Margot has only ever known life with her mom, inside their small, dark apartment. Just her, her mother, and a candle. Margot’s mom has rules, she has control, and she’s suffocating Margot under the weight of it all—the unanswered questions, the isolation, the missing history and identity and everything in between. When Margot finally finds a small piece of a life that was, she takes the leap and gets out. But she runs so hard that she misses the warning signs, and once she gets to the one place she always longed to be, she realizes it might just be the one place she can’t escape from.

I had first read Rory Power’s Wilder Girls and instantly fell in love with Power’s world and girls and storytelling. When I got the chance to read her second novel, I jumped at the chance and wasn’t disappointed. Power’s voice is tumultuous and endearing, and I couldn’t stop reading Margot’s aches and pains and longing, her struggles and her unmovable will. The story itself was an enigma from beginning to end, and just like with her previous novel, I was itching to find all the secrets myself, unable to stop my search. While Margot is just a girl herself, her world is dark and abrasive and unforgiving, and sometimes that makes it difficult to read, but it’s always worth it to get just another page forward, to fight your way tooth and claw with Margot. I can’t wait to see what other world Power creates, but I know it’ll be one that takes strength of all kinds to survive.

Rory Power has knocked her second novel out of the park with an entry that is tight, with prose that is sharp as a knife and cuts in all of the right ways.

Margot Nielsen doesn't know anything about her family aside from her mother, and that relationship is fraught in ways she can never quite explain. When the chance to see where her mother came from, and to met her grandmother arises, she takes it and finds more mystery —and tragedy— than she could have prepared for.

Burn our Bodies Down is a story filled with trauma and the way we deal with it, family and the way it complicates itself, and also a land that has gone wrong and started sprouting *people*. The twists and turns through this book got me every time and I already want to read it again, go back in from the beginning knowing the truth so I can put each sentence under a spotlight.

This is an excellent story and one told in tense phrases that flayed me open and gave me life at the same time. If you enjoy messed up stories, tight prose, and characters that get under your skin and burrow deeper, this is a 2020 read you absolutely should not miss.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

Definitely a da fuq just read, but with creativity and elan. 3.5 rounded up

If you enjoy a heavy dose of creepy and disturbing, you’ll find plenty to like in Rory Powers’ new novel. Margot and her emotionally-absent mother have a very dysfunctional relationship, and when Margot stumbles across information about the grandmother that her mother has kept a secret, she thinks she will finally get an opportunity to be part of a larger family. She travels to the town in which her mother grew up, and quickly gets enmeshed in her grandmother’s twisty corn maze of secrets and lies. There are moments in which the creepiness crosses over into almost silly in its farfetchedness. And the diary entries that Margot discovers are extremely convenient. That being said, there’s a good bit to enjoy here.

Thanks to Random House Children’s Books and Net Galley for the digital ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an arc copy for review.

This story had me staying up late into the night to find out what was going on. I finished it in one sitting. I will say I wish the friendships were more developed, and that the story was longer.

This book was the Children of the Corn/Sharper Objects mashup of my dreams. Gorgeously written, and dealing with trauma in a way that doesn't sugarcoat or excuse abuse resulting from it. I'll probably have nightmares--but they'll be beautiful ones.

This is the successor to the VC Andrews hot family mess I never knew I needed. It's so poignant and thoughtfully crafted, the narration tip-toeing through emotions like Margot does. The way the story navigates cycles of abuse and neglect is both heartbreaking and enraging. You just want someone to see Margot, to really see her. This is an amazing follow-up to Wilder Girls. I read it in 2 days. I'll be recommending this to everyone this year, just like I did with WG last year. 💝

One of the best things about Rory Power's books is that she includes a list of trigger warnings for her books. Normally, I don't use these-- but in this case, I wish I did. Read them here: https://itsrorypower.com/books/burn/ and choose wisely about if you want to continue on. The first few chapters of this book had such turbulent emotional abuse from the main character's mother that I almost had to stop reading. It's heavy stuff, and I don't want anyone to go in unprepared the same way I did. The abuse and trauma in this book is awful, raw, and real. But that's exactly what abuse is, and what abuse creates.

