I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and author Rory Power for providing me with an ARC of Burn Our Bodies Down!

I wanted to like this so badly. I really did. I gave it about 40%, and I just couldn't do it. It was so bizarre, but not in a good way. I didn't know what was happening, where this was going, anything. The story line was all over the place and I just couldn't figure out what story was trying to tell itself. Super sad, but this one just wasn't for me.

Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

I received a free e-book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This was a super strange story. Just try to describe it to someone. I really loved it and was somewhat addicted. I don't know what kind of "problem" the Mother has, but omg that hit home. I have dealt with similar things in my family. It brought tears to my eyes. I read this as an ebook, but for the feeling and understanding I received, I think I need a physical copy to keep. I had kinda figured out the situation, but still loved the reveal. Great book!

This was my first book by this author, and it was enjoyable. I like the way the author wrote this book; it made it feel more realistic and like I was in the MC’s head. However, it didn’t stand out to me or make me want to turn the pages as fast as I could. It was interesting, but I feel like it didn’t become ‘high stakes’ until Chapter 24. I enjoyed the plot twists, but this isn’t a book I want to also have a hard copy of since I read the ARC. It was definitely creepy and had horror elements, but I just felt like I wasn’t wholly sucked in to the story until Chapter 23/24.

Very spooky, but could not put it down! I loved the atmosphere, but sometimes hoped for more suspense/horror

To go through this novel was like pulling out a tooth. In the best way. Burn Our Bodies Down was my first Rory Power’s book but I had heard raving things about her debut book, Wilder Girls. It was recommended to me by many friends for its body horror and Power’s prose but I never really got to it (even though I will read it one day) and had the chance to get an e-arc of Burn Our Bodies Down thanks to the publisher.

Now let me tell you why this book felt like pulling out a tooth. It’s a book about strained, complex family relationships. It deals with family abuse, gaslighting, and generational trauma. As it happens, I experienced and still experience these things regularly, and hence, it was a heavy and complicated read for me. But it was a necessary one because it made me meet and fall in love with Margot Nielsen, the main character.

Margot runs away from the apartment she shares with her mom, before her 18th birthday, to find remnants of her family in the person of her grandma who lives in the rural town that is Phalene. In this dying midwestern town where her grandma rules over her estate, Fairhaven, and her strange corn crops, Margot will discover the answers she was looking and longing for. From the start, this book is a race towards belonging, a sense of family, and the need to know your own history. I find it very fitting that a story that has at its core an arc on finding your own roots, features a lot of corn and a lot of horrors that come from plants and agriculture and the idea of seeding things and watching them blossom, grow and finally decay. Thematically, this book is a 10/10 because Rory Power manages to create a complex thread of patterns between horror in the most classical sense and personal growth. It is not graphic, but it is haunting and disturbing and it sticks with you like apricot smashed in your grips. Finally, this book is a slow, almost too sweet horror novel that traps you before masterfully displaying its genius and its frightening elements.

However, since the book handles some heavy and possibly triggering topics, the author has shared a list of trigger and content warnings on her website, so you can dive in knowingly and safely into the disturbing town of Phalene. This book is not for everyone. It is not action-packed and things take time to unravel. However, it’s a book that required strength and pulling out some heartaches and grief to be written. It’s a book that needs to be approached slowly. What a wild thing.

I love books that deal with parental abuse and especially complicated relationships with mothers because it mirrors some of my experience. What Rory Power described in her book was authentic, heart-wrenching, and completely earthshattering for me to a point where I had to put the book down and was like « Yes. Yes. It is me. I’m going through this. I have these patterns of thoughts. » To recognize your own trauma and abuse through books is often a double-edged sword as it allows you to put words and feelings, and even a sense of belonging on what you are going through, but it also drains you and often imposes you to put some distance between you and the actual book.

It took me a whole month to get to the bottom of Burn Our Bodies Down. I needed to process. I needed to be in the right headspace. It was not the kind of book I could have took with me for my two-weeks vacation. It was the book I needed to read in my childhood bedroom where I’m currently typing these lines.

Rory Power’s prose is striking. It makes me want to improve my craft so I will be able to convey feelings and characterization in such an acute way. She has a way to carry traumas and character’s behavior through the small details that really blow me away. I’ve never highlighted a book as much as I did with this one because the writing was absolutely what I crave for: it was brutal, straight to the point, but also full of introspection and with a certain degree of lyricism. Boi, I almost highlighted the acknowledgment.

"Lie, I tell myself. Lie, and apologize now, before she can ask for it. If I pull the pin myself, the grenade will hurt me less when it goes off."

