I love mystery thrillers. And this book was written very well. But I found myself feeling “eh” after finishing. It kept my interest up until the last few chapters. I wasn’t a huge fan of Power’s debut novel, but I liked this better. It’s perfect for someone who likes supernatural stories.

I'll be honest I don't know what this book was. I went into this book thinking I was going to get some big plot that will leave me shocked but this story only left me confused. We follow Margot and she lives with her mother who is barely a mother. Margot finds some information about her past and decides to go to her mom hometown. Once she get there things start getting weird. For one her grandmother's land is caught on fire and this is a huge scandal apparently. As Margot goes and live with her Grandmother in this town she finds out stuff about her mom and why her mother left this town at 18.

What I'll say that this book was a quick read. Short chapters. But it literally took the whole book before we find out why the Grandmother is so weird and why there was so many secrets. The grandmother was so annoying with her secrets.She was weird asf and I did not like her. The secret that ended up being revealed left me like " I knew this lady was a nutcase" but the actual secret MADE NO SENSE TO ME. No sense at all. I won't say what it is because of spoilers.

If this book didn't take forever to get to the point and that "plot twist" it probably would have got an extra star but I liked it enough since i did finish it.

This book was . . . interesting, to say the least and I am still not sure how I feel about it. The writing was pretty phenomenal. It made me want to keep reading to see if anything interesting happened. The problem was that it took so long to get to the interesting parts. The pace was very slow and it was also tough to connect to the main character, Margot. I did feel her desperation and frustration, but I didn’t really know much about her and there was a disconnect between the reader and her that made the story tough to enjoy. The ending was twisted, but it was also bizarre, and I am not really sure I understand it. This was just an okay read for me.

Finished this book last weekend and I'm still thinking about it nonstop. And like. All the disclaimers in the world because I knew after reading WILDER GIRLS last year that I'd be Very Into whatever Rory Power writes next.

BURN OUR BODIES DOWN has:

🕯️ Messy + intense family dynamics

🌽 Creepy corn fields

🏘️ A small town where everyone knows everyone's business

👁️ Body horror (there were! moments! that I can't give away but that made me gasp out loud)

"It's not love, to give your wounds to someone else."

Rory Power is carving out that space for gritty, haunting, and disturbing, sapphic YA and I love to see it.

I can't tell you what expectations I had for this book but they were met. This cover exudes brittle, burning heat amongst other, darker feelings and I must say that not many covers hit the nail on its head like that. I still can't say that I love the cover - it looks muted and flat? - but it's genius in its own way.

I'm not going to say much about the plot because I would immediately give away far too much and you best go into this book without knowing much about it. It's a family thriller/mystery with a twist. Let that be all you know. Now I loved this book because I loved This Darkness Mine and Dig. and it felt like a weird combination of the two. (By the way, if you loved any of these three books, I recommend you read the others as well.)
The most important aspect of successful storytelling are the characters at its heart. At least, that's true for me. I need complex, flawed, interesting characters rather than shallow figures that have as much depth as the next puddle on your sidewalk. And all Rory's characters are super intriguing, their relationships frayed, often toxic, and very well written. Here's one of my favourite lines from the novel:

But she's shaking her heard. "You can't tell me what I meant."
I struggle to take a deep breath. "But it sounded that way to me. Doesn't that matter? Doesn't it matter how you made me feel?"

You see, good intentions are useless when the effect of your words or actions cause pain. Taken out of context, this can be widely applied, especially to conversations about white privilege and racism. Just a sidetone.

There's something about Rory's writing that I can't quite put my finger on. Something that causes an emotional disconnect and therefore fails to captivate me wholly. While I live for the horror and gore, and while I generally enjoy the prose, the words blur together and I often find myself skimming a few sentences before I can stop myself. I also found the ending ever so slightly anticlimactic. There were a few chapters when Rory had me glued to the pages and then, rather than ending with a bang, it was more of a rattle.

Still, it's a deeply fascinating novel, one that I believe would make a perfectly disturbing and moody film. I need it.

4 🌟
--------------------------------------------------------------------
this book was WACK
just whoa

SO, WHAT"S THIS BOOK ABOUT?
This book follows the story of Margot and her neglecting mother. As Margot struggles and yearns for love she goes in search of the family she wishes she has in her mother's hometown.

