A BIG thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for providing an advanced copy of this book for my review. Oh my goodness! What did I just read? This book is atmospheric, twisted, unnerving, strange, and completely gripping. I LOVED every minute of it. It was like reading Flowers in the Attic (by VC Andrews, without the incest), mixed with 1922 by Stephen King.

Firstly, let me start off by saying that the plot is just amazing and the highlight of the book! It is completely unique and unlike anything I have ever read. Even though I thought of numerous possibilities as to what was happening, I was not prepared for what actually transpired. The twist came out of the blue and I was blown away. This is so much better than what I expected in a YA novel. Moreover, there’s not unnecessary romance at all to the plot. The pacing is awesome, where the author sticks to the mystery behind the Nielsen girls.

In my opinion, both Margot and Vera are stars of the show. They both complement each other so well in their scenes together. In fact, I feel like Vera is the star of the story. She is so complex and unpredictable, you never know what she will do. There are one a few prominent characters like Tess and Connors, but they also add well to the story.

This is the first book I read of Rory Power. I have not read Wilder Girls yet so I wasn’t sure if I would enjoyed this book or not. But the author wrote the story in such a compelling manner that I want to read Wilder Girls too! Overall, I loved Burn Our Bodies Down and have become a fan of the author!

DNF. At this point, I think this is a case of it's me and not Rory Power. While I commend her beautiful writing and willingness to not hold back when it comes to graphic details, her stories just end up not being for me. I was disappointed with Wilder Girls, and I couldn't even get myself to finish this one.

Rory Power is now an autobuy author!!!!! I wasn'y sure what to expect after Wilder Girls.

Our main character, Margot is conflicted. She goes searching for answers herself. The moment she really grows in the book, it is amazing! 10/10 stars on that.

Our story is weird, mysterious, and intriguing. I was really on edge the entire time wanting to know where we were going. Some things were slightly predictable, but it in no way ruined the story.

This town.... oh it has so many secrets. You have to read it for yourself. 4.5 stars for this book. I already ordered my copy.

I'm going to start off by saying that there will be mixed reviews with this author and their books and you either love their writing and stories or hate it. And for me, I love Rory's writing and story telling. Wilder Girls was so strange and weird but I love that kind of stuff so I was excited when I saw this book. I knew it was going to be weird and I was ready. Rory did not disappoint with this twisty horror thriller. I wish we could habe understood some of the characters more but I really loved the MC and was so interested in the small town.

Margo is the main character in the book who lives with her mom who isnt the best mom in the world and who has a secret past she has kept from Margo who ends up trying to unfold it all. Of course what Margo finds isnt at all what she expects and she uncovers something deeper that wasnt meant to be spread.

I dont want to spoil the story, if you loved Wilder Girls I think you would enjoy this story. Its fast paced and even though I wish their were more character development i still very much enjoyed this story.

Thanks NetGalley and Random House for the e-arc

This was as if I was watching an old horror movie along the lines of the Wicker Man or a Twilight Episode. The story and mystery was very interesting and I was invested in how the mystery would pan out. I liked the premise of the story and found it to be a good one. The way it wrapped up was pretty nice and I can honestly say this was a good fun read!

Thank You to Netgalley for the E-Arc.

Burn Down Our Bodies is one of my highly anticipated reads of this year and it did not disappoint. Rory Powers impressed with her Debut Novel Wilder Girls, she brought back the spooky, gripping atmosphere with Burn Down Our Bodies. From the beginning, the characters had me on edge and desperate for more information on what was going on. Burn Down Our Bodies was a fast paced novel and i really enjoyed that. We didn’t miss a moment of suspense and discovery. I give this a 4.5 star rating, I look forward to what Rory comes up with next.

Rory Power has done it again with Burn our Bodies Down, another captivating and unputdownable read about a teen girl trying to unravel the truth of her reality and take control of her life. Margot has lived a sheltered and tense life with her distant mother without so much as a mention of a father or any other family. So when she finds a lead on possible relatives and information about where she came from, she jumps on the chance to pursue it, but never could have imagined the sinister secrets that wait for her.
Margot is a brave character, and Power does a great job portraying the pain and confusion of a teenage girl who doesn't know who to trust and has never been able to break down her mother's walls to feel loved. Her grandmother is absolutely terrifying.

Margot Nielsen is a young woman with a troubled and complicated relationship with her mother. As far as she can remember, it has just been Margot and her mother.

Margot’s mother refuses to tell her daughter anything about her past or her family and relatives. According to her mother, they are all they need.

Margot is desperate to know more about her family and by chance she gets a clue to where her grandmother lives. She decides to go and meet her.

When she gets there, she’s left with more questions than answers. First, she finds out that the Nielsen women do not have such a good reputation in that town. Then, there’s a fire at her grandmother’s farm and a girl is found dead there who looks exactly like Margot.

Her grandmother seems to have secrets of her own which she isn’t willing to share. Margot is more confused than ever, and really wants to get some answers, to make sense of everything that’s going on.

