After being trapped for yearswith a rather dysfunctional/abusive mother, Margo is thrilled to discover the existence of a grandmother she never knew she had. But Margo's grandmother lives in a spooky, ramshackle town no one has heard of, a town where a girl who looks exactly like Margo has just died. Hmmm...

Burn Our Bodies Down is definitely eerie and weird. It takes a little while to get going, but when it finally does, it's a gripping book about toxic families, generations of abuse and weirdness. It's a dark book that has a whole bunch of trigger warnings and definitely won't be for everyone, but fans of horror should definitely check it out!

I was hesitant going into this book. Power's last book was highly anticipated for me with a stunning cover that drew us all in, but was a bit of a letdown... That's similar to how I felt with this book. I don't know what it is... The books oth sounded amazing and yet didn't quite hit the mark to make them great. 

This book started SLOW for me. I felt like it dragged and I just didn't care. But I needed to se what all this mystery and dark secrets were. At times I was all in while others, I felt like I was getting little to nothing with filler information that lead to nada.

When you FINALLY get to the good stuff, it all just seems so rushed. If we had gotten more of the ending vibes scattered throughout the rest of the story, I'm sure my opinion would have been much different. I get that the story all hinged on the big family secrets that her mother never wanted her to know about but it's a shame it was all saved for the end. I almost put it down long before the end.

Even with the dissapointment I have felt from both of these books, I do plan to check out any other works Powers puts out. She has a way of catching my interest with the synopsis, I just hope the next book I read from her doesn't leave it all for the end.

Thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for this egalley in exchange for an honest review.

Even though I really loved Power's first book, this one wasn't the same. It's a different story, completely unrelated to the first, but much less so, in my opinion. I did read the whole thing, but I sort of felt like I could have spent my time doing other things. I was bored most of the time, and didn't care about much. I loved Power's first book enough that I would still consider myself a fan, and would read future books. But this one just wasn't for me.



Burn Our Bodies Down publishes 7.7.2020.



2/5 Stars

Burn Our Bodies Down is an great book. Compelling, gripping, and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

**I was provided an electronic ARC by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Rory Power's newest release, Burn Our Bodies Down, is part mystery, part horror, and all page-turner. Readers follow Margot Nielsen, who has grown up as the only child of a neglectful parent. Margot has asked her mother about their family, only to be shut down at every turn. When Margot finds a phone number that belongs to her grandmother, Margot sets off for her mother's hometown. With the police investigating a dead girl that shares Margot's face, it doesn't take long for Margot to realize her mother left for a reason.

As with all mystery/horror/thriller type books, this book is very hard to discuss without giving away spoilers. I will say that both Wilder Girls and Burn Our Bodies Down were incredibly fast, engaging reads. Rory Power's approach to horror is one I particularly enjoy, and I feel that this novel in particular would be incredibly cool to see as a movie.

With Burn Our Bodies Down, Rory Power has moved into a space where I will absolutely read whatever she puts out next.

5 STARS


Rory Power has done it again.


It's not a shock to me that I love Rory Power's sophomore novel. Wilder Girls was an unexpected hit for me, given my typical aversion to horror, and in spite of its shortcomings. Burn Our Bodies Down, however, is on another level entirely for me. In some ways, I'm still processing the magnitude of it, the ins and outs and complicated corners. Could I have predicted where it would go? Maybe. But did I? 

Absolutely not, to my great delight. I turned page after page, hungry for more and terrified to understand why. Why the corn? Why the Nielsens? And why all of this in Phalene, where Margot's mother fears to return?

Focusing on Margot Nielsen, who has only ever known the same life with her mother, Burn Our Bodies Down gives her an escape. When she finds a link to her mother's past, for the family she so desperately wants, the family her mother desperately hides, she jumps at the chance to run towards it. 

And in true Rory Power fashion, she runs toward something more sinister than ever expected. 


"Mostly, though, you learn how to be loved without any proof. Seventeen years and I'm still getting that part wrong."