That's all you need to know
don't learn anything else
just know this a horror/thriller and it was WACK
I loved this book but it definitely isn't a new favorite and i definitely preferred Wilder Girls
And I think that was because this book was less character-focused and more plot-driven which I do not usually prefer. I felt disconnected from the characters and that made it harder for me to connect and care about the story in general. I found Margot interesting but I found the whole a bit rushed and I would have liked longer to sit in Margot's skin and fully understand her as a character for a bit longer. That is why as a whole I did prefer Wilder Girls over this book however I will definitely look at what the author produces in the future.
😄

I have been thinking about this book for days. It was much more different than I anticipated and one that I highly recommend for both YA and adult readers.

It was difficult to get into "Burn our Bodies to the Ground" because after the first few pages, I couldn't get past the reoccurring thought of, "ugh... another horrible mom+daughter relationship book." 6/9 books I've read in the past two months have had terrible mom+daughter relationships, and I almost had to pass on this one. Fortunately, this book is so much more than that. The whole first 3rd of the book to begin to get to the central plot- if you can get through that, then the rest of the book is worth it!
Margot is 17 years old and has never met any of her family. It bothers her that she isn't allowed to bring it up with her mom. They constantly fight, with Margot always capitulating- she knows exactly how her mom will react to everything and she knows that giving up on an argument is the easiest way to live in peace with her mom. One day, Margot finds a photograph of her grandma with a phone number on it--- which leads to one of the wildest rides of a book I've had in a while.

There were a few scenes were the "accidental" timing of things was TOO perfect. Of course, these moments are what push the plot forward, so they are necessary to the book. Throw in a little suspension of disbelief and keep reading- everything really picks up around 35% in the book and is tied up nicely together at the end.

Burn Our Bodies to the Ground was an unexpected thriller. The prose is eerie and I am impressed at how well Power created a horrific, but engaging setting. I never read Power's debut book "Wilder Girls," but it is now on the top of my "to-read" list!
Thank you Netgalley and Random House Children's/Delacorte Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sadly, this is a DNF for me. I got through about 30% of the book and I coudn't keep going. I didn't feel a connection to any of the characters and the writing fell flat for me. Keep in mind, this is just my opinion, I can see reasons why others would love this story!

3.5 - Burn Our Bodies Down is an eerie and atmospheric parable of intergenerational and inherited trauma that fans of Wilder Girls will devour. Rory Power deftly and successfully examines toxic family dynamics, abuse, gaslighting, and parental neglect in a way I haven’t seen many YA books attempt.

Despite how well the fraught family relationships are handled, the big reveal was predictable (I guessed it shortly into the book) and the book lacked the growing sense of dread and suspense that I would expect from a horror novel. While the end was gory and grim, it came out of nowhere for me. I felt rather removed from the story as a reader, not quite caring about any of the characters as individuals and feeling like the story played it safe until the very end. I wish the horror elements had been more fully explored throughout. Oddly enough, I had the opposite response to Wilder Girls - I loved how creepy it was throughout and felt a growing sense of dread, and then the abrupt ending left me with no satisfaction and zero answers. Here, the ending is satisfying and all questions are answered, but the build up to get there felt lacking.

"Yes, something’s wrong with Gram. Something’s wrong with my whole family. But whatever they’re hiding, it’s mine to unravel."

This book was so atmospheric that I literally forgot it was a horror novel until weird stuff started to happen. BOBD at times struck me more as a mystery rather than horror, until the last 25ish% of the book. Then stuff gets freaky weird.

(Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.)

3.5/5 stars

I adored the writing style. It’s not the type of book where people are going to slapping quotes on mugs right and left, but I think at least 1/8 of the book is highlighted just because I loved the style. The descriptions, while not often, were vivid and totally set the stage for the atmosphere of the book.

"We live above an empty storefront tiled in a too-bright teal, the word Entrance on the door all that’s left of the signs that used to hang there. Most of Calhoun is like that, with gaps where life used to exist, where time has just stopped."

Ans oftentimes her lines packed a punch:

"Everything in my life, a gift and a wound at the same time. When will anything just be what it is?"

