#alice moore

[evenstarfalls]

I fear

[phy-be]

"Alice Moore, eighteen and caught between."

– Bury our bones in the midnight soil by V.E. Schwab, aka the toxic lesbian vampire book 🥀🩸

[eldritchhimejoshi]

Okay, but more bobitms thoughts! Cw: extremely vague bobitms spoilers, but spoilers there are.

I feel like, for as many people who react poorly to Alice's chapters and the repetition of her Catty memories, I end up finding a new thing about them that I love. Though, if i'm honest, I feel like Alice's chapters are perhaps the most challenging because they're so unsparing when it comes to her flaws and the fact that those flaws are incredibly relatable.

Alice is a young woman stuck at the cusp of her life, and has delayed that step beyond for far too long. Though what I think the Catty segments show even moreso is that Alice has always been on the cusp. She constrains herself to manage the feelings of others, trying to keep peace in a household that will never be peaceful (insofar as there is something of a feminist critique to be mined that speaks to an injustice, the very sort Catty is flipping out about), and has to silence her own wants and truth. However, what all this shows you, through each of these memories, is that the timid adult doesnt spawn ex nihilo. Each one of those moments swaddled her in layer after layer, and she's drowning within them, barely able to tread temporal water without being dislodged from her present.

Consequently, it strikes me that much of Alice's story (at least its beginning) is the presentation of a terrifying truth: if you don't make choices in your life someone will make them for you. In delaying her life, the development of herself, she becomes easy prey for Lottie. The perfect prey in fact, if we believe Lottie's reason for taking intrigue in Alice. Alice may have consented to sex, but she was very much hunted in a manner not that different from how Lottie was hunted by Sabine. Prey may choose to run, but the predator is guiding them toward the ambush.

And this is where Alice is so hard for so many to read about. They want to focus on cool vampire powers and hunts; the idea that, like Alice, they'd still be uncool, anxious, and timid despite all their newfound power is agonizing. To be told that you are only going to be more of yourself is awful when you lack a clear image of who you even are! Then there's the elements of shame at play that so many lesbians tend to have these days; while we have so much more language than our elders did (like Sabine and Lottie), there's a lot of invisible structures in play in our lives that leave us inept at even talking to girls. Made all the worse when our environment is so lacking in other queers, mentor or otherwise, who might show us how we can be. Yet, so many of us turn inward (in part due the lack of a social group usually) and self-flagellate via recognizing how our elders had it so much worse but that they can do all this stuff you're failing at, ignoring the fact that some of our elders had more mentorship and physical community than many of us possess. A strange lack which has meant a lot of us never received a low stakes space to be taught how we might exist in our world.

In this way, Alice embodies so many of the implicit struggles of the modern young lesbian. She might have no been fast tracked toward marriage, but the gravity-like presumption of naturalism that Patriarchy possesses is still in play, weakening our ability to exist. All of which is a hard pill to swallow, but a fundamentally necessary one. Being able to name your identity isnt enough. A single label will not save your life. Only through being able to live your life, make choices for yourself, and surround yourself with a supportive community will save you. To do otherwise is to be left at the mercy of any passing monster.

There's more I could say, but i'll stop for now.

[monarch-of-altamira]

jumping out of the bushes

—and the thing is, even though she was Sabine’s victim without a doubt, Lottie eventually became monstrous herself, not just as a vampire, but in the same way Sabine was, by causing pain to the girls she was attracted to or slept with, both when she killed Penny, who very obviously didn’t want to die, and justified it to herself by saying she’d rather not have the girl she loves live like that regardless of said girl’s wishes, but also when she planned to kill Alice, who also very obviously didn’t want to die, after using her to get rid of Sabine.

In both cases, she made (or tried to make) the choice for them, taking over their lives (in this case their deaths) in the same way Sabine did her, with the only difference being that Lottie lies to herself and to them by saying that it’s for the better and actually for them, when Sabine was mostly honest about her motivations.

