I read lots of witchy books in October. Unfortunately this one didn't grab my attention and I ended up not finishing it; more of a "me" problem than an issue with the book itself. I am also typically not a teen fiction fan, so that was probably the problem here.

This one was quite a good read. It’s a dark family thriller with good character writing.
I really enjoy the characters with flaws, though the main character wasn’t all to sympathetic to me.
The plot is creepy, unconventional and complex. And I really liked it. There were several moments, where I was shocked and speechless.
The writing style is really good and kept me reading page after page.
The best parting this book Are the Dark atmosphere and the horror elements.
It’s a perfect Halloween or autumn read.

My Thoughts
Unfortunately, I found this book to be just ok. Here are my pros and cons for Burn Our Bodies Down:

Pros

1. The synopsis was intriguing enough to make me want to read the book.
2. The book started out reasonably well and I was very interested to find out why Margot’s mother was keeping her extended family from her.

Cons

1. Margot (too conveniently) found a photograph that identified a family member who lived in a nearby town called Phalene. When Margot got to Phalene the story went off the rails for me. Almost everything that happened after that point got super weird and often confusing.
2. The story bogged down in the middle and I found it to be repetitive and sometimes absurd.
3. The ending… huh? I’m sorry but that was a very strange ending.
4. The book was closer to science fiction than mystery/thriller.

Summary
This book had the potential to be seriously creepy. There was a sense of foreboding in the initial story and it was indisputably unconventional! I was hoping I had a great thriller or at least an intriguing family drama on my hands. Unfortunately, I didn’t have either one. The story deviated from potentially creepy and thrilling to repetitive and convoluted. And the ending was extremely bizarre and over-the-top!! I know others have loved this book, but I was disappointed.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children’s/Delacorte Press for a free eARC of this book, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

The pandemic did terrible things to my Netgalley to-read pile! So I totally forgot I requested this, but I was very excited to rediscover it. I'm a big fan of Power's first book, Wilder Girls, which is a poetic powerhouse of body horror. I know, I know. Body horror isn't usually = poetry. But like Wilder Girls, Burn Our Bodies Down is both horrifying and enchanting.

Are there mysterious relatives, a secretive past, and a dead doppelganger? Why yes, yes there is. And honestly, that's not giving anything away.

Margot lives alone with her mother. Her emotionally distant, borderline abusive mother, who, by the way, has a strange affinity with fire. Anyhoo, Margot wants to find out more about their family, and basically live her own life. She finds information about her maternal grandmother in a pawn shop, and embarks on an adventure to find out what it REALLY means to be a Nielsen girl.

All the stars for this one!! And many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Thank you so much @DelacortePress & @NetGalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 07 July 2020)

SYNOPSIS | Margot has a strained relationship with her mother, but she wants to know more about her family & where her mom came from & why they are living in a run-down apartment selling their belongings to the local pawn shop just to get by. Margot finds a photograph of her grandma pointing her to a town in Phalene, but when she arrives it isn't exactly what she was hoping for.

WHAT I LIKED:
- atmospheric & engaging read
- rural small town vibe
- core message of violence being cyclical

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- the ending. I didn't want an explanation of the big twist & I wish they'd left the magic to be unexplained. Let the weirdness speak for itself.
- that there is no romance at all in this story
- a lot of the book is just following Margot around as she interacts with other characters & tries to uncover what is really happening at her Grandma's farm
- quite a few subplots & characters had no relation to the overall story & ultimately just felt like a filler

'Burn Our Bodies Down' by Rory Power is creepy, dark, and compulsively readable. The narrator, Margot, is a 17 year old girl who has grown up with a neglectful, aloof mother whose past is closely guarded. Margot desperately desires family and to find a place she belongs. She contacts her grandmother who she's never met and runs away to her farm in the country. Margot starts to realize there is a dark reason her mother has kept her away from her grandmother. The pacing is a little slow at first, but I couldn't put it down as I wanted to know what was really happening. Overall, a fascinating, atmospheric novel.

Thank you Delacorte Press and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

Rory Power has a way with words and weird story plots that shines in this book. The setting is lush and well-written and the characters seems to pop off the page. This story is fantastic and a fun, but creepy read. I really loved this book and the overall story and this book has helped to make me a Rory Power fan!

