Feral Rose, Sharp Teeth

The story opens with a poem: "Bury my bones in the midnight soil, plant them shallow and water them deep, and in my place will grow a feral rose, soft red petals hiding sharp white teeth." This image sets the tone for a novel about hunger, transformation, and the violence that can hide beneath beauty. The narrative is split between centuries and continents, following women who are made and unmade by love, longing, and the monstrous power of immortality. The rose, both beautiful and dangerous, becomes a central symbol for the women at the heart of the story—those who are forced to survive in a world that would rather see them tamed or buried.

Hunger in the Blood

From the start, hunger is more than a metaphor: it is the engine of the story. The characters hunger for love, for freedom, for a life of their own making. But hunger is also literal—blood, power, and the need to consume or be consumed. The narrative follows María, a restless girl in 16th-century Spain, whose wildness and red hair mark her as an outsider. Her journey is mirrored centuries later by Alice, a Scottish girl at Harvard, who is also marked by her difference and longing. Both are drawn into the orbit of women who promise escape, but at a terrible cost.

The Widow Arrives

In María's world, the arrival of a mysterious widow in gray upends the rhythms of her small Spanish town. The widow is a healer, a gatherer of herbs, and a woman who knows how to survive alone. She is also a figure of rumor and fear—witch, saint, or something else. María is drawn to her, sensing both danger and possibility. The widow's presence is a catalyst, setting María on a path that will lead her away from home, into marriage, and eventually into the arms of death and rebirth.

A Life in Shadows

María's marriage to the Viscount Andrés is a gilded cage. She is traded as property, her body a vessel for heirs, her hunger and wildness suppressed. The only solace is her growing friendship with Ysabel, her maid and the count's illegitimate daughter. But even this is not enough. When María is forced to move to her in-laws' house in León, she is suffocated by boredom and control. The only escape is the apothecary run by the widow, Sabine, who teaches her the secrets of herbs, reading, and the power of claiming one's own story.

The Making of Monsters

Sabine is not what she seems. She is a vampire—though the word is rarely used—and she offers María a way out: freedom, power, and immortality, at the cost of her humanity. The transformation is violent and hungry. María, now Sabine, kills her husband and his family, burns her old life, and flees into the night. She is reborn as a monster, but also as something new: a woman who cannot be tamed, who will never again be owned.

Lessons in Want

Sabine's new life is a long, bloody education. She learns to hunt, to seduce, to survive. She meets others of her kind—some who teach her restraint, others who teach her the dangers of losing one's self to hunger. She forms a found family with Hector and Renata, two ancient vampires who show her the rules of their world: how to claim space, how to play the long game, how to avoid the rot that comes with immortality. But even among monsters, love and jealousy can be fatal.

The Price of Freedom

Sabine's story is mirrored by Charlotte (Lottie), a young woman in 19th-century England, sent to London to be polished for marriage. She is restless, hungry for more than the life prescribed to her. She meets Sabine at a ball, and the two are drawn together by longing and recognition. Sabine offers Charlotte the same bargain she once accepted: freedom, power, and immortality, at the cost of her old life. Charlotte says yes, and is remade. But Sabine extracts a promise: never to hurt her. This promise will become a curse.

Love, Rot, and Ruin

For decades, Sabine and Charlotte are lovers, partners, and monsters together. But time is not kind to the immortal. Sabine begins to rot inside—her empathy, her care, her restraint all withering, leaving only hunger and violence. Charlotte tries to hold on, to save her, but the promise she made binds her: she cannot hurt Sabine, even as Sabine becomes a stranger, a threat. The love that once set her free becomes a prison.

The Promise That Binds

Charlotte's promise not to hurt Sabine is magically binding. When Sabine's rot turns her into a killer, Charlotte tries to stop her, but her body will not obey. She cannot drive a stake into Sabine's heart, cannot fight back, cannot even run far enough to be free. Sabine hunts her across continents and decades, killing anyone Charlotte loves. The only way to break the chain is to run, to be alone, to let her heart harden.

The Rotting Heart

The story explores the idea that immortality is not a gift, but a slow death. The heart is the only mortal part of the vampire; when it is destroyed, so are they. But long before that, the soul rots away. Sabine is not the only one to succumb—others, like Giovanni, lose themselves to hunger and violence. The only way to survive is to let go of love, to be alone, to avoid the rot. But loneliness is its own kind of death.

The Cost of Immortality

Charlotte tries to build a new life in America, but Sabine's shadow follows her. Every time she lets herself love, Sabine finds her, kills her lovers, and leaves her alone again. The only way to keep others safe is to keep her distance, to let herself be alone. She becomes a ghost, haunting her own life, until she meets Alice—a girl who is hungry, lonely, and full of longing, just as she once was.