[cherry-dr0p]

THE CONFRONTATION 🌪💥

[Lore for drawing and more down below]

VVV

The Confrontation.

Shortly after Alice had been discharged from the hospital, Alice knew that if she was going to gather evidence to prove that Felix Kranken was responsible for Brian's death, she needed to go right to the source.

Alice collected the paper evidence that had been collected until that point, and knocked on the office door. She waited anxiously, clutching the papers like a lifeline, hoping that the talk would bring clarity, or even if not that, some sign to herself that she wasn't hopelessly clutching at straws, longing for a form of hope. She had managed to convince one of the Bon's Burgers employees that she had a complaint, and it was a miracle that they had let her in. Soon, a voice had called out for the young woman to enter the office. She cautiously entered, her anxiety building as she entered.

Alice started off by introducing herself. However, after that, she wasted no time in asking about those events. But to no avail, all her claims were denied, one by one. The older man had began to claim that she was making things up. That is when Alice had placed the evidence onto the table. Posters, newspaper clippings, the lot. It was peculiar how the red haired woman had gotten her hands on them, but Felix wasted no time in making sure none of what she was implying would get out. Deep down, he knew that he was guilty for each of what this bizarre lady was claiming wasn't totally wrong, but he wished to keep his reputation and his business.

He started to bargain with her, speaking of how several amounts of money would be given if she would keep her mouth shut. But then, it didn't work. He began to use threats of legal action and tried to intimidate her in any way the man could, but there was no sign of fear, nor backing down. Every attempt to convince the woman to keep her mouth closed was met with her arguing back harder. And she seemed to be getting more verbally aggressive too as she leaned over the table, yelling about how horrible he was. Every accusation rang louder, and louder, until Alice got way too close for comfort to him as she leaned over the table, fire burning in her eyes as they pierced through him.

He knew he couldn't exactly keep this up for long, so, Felix sent for Chris to drag her away, but try not to make a scene. Perhaps out the back would be feasible. He had told Alice that if she ever returned again, he would call the police. She paused. She could give the evidence to the police to prove her intentions but would they even believe the woman? Alice was denied before, who's to say she'll be taken seriously now?

From then, she begrudgingly grabbed the papers she brought and headed out. But she assured the man that this wasn't the final time he'd hear from her.

Sketch

Hey fellas! Finally finished the drawing I've been talking about finishing :3

I am quite proud of it.

You'll have to excuse me if there's any mistakes in the lore writing part, I haven't written properly in a good while.

Also, this happens right after the 'cliff incident', and before Alice's years long tirade of trying to bring some sense of justice for Brian and Felix's other victims.

Hope you enjoy this one!!

[the-bard-is-bored]

Protagonist in the book I’m reading is a Scottish vampire.. interesting….

[nonbinaryeye]

Charlotte Hastings is such a interesting character because she's technically the most likely to be "the conventional protagonist" of the three main characters of the Burry Our Bones in the Midnight Soil and just for the fact in the end I did not really liked her that much anymore. Her story is enjoyable and Lottie is so full of love but she's such a hypocrite. While Sabine refuses to ever be a victim, Charlotte never stops being one. Shes delightful and intriguing... though only if you recognise her for the hypocrite she is. And I love that even in the end it is left unclear how much she was lying, if she would kill Alice or not (though I believe she would). And I love that she never got free of Sabine and in a way she did not really want to - because without Sabine she would not be her victim anymore, she would not have any excuses for her dubious actions. Sabine could keep living without Charlotte but Lottie could not really keep being who she is without Sabine...

[purplebass]

2025 books - bury our bones in the midnight soil by v.e. schwab

There are other names for us, of course. Night walker. Blood drinker. Abomination. Vampire. But those are words crafted by mortal tongues. They are imperfect, incomplete. They lack the poetry, the brutality, the grace. No. We are roses.