I really loved the plot and how it was a brilliant quest for a gaslighted traumatized young sapphic woman towards healing, self-love, and boundaries. I mean without spoiling anything, the book literally ends with « brand-new » and I cannot tell you enough how much power these two single words convey. This book has no romance even though the main character is portrayed as sapphic and is completely focused on family relationships and I loved that. Sometimes when you are a kid or a teenager who goes through abuse and gaslighting from your own family, from the people who are supposed to instinctively care for you, it tends to alienate you, to shield you from the rest of the world. Rory Power’s understands that and it shows in how she describes Margot’s relationships with the teenagers she met in Phalene, Tess, and Eli. It was really interesting to read about how you can repeat abuse from one generation to the next one and what it takes to break this cycle. Codependency and dysfunctionality in the relationship between Margot and her mother (and also to the same extent, with her grandmother, Vera) were explored in a really heartfelt nuanced approach. It was essential to the plot, intertwined with Margot’s character development. It was everything, and yet it did not feel forced or fake. Codependent abusive relationships are often built upon the ambivalence between hate and love and it was perfectly portrayed here.

The ending left me speechless. And yeah, maybe it was a bit rushed, maybe it was conveniently tying up the plot and the narration. But I don’t care. I don’t care because it was a powerful striking ending that let me aching and breathless and it was sad, cruel, and hopeful at the same time. Nothing is convenient about processing your trauma and your familial history when it is Nielsen’s family history. I loved how eerie the ending was and the climax felt surreal as if you did not know what was real or not anymore. I just wished to have more of it, to know more about Margot’s journey after the end of Burn Our Bodies Down but maybe this was the point. Maybe this kind of reconstruction is the matter of another book.
To sum it up if you love your fair share of complex characters, of body horror that involves corns and apricots grove and the idea of people roting like fruits, but also the exploration of generational trauma and abuse, this book is for you. I’m really excited to see what is coming next for Rory Power after this masterpiece. Ah, I am told that her adult debut, In A Garden Burning Gold will come out in 2022. It apparently features twin sisters with great power and near-immortality dealing with threats against their family. I AM SOLD. (Also, I heard about a #icebook featuring two exes and mountain but it stays between you and me, reader) Furthermore, if you loved the mother/daughter relationship depicted in Ashley Blake’s How To Make a Wish (a favorite of mine, a romance featuring a sapphic interracial relationship and a lot of discussions about abuse and codependency in the familial environment) you will love the relationship between Margot and her mother.

I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this book.
Burn our bodies down is a masterpiece!!

It reminded me of Children of the Corn (Movie series) so much with the very similar atmosphere and small town vibe (and corn), but the story was very different and oh my God, it was soooo good.

I have to admit that it wasn't the love at first sight.
The writing style was great, and it kept me reading and reading (plus I loved Power's debut Wilder Girls), but Margot was not the character I would root for, and her reading about her relationship with her mother was bitter for me, because of my own relationship with my own mother.

In this period of my life, when I really don't have time to read, I managed to finish Burn our Bodies Down in four days.
It was just too interesting and I cleared my schedule of everything just so I could read.

My favourite part of the story was the atmosphere and horror elements, and as I already said in my review for Wilder Girls, I want to read everything Rory Power writes.

I highly, highly recommend Burn our Bodies Down!

Margot has spent her 17 years desperate to achieve her elusive and cold mother's love. When she discovers a phone number in an old bible from her mother, she calls it and discovers her estranged grandmother on the other line. Margot longs for love and family so she seeks out her grandmother and the small town that her mom grew up in. But something strange is happening in the town, and it seems that Margot is smack dab in the middle of it.

Ok, full disclosure here, this might be a case of it's me not you.
This is my second read from this author and I have unfortunately not been a fan of either one- there was so much potential, but then I was let down. I feel like I spent most of both her books having no idea what is going on and not completely certain I really even want to find out. I found Burn Our Bodies Down to be confusing with a meh narrator that I did not really care about or root for with a random plot that finally had an answer in the last 30ish pages- but by that point it was too little too late for me.

Keep in mind that I seem to be an outlier and most people loved this twisty, very unique and creepy mystery. Give it a try if that sounds like your cup of tea.

I’m not sure what it is about this story but it was too weird for my taste. There will be YA’s that will relate and love this story as it covers family relationships, teen struggles, and creepy happenings.

At first I was not sure what to think of this book. Boy did that change fast. After the first few chapters I was hooked. Its a very interesting story line, sometimes a bit frustrating but in a good way. The author did a great job presenting such an interesting subject that's imposable and make you feel like it could happen.

This book is full of mystery! If I could I would have read it in one sitting. Power writes in a way that makes you need to keep reading. This is a mystery full of unease - you don't know where the true danger lies. A good mixture of real life and science fiction horror. It gave me I'm Thinking of Ending Things vibes.

What’s not to love ... queer characters, old farmhouses, rural small towns, cornfields, simply creepy?!?! Then add on a strained relationship between mother and daughter and I knew I so could relate. However, Margot, age 17 our main character, I just didn’t connect with and just couldn’t get invested in this story unfortunately. Boo!! I was really hoping to be completely mesmerized Flipping the pages and it just didn’t do it for me. Hope this one works for you. For me, just not my cup of tea if you will. Womp, womp.

