3 stars--I liked the book.

Wow, this is a weird, twisted piece of Prairie Gothic! I enjoyed the dark, strange, unusual plot. It does require some suspension of disbelief, but no problem! I loved the gothic imagery in this book--the black but still growing corn fields shimmering under the relentless sun. The twisted, twined together ears of corn. The apricot grove that contains a dark secret. And the family, alone in the farmhouse in the prairie, at the heart of it all...

I'd give this four stars, but I would have preferred a third-person narrator (I find first-person narration lazy in many cases. Why is YA filled with it?) for a more balanced/less emotional story. (Just a personal thing.)

I would have loved this so much as a teen!

I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!

I love Rory Power and I love this book. This is exactly the kind of thing I want to read and fill my shelves with. Almost from the very beginning I felt like I was stepping into The X-Files. You could tell something creepy was going on and speculate all day long, but there was no figuring out the puzzle until all the pieces were on the table. I thought the pacing was perfect. The characters were intriguing and made me want to figure out all their secrets. I did expect a darker ending than I got and I'm simultaneously relieved and disappointed that it turned out to be a pretty happy ending for the main character.

There is one thing about the plot I don't understand that I think needs clarification/editing. Main character Margot's mother is Josephine, and Jo has a twin sister named Katherine. Margot embarks on her adventure when she finds an old photo and a telephone number hidden in her mother Jo's bible. She travels to her grandmother's farm and finds her aunt Katherine's bible, which has been treated like a diary and reads like "Jo broke my arm," "Jo is sick," "Jo says we're not sisters anymore." But then that bible turns out to actually be Josephine's, not Katherine's. At one point Margot's friend Tess speculates that Margot's mother might in fact be Katherine. That would make sense, if Jo killed Katherine and then stole her identity, but that's never confirmed to have ever happened. Instead, Jo has always been Jo and Katherine has always been Katherine. So why is actually-Jo's bible blaming Jo for everything actually-Katherine did, and pretending to be Katherine pretending to be abused by Jo, when Katherine was the one mistreating Jo? That just makes my head hurt. I have no idea what that bible situation was all about. It is really, really confusing and I feel like it's supposed to be some eye-opening plot twist, and that fell flat because it makes no sense. That part was just very messy for me.

Where the story really shone were the interactions between mother/daughter and grandmother/granddaughter. Those scenes made up the majority of the book, but the scenes without those interactions occasionally felt a little weak or not fully fleshed out. I felt like the police should have been more persistent or their appearances more frequent, something to make them feel more of a threat to Margot. When they were out of sight, they were out of mind completely. I think in general some of the secondary characters had such small roles they came across as insignificant. When the Millers died, I didn't really feel upset or bothered. The character Eli almost had no purpose in the story at all, and if he were cut out completely nothing would change.

I like how Rory's books always seem to end a little ambiguously. Just the right amount. You're not left scratching your head in bewilderment, but you do wonder about what's going to happen to the characters and the conclusions aren't that hard to draw for yourself.

Thank you so much for the chance to read this book. I really enjoyed it and have preordered a physical copy of my own!

I was pulled in my the writing. The haunting quality and the mystery drew me in. Overall the story was unbelievably bizarre. I am not quite sure how I felt about it.

Thank you to Penguin Random House for sending me an e-arc of this book! I read Wilder Girls last summer and loved it, but this book was on another level. It elevated everything I loved about Power's writing. Her prose is stunning, her characters are gripping, and her ability to write scenes that simultaneously want to close my eyes and never look away is unparalleled. If this is the trajectory of her career, I'm so excited to see what she does next.

Burn Our Bodies Down was a difficult read for me. It starts right off with abuse, neglect, and gaslighting with a parental figure. Margot lives with her mother without any knowledge of any other family existing. When Margot finds a photograph with a note from her grandmother, it gives Margot a clue that other family exists.

Margot’s mother was upsetting and borderline triggering for me. There is a toxicity that almost hits home for me and the author is effective in portraying how this abuse weaves its way into other aspects of Margot’s life.

There is a sense of unease throughout this book that had me wondering “What is going on?” almost consistently. The twists were too late in the story, and at that point I didn’t really see what was so surprising by them. This book left me with a lot of feelings, and most of them were not necessarily good ones. I feel like this story was ultimately a miss for me.

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

*Quickly adds Wilder Girls to my must-read list*

Also unrelated but what the heck why is everyone obsessed with that Wilder Girls cover? It's nice, but there are way nicer covers, plz calm down.

Anyway!!! This book was pretty wild. I didn't know what I was getting into at first seeing as I've never read a book by Rory Power but I'm definitely pleasantly surprised. It felt like a quick read, but it really held a lot of information in such a few amount of pages. I thought I knew what was going on and had everything figured out and while I was close - I don't think I would have ever been able to really guess what the grand plot of the book was. I loved that. This author has such creativity and originality that is so refreshing especially in YA books that seem to use the same tropes continuously. This is one of those head-scratchers that makes you say "Where did they come up with this stuff??" but honestly it works.

Margot has a dysfunctional relationship with her mother to say the least, and they don't talk about the past or their history. When Margot finds a clue to where her mother grew up, she jumps at the chance to get some answers, but things aren't always as they seem in this gothic YA thriller.

The writing style was beautiful and flawless and while a lot of the dialogue was very dramatic and a little over the top, something about how artful and pretty everything was made this unproblematic to me, whereas if it were another book it might be a little cringy.

I'd definitely recommend it. A fun read that will keep you guessing and tug a little at the heartstrings if you've ever felt like Margot's felt.

I love this solely for the fact that it gave me what Wilder Girls, unfortunately, couldn't give me: an ending with all questions answered.

I feel like this book sort of copies the same outline as Wilder Girls: a mysterious illness that only targets girls, questions galore, two lesbian friends defying authority in order to get to the bottom of the mystery. All mkxed with a little Children of the Corn vibes.

This book had me mind boggled and saying wtf for a good 88% of it. I was so intent on trying to uncover the mystery behind Phalene and Fairhaven, and every new twist had me even more frustrated (in a good way lol) and confused.

Just like with Wilder Girls, I absolutely loved Rory Power's writing in this book. She definitely knows how to set up the perfect ambience for her stories, and there were so many quotable lines throughout out this book! She makes you feel for her characters; I totallk felt all the anger and frustration Margot felt towards her mother. I just wanted to hug her and never let her go.

The ending was a bit underwhelming once everything got answered but I was glad that all the questions were answered at all. So, I 1) definitely liked this book, even better than Wilder Girls and 2) definitely want to pick up more books by this author!



*thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for this arc in exchange for an honest review*

This was a very strange book. After reading the author's debut novel, WILDER GIRLS, I went into this book hoping for a twisty tale that unfolded in unexpected ways, and it certainly delivered on that account. The book flew by and was so quick and easy to read, which benefited the story due to the thriller/mystery genre. Overall, I didn't love the answers to the mystery but was very glad that the answers were provided in a conclusive way.

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!!