Charlotte “Lottie” Hastings: A Deep Dive into Her Character

Overview

Charlotte “Lottie” Hastings is the oldest immortal in Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, turned by Sabine in 1827 London. She spends nearly two centuries trapped in a cycle of toxic devotion, violent hunger, and desperate longing for genuine connection. Lottie is both victim and perpetrator: her open heart was exploited and corrupted, and in turn she becomes a predator who lies, manipulates, and kills to stave off loneliness. Her arc ends when Alice—the young woman she tried to remake into a companion—sees the monster beneath the charming surface and ends her life.

Plot Role

Lottie initially appears as a mesmerizing figure who seduces Alice in modern-day Boston. She seems to offer understanding, even rescue, from Alice’s grief over her sister Catty. In reality, Lottie is extending the same poisoned bond Sabine once used on her. She is the other side of the immortal coin: while Sabine represents the maker’s control, Lottie shows how the victim can become the same kind of abuser. Her role is to mirror Alice’s potential future and to test whether Alice will repeat the cycle or break it.

Motivations and Traits (Shown Through Actions)

Lottie’s core drive is connection. Even as an immortal, she craves intimacy so desperately that she will lie, seduce, and ultimately murder to create a companion. From the beginning, her emotions “hover just beneath the surface”—her mother once told her, “You have always worn it like a second skin.” This emotional rawness makes her vulnerable to Sabine’s manipulation and later fuels her own manipulation of Alice.

Evidence from the text shows Lottie’s pattern of clinging: after a one-night stand with Alice, she lingers, memorizing details, wishing she could stay, leaving a note “like a kiss against the bedside lamp.” She longs to “pretend that this is a beginning, and not an end.” But she always leaves, because staying risks the fragile illusion. This push-pull is her trademark.

Her transformation into a vampire deepens her need. As a human, she was stifled by social rules and exiled from Clement Hall after her forbidden kiss with Jocelyn. As an immortal, she believes she can write a new story. Yet Sabine’s philosophy—“It’s always better to finish what you start”—poisons Lottie’s attempts at love. Lottie internalizes that violence is the only path to keeping someone forever.

Chronological Arc

Human Years in 1827 London

Young Charlotte is a passionate reader, compared to a weed allowed to run wild at her family’s estate. Her greatest friendship—and first love—is Jocelyn. A stolen kiss in the garden is witnessed by her brother James, who uses it to pressure their parents to send Charlotte to Aunt Amelia in London for “polishing.” Her mother, who knows the real reason, tells her: “You are the kind of bloom that thrives in any soil.” Charlotte leaves, expecting only a season away. She will not return for fifty-two years.

In London, she meets Sabine, a viscountess. Sabine flatters her, calls her name “like food … sweet,” and awakens a different kind of hunger. Sabine turns Charlotte during a violent carriage ride, then kills the driver and teaches her that dead bodies make “dead earth” that is dangerous. Charlotte initially hopes they can feed without killing, but Sabine dismisses her: “Perhaps … But I’ve found it’s always better to finish what you start.”

The Immortal Years

Lottie’s life with Sabine is a centuries-long dance of devotion and horror. She keeps a battered paperback with notes of girls she’s loved and lost—Heather, “Green eyes like bottle glass.” Each failed attempt to find a companion only reinforces her loneliness and her bond to Sabine, who is the only constant.

When Sabine turns Alice, Lottie sees the pattern repeating. But Lottie’s own guilt makes her project: “I looked at you, and I saw me.” She tries to forge a sisterhood with Alice, claiming she can help her escape Sabine. Yet her claim that killing Sabine could restore Alice’s life is a lie. Alice realizes Lottie is not a victim but a collaborator. Lottie butchered families and let other girls die “because she couldn’t bear to sleep alone.”

Death and Aftermath

At the climax, Lottie drinks the poisoned blood containing grave dirt, which sickens but does not kill her. As she chokes, Alice drives a silver hairbrush handle into her heart. In her final moments, Lottie’s pretense of kindness drops away, revealing the monster. Alice sees the one “who danced with Sabine through stolen halls … Who let girls die because she couldn’t bear to sleep alone.” Lottie crumbles to rot, leaving a pile like wet earth, less decomposed than Sabine because she “hadn’t rotted to the core just yet.” Alice walks away knowing there is no going back.

Relationships

Sabine

Sabine is Lottie’s maker, lover, and tormentor. Their bond defines Lottie’s existence. Sabine’s toxic control is seductive: she renames Charlotte with a new identity, teaches her to kill, and isolates her from her mortal past. Lottie’s yearning for Sabine’s approval never truly fades, even when she plots to kill her. The chain mail Sabine wears around her neck—a symbol of protection and bondage—is a physical reminder of their perverse intimacy. Lottie both hates and loves Sabine; one cannot exist without the other.

