapter V
- Chapter VI
- Chapter VII
- Chapter I
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter III
- Chapter IV
- Chapter V
- Chapter VI
- Chapter VII
- Chapter VIII
- Chapter IX
- Chapter X
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter III
- Chapter IV
- Chapter V
- Chapter VI
- Chapter VII
- Chapter VIII