One might say: There are different levels of different.

Read this book and you might say: Out of the box that is within a circle.

Just let that sync in. Go ahead, take a minute. Read it again.

Out of the box that is within a circle.

Now follow the number trail down. You will get it at the end.

5

4

3

2

1

And Snap! Now you have all the answers! It all makes sense, right?

WRONG!!
I can come up with a fancy looking phrase and dress up the experience, but if it is gibberish, it is still just gibberish no matter how pretty you make it look!! "Out of the Box that is within a circle". That makes about as much sense as this book did in the end.

It has always been just Margot and her mother. Her mother is somewhat emotionally abusive and extremely manipulative. She has always refused to share any information about her past, where she is from, including her own mother, Margot’s grandmother, who is still alive. Margot desperately wants to learn more about her family’s origins and her mother’s past. One day, she decides to visit her grandmother. While staying with her, Margot notices it is certainly a different world where her mother grew up and she understands some of the reasons as to why her mother is the way she is. Additionally, there is a mysterious death that hangs over her visit as well. Her arrival in her grandmother's town was met with an immediate disaster. A huge fire in her grandmother’s corn fields. Margot runs into the fire because she sees someone. They pull her out of the fire, only to discover she is already dead, but most disturbingly she looks identical to Margot’s mother. This woman is not her mother so who is she? What was she doing in the field? How did she die and where did she come from? What is going on??

This book had very pretty writing that I enjoyed reading and the initial plot had me intrigued. This is where my "likes" list ends. It becomes a long drawn out story that gets deeper in baby steps and weirder in adult steps. This alone made my interest wan. In addition, there was so many little strings of plot pulled in tiny directions that do not end up materializing into significant pieces to the final plot, therefore they mostly leave you stretched and uncompelled. I was brain half in half out by the time of the big reveal. So yes, it is certainly a bizarre and unexpected twist! Some readers think it is awesome. Unfortunately, I was ready for it to be over and even that crazy ending wasn't going to save the 90% that was way too long and overly disjointed. Ultimately, it felt like an attempt to salvage the book with a rare and outré ending. Yes, I just used the word "outré" and yes, I get 100 points for that!

*Thank you to Random House Children's via NetGalley for providing me with the digital review copy.

Burn Our Bodies Down is an eerie YA novel that was a total page-turner. I found myself unable to stop reading this one and tore through it in one day! Much like Rory Power's debut, this is a chilling, mysterious, and atmospheric teen novel with a dose of body horror (though this one doesn't have quite as much body horror as Power's debut, Wilder Girls). The atmospheric setting of a corn farm reminded me of Children of the Corn, and this brought so much to the story!

I loved that this book is about complicated familial relationships between women--specifically mothers and daughters, but also with sisters and grandmothers. It's about being held at a distance and desperately wanting a piece of another person who doesn't know how to give it. I so appreciate books that are casually sapphic--i.e. the character is gay AF but it's not even made into a thing! So here for that.

Much like Wilder Girls, Burn Our Bodies Down will likely be a divisive book. I suspect there will be readers who LOVE it and there will be readers who are dissatisfied and hate it. I'm definitely on the 'love it' side of the spectrum, though I think I like Wilder Girls just a teensy bit more. Rory Power is an incredibly talented writer and there is obvious care and intention in every single sentence. I'll definitely be buying a copy for my library and recommending it to teen readers looking for a dose of creepiness!

This didn't work out for me. I haven't read Wider Girls, so this was my first book by the author. I never really cared for the main character, and the story really seemed to drag only to speed up at the last minute. I guessed what was going on pretty early, so struggling through this only felt like more of a letdown. All in all, I don't think this author is for me.

Rory Power's debut Wilder Girls was one of my favorite books that I read last year, and I've been eagerly looking forward to reading her next book, Burn Our Bodies Down. This one takes readers to a strange small town where Margot is searching for answers about her family's history. Along the way, she uncovers a horrifying secret that links herself, her mother, and her grandmother to the family farm.

It's eerie, unsettling, and really gross (seriously, Power has a gift for the gross). I can be a little squeamish, but it's Power's writing that keeps me coming back for more. Her heroines are always that perfect blend of sharp edges and a vulnerable core, her mysteries always unfurl in ways you don't expect. In particular, I loved the line she explores here between wanting to belong to someone and wanting to stand on your own. Margot longs for the kind of relationship with her mother that she'll never have, but also prides herself on her independence. She spends the book reconciling the two, a matter made all the more complicated as she learns the truth about their relationship.

If you're looking for a YA novel that blends horror and mystery, and if you loved Wilder Girls, you won't want to miss Burn Our Bodies Down.