Alice

Alice is Lottie’s last hope. Lottie sees herself in Alice’s grief and vulnerability, and tries to cast herself as a rescuer. In reality, she grooms Alice to be a replacement for Sabine—a sister-immortal who will never leave. Lottie’s lies, particularly about death reversing life, expose her desperation. Alice’s final act of killing Lottie is the inversion of the turned-into-maker cycle; Alice refuses to become the next Lottie.

Jocelyn and Her Family

The betrayal by Jocelyn and James in the garden sets Lottie’s human tragedy in motion. Her mother’s acceptance—“Never be sorry for who you are”—gives Lottie a fleeting sense of worth, but it’s not enough to withstand familial exile. Her family’s absence for decades afterward confirms that the life she could have had was buried the moment James caught her.

Key Decisions and Consequences

• Leaving Clement Hall: Accepting the London trip removes her from the one place she felt safe and delivers her directly into Sabine’s path.
• Choosing Sabine: Instead of resisting or running, Lottie embraces immortality, hoping to rewrite her story. This chains her to violence and unending hunger.
• Feeding and Killing: Lottie rationalizes at first, wanting to feed without killing, but she never breaks Sabine’s instruction to “finish what you start.” Her complicity in multiple murders hardens her.
• Seduction of Alice: Lottie’s decision to sleep with Alice and then manipulate her is the culmination of her pattern. She tries to recreate the perfect companion, ignoring that she is doing exactly what Sabine did to her.
• Drinking the Poisoned Blood: Perhaps her most telling choice, she drinks even after Alice’s deception is revealed. Is it a moment of guilt, despair, or a final attempt to prove herself? The text suggests she is hollowed out, perhaps welcoming an end.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Immortality and Hunger

Lottie embodies the novel’s theme of immortality as both a gift and a curse. Her physical hunger for blood is inseparable from her emotional hunger for love. She never learns to satisfy one without the other.

Toxic Love and Control

Sabine’s hold over Lottie mirrors toxic love and control. Lottie’s inability to leave, even when she knows the relationship is destructive, echoes the classic abusive dynamic. When Lottie becomes the controller with Alice, she perpetuates the cycle.

Identity and Transformation

From country girl to London hopeful to immortal hunter, Lottie’s identity constantly shifts. Yet the core of her—the emotional, loving girl—never entirely disappears. She simply buries it under layers of self-preservation and cruelty.

Sacrifice and Survival Costs

Lottie’s survival costs her humanity. She sacrifices her conscience, her family, and any possibility of a genuine relationship. The sacrifice is total, and the question becomes whether anything of Charlotte remains or if she is, as Alice sees, a monster wearing a beautiful face.

Memory and Time

Lottie’s long existence leaves her trapped in memory. She clings to tokens like the paperback with girls’ names, and her early letters home promise a return that never happens. Memory and the passage of time distort her ability to change. She is forever replaying the trauma of her transformation.

5 Book-Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why did Lottie tell Alice that killing Sabine would restore her life?

Lottie lied because it was the only lure she had. The evidence shows she felt no relief after Sabine’s death herself, and she knew regaining life was impossible. By dangling false hope, she aimed to bind Alice to her in gratitude, mirroring how Sabine once used promises of belonging. Alice recognizes the manipulation: “Lottie lied.”

2. What was Lottie’s relationship with Jocelyn, and how did it shape her?

Jocelyn was Lottie’s first love and the catalyst for her exile. When James caught them kissing, Jocelyn reacted with shame and withdrew completely. That rejection taught Lottie that her feelings would always cost her the people she loved. It left an unhealed wound that Sabine later exploited, offering unconditional acceptance in exchange for Lottie’s soul.

3. How did Sabine turn Lottie, and what was the immediate aftermath?

Sabine turned Charlotte during a carriage ride after a London ball. The evidence shows Sabine killed the driver outside Canterbury, then burned the body, because “dead bodies make dead earth.” Charlotte was horrified and pleaded for a burial, but Sabine dismissed her. Immediately afterward, Charlotte was overwhelmed with questions about her new nature, but Sabine’s cold pragmatism crushed her curiosity.

4. Why does Alice kill Lottie with a silver hairbrush?

The silver hairbrush is a domestic object turned weapon, symbolizing the way Lottie’s outward femininity and charm masked inner corruption. It also echoes the grooming and pretense Lottie learned from Aunt Amelia, who once tried to “polish” her. Alice uses it to pierce Lottie’s heart, physically undoing the illusion Lottie crafted. The brush becomes, as described, “a petrified bloom” in the ashes.

5. What does Lottie’s death reveal about her true nature?

In her final moments, Lottie’s mask of kindness and confusion drops. Alice sees the predator who butchered families and let girls die. The text explicitly says “all her pretenses … die away,” showing that Lottie’s outward persona was always a construct designed to draw people close. Her death underscores that despite her centuries of pain, she had become as monstrous as Sabine.

For more on how Lottie’s story fits into the novel’s larger patterns, read the themes of sacrifice and the ending explained. If you have further questions, check the full Q&A page.