There's two features that shine above all in Burn Our Bodies Down. The first is the atmosphere. From the opening pages, you can practically feel the oppressive heat, the swelter of summer at its humid peak. Everything in Margot's life is sluggish and scorched under direct sun, without ever saying so in a direct way. When this couples with the Midwestern gothic "there's something wrong in the corn" feeling introduced in Phalene, the effect only intensifies. You know something isn't right, but naming it? There's a haze in the way. All you can do is insist that you know, over and over and over.

Truthfully, I can't get over how well crafted the atmosphere is. I really can't. Especially in horror, where atmosphere has a life of it's own? This truly is a standout summer read, for the days that burn away under a too bright sun.

The second point of excellence, though, is the characters. The Nielsens in particular are a messy lot, always entering and breaking free of toxic relationships with one another. They're not healthy by any means, and their secrets run deep. 

Normally, I hate miscommunication and outright lies as a plot device. This time, though, it weaves its way almost seamlessly, because you know they're lies and deflections from the start, and they intertwine deeply with the Nielsens themselves. It builds on the sense that something is wrong, even if you can't offer anything more specific than that, and it steadily leads you further and further into Margot's lonely, desperate corner. 

Essentially, Burn Our Bodies Down knocks it out of the park in crafting characters who are both fascinating and complex while also being terrible people. It's not necessarily an easy feat, either, and I'm quite pleased with how Rory Power pulls it off!


But that's not all that Burn Our Bodies Down does well.


A round of applause, please, for the treatment of emotional abuse. Margot suffers so much at the metaphorical hands of people who are supposed to love her, and so badly craves to be loved. At points, she even rationalizes basic acts of love and care offered to her by assuming her earlier actions mean she earned that one show of love. 

And yet! And yet! You know it's wrong and cruel from the start, and in a way that's as messy as it is necessary and grotesque overall, Margot learns that too. That she hasn't imagined her suffering, that she doesn't deserve love only when she's fallen in line and backed down. She owes it to herself and no one else to stand up for herself, and I love her for it. 

Additionally, and on a lighter note, I found it really refreshing to have a queer main character who doesn't have a romantic arc. Part of it is the Romance Grinch in me who's also aro and just really tired of romance in general. But a greater part of it is the relief in me at seeing someone exist and be queer without needing to be in an active relationship. People don't stop being queer if they're not in the middle of a crush or a relationship or what have you. They're still queer, 100%. And that was a bright spot, simple as it is, in this otherwise grim and unsettling book. We have a lesbian main character. She does not have a love interest. Life goes on (or doesn't, as the case may be for some characters).


The corn isn't so far away from here...


Overall, I'm excited to see Burn Our Bodies Down hitting shelves on July 7th, just around the bend (even if you don't live near any corn). That leaves just a little time to place a pre-order so you can get in on the eerie summer book too, in case you were thinking of it! Or, if buying it isn't on the table, see if your local library can get a copy, ebook or otherwise. Don't you want to dig into the Nielsen family secrets? Don't you want to know what's waiting in the corn?

Hopefully, your answer is yes. And the answers you'll find? We'll, you'll just have to pick it up and see for yourself how strange the Nielsens really are. 🌽💛🧡


CW: emotional abuse, gaslighting, body horror, gore (including eye gore), loss of a loved one, smoking, teen pregnancy, violence (including gun violence)

[This review will go live on Hail & Well Read at 10am EST on 6/29/20.]

I really wanted to love this book, but it was a bit too bizarre and with everything that happened it just didn’t work for me. I was not the biggest fan of Wilder Girls, and I know I’m in the small group with that opinion. I honestly was really excited about this book I wanted horror and insane twists and turns. I didn’t get that, but I don’t know what I got either.