The Haunting of Charlotte

Charlotte's guilt over the lives she's taken, the women she's failed to save, and the monster she's become is a constant ache. She keeps a list of names, a record of those she's touched and left alive, a way to prove to herself that she is not Sabine. But when Sabine kills Alice, turning her into a vampire, Charlotte is forced to confront the truth: she cannot outrun her past, or her promise.

The New Girl's Hunger

Alice Moore, a Scottish girl at Harvard, is killed and remade by Sabine as a way to punish Charlotte. She wakes up hungry, lost, and alone, with no memory of what happened. She searches for answers, for Lottie, for a way to undo what's been done. She learns the rules of her new life: the hunger, the power, the danger of grave dirt and sunlight, the importance of claiming space. She is told that if she kills her maker, she can be human again.

The Rope Between Sisters

Alice's story is haunted by the loss of her sister, Catty, who ran away and died young. The rope between them—a metaphor for the bonds of love and grief—runs through Alice's life, shaping her hunger, her longing, her inability to let go. The story explores how grief can be both a weight and a guide, how the dead shape the lives of the living, and how the past is never truly gone.

The Game of Survival

The climax of the novel is a deadly game: Sabine, Lottie, and Alice are all hunting and being hunted. Sabine wants to kill Lottie and Alice, to end the game on her terms. Lottie wants Alice to kill Sabine, believing it will set her free. Alice wants to survive, to find a way back to life, or at least to a life worth living. The game is played in clubs, penthouses, and city streets, with compulsion, poison, and violence.

The End of Sabine

Alice, with Lottie's help, lures Sabine into a trap. She poisons her with grave dirt, then kills her with a shard of slate, driving it through her heart. Sabine crumbles to ash, her tokens left behind. But the promised return to life does not come. Alice is still dead, still hungry, still alone. The only thing that has changed is that the monster is gone.

The End of Lottie

Lottie, wracked by guilt and grief, tries to comfort Alice, to promise her a new life together. But Alice, realizing that Lottie is as much a monster as Sabine, poisons her with grave dirt and kills her with a silver brush. Lottie dies, leaving behind a pile of wet earth and a battered book, her list of names. The cycle of violence is broken, but at a terrible cost.

Alive, Alone, and Hungry

Alice steps out into the night, alone. She calls her father, listens to his voice, and realizes that life goes on, even when the dead are left behind. She is not alive, not as she was, but she is not dead, either. She is something new: a feral rose, soft red petals hiding sharp white teeth. The hunger is still there, but so is the possibility of a new story. She walks into the night, alive, alone, and hungry.

Characters

María / Sabine

María is a wild, red-haired girl in 16th-century Spain, marked as different by her family and community. Her hunger for more—love, freedom, escape—leads her into the orbit of a mysterious widow, Sabine, who is both healer and vampire. After a brutal marriage and a series of betrayals, María is transformed by Sabine, becoming a vampire herself. She kills her husband and his family, burns her old life, and takes the name Sabine. Over centuries, Sabine becomes both mentor and monster, teaching others how to survive, but also succumbing to the rot of immortality. Her love is possessive, her hunger insatiable, and her violence both seductive and terrifying. She is both victim and villain, a woman who cannot be tamed, but who is ultimately destroyed by the very promises and desires that set her free.

Charlotte / Lottie

Charlotte Hastings is a young woman in 19th-century England, sent to London to be polished for marriage. She is restless, passionate, and full of longing for a life of her own making. She falls in love with Sabine, who offers her immortality and freedom, but at the cost of her old life and a binding promise never to hurt her maker. Charlotte is remade as a vampire, but her heart remains fragile, her guilt and grief ever-present. She tries to hold on to her humanity, to save others from Sabine, but is ultimately forced to become a monster herself. Her love for Sabine is both her salvation and her undoing, and her attempts to break free lead to a cycle of violence and loss.

Alice

Alice Moore is a Scottish girl at Harvard, marked by her difference and her grief for her lost sister, Catty. She is killed and remade by Sabine as a way to punish Charlotte, waking up hungry, lost, and alone. Alice's journey is one of survival: learning the rules of her new life, searching for answers, and trying to find a way back to herself. She is haunted by the rope between her and Catty, by the hunger that never ends, and by the violence that has been done to her. In the end, Alice is forced to kill both Sabine and Lottie, breaking the cycle of violence but losing her chance at a normal life. She walks into the night, alive, alone, and hungry, but determined to write her own story.