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Margo and her mom have a strange relationship. They're close but not in a healthy way. Margo decides she wants to know more about her family, so after some digging she winds up on her grandma's farm. Just as a fire breaks put and a dead girl is discovered.

This is first book by this author, so I didn't know what to expect. It's creepy and weird, full of twists. I did see a few coming but overall, I enjoyed the ride.

Burn Our Bodies Down finds its strength in its atmosphere and character work. Margot, the narrator, jumps off the page, as do the various side characters. The writing here is also a draw; it's weird and jagged, with lots of fragments, but it fits the tone of the book rather well. From the very first chapter you get the sense of wrongness, of dysfunction. Margot's toxic relationship with her mother in particular is written extremely well.

However, much of the story really just hinges on the mystery of Margot's origins and the big plot twist at the end, which is revealed far too late, and doesn't really give the reader or Margot time to reflect on it. I think I mainly kept reading just because I was curious to see what the big reveal was, and it was satisfying, I guess. I like that it wrapped everything up pretty clearly and things mostly made sense and came together well, though I didn't love how the climax happened. I would have preferred if the reveal had not come at the 94% mark but much earlier, and we'd had an opportunity to engage with what it meant.

Nevertheless, this was a fast and entertaining read, though nothing to write home about.

Fantastic and haunting. Perfect read that will stay after me long after i finished. Rory Powers has a way of crafting an atmospheric read that makes one need to continue reading long past the time to sleep.

well this was ...weird
Rory Power knows how to write a strange and creepy book and she captures tone really well. I also am a big fan of her writing style. I'm not even sure if I liked this, but she hooked me onto the plot and I wanted to keep reading.

That being said, this book for what the plot is did not need to be 350 pages. This easily could have been a novella that had the same level of suspense and drama. Considering Margot is not the best developed character, I was expecting more for the page count. I felt like she had all of two defining traits, and her entire characterization revolved around her mother ... which is fine but I don't think her characterization matched with the message of the story by the end. I wish this had been condensed because I would have liked it better.

If you're looking for a creepy and vaguely speculative mystery, I would still say this may be worth your time. I just know I'm likely not the reader for Rory Power's books, so while I like this for what it is, I'm not sure I want to spend my time picking up more of her work. Don't get me wrong, this was an enjoyable and fun read... but I wanted a bit more.

I am not usually a YA reader, but I have heard great things about this author and wanted to try this book. It had all of the weird and creepy elements I was expecting.

The premise is that Margot, a 17 year old girl has always had questions about her family. Being raised by a single mother, she has always wondered about her extended family, but her mom has always been very secretive about them. After she finds a bible that gives a little more information, she runs away to meet her grandmother, but it definitely isn't as it seems.

Parts of the books really dragged for me and Rory Power's writing style did take some getting used to. Overall, it was a good book, but I just don't think YA does it for me anymore.

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power was an extremely slow read. I found it hard to really get into this book. I don't think it was super fleshed out. It was a bit disappointing. I really like Power's writing style, I just wish the story had more meat to it. I felt like the book could have a bit fast paced and the twists were just too predictable.

This had my heart racing! This would have to be one of my favorite thrillers. There were so many twists and turns. In the beginning I thought I had everything figured out. I thought it was going to be very predictable. But believe me, I was very wrong! It took many turns that I didn't even think would happen, I was so shocked!

I thought Wilder Girls was amazing, this one just blows it out of the water! It makes me excited to see what else Rory Power releases!

This was such a twisty, tue you story. Anything I expected to happen didn’t and everything I thought was crazily imagined wasn’t. The genetic manipulation was a unique plot thread. I was hooked in till the end.

i really enjoyed reading this book, it was spooky and had a great mysterious plot. The characters were great and I had a good time reading this.

Horror elements will appeal to teen readers. Margot's anger is SO intense it oozes from the pages. The plot is slow to build, but the plot twist at the end is freaking awesome! Stephen King - worthy ending.

Wilder Girls was one of the most unique books I read last year, so I was expecting a lot from Burn Our Bodies Down. I was left disappointed. I felt like the main character wasn't fleshed out enough and I couldn't connect with her.

This ending of this book is wild and so so weird. But definitely MY kind of weird. There are little seeds along the way for you to almost predict what’s going on, but the answer is just so bizarre that I doubt anyone will actually be able to guess it. It wasn’t a perfect story, but I highly recommend it to anyone who wants something creepy and will keep you on your toes.