V.E. Schwab Discusses Her Newest Historical Fantasy Novel (EXCLUSIVE)

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Victoria Elizabeth-or V.E. to her fans-Schwab is a New York Times bestselling author who made quite a name for herself when her novel The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue hit shelves in 2020 . Before that, she had also published the widely popular Villains and Shades of Magic series, both of which have received critical acclaim and have thousands of ratings and reviews on Goodreads .

Woman's World recently caught up with Schwab to discuss not only her online success, but to discover what her newest book, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, means to her and why she thinks that even though it's not set in the same world as Addie LaRue, the two are connected under the history fantasy umbrella. Read on for more.

V.E. Schwab spills on her newest book

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, which releases on June 9, 2025, is Schwab's 25th novel and it follows three women at different points in time who all end up as vampires.

"In the wake of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue , I was interested in writing another immortal transaction," the author tells Woman's World . "That book deals with the devil, but there are so many versions of the immortal transaction. Vampires are a very classic one, and they're the most unapologetic and sensual, and I think that they can represent, on a motif level, agency, autonomy and the freedom of expression, so I was interested in that."

"I write primarily antagonists, and that's what I'm known for. So I always wanted to do this," she continued. "I loved the idea of the collateral damage of somebody else's epic romance. This book is not about an epic romance. This book is about what happens to the people who are hurt by somebody else's epic romance. I wanted to explore queer history and the concept of closeting at various points in history, as well as community at different stages of queer history, because queer characters, and by extension, queer humans, aren't afforded the same level of complexity as their straight counterparts."

Speaking of history, the novel spans several time periods and locations, including Santo Domingo de la Calzada in 1532, London in 1827 and Boston in 2019, because, Schwab explains, "I think that it's a waste to have immortals and not explore something beyond the parameters of a traditional human life span."

"I had done 300 years with Addie LaRue, and I was like, ‘Why do 300 when you could do 500?'" she continues. "One of the rules I set for myself was that they would experience an existential decay instead of a physical decay. And I needed time for that to happen, because it's something that essentially begins to happen to humanity. And it was actually born out of a logical argument, because I was thinking, ‘Why aren't there more vampires?' Then it was like, ‘Okay, well, something has to be killing them off.' And I liked the idea of self-destruction, so I started thinking about the recklessness that comes with time. And so, to play this out, I needed to give them a fair amount of time to do it."

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V.E. Schwab talks ‘Addie LaRue' and her online success

Schwab's popular The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue follows a girl who is immortal but can never be remembered by anyone. It came out in 2020, in the heart of the pandemic.

"That book took me 10 years to write. "This is a story that is about somebody being forced to live in an eternal present where they don't know what is going to happen, but they have to believe it's going to get better. It's a book about relentless and defiant optimism at a time when I think that was desperately needed."

"I think some of it's that I wrote a really good book that I worked really hard on for many, many years. But I think some of it is just the context in which a book comes out, and it's interesting, because it's the thing that we as writers have almost no control over when we're writing. It's just the same way that, like, Bones is a book about female rage, and I'm like, that's a pretty good time for that, but it's also when is it not a good time for female rage?"

V.E. Schwab in 2020

Since Addie LaRue was released five years ago, readers all over the world have been wondering if Schwab would ever write a sequel, and while she said she has no plans to do so as of now, she does think Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil sits on the same bookshelf.

"I would argue that these two books sit together in a creative landscape that I'm thinking of as the garden, which is kind of my low fantasy playground," the author explains.

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V.E. Schwab hints at what she's working on next

Following the release of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, Schwab plans to return to her Villain series and "close that loop," which she originally opened back in 2013.

"I just remember when I finished the first draft, I was like, ‘Oh, good. I'm one step closer to being able to die without disappointing readers,'" she jokes. "It's a dark take, but it's not a lie."

V.E. Schwab in 2024

In her downtime, Schwab plans to read books by other authors-something she considers "a huge part" of her job.

"Probably my biggest pet peeve is when writers stop reading, and the hill that I'll die on is that I think when writers stop reading, it's really apparent, because they stopped having creative cross-pollination in their work," she says.

Be sure to pick up Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil on Tuesday, June 9, wherever books are sold.

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