We follow Margot who has a very strange relationship with her mother. It’s them against the world, no on else but them. Margot is on the cusp of her 18th birthday and she just wants to know more about her family and where she came from, but her mother doesn’t want any of that thinking. She digs by herself to find out more of where her mother came from and she figures it out. She runs away from her mother, and goes to the town where her mom grew up and finds her grandmother. It was very strange and I didn’t care about anything that was happening. I continued reading for one reason; I wanted to see some horrifying twist that made it worth it. I guessed what was going on pretty early, and I was very let down. I have read a lot of YA horror/thriller books and that may be why this one didn’t live up to the hype for me. I didn’t find it thrilling and I didn’t find any horror.

I know I am going to be in the small, small group of people who didn’t find this book amazing. That’s okay though, this is completely my opinion and this book was just not for me. I know so many people will devour this book in one sitting it was just not what I was hoping for. I think in my head I imagined this was going to be a crazy, mind boggling book, but even at the end my feelings were very meh.

Thank You NetGalley for the early copy of Burn our Bodies Down. This one was pretty good and kept my interest. It was very well written and a page turner. It had short chapters which I enjoyed. It was very different which was a good thing!

WOW! I wasn’t sure at first and didn’t really understand what this book was all about. It took me a little to ease into it, but once I did, I was thoroughly hooked. It was an intensely woven puzzle, all the way until the end. I was completely floored at how the author tied up every loose end and blew my mind by the explosive ending. I loved this story and I’m so very grateful to the publisher and NetGalley for my free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. Thanks so much!

*Thank you Delacorte Press for this eARC from Netgalley.

*includes a mention of genre that may be a slight spoiler

1.25 / 5 stars

Burn Our Bodies follows Margot who is searching for more information about her family. Margot knows that something must have happened to her mother in the past to make her so secretive of where she grew up. Margot finds a telephone number that links Margot to her mother’s past and she is determined to find out more.

This book is apparently being pitched as a “new twisty thriller,” but to me that is completely inaccurate. I would say this would be more suited as a mystery... at times; if we even need to link it to this genre. Overall, this book is magical realism with science fiction, and oh how I wish I would have known that. I have always struggled with magical realism so I tend to stay away from it most of the time. I thought this was a thriller, but to me it is nothing of the sort. I do see how it can be expressed this way, but overall I do not think it should be pitched this way. I know this is not up to the author, but it is troubling because had I known I would have probably skipped over this. But here we are.

I enjoyed the beginning. This book is very atmospheric and fairly well detailed. The beginning is pretty ominous and I did not know what to think of Margot’s mother. I was intrigued. As I kept reading I was able to pick up hints of magical realism, but I thought surely it was a ruse. It was not.

I did not enjoy the ending at all. I kept making my ending predictions fairly complex, because I thought that surely the book would not end the way it did. But it did. Granted, I did not predict everything, which I honestly think would be hard to do; especially if you think this is just a mystery / thriller book. In the end I was extremely disappointed in the ending and the fact that this book is pitched the wrong way. I was not a fan.

I will also add that I fell like the main plot is put too much on the back burner at times. The organization for incorporating main plot points with other scenes / detail was fairly weak throughout the book.

If you do like a mix of magical realism and science fiction, you will probably like this book. I thought that the characters were pretty interesting most of the time. I will add that the book does slow down quite a bit at parts. I feel like the beginning was strong, but then it all descended after that. The ending was too much for me, but like I said if you fit within this audience you will hopefully enjoy it more than me. Regardless, I also felt like the explanation at the end was a bit weak; especially with one of the final scenes at the end that was confusing and a little too rushed. The book was quite atmospheric at times with interesting detail so I’ll end with that on a more positive note.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the eARC of this vibrant second release from one of my favorite YA authors. I fell head over heels for Wilder Girls last year, and it was actually one of the first ARCs I ever received from NetGalley. Rory's work means a lot to me in that it was a huge moment for me when I received such an anticipated work as I was just starting out as a book blogger, and it gave me something to sink my teeth into as a review writer. In that vein, I was so excited to get Burn Our Bodies Down, and I had every faith that it would hold up to the standard that Wilder Girls set. I couldn't have been more right. Rory has delivered another gut-wrenching tale led by a fierce and aged-beyond-her-years spitfire of a girl inside a setting just close enough to the world we call home to strike a chord, yet far enough removed with supernatural elements to keep you up at night.

