This is my first ever Audiobook ARC that I've requested from Netgalley and I just have to say that this is a brilliant idea because it allowed me to really sink my teeth into this book and allow myself total engagement.

Burn Our Bodies Down is about a teenage girl named Margo whose mother has been keeping a lot of things secret from her, and due to Margo's curiosity and yearning to have a normal life with loving grandparents, friends, and actual care, she snoops and finds a message in her mother's bible. This leads to Margo running away and finding her grandmother in a town named Phalene.

Thence begins Margo's slow descent into the secrets that have torn apart her mother and grandmother's life, the secret that inevitably leads to Margo's own life being put in danger.

To say the least, I enjoyed the suspense in this book. I found the plot twist at the end to be very satisfying and creepy enough that I shuddered at the thought. What really appealed to me about Burn Our Bodies Down is that it's essentially a book about parental negligence and how it affects us throughout our lives. We see it in Margo and in Margo's mom, who isn't given any excuses for the way she raised Margo to be self-reliant against Margo's will. I liked that this book touched upon topics of small-town weirdness as well as family secrets and even biochemical mysteries.

I enjoyed it a lot and I'll be looking forward to Rory Power's future works.

I had a hard time getting into this book, I had to stop halfway thru. It does sound like a nice book, but I just couldn't get into it.

This book was not for me, at all.

I couldn’t get into the story because the main character was so insufferable. Margot is just..... terrible. She is the classics example of the “innocent” character. Just think of a bad horror movie, the main character ignores everyone because they want to find out what’s inside of the creepy, terrifying house.

The only reason why I finished the book was to find out the ending. And even then I was disappointed.

Overall, I felt think this book was trying to do too much.

I also was not a fan of the narrator. She was too passionate in most parts which annoyed me throughout the whole book.

The writing in Burn Our Bodies Down was great and the original story line was refreshing. Although, I feel like the story line wasn't very clear until the very end of the book. I found myself getting frustrated throughout the story because i felt like the main character, Margo, was being overly dramatic about her dysfunctional relationship with her mom. It would have been great if the sci-fi elements could have some how been weaved into the story.

The premise of the story was original and that was cool, to have a new idea in a YA book.

I would love a prequel of this book!

Thank you to #NetGalley for an advanced copy of #BurnOurBodiesDown in exchange my my honest opinion.

Ok, where to even start. Opposite from most reviews, I felt like this wasn't gory or horror enough... at all. Maybe I'm such a horror fanatic that most YA horrors just don't do it for me anymore??? But it was lackluster. I could have gotten behind the twist at first, but then it just kept coming and getting wayyyy too twisty and unbelievable. I found myself getting so lost trying to keep up and those complications turned it more into a 2 star for me. There are a couple aspects turning this book into a 3 star, instead of 2. The mother-daughter relationship was amazing for me to see on page, since it's similar to my own experiences. I felt seen for the first time in that regard, but it never went too far as to trigger me in any way. I also loved that we get a sapphic MC, but her sexuality isn't the plot of the story nor is she ever even in a romantic relationship. I'm so tired of there only being LGBTQIA+ rep when it's the entire basis of the story. Let's continue making it normalized, yeee? We're more than just our sexuality. I listened to this one audio and I did really like the narration. I highly recommend it! I really appreciated those aspects, but I just can't give this more than three stars (2.75 in my actual excel spreadsheet), because the plot itself didn't work for me.

*Thank you to NetGalley & Blackstone Publishing for providing me an audio galley in exchange for an open and honest review.*

I listened to the audio version of this book. Not only was the story itself amazing, but the narration was absolutely astounding! The narrator really brought the story and the characters to life. This is a book that everyone will be talking about. Highly suggest if you like twist and turns.

This was such a fantastic story. After reading and loving Wilder Girls, I had very high expectations for this one, and I'm thrilled that the book lived up to them! Rory Power is a great story teller and I will read anything by this author!

Margot is a seventeen years old girl. She and her mother live alone with no other family member in a small town. Margot doesn't know anything about her family and her mother has never disclosed anything about her past or family to Margot. She even doesn’t know about her father. Whenever Margot asks her mother about them, she shuts her down. Margot always wants a family and when she found about her grandmother, she left home and went to her to find the answers but over here she only found more questions and mysteries.