This is a book that while I loved the writing style and the symbolism behind everything, I’ve come to realize horror books—and by extension Rory’s books—just aren’t my jam. I struggled to finish the last 1/3 of the book. The only thing that kept me reading was the writing style and needing answers to what was going on.

I'll keep supporting Rory's queer content (shout out for using the word lesbian on page!), but I probably won't read anymore of her stuff (unless she writes something outside the horror genre).

Content Warnings and Trigger Warnings: (taken from Rory’s website + my own additions) Fire. Burns from fire. Emotional abuse by a parent. Gaslighting. Familial and generational abuse. Nonconsensual pregnancy (not from sexual assault or rape). Body horror, some gore, blood. Death. Death of a sibling. On-page character death. Child/infant death (takes place off page but implied violence – chapter 26). Off-page gun violence. Emesis.

Burn Our Bodies Down is a great horror story for YA readers, with no gratuitous sex scenes or profanity -- creepy and original.

There is honestly just something so eerie and nerve-wracking about cornfields. The silent sentinels in their own humid atmosphere pressing at you from all sides that softly whisper to your fear shrouded mind in the darkness. I was raised around miles of cornfields when I was younger (there's one next to our house right now) and even though I was familiar with them this sentiment would still stand.

The beginning takes off a little slow but it helps build the background surrounding Margot and her mother, Josephine. Mother and daughter are often mistaken for sisters they are so similar. It isn't until Margot finds a hidden picture her mother never wanted her to see that she realizes how much that statement is true. Armed with the photo, exhausted by living with her combative and elusive mother, Margot decides to call the number written on the back of the photo. There's no going back and her choices thrust her towards a family she didn't know she had and to the town her mother never mentioned, her home - Phalene. Josephine's relationship with her daughter makes a lot more sense towards the end of the book - and I agree with Margot, understanding doesn't necessarily mean forgiveness. Margot's mother may not have instilled much into her daughter but Margot learned resilience, a penchant for heated conversations as well as the strange superstition that fire will keep them safe. 

I am stunned. Never in a million years would I have foreseen where Burn Our Bodies Down would go. I cannot go into a lot of detail with what I mean because I don't want to ruin the book for anyone but Rory Powers is GOOD. There is more to the Neilsen's than you think as well as their ties to Fairhaven and the land upon which it sits. Only when it's too late does Margot understand the reasons behind her mother's actions. 

This is not your typical run of the mill thriller. I would highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy unusual thrillers, a little bit of horror, and complicated family dynamics. A huge thank you to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this brilliantly written thriller that totally took me by surprise!

Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rory Power knows how to write female-centric dark twisty narratives. Her debut, the acclaimed "Wilder Girls," was an engaging and captivating tale of an all-girls school quarantined on an island during an apocalyptic and near-supernatural unnamed plague. Her sophomore effort, "Burn Our Bodies Down," is separate from the world of Wilder Girls, but keeps the same female main character, the same quasi-fantastical setting, and much of the same dark, spooky, and tense narrative structure.

Margot's relationship with her mother is... complicated. They live together, just the two of them, isolated in a small apartment, arguing constantly under her mother's constant and smothering pressure. Margot must have a family, but her mom refuses to tell her anything about her family, her (absent) father, or her mother's past. She yearns for escape and finds it in the form of a family photograph, which she uses as a pretense to run away to her mother's home town of Phalene.

Without spoiling too much of the narrative, she finds family there, but immediately upon arrival also finds herself embroiled in a harrowing mystery that involves her extended relations, and their relationship to the surrounding area. And it gets more bizarre from there.

Like in "Wilder Girls," "Burn Our Bodies Down" follows the point of view of a single character, again a teenage girl, and closely tracks her feelings and emotions, which anyone who has raised a daughter can tell you, can be FRAUGHT. There's a deep, almost sinister darkness within Margot that is balanced by a curiosity and yearning to learn more about her family's -- and her own -- history. Power's writing is strong, and part of that strength comes in her ability to make Margot a character that you want to root for, while simultaneously doubting her motivations and decisions over the course of the book.

The revelations are spread out over the course of the narrative. Some may consider the pacing slow, but much like with Wilder Girls, I found the slow-boil suspense to be engaging and hardly boring, keeping me interested in Margot's journey. The central mystery of the book isn't quite supernatural, but there's definitely something eerie about the whole thing, and the central premise feels more at home in the genre of "weird fiction" than sci-fi or horror.