Margot greets us at the beginning of this journey with a heavy heart and seventeen years of weight on her shoulders. She survives a tense relationship with her strange mother, both because of and in spite of the woman. They fight and struggle to make ends meet, but at the end of the day, they are all the other has. For a long time, Margot pretended to be okay with that. However, a streak of boldness finds her uncovering a secret that her mother has hidden all of her life; a family. In a desperate attempt to scrounge up what normalcy and conclusion she can, this daughter of a fire long gone out makes it to her mother's hometown. She uncovers much more than she bargained for; walking straight into a blaze, one of splintered memories and actual flames. Margot learns something is very wrong in not only Phalene, but her own family tree.

The book takes us on a ride of self discovery, family ties, and wishes gone wrong. Margot grows up feeling like a carbon copy of her mother. Even as she escapes to Phalene, she feels as though she is carrying her decisions in her every step. Though this mystery that she is handed is one just past the folds of our reality, the sins of a past that isn't even hers is incredibly real and haunting; something that teenagers far and wide are sometimes saddled with. Margot is the epitome of strong, and I hope that this novel will remind readers who are wrestling with themselves that they are more than extensions of their loved ones. They can break out of these vicious cycles, burn down any expectations, and start anew. Picking up this story is a good place to start, and they can feel the beating of their own heart within their chest as they sift through the pain, the gore, and the twists and turns as Margot finds who she really needed all along; herself.

Rory has struck gold yet again. If you're looking for a page-turner mystery that will leave you as breathless as an inferno in a cornfield, this is it. As someone with a very strong bond with her mother and no father currently in the picture, I felt Margot's uncertainty to my core. I have no idea what I would do if handed the keys to all my family's secrets like she was. I was so proud of her strength and bravery, and admired how she handled herself in a small town that had already convinced itself of what she was. But she, like all of us, is not her last name. She's not even her face. She is her mind and her experiences, and that is heartening. No matter how duplicated you might feel, you are you, and that's enough. Burn Our Bodies Down is a thrilling and hopeful read, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

I loved <i>Wilder Girls</i>, so when I saw that Power was back with another book, I was very, very excited. This book is about the different ways we pass our sins on through our family, but very specifically what does a mother pass on to her daughter, to her granddaughter? Margot's life has always been just her and her mother, no information about anyone else, until one day she discovers the phone number of her grandmother. This leads her on a search for family, but what other secrets will be revealed?

There are some horror elements, but I almost prefer this one to other horror stories I've read, where the suspense builds and the actual gore is somewhat limited.

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Margot has always wondered about her family’s history and her background but her mother is notoriously tight lipped and reserved when it comes to anything in her past. When Margot finds a clue that leads her to the farm her mother grew up on, she jumps at the chance. Now that she’s there and starting to unravel her family’s past secrets, she may come to regret her decision.

I’m not sure how to describe this book besides..... strange. It is definitely different and I had no idea where it was going. Now that I’m finished, I understand why. It’s a very abstract story, with a tie-up that can’t be figured out ahead of time. It wasn’t really my type read, but I think others may enjoy it. If you’re looking for an “out there” slow-burn thriller, with an ending you won’t see, this is your book.

“She built her family on sand and did nothing but watch as it fell apart.”

Ever since Margot was born, it’s just been her and her Mom. No other family around, no answers to where they came from, no nothing. Her Mom keeps everything to herself and Margot is tired of it. She wants a family that isn’t just her Mom and one day she finds a photograph that hints at something more. The photograph has a phone number, and when she calls it she finds out it’s her Grandmother, who she didn’t even know existed. Margot wants to meet her so she runs away to Phalene, where her Gram lives and where her mother grew up, hoping to find answers. It’s finally a chance for Margot to meet her family and to learn their history. Except when she gets there she learns that there are many more secrets hidden and it’s not what she thought.