This book definitely veers towards the uncanny. The central mystery held my interest and I wanted to know the whys and hows of it all.

While the story was interesting, I found that the characters lacked depth and there was too much repetition in the story. I thought that the mystery could have been wrapped up a little faster.

All in all, I enjoyed this book due to its eerie atmosphere and gothic undertones.

I would definitely recommend this book for readers of the mystery, horror and thriller genres.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with the ARC of this book, so I could review it.

Last year, Wilder Girls became one of my unexpected favorite books of all time. I am obsessed with weird horror books and Wilder Girls certainly fit the bill. When I saw that Rory Power was writing a new horror novel, I couldn't wait to grab a copy and dive in!

Burn Our Bodies Down follows Margot on her quest to find family outside of her mother, the only relative she's known. As luck would have it, Margot stumbles upon a clue to help her get there and follows it to Phalene, where she finds her grandmother and a town that's wary of her. At first, Margot is thrilled to have found what she's been searching for, but things gradually become more strange as she realizes there's something sinister about her grandmother and their home.

My favorite thing about Burn Our Bodies Down, like with Wilder Girls, is the incredible world building. Rory Power knows how to craft a world that draws you in and makes you feel uneasy from the very start. Even before Margot found her way to Phalene, I was already feeling that creeping sense of dread this author is so great at creating.

While this book did a great job at building tension and creating an incredibly atmospheric world, I couldn't help but feel like it was missing something. The horror aspect I expected took way too long to show up and things were a bit too slow for my taste. I am always here for the super weird, but the delivery of this just didn't hit the same way as Wilder Girls. I think part of my issue is that much of this book feels like your standard contemporary fiction, which isn't something I usually care for.

Still, Burn Our Bodies Down had some wild twists at the end and I definitely enjoyed the creepy farm setting. There were lots of unique ideas here and I'm eager to see what Rory Power writes next!

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

After the powerhouse that is Wilder Girls, I was thrilled to be approved for Burn Our Bodies Down and started reading ASAP. I mean, look at that cover. Haunting and simple and violent--I couldn't love it more.

Margot's relationship with her mother is tenuous and complicated. They rely on each other, but Jo never discusses her past. Wanting answers and a family, Margot sneaks to her mother's childhood hometown in search of her grandmother, Vera. She finds her as a fire ravages the farmland that has been in their family for generations, but Vera comes with a complex mystery that threatens to send Margot's entire existence into upheaval.

To start, Burn Our Bodies Down is one of the best YA books I've read this year. I *FLEW* through this book. Power's writing is such a smooth experience, and I'd plowed through half of it before I could even blink. At seventeen, Margot is a solid narrator with competing emotions, insightful self-reflection, determination, and empathy. I loved her. Her voice was authentic and layered and beautiful in its raw honesty. Mother/daughter relationships can be tough to write. Defaulting to stereotypes or sugarcoating maternal instincts into one shared experience and universal truth has been a norm in literature for years. We talk about mother's love and automatically assume it's vast and all-encompassing. Oftentimes, however, mothers come with barbs and sharp edges. They can be selfish or martyring or materialistic, because, after all, they are people. Being a mother doesn't negate the person you were before motherhood, and seeing this painful, complex relationship breathed to life tugged at every heart string in my body.

The real kicker with this book follows that same thought wave, exploring the distinction between biological/genetic tendencies and free will. Are we destined to become our mothers because it's in our genes or is there more to our identities? Am I programmed to become my mother? While not a boogeyman or black market hostile, this is a very real fear for many young girls, especially at Margot's age when you're trying to navigate through early adulthood yet feeling tethered to your childhood. Ms. Britney Spears didn't write I'm Not a Girl (Not Yet a Woman) without cause. Wrought with allegory, imagery, and symbolism, Power dissects nature vs nurture in its most literal form which results in a horrific, nightmarish narrative that left me speechless.

Overall, Burn Our Bodie Down is a gripping, eerie exploration of motherhood and family bonds. Three million percent, you want to add this to your TBRs. Out in July, Burn Our Bodies Down is one everyone will for sure be raving about.

Huge thanks to RHC/Delacorte and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

I just don’t think this was for me. While I can see the appeal, I was so frustrated for most of this. All the confusing clues being dropped all the time is just not something I enjoy. Especially for it to just be all wrapped up in a conversation in the very last chapter.

3.5

Oh man. This book was kind of crazy.

The family relationships were exactly like you’d expect from a book like this. Messy and complicated.

The mystery was definitely there, but the plot as a whole was also not quite what I wanted, just like Wilder Girls. Rory Powers is great at the whole horror/gore/twists stuff, but the execution in both books just isn’t there for me. I spent most of this book wondering when stuff was actually going to happen. When it did, it was great, but a bit “too little too late” for me.

I wish some of the side characters had played a bigger role, too. Tess seemed important, and she was, but it just wasn’t enough. She and Eli seemed more like plot devices. Something about Jo was also a little off.

