I can’t stop thinking about this book. I honestly don’t know what to say about this one. Wow! Amazing! Fever dream! Strange! Weird! Are a few things that come to my mind. Seventeen year old Margot is living a bleak existence. She doesn’t get along with her Mom, who has kept has kept her family away from her for her entire life. When Margot finds a clue pointing towards a town called, Phalene, her journey begins. This book was incredible. I’ve never read anything like this and I can’t wait to see what Rory Powers does next.

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power - 5/5 stars

Trigger Warnings: Fire, Body Horror, Emotional Abuse/Gaslighting From A Parent, Death

I received a copy of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Everyone is bowing down to Ms. Power, correct? Because if you aren't, then you should be. Rory Power does not disappoint. She has completely solidified herself as a new favorite author. I loved her debut, Wilder Girls, and so I had very high hopes for her sophomore novel. Let me tell you, I was NOT let down. Burn Our Bodies Down was just as good!

I listened to this on audio, which I highly recommend! The narrator - Lauren Ezzo - stepped into Margot's voice perfectly. The eery, isolated feel of the novel is so perfectly depicted in this audiobook. If you have the ability to listen, I highly recommend.

This novel filled all of my creepy, weird, horror needs! While it wasn't scary per say, it was terrifying in a subtle way. Filled with realistic emotional abuse and horrific gaslighting from many family members in Margot's life and body horror that chills you to your core, this was an incredible story with so many twists and turns.

This was delectably weird and doesn't exactly give you all of the answers tied up in a neat little bow. There are still questions at the end of the novel, but it's done in such a perfect way that leaves you perfectly satisfied with unsatisfaction.

Margot is also queer in this novel!! Which is so beautifully done! She doesn't have a love interest nor is there a romantic storyline, but this doesn't take away from her queerness whatsoever. There aren't enough novels out there with protagonists who are just queer and it doesn't make up their entire storyline. It was so refreshing to see a queer main character without the story being a romantic one!

Rory Power is an absolute icon and I cannot wait to read literally everything else that she does. Everything.

Burn our Bodies down was not what I was expecting, and I was pleasantly surprised. The story is about a girl who looks just like her mother, but she feels no emotional connection to her whatsoever. Feeling alone, she goes prying into their family's past, looking for answers, and hoping to find a family to love her. The answers she finds lead her to Phalene, where her mother grew up. Trouble and secrets surround her, but she must know the truth.

What I loved about this story, was I had no clue where the twists and turns were taking me. I didn't know which characters to trust, and became suspicious of everyone. The ending was great. I can't say too much more about the ending, for I fear I will give something away. I was left with an unsettling in my heart, but I am pretty sure that it was purposeful.

First, it was blatantly obvious reading this that Rory Power didn't do her job in researching Nebraska. They're in northwest NE, on a *corn field* and the farther west they go, the *flatter* the land goes. Really, Rory Power? A basic search about Nebraska would've taught you about the Sandhills and the lack of corn fields in that area.

I truly thought the spooky horror elements of this book in the middle were really well done. I was so intrigued about what was going on with the family, and I thought Powers' writing was really great. I also think she got the atmosphere of a small town right.

However, I wasn't a fan of the anti-GMO allegory at the end of the book. That's totally my personal preference, but as someone who grew up in Nebraska and knows a lot about how corn is raised-GMOs are not something to be feared. I haven't seen anyone else bring this up in a review though, so I must be the only one getting that message.

Ever since Margot was born, it’s been just her and her mother. No answers to Margot’s questions about what came before. No history to hold on to. No relative to speak of. Just the two of them, stuck in their run-down apartment, struggling to get along. But that’s not enough for Margot. She wants family. She wants a past. And she just found the key she needs to get it: A photograph, pointing her to a town called Phalene. Pointing her home. Only, when Margot gets there, it’s not what she bargained for. Margot’s mother left for a reason. But was it to hide her past? Or was it to protect Margot from what’s still there? (Goodreads synopsis)

Much like Wilder Girls, this book is just different. It’s odd, its way outside the box, and sometimes you find yourself thinking “this is just so weird.” That said, I still really enjoyed this one! I was so confused at times of what was going on and why all of these crazy fires were happening, and who is this girl? In the end though, this book kept me trying to figure out what was actually happening until the very end!

I read a digital ARC of Rory Power's debut, Wilder Girls, last year, and while I loved her writing, I was disappointed by the character and relationship development (and by the abrupt ending). The writing in Burn Our Bodies Down is up to the same standard—beautiful and visceral—but unfortunately the character/relationship building has remained the same as well. Throughout the novel, it felt that the protagonist, Margot, is being held at a remove, just out of the reader's reach. As such, it was difficult to get immersed and invested in the story—without a strong connection to the main character, the stakes just weren't there. I'm still impressed by Power's writing and will give her a third chance, but will be going in with lower expectations next time around.

Burn Our Bodies Down was an interesting and creepy second novel by Rory Power. I went into this one blind having heard nothing about it, but picked it because I absolutely loved Wilder Girls. I read this in one day because it was so intriguing. I was just as invested in figuring out the history of the Nielsen family as the main character and narrator, Margot Nielsen. Her relationship with her mother is dysfunctional to say the least. Then you throw in the, everybody knows everybody else’s business, small town of Phalene, Vera the crazy deceptive, secretive grandmother, and the family background that everyone in town seems to know about but Margot, and this book is unnerving. The ending left me with some questions and I was totally like, wait, what just happened? But overall I really liked this unsettling second book by Rory Power.

Would definitely recommend it to fans of twisty, kind of weird books.

Note: I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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!