Margot and her mother, Jo, have a pretty bad relationship with each other and also slightly weird. Her mother can barely take care of herself, let alone a daughter. She also insists on always having a candle lit for protection. This is mentioned right away so you don’t really know what it means but you assume it’s something important. You end up forgetting about it but it is mentioned a few times and at one point comes back in a big way.

This book has plenty of creepy, weird, wtf moments and I couldn’t put it down. It has that eerie, ominous atmosphere right from the beginning and I absolutely loved it.

This really is a story about a family mystery and how the Nielsons came to be the way they are today. I loved the way the story unraveled and how you found out about different things in the past. At times I thought the mystery was one thing but it’s really not, but it’s also not that other thing it could have been and it’s something completely different. It was written so well and kept me hooked all the way through.

Rory Power has easily become an auto buy author for me and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power is an incredible work. I loved the main character and the writing style takes your breath away.

[Transcript of my video review; excluding my intro + a life update]

Before we get into my spoiler free review, I will be listing off trigger warnings that
apply to this book. Please keep them in mind for your own mental health and if you see other people thinking
about reading this book feel free to share this list with them because it is important, no matter how much you want to read a book, to take into account your own mental health and how it will affect you more than how much you might want to read a book, however you much you think you might like it.

The trigger warnings are for: fire, emotional abuse, murder and attempted murder, there's
some, uh, vague body horror relating to the eyes specifically , teen pregnancy, illness,
and some gore.
If you want specifics on the scenes that have the trigger warnings please DM on twitter.

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power is an upcoming release set to come out July 7th, 2020.
A young woman, she is 17, named Margot, she tries to figure out her family history and
why her mother has kept it from her. Her mother is distant and emotionally abusive and has not really shared anything about her past with Margot.

Margot ends up figuring out the name of the home town that her mother grew up in and she
travels to that town and meets and grandmother. However there is a mystery surrounding the farm-the family farm- and she tries to get to the bottom of it.

If I had to categorize this book as a genre I would say that it is a speculative mystery. I do not quite think that it is a thriller. There are moments where it is definitely thrilling but it doesn't have the tension that is consistent
that I associate with thrillers.

Now the- a few of the trigger warnings I listed do not apply to this review itself.
However I am going to be speaking in-depth about emotional abuse in this video so if
you do not want to hear about this just click away and I would frankly recommend not picking
up the book in general.

I gave this book five stars. I sobbed for the entire last chapter a lot. And there are four points I want to discuss and I would also like to talk about the ending without giving away any specifics, hopefully.

The first thing I want to talk about is how realistic the main characters are.

Our main character first Margot is a teenager. She is written like a teenager.
She is not perfect. But the ways she is flawed are very realistic. If we- If we remove the more speculative elements from the story Margot is a character that you could see in the real world. You wouldn't have to change her character whatsoever.

And I felt very seen by her character in the ways she is portrayed and also the ways she handles her trauma. And things related to that. This is a character that is angry and desperate to be loved in not a romantic sense but in any sense of the word. And she is a character that is strong. And it just felt incredibly realistic. I would say more realistic than teens in a lot of contemporary books I have read.

Now the next character I am going to talk about is Josephine. This is Margot's mother. We do not see much of Josephine but when we do see is a more realistic depiction of an abusive parent than I have seen in any other type of media. Power took the time to show us the complicated, uh, nature of abusers and abuse. Power takes the time to show that her actions are not out of any malicious, they are not planned, and they are not- um, I don't want to say not purposeful but they are not- she did not set out to be an abusive mother, she did not set out to- she doesn't hate Margot at all.

I just found that the more realistic portrayal of Josephine lead to a more realistic portrayal of abuse and the effects that it can have on the characters and I enjoyed that a lot. Now there are- Not all of the characters are as well-developed as Margot and Josephine. I would say that out least developed character is probably Eli. He is a side character that is in maybe 3 scenes. So I don't think there is much of an expectation for him to be developed. The story is focused mainly on the three women, the- is it Nielson?-the Nielson women and
there are a number of side characters.