Ysabel

Ysabel is María's maid and the illegitimate daughter of the count. She is gentle, kind, and a source of comfort in María's otherwise suffocating life. Their friendship is tinged with longing and the possibility of more, but is ultimately cut short by the violence and control of the men around them. Ysabel's fate is a reminder of the limited choices available to women, and the ways in which love and loyalty can be used against them.

Andrés

Andrés is the Viscount who marries María, seeing her as property and vessel for heirs. He is violent, controlling, and ultimately destroyed by the very woman he sought to own. His death at María's hands is both an act of revenge and a moment of liberation, but also the beginning of her transformation into something monstrous.

Hector

Hector is an old vampire who becomes Sabine's mentor and companion. He teaches her the rules of their world, the importance of restraint, and the dangers of rot. He is both wise and flawed, a poet who sees the beauty and brutality of immortality. His relationship with Renata and Sabine is both familial and fraught, and his eventual death is a reminder that even monsters are mortal.

Renata

Renata is Hector's lover and Sabine's companion, a vampire who is both playful and cruel. She teaches Sabine the pleasures of the hunt, the importance of savoring life, and the dangers of love. Her death, burned in a coffin, is a turning point for Sabine, marking the end of her found family and the beginning of her rot.

Giada

Giada is an Italian model and artist's muse who becomes Charlotte's lover in Rome. She is vibrant, passionate, and full of life, a reminder of what Charlotte has lost and what she still longs for. Giada's death at Sabine's hands is a devastating blow, shattering Charlotte's hope for happiness and forcing her to confront the cost of immortality.

Penny

Penny is a New York bookseller who becomes Charlotte's lover. She is turned into a vampire by Sabine as a way to punish Charlotte, forcing her to kill the woman she loves rather than let her become a monster. Penny's death is a turning point, marking the end of Charlotte's hope for love and the beginning of her resolve to end the cycle of violence.

Ezra

Ezra is an old vampire who runs a coffee shop in Boston, serving as a mentor and confidant to Charlotte and Alice. He is wise, patient, and pragmatic, teaching them the rules of survival and the importance of letting go. Ezra is a reminder that not all monsters are evil, and that even the undead can find purpose and meaning in a life of their own making.

Plot Devices

Dual Timelines and Mirrored Lives

The novel is structured around dual timelines: María/Sabine's story in the past, and Alice's story in the present. These timelines mirror each other, with characters repeating patterns of hunger, longing, violence, and love. The structure allows the reader to see how the choices of one generation shape the lives of the next, and how the cycle of violence and desire can be both broken and perpetuated.

The Power of Promises

Promises are binding in this world, both emotionally and magically. When Charlotte promises never to hurt Sabine, she is literally unable to break the vow, even when Sabine becomes a monster. This device explores the ways in which love can become a prison, and how the things we say to protect ourselves can become the very things that destroy us.

The Rot of Immortality

Immortality is not a blessing, but a slow death. The only way to kill a vampire is to destroy the heart, but long before that, the soul rots away. The novel uses this device to explore the cost of living forever: the loss of empathy, care, and restraint, the dangers of loneliness, and the ways in which monsters are made, not born.

The Rope Between Sisters

Alice's relationship with her sister, Catty, is a central plot device, a metaphorical rope that ties her to the past and shapes her hunger, longing, and inability to let go. The story uses this device to explore the ways in which grief can be both a weight and a guide, and how the dead shape the lives of the living.

The Game of Survival

The climax of the novel is structured as a deadly game, with Sabine, Lottie, and Alice all hunting and being hunted. The game is played with compulsion, poison, and violence, and the only way to win is to break the cycle of violence by killing the monster at its heart.

Foreshadowing and Repetition

The novel is full of foreshadowing: the poem at the start, the repeated images of roses, teeth, and hunger, the warnings about promises and rot. Events in the past echo in the present, and the choices of one character ripple through the lives of others. The structure is recursive, with each generation forced to confront the same questions: What are you willing to do to be free? What is the cost of love? How do you survive in a world that wants to bury you?

Analysis

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a lush, haunting meditation on what it means to be hungry—for love, for freedom, for a life of one's own making—and the violence that can hide beneath beauty. Schwab uses the vampire myth to explore the ways in which women are forced to survive in a world that would rather see them tamed or buried, and the cost of claiming power in a world that punishes desire. The novel is both a love story and a horror story, a tale of found family and monstrous inheritance, a warning about the dangers of promises and the rot of immortality. It is also a story about grief, and the ways in which the dead shape the lives of the living. In the end, the novel refuses easy answers: there is no going back, no undoing what has been done. But there is always the possibility of a new story, a new life, a new hunger. The lesson is both brutal and hopeful: survival is not the same as freedom, and the only way to break the cycle of violence is to write your own ending.

Last updated: June 11, 2025