 I was a huge fan of Wilder Girls, Power's debut novel. I was also aware of how the few things I disliked about Wilder Girls were attributed to Wilder Girls being a debut novel. So I was ecstatic to plunge in and start something new as soon as it was announced. Burn Our Bodies Down introduces us to the heroine Margot who lives alone with her mother in an apartment in a nondescript small town. Her mother is emotionally unstable- bringing home bizarre combinations of food like bell peppers and seltzer water for dinner, snapping at her daughter for the slightest misstep of words, and refusing to share anything about her past, or where her daughter comes from with her. Her mother's only rule: Keep a candle lit. Don't let the wind blow it out. Keep the flame burning at all times-- and remember: the flame will save you. Then one day, when repurchasing her mother's own belongings from the pawn shop down the street, she finds something she hasn't seen before. A bible, with a photo and a mysterious inscription, that leads her to  dialing a stranger in a payphone. When a warm voice answers, speaks with her-- and tempts her with the possibility of being not only wanted somewhere, but perhaps loved, Margot heads back to her mother's hometown of Phalene to meet her grandmother, and see the place that built and broke her mother. The town holds a cast of mysterious characters- from her grandmother with a warm exterior and a mysteriously harsh and cold exterior, to the police department that holds some kind of bizarre grudge against her family for an unsolved rash of fires, to her grandmother's neighbor, who Margot might love, if she wasn't so frustratingly annoying and self-minded in almost every single way. Once the town has a grip on her, Margot has multiple mysteries to solve. Who started the fire that pushed her mother to leave, all those years ago? Who started the fire in the cornfield when Margot first entered town, and who was the girl whose body they found in the cornfield? Why did her mother leave-- what happened to these generations of broken women, and why does the corn not grow anymore on their family's land? 

The book examines generational trauma in a painfully blunt way. When the main character faces her mother's past, she has to balance the knowledge of her mother's trauma, and the way her mother has impacted her through what can only be described as abuse. It's a story of recovery, of coming to terms with the things that have happened to you and the impacts it has made on your life. The thing that was painful for me most in this book is that I know the main character's battle. Generational trauma is a brutal force that can destroy lives, and through this book, we see Margot identify the source of that trauma. I don't want to give away what that source is, because it's the very core of the book-- however, the horror tone that it takes on brings a slight bit of frustration. What wouldn't we give to have a mysterious, supernatural, horrific cause to generational trauma? In the end, real life generational trauma is created by people doing harm to others, and the truth is harsh and unrelenting. While Burn our Bodies Down takes on a similar tone of harshness, I can't help but think Margot's been handed an easier pill to swallow than the rest of us have been. It's worth the read- in the end, I'm left with hope for the main character. The book's far lonelier than Wilder Girls was- Margot only has herself to rely on, but that brings the book part of its charm. You really get to know Margot, as she gets to know herself, without the distraction of other characters. That said, I miss the overtones of friendship and romance that Wilder Girls carried, and hope that future books won't be quite as lonely.

I read Wilder Girls which I really liked but I loved this one. The cycle of abuse portrayed felt so real. So did the setting. I felt like I could feel the heat. The plot was so strange I couldn't wait to find out what was going on. It could be a bit graphic towards the end. I really look forward to what Rory Power writes next.

Another knockout body horror-filled thriller from Rory Powers. Tellingly, I stayed up way too late to finish it because I just couldn't put it down.

Margot searches for answers about her family's mysterious past from the grandmother she never knew about--only to learn the hard way about all the horrifying secrets her mother was trying to keep from her by keeping her away from the very same family Margot is so determined to learn about. A fire and a dead girl who looks exactly like her, a small town struggling to survive, a farm full of strangely mutated corn, and a line of women who all look unnaturally similar-- and all of it, somehow, related to Margot and her grandmother.

This book was very disturbing and the ending is definitely not what you're expecting. The writing was good and very atmospheric, but definitely creepy. Good for fans of suspenseful horror with a twist of weird.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Children's Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was a huge HUGE fan of Wilder Girls so when I saw this, I jumped at the chance. This book, while completely different from Wilder Girls, is just as good if not better.
There is a trigger warning for abuse. However, this has to be one of the most realistic portrayals of abuse and neglect I have ever read in a YA book. It was one that I could relate to all to well as Margot's relationship with her mother reminded me of mine. Especially some of the deceit that takes place.

The story is fantastic, fast pace and keeps you guessing. I found it very easy to connect to Margot and actually become very invested in her. It was to the point where my heart was pounding for her and what she was going through. Rory Power wrote this book with some much passion, so much heart, it all jumps across the pages to you and you can't help but become wrapped up in it.

Fantastic!!

This book wasn’t for me but I can definitely appreciate it for the story it told. It was well written and the overall plot was well thought out:

Give Rory Power all the money and all the book deals. I love her, I love her writing and she is becoming and instabuy author for me!

"That yes, it's exactly what they think, and nothing like it, and a hundred other things at once. I will always wish I were hers, and I will always want to be only my own. I haven't found a way yet to make the two fit."

I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Random House/Delacorte Press. Trigger warnings: death, child/twin death, fires, violence, guns, abusive households, mental/emotional abuse, mental illness, threats.