One character that is given more page time and more development than Eli is Tess. She is Eli's best friend and she is Margot's grandmothers neighbor and she befriends Margot as soon as Margot gets to town. Tess, more so than Eli, we get a very clear depiction of who she is, not quite what her motivations are but I don't think that really matters in the story. But we get a very very clear image of who she is as a character in the limited amount of page time she gets. And I adore that quite a bit.

There is also Vera who is, um, Margot's grandmother. I do not have much to say about Vera that I haven't already said about Josephine. And what I do have to say about her is going to be touched on later on so I am going to save that for now.

Next is a very minor point but there are two different small towns that are portrayed in, um, Burn Our Bodies Down. The first is the town of Calhoun which is where Margot grew up. And- And then there is Phalene which is where we spend most of the story. The, um- Something that I have noticed is that when reading a lot of contemporary fiction lately is that small towns rarely feel like small towns. I am sure that small towns felt the way they do in a lot of YA contemporary books, um,. I am sure they did feel that way when the authors were teens themselves.

However, I think, the nature of small town has evolved a bit- evolved, changed, shifted. And I think that Power did a really good job at portraying what it is like to be in a small town. It shows that not everyone is going to know everyone in a small town but it also shows touches on the almost suffocating nature of small towns especially when you are in high school because while there- While you are not going to know everyone in your graduating class, you are going to be familiar with a lot of them and that can really limit your possibilities in regards to regards, not really possibilities. [giggle]

My next point focuses on the portrayal of the effects of trauma and the trauma of abuse in particular. I mentioned this in the character section but I just want to say that this book made me feel incredibly seen in a way no other books has before. I would say that the only book that has made be feel this seen, even remotely as close as this books, was, uh, the Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater. While books like We Are the Ants have made me feel seen in regards to my mental health and When We Were Magic to the coming of age struggles of a Gen Z teenager, nothing has quite made me feel seen in the way Burn Our Bodies Down has and that is largely thanks to the portrayal of emotional abuse in this story.

I grew up in an emotional abusive household. I currently still live there and things have gotten better but I still carry the trauma
of my childhood and teen years. And I will carry that for the rest of my life. Burn Our Bodies Down shows the ways that Margot doubts herself and doubts the reality that she lives in because of the ways her mother has conditioned her to. It shows the ways- the ways that, while not always down maliciously, that someone who is emotionally abusive can change their story and try to essentially gaslight you. It shows the ways it makes you doubt just about everything and everyone in your life. It also shows the ways that it is harder to trust people. It is- you are always looking for the ways someone is flawed. You are always looking for what might set them off and make them angry with you. And that is a coping mechanism that you develop because your need it. You need it. You need to always be on edge and this book confronts the reality of that.

It confronts the ways that certain characters do thing that remind Margot of her mother and they- they basically do behave in ways that are similar to her mother. It- She is always looking for the signs that someone is going to treat her the way her mother treated her. And it just showed the anxiety that is not always suffocating but is always there in the back of your mind when you grow up in a situation like this.

The next thing I want to talk about is the story's allegory. Allegory isn't technically the right word because I don't believe in authorial intent but so I am technically talking about applicability but I'm saying allegory and you can't stop me. This book is an allegory for emotional abuse and the cyclical nature of it. I do not have a finished copy so I cannot include any quotes but there is discussion of the fact that Josephine is treating Margot the same way Vera treated Josephine and Josephine's twin sister.

And as with the last subpoint I made it shows the ways that these behaviors are taught, the ways that children who grow up in abusive households internalize these behaviors, and they ways they can later replicate them if they are not cautious and aware of these behaviors. This is, I would say, a story about the need to confront your trauma, the need to let things go, and the need to move on. That is, at least for me, what this story is about. And that is a large part of the reason I love it so much. Because this is a story that resonates with me, it is a story that makes me feel seen, and it is a story that gives me hope.

