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There's a certain cachet that vampires have for queer people. Indeed, there's quite a shared history between queerness and vampirism, given that one of the first vampires in Western literature, Carmilla from Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 novella, was a lesbian. That said, there was a period in recent pop culture history where vampire fiction lost its edge chiefly through the pop culture success of Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer and its subsequent movie adaptations. As (straight) male vampires reigned supreme in pop culture, lesbian and other queer vampires have been due for a comeback for some time. Writer V.E. Schwab's new book Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, which she has described as a story about "toxic lesbian vampires," is here to fix that.

Speaking to Today, Schwab said that exploring vampirism through the experiences of three lesbians over the course of 500 years was a way for her to reflect on how Western society has viewed female desire. Schwab said, "I think we spend so much time with male vampires as the lead, and I'm like, 'They don't need it.' You know who actually needs teeth, is the person who is made to feel small, told to limit their desire, told never to be insatiable, told never to want, told exactly how little they are supposed to take up in the world."

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil hops between three different settings: 16th century Spain, Victorian England, and 2019 America. The time jumps evoke different periods within the history of vampire fiction, something Schwab knows a lot about. "If you go back and you look at these classic vampires, they're inherently queer, they're inherently liminal, they represent knowledge and the danger of being exposed to an alternate potential future. And the idea is that once you're exposed, you can never go back to ignorance," the author told Today. 

If you remember in the Twilight books, the plot hinges on the vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen, denying himself in order to "protect" his human girlfriend, Bella Swan, from his toothy side. However, the entire dynamic for vampires changes when you have a lesbian woman at the center of it, instead of a straight man. Lesbian vampires are complete outliers in society because of the ownership they take over their sexuality, and how they express their desire. Vampire stories are inherently about desire, and examining these monsters within a framework of female desire and sexuality can take them to new heights. 

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is out now, wherever books are sold. 

Just like yourself, the Popverse staff spends a whole lot of time with our respective noses in respective books. It's why we've come up with stuff like:

• The hottest upcoming fiction
• Queer romance to add to your reading list
• A reading guide to Cassandar Clare's Shadowhunter Chronicles

...and a whole lot more. Join our metaphorical library, won't you? There are no late fees and you can be as loud as you want, so long as the people you live with are OK with it.