The small Americana town of Phalene also is an appropriate setting for this book -- weird things hiding in small towns is hardly a unique trope, but it fits the tone of the book well. Power is able to squeeze genuinely interesting suspense out of mundane things such as a pickup truck, a farm, a central square, or a grove of trees.

Careful readers might be able to suss out the ultimate revelation behind the series, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was only partially correct, and Power's story took me in a direction that I wasn't expecting. "Burn Our Bodies Down" does end with the maddeningly open-ended way that "Wilder Girls" did, but neither does it tie up all the loose ends into a neat bow. Margot is put through the wringer -- emotionally and physically -- by the end, and it's clear that this new damage and the knowledge she's gained over the course of the book will do little to heal any of her wounds. That turns out to be okay, though it seems as though this is a novel that, unlike "Wilder Girls," probably doesn't need a sequel.

"Burn Our Bodies Down" didn't feel as strong to me as "Wilder Girls" -- to be fair, those are rather big shoes to fill -- but Rory Power did assuage any fears that she might be a "one book wonder." This is a strong young writer with a distinct voice, and I look forward to what she does next.

This was a very challenging read for me so I'll start with what worked for me and then delve into what I had difficulty with.
First off Rory Power does wonders with atmosphere. She can really set the mood and the scene very quickly. I had noted this gift of hers when reading her debut book Wilder Girls earlier this year and was enchanted to see that continued on in Burn Our Bodies Down. Immediately you got this heavy and mysterious vibe permeating the opening. Like I could feel this whole setting so clearly. The characters also, flaws and all, were very clearly rendered
The problem with all this that it was not a comfortable story for me to read. The atmosphere, so expertly rendered made me uneasy and stressed. The relationships in it were so wonderfully complex but also most of them I found very fraught and worrisome. For personal reasons, the beginning in particular was very difficult to me. The way we begin the story was very tense and unhealthy and it was extremely hard for me personally to get through.
I feel like my experience reading this book will not be a universal one and I feel like there is a chance I could reread this book maybe a couple of years from now and feel differently. This is just one of those times I have to say, this book is not for me but it’s not a bad book.
Some great things going for it: atmosphere in spades, moodiness, fascinating mystery, an interesting supernatural tilt, twisty family secrets, a fleshed-out and multifaceted main character, that small-town feel, and just really lovely prose and descriptions.
I look forward to seeing what else Rory Powers comes out with because she tells such intriguing stories and i love how she writes.

What the eff did I just read? Rory Power has a strange imagination and I love it.

Margot lives with her mother, Josephine. She doesn't know who her father is and never met any of her family. She and her mom have a really odd relationship and Margot never really feels loved. She thinks about her possible family often, but her mom said she's never going back. Then Margot finds an old photo with a phone number on it. She calls and finds out that it's her grandmother. She lives on the Nielsen Farm, Fairhaven, in Phalene. Margot makes the decision to leave and find out who her family is and why her mom left.

Phalene is an old farming town with not much else. Margot meets a girl, Tess, right away and feels a connection to her. They see a fire and they head towards it. The fire is at the farm and Margot sees a girl there. She goes in after her. Once the girl is out of the fire, Margot is in shock. The girl is dead and the girl looks just like Margot. Who is she? Her grandmother says she doesn't know who the girl is or who started the fire. Margot wants things to go well with her Gram, but she also knows she's lying to her. She's going to find out why. There was a fire there before her mom left, too. Tess helps Margot and they go looking for answers. When she finds them, it's nothing like Margot could have imagined. There is something wrong with the Nielsen family and the land they are on.

Burn Our Bodies down isn't really a fast paced book, but I didn't want to put it down. I needed to find the weird things that I just knew would be in the book. Rory Power didn't disappoint me. This book is strange. I liked Margot and felt sorry for her. I really liked Tess, too. The relationship with the Nielsen women was sad and I could kind of relate at times.

Overall, I really liked this book. I gave it 4 1/2 stars rounded up to 5 on Goodreads. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my review copy. I can't wait to see what Rory Power writes next.