For as long as she can remember, it has always been Margot and her mother, just the two of them against the world and, sometimes, against each other. Margot has learned to navigate her mother’s strange idiosyncrasies, which include not asking questions about the past. But Margot longs for a family, to know her history so that she might know herself and, finally, belong somewhere. When she discovers a clue in her mother’s old things, it leads her to the small farming town, Phalene, where everyone seems to know her face–and her story–except Margot. The more secrets she uncovers, the more she begins to suspect that there’s something rotten lurking in her family tree, something her mother may have had good reason to run from.

While Wilder Girls fell a little short for me in terms of character and overall cohesiveness, I fell in love with Power’s writing style, and I’ll likely seek out all her future books for that reason alone. She has a gift for capturing the uncanny and the off-putting in beautiful prose, and lovely/creepy is basically my personality in a nutshell. I still love the concept of Wilder Girls more, but it was a first novel and reads like one. Burn Our Bodies Down feels a touch more sophisticated on a storytelling level: stronger character development, more thematic unity, and better closure on the overall plot.

Did I mention that Power has a gift for the uncanny? It’s not as graphic in this novel as it is in Wilder Girls (which may appeal to a wider pool of readers who can’t do body horror), but it’s there. There’s a subtle ripple of unease running throughout the entire book, everything just ever so slightly off center, like walking into a familiar room where something has been moved. (My friend Roberta at Offbeat Ya calls it Contemporary With A Twist, and I think this would fit nicely on that shelf.) While the plots have little in common, I was frequently reminded of Bone Gap by Laura Ruby, largely thanks to the cornfields and the general sense of wrongness everywhere. She also has some Nova Ren Suma vibes, in the way that they both write unsettling stories with largely female casts.

Right from the beginning, we have a clear sense of who Margot is and what she wants, how the longing for a family is tearing her up inside. She’d do anything to have it, ethics be damned, and it makes for a fine morally gray heroine (and an emotionally fragile child that I just want to see things get better for). Her relationships with her mother and grandmother are fraught, complex, and not a little dysfunctional. Her relationship with Tess isn’t quite as strong, but since the real heart of the novel is family, that makes sense. Margot’s character development is also top-notch, and we really have the sense that things have shifted in a big way for her by the end of the novel.

The suspense builds slowly as Margot unearths more and more evidence that there’s something wrong with her family, and the plot is similarly slow-moving. I didn’t mind because there was plenty of pretty writing, atmosphere, and character building to keep me occupied, but it’s not going to work for readers who prefer a lot of things “happening.” I almost wish Power hadn’t tried to explain things at the end. It’s a fine twist of reasoning, more science fiction than the supernatural I was expecting, but it’s not the real payoff of the novel. It’s a weird, lovely, unsettling book, not quite like anything else I’ve ever read. I’ll be looking for a copy for my bookshelf when it’s released.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

Excellent book that gives me major vibes of Tarryn Fisher's Marrow. Very unexpected twists and I couldn't help but keep reading. Hard to put down.

This is by far the strangest book that I have ever read. It just didn't make sense, even after being explained.

This book was a slow burn horror for the ages. The mother/daughter dynamic was toxic and compelling. I loved this sophomore effort and will now just read anything that Rory Power writes ever.

Keep a Fire Burning. Fire is what saves you.

Burn Our Bodies Down begins as a story about a complicated mother-daughter relationship. It’s messy and horribly dependent. Margot knows nothing about her mother’s past or her extended family, and when her curiosity is too much, she leaves her life behind in order to find the truth. Margot quickly finds out that her past and the truth are things that should have stayed buried.

There is a heaviness there that grows and grows as their story unfolds. Rory Power does a lurking quiet weirdness the best and it really shines in this book. The matriarchal relationships are twisted and unsettling. The women are complicated and wonderful. The small-town atmosphere and the descriptions of fields of corn create the perfect backdrop for a story like this. I have never been so uneasy about corn before and probably won’t look at them the same way again. Also, it wouldn’t be a Power book, I feel, without some pretty gruesome horror descriptions. I meant it.

There is something about Rory Power’s way of writing that just lingers after you finish a sentence or close one of her books. She’s able to create short sentences with so much meaning and I am really in awe of her talent as a writer. Burn Our Bodies Down is no different. It’s a thrilling, horrifying ride that you just can’t put down. I feel like my words are not doing this story justice, but you need this dark read in your hands.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley, Delacorte Press, and Random House Children’s for an ARC copy in exchange for a review. *

This was...bizarre to say the very least, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but, I'm not sure all the craziness and weirdness completely worked for me. The writing was fabulous and I really did enjoy something original, especially in this genre so bonus stars for that.
Overall, not a bad story just different in ways both good and bad.