The last thing I am going to talk about is the ending. I am not going to talk about specifics but, to me, the ending is incredibly hopeful. I know that a critique that a lot of people had for Wilder Girls was the inconclusive ending and the ending of this was pretty inconclusive too. It does not show us where Margot ends up in life. It doesn't really- It doesn't answer a lot of things.

I think in comparison to Wilder Girls specifically it is a lot more hopeful. It ends on a very hopeful note. I'm sure some people won't see it that way but I'm sure some people won't see it as a hopeful ending because I would say it is hopeful in a very subtle way. It doesn't promise that things are going to get better for Margot. It doesn't promise that she is going to be a great person. It doesn't promise that she is going to have a happily ever after. But it promises that all of that is possible. It promises that one day she might have those things and that resonates with me a lot.

So if you want- I realize I didn't talk a lot about the technical aspects of this book because to me the technical aspects do not matter much. But briefly I will talk about the writing. The writing style is pretty similar to that of Wilder Girls. It is not the most lyrical prose. It is- It is poetic in a way that is not really poetic if that makes sense. It is raw to the bone and gets its point across in a way that is emotional without relying on a lot of metaphors and flowery language. I would say that if the writing styles of Wilder Girls turned you off the writing style
for Burn Our Bodies Down is not going to be your cup of tea either.

I don't exactly have a conclusion planned out. So what I want to say is that if you liked Wilder Girls I think you are going to like this book. I think that if you are looking for a character and story that is going to resonate like Adam Parrish did for so many children that grew up in abusive households, pick this book up. It is at its core a story about trauma, about emotional abuse, about moving on, and about letting it go.

And I think that that is a story that will help a lot of people but I also think that its a story that not a- that the vast majority of people will not enjoy. This does not have wide appeal. It appeals to people who like weird hard-hitting contemporaries. That is the audience for this book. And I am not going to pretend that this is a book that is going to be massively popular on booktube and that everyone is going to love. I am not going to pretend that.

This is still a book that is going to be important to a lot of people and I want to make sure that the people who need this book, the people that this book is going to mean the world to, get their hands on it.

So if you think you might be one of those people, please check this book out and I will have a preorder link down below. It is an affiliate link so I will get a commission if you buy via that link.

That is all for today. I will see you in the next video. Bye!

SPOILER FREE REVIEW!
I Loved it! All the twists and turns with a bit of strangeness. You seem to think you know where the book is going them BAM! Exactly the type of book you'd expect from the author of Wilder Girls!

Margot's mother has always kept any information about their family history from her. They live shut up in a small apartment, alone together in the world. But Margot stumbles across her grandmother's phone number and decides to call her up and visit her ancestral hometown, only to find that her family's history is much longer and darker than she could ever have imagined.

BURN OUR BODIES DOWN moves quickly and powerfully, a story of a matriarchy twisted into something horrible. The whole book has an atmosphere of something off kilter, of a storm in the distance. And when the pieces begin to fall into place, I could not turn the pages fast enough.

It's also a knife-sharp illustration of emotional abuse and the lasting, even generational effects gaslighting can have on those who experience it and turn it on their children.

Additionally, I just want to note the small joy of a book that features a queer character - one who explicitly names herself as such on the page - and that it has no bearing on the plot at all. There's no romantic thread to this book and it's not even a coming out story. She simply is a lesbian, that's all.

Content warnings: emotional abuse, death, body horror.

Ok....ok....OK.

I started this book - thinking it was going to be in the vein of White Oleander - you know, troubled mom and daughter relationship. And then....and then there was a fire. A body. Bottled water. Pink corn. Apricots. The same face, over and over and over.

This straddles the line of fiction/YA fiction/ science fiction/thriller/whatever the hell because OH MY GOD.

OH MY GOD.

Y’all......I just can’t. This book was all over place and the build up of the story was so high that you actually get frustrated that it takes you 29 chapters to find out the twist and then boom it’s the end. It was painfully slow and all over the place. The characters lost a lot of appeal and they remained dull.