Finished Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power! Thank you @netgalley

From the beginning it’s been just Margot and her mother. Now that Margot is older she is starting to question who her extended family is and where her mother came from. Getting nothing but resistance and push back from her mother Margot takes it upon herself to learn.

Running away to her mother’s hometown leads to meeting her eccentric grandmother after a tragic event on the family farm.

The more Margot learns though the more questions start to arise. Margot’s mother left for a good reason but how long will it take and at what cost for Margot to realize that their hometown is possibly not the best place to be.

A story of strength and perseverance...a story of searching for truths and finding who you are...and a story of learning where your true home is.

Way to go on another great one!

I LOVED THIS BOOK

it's the perfect amount of suspenseful "ok wtf is going on" for the first 80% to keep you turning pages, and then the last bit is where the horror comes in and it's quite disturbing (but in a good way) and i loved it

i really connected to margot in terms of emotional abuse from her mother and her own thoughts about her sexuality and i really love her :')

and the writing was fantastic - rory power has this way of writing that feels like it stems directly from the characters, which is SUCH a good thing (there are differences in writing style between this and Wilder Girls), while also keeping things suspenseful and left me constantly wanting to read more. i didn't want to put this book down, and i read the majority of it in one sitting

Oh, Rory Power, you’ve managed to do it again, create a dark and twisty novel that leaves you breathless until the very last page. To say this was a page-turner would be an understatement. I stayed up well past my bedtime clinging to the page (well more like the end of my kindle, but you get the picture). The ending was well worth the wait. When I finally put Burn Our Bodies Down I felt so satisfied, horrified, and completely blown away. If you are a fan of horror or dark and twisty YA, you have to pick up this book.

Content Warnings ⚠️
Check Rory Power's website here: https://itsrorypower.com/books/burn/

My Thoughts 💭
After the train wreck that was Wilder Girls, I promised myself that I'd give this author a second chance when pigs fly. Then I saw her next book on NetGalley however and I said: "I'll give Rory Power a second chance if Random House actually accepts one of my book requests."

Well, here we are friends.

■ Plot:
We got our lovely main character, Margot, who lives in poverty with her dysfunctional and abusive mom, Josephine. As long as Margot can remember, it's just been her and her mom, no other family to speak of. One day however, Margot finds a photograph pointing her the direction of her mom's hometown and a possible family member, her grandmother. So, she sets out on a journey to met the family she's been deprived of her whole life. Except, when she does get there, things aren't as they seem and Margot may be in way over her head in her quest for answers.

The plot to me just wasn't it. Sure, yeah, the book is short. I devoured through it in two sittings (waaaay less time it took to me slog through Wilder Girls, that's for sure), but there was just a feeling of "safeness" that rubbed me the wrong way. It really felt like a cheap imitation or a first draft of a thriller book. Like Power just left out all the good parts and actual horror and gore from her first book. Granted, some moments in the book did have me at the edge of my seat like: "Oh, boy, this is spicy! 🌶" There could have been something more thogh but all we got was a bunch of exposition dumps. I guessed the "plot twist" everyone was raving about in their reviews about half way in and when it did happen it was just another info dump. 🙄

■ Writing:
The writing reads like a stream of consciousness. It flows nicely along with the chapters and portrays gaslighting very well, but I quickly grew bored of it around the 30% mark.

■ Characters:
Margaret, aka Margot, was not a MC I connected with at all. I'm sympathetic to her story but I just didn't care about her role in the events that transpired with her grandmother. The rest of the characters aren't any better, really. They're more like background noise and stereotypes than anything.

Recommendation 👎👍
How do I recommend another book by an author I've tried to get into but just... can't? I think the covers are really pretty, I guess? The titles sound cool? I just don’t think I'm the audience for Power's books. If you liked Wilder Girls or don't read much YA in the thriller/horror genre, I'm sure you'll like this one.​

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This is my second (and last) book by Rory Power. Warning: this book is a supernatural tale masquerading as a normal one. Unfortunately all the big stuff is in the last 5%, and I really would have liked there to be more. More what? More everything. This is a very "surface only" book; we barely get shown any personality or inner turmoil of anyone other than Margot, even when we read diary entries written by other characters. I just didn't connect with this book at all. It is, however, a quick read.