Overall, it was exciting and enjoyable and mind bending, but after this and Wilder Girls, maybe Rory Powers just isn’t the writer for me.

BURN OUR BODIES DOWN begins as an instantly moving, raw exploration of emotional abuse and neglect and very quickly and artfully evolves into an intricate, intriguing psychological thriller with notes of sci-fi and horror to round it out. Rory Power’s prose is sharp and riveting, lyrical almost, creating a narrative that is almost impossible to put down. I read about eighty percent of this book straight through one night before bed, and it was absolutely worth it.

This book puts a fresh spin on several well-known horror and sci-fi elements, keeping the plot enticing and full of deliciously shocking twists. Without giving anything away, I’ll say that I thoroughly enjoyed trying to guess what was going on - and while some of my suspicions ended up correct, the way it all played out still surprised me.

The characters and relationships in BURN OUR BODIES DOWN are stunning as well. Rory Power does a phenomenal job portraying the deep emotional and mental effects of gaslighting and emotional abuse, creating both an achingly sympathetic and fascinatingly unreliable narrator in Margot. Rory Power picks apart assumptions of character morality, showing that no person can be taken at face value and that emotional damage and corruption carry over generations. She explores themes of individuality, independence, familial obligation, and forgiveness through a refreshingly real perspective, making this story as thought-provoking as it is thrilling to read.

I am very excited for this book to be out in the world - I hope that many others will enjoy it as much as I did.

I loved this just as much if not more than Power's previous novel, Wilder Girls, and she's bringing us another divine standalone horror read.

I couldn't put this down, and I couldn't read it with the birds chirping and the sun shining either [for those of you wondering, I went and hid in my dark bedroom lol].

The plot sets you to be uneasy from the beginning as if you know something is not right but you can't figure it out and this unease and dread only grows and grows until the climax of the novel which leaves you feeling the full weight of the consequences that led to it.

Amazingly done and beautifully written another 5 star Rory Power read for me. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC of this in exchange for my honest opinion.

YASSSSSS! Rory can keep these weird creepy novels coming because I LOVE them! I enjoyed this one way more than Wilder Girls. I found myself turning page after page and loved it!

I haven't read Rory Power's Wilder Girls but when I saw this book on Netgalley, I decided to give it a try especially as it was promoted as "horror". I really like the author's writing style and I'd highly recommend this for anyone who loves YA and especially YA horror. It was really more mystery with a pinch of gore here and there. I would have loved this as a teenager, but as an older woman with adult children, I found it "okay". I feel you have to go into this deciding to suspend belief a bit so while I wanted it to feel like a real mother/daughter/grandmother relationship, it doesn't quite get there. There are also times within the story where you're like "yeah, this would never happen in real life"...such as being a teenager "helping" the police figure out what happened to another character and being allowed to go into the morgue.

Thank you to Netgalley and Randon House Children's for allowing me to read and review this title for free in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a strange book, but in a good way. I really love the way that Rory Power writes - you think you’ve got it all figured out and then NOPE. This isn’t to say that I didn’t guess a few things right, but man, there were certainly things I didn’t see coming.

TW: dead bodies, death, emotional abuse, body gore

Thanks to the publisher for sending an e-Arc my way! All opinions are my own.

As a fan of Wilder Girls, I was very excited for Rory Power's next book. It did not disappoint! It was chock-full of that eerie and unsettling feeling that pervaded Wilder Girls with a little extra mystery vibe thrown in. The final reveal is delightfully creepy and weird in a great way. From the blurb I did not at all get that the book had a supernatural element, so that affected my experience. The story felt so grounded from the well-detailed characters to evocative imagery, that when the fantasy/sci-fi element came in I was a bit thrown. But then got on board and loved the concept!

I felt the middle dragged a bit, since there was really only one overarching mystery thread to unspool and so I felt all the reveals kind of piled on top of each other at the end. For a thriller, the writing was also a bit more lyrical than I was used to so it felt a little repetitive at times story-wise. And since the story veers so wildly out of reality I felt a little cheated that the mystery wasn't one I could've solved on my own. I also would've loved Tess and Eli to have been a touch more developed.

Overall, a weird read I recommend!

Young Adult fiction at it's best! Beyond that...Is it Sci-fi? Mystery? Wow, I spent the entire book trying to figure out what exactly I was reading. Really well done, kept me guessing to the end. A very good kind of different!

Margot has always wanted to know about her family. Her mom won't talk about anyone else, and their life is barely held together. When Margot discovers a photograph with her grandmother's phone number, she leaves home to learn more about her mother's past. What she discovers along the way is nothing like she thought.

Burn our Bodies Down has an interesting mystery premise, but it took a really long time to get going. The relationship between Margot and her mother is strange, and wasn't resolved in a complete enough fashion for me. The ending was more than just unexpected--it seemed to come out of nowhere without enough backstory to hold it all together. This one was just too far out there to really work for me.