Want to thank Netgalley for this ARC. I was given this ebook in exchange for a review.

Now it is slow- however all mysteries can be slow, it’s a slow burn and curiosity works its way under your skin as you learn more and more.

Go in knowing nothing and don’t rush. Take your time and think about the story. There’s props to the story that make it interesting like rot, teeth, apricots, dirt, fire, corn, even dresses.

A book about a mother-daughter relationship that’s complicated as it can be. I loved that theme and it really spoke to me.

Worthwhile and really seeps into your brain satisfyingly. Could potentially be a really good video game!

My interest while reading this went up and down like a hill. The opening felt a little cerebral and bizarre and it took a few chapters for me to get into it. As the mystery revealed itself I became curious about the family secrets and blatant deceit. I found the writing wonderfully compelling and I kept wanting to escape into the story. But finally my interest fizzled out when it took a weird supernatural turn.

Burn Our Bodies Down does a few things incredibly well. I loved the level of atmosphere and slow-burn horror feel once Margot arrives at her grandmother's. I also thought it was an interesting mix of genres, blending mystery and horror while tapping into coming of age YA as Margot comes to terms with a neglectful mother. However, I wanted to love this more than I did. The concept is terrifying, but once the story left the realm of reality I was pulled out of the book rather than drawn in to the horror that it truly is. It was a bit too bizarre for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children's Delacorte Press for an eARC of this book. I read Wilder Girls by Rory Power and loved it, which was why I requested this book. Although Burn Our Bodies Down was not as good as Wilder Girls, Rory Power delivered a spectacular horror/sci-fi/girl power book for older audiences. I really liked that I could not figure out the story the entire time! I was guessing the entire way and found myself just exhausted trying to play detective! Rory has a way of creating such beautiful and strange worlds and characters.

Welcome back!

How are you doing this week? I feel like I have been a reading machine lately! I am tackling my new night stand stack like no other (even though it is my biggest night stand stack yet)! I have wanted to read this particular book since I heard about it months ago and I was super lucky because I was able to get an E-ARC copy for my Kindle. But with everything that has been going on I did not get to it as soon as I had wanted or planned, so last month I was finally able to sit down with this book and I like blasted through this one. I read this book in a few days time span (it would have been less but I did have to break from reading for work, and adulting stuff). I enjoyed this book so much that I ended up ordering a physical copy to have in my collection (I totally made this decision when I was only like 50% of the way through the book and I am so happy to have a copy now that I am done reading so I can reread and maybe get my spouse to read)!

SPOILERS AHEAD

Margot has always lived her life with just her and her mother, but her mom has never been like other moms. Over the years Margot has learned how to deal with things but she really wants to know more about her other family (I mean there has to be someone out there right?). One day Margot finds the breakthrough she has been looking for all her life, she finds a photograph of her mother and someone else with a phone number on the back. Of course, she is going to call the number and when she does it leads her to a grandmother! Margot thought for sure the number would be disconnected or something by now. Margot is able to talk on the phone with her grandmother for a few precious moments before her mother shows up unexpectedly and immediately ends the call. This seals the deal for Margot and she decides she will run away and find her Grandmother, her mother's hometown, and possibly her family. However, when Margot gets there things are on fire, someone is dead, and her grandmother as well as her whole life is nothing as it seems.


I got sucked into this story so quickly. I wanted to know everything about Margot's mysterious family and the weird quirks her mother had and why. I wanted to see what her mother had run away from. Once we got there and the fire was already raging, I was confused, and upset because I honestly thought her grandmother that she worked so hard to reach had passed away. When this turned out not to be true and things took a turn in the story I was not expecting, I loved this story even more. I began creating theories that I wanted to tell my husband about for the story. I was like the gif with the crime board and the red string trying to figure out what was going on and every time the story took a time my theories would change. I can not wait to see what Rory Power writes next and I also can not wait for my copy to show up to add to my collection!


P.S. I did not want to go to far into the plot and mystery and things that happen after Margot arrives at Grandmother's but wow!


Goodreads Rating: 5 stars


**Thank you so much to the publisher for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review

This is my first time reading a book by Rory Power and I am officially a fan of her writing!

This book is about a teenage girl named Margot. She leads an emotionally difficult life alongside her mother, Jo, who withholds affection and constantly gaslights her. In search of more information about her mother's past, Margot stumbles upon a picture of a young Jo and a phone number that connects her to a grandmother she never knew she had. Margot sees this as her chance to finally have a normal relationship with a family member, but she didn't count on uncovering some very dark secrets about her family.

This was such a pleasure to read. I honestly didn't have any expectations when I requested to this title on Netgalley other than to get a feel for Rory Power's writing style, and what I got was an intricate mystery full of intrigue and suspense. I definitely recommend this title and will be on the lookout for future publications from this author.