It is very difficult to review this one as I have mixed feelings on it. I liked the starting of the book and the end too. The start is really very good as it sets the plot well. I felt the middle part was a bit slow however the ending was on point. The book starts with a mystery and ends with supernatural things.
The element I loved most about this audiobook is the narration and It kept me hooked.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Audiobook review

Margot is tired of not getting answers from her mother about where she came from and the history of their family. When she finds an old picture with the name of a town on it, she leaves immediately to find the answers she craves. However, once she arrives, something in the town is off. Something with her grandmother is off. And if Margot wants answers, she will have to face scary truths about just where she comes from and why her mom left.

One of my favorite parts of BURN OUR BODIES DOWN is the theme of generational problems. What someone's parents or grandparents or great-grandparents thought they could ignore or get rid of can continue to haunt future generations. Even when someone, like Margot's mom, decides to try to separate herself from the narrative, she can't fully escape it. In Margot's journey, she learns that if you want truth, you have to be prepared for the good and the bad (and in some cases, the evil). Though there are plenty things to give you the creeps (like the weird corn stalks or the death of someone no one in a small town recognizes), human evil is the biggest scare of all.

I enjoyed the narrator and particularly the way they used different voices for each character. They were all nicely distinct, even in scenes where several people are in a conversation. At times, the narrator got a bit melodramatic for a scene, but overall, it was fun to listen.

BURN OUR BODIES DOWN is a solid sophomore novel from Rory Powers, perfect for people who want the hard gray areas of a Courtney Summers novel but with more creepiness.

This book was beyond strange and I nearly gave up before finishing because it took so long for things to make sense. Everything was finally explained, but the explanation was pretty far out there.

This is a brilliant story idea with a mind-bending plot, reminding me a bit of The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer.

Margot has grown up with just her mother, who is emotionally-distant, neglectful, and abusive. Margot wants to know more about who she is and where she came from, as a typical teen would. So when she suddenly finds a clue about her grandmother, she pursues answers, leading Margot back to her mother’s hometown and the weird happenings there.

I had to suspend disbelief a few too many times in this story. Margot, a loaner, is suddenly comfortable confiding in and depending on strangers. And the whole story takes place over just a few days. I would have found it so much more believable had it stretched over months, with time for relationships to develop, trust to be established, and clues to the creepy events slowly revealed to the reader.

An engaging read, and a suitable addition to libraries with surplus budgets.

In both Wilder Girls and Burn Our Bodies Down, Rory Powers has proven that she is excellent at writing complex relationships and emotions alongside mysterious plots and body horror.

Although I loved both books, Burn Our Bodies Down feels more complete to me, which may be in part that the majority of the story takes place inside a small town. Wilder Girls also takes place in a small area, in a quarantined all girls’ boarding school, but because the scope of the story is larger and you are always made aware of the outside, personally, I was left wanting to see more and more of that world. Whereas Burn Our Bodies Down is a focused narrative, a family saga full of secrets and weirdness, that is very attached to place.

If not already obvious, I loved it. I loved the twisty mother daughter relationships, seeing the echoes of behavior through generations and being asked the question: what do we really owe someone who only gave us our DNA?

*I received a copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honesty review*

The narrator of the audiobook did a solid job with the characters and I had no issue with that. (As a side note the NetGalley app does take away from the audiobook experience because it changes the voice when you change the speed and it doesn't sound right but that isn't the narrators fault)

I don't think I would label this as a horror/mystery. I never felt creeped out and the mystery wasn't that much of a mystery. Everything was bland until the last hour of the audiobook and even then I couldn't wait for it to get over. Margot was a pretty basic character. Her relationship with her mom and grandma while "dysfunctional" was pretty underwhelming. I think I struggled with liking this book or feeling any sort of emotion towards characters because everything was very surface level.

Even though I didn't like this book and Wilder Girls was just OK for me I will still check out Rory Power books in the future. She has the potential to write a strange and creepy book.

A fun and spooky way to spend an afternoon. I threw this on while doing some work around the house and I often found myself looking at my surroundings in new and creepy ways. Rory Power writes so well about Margot's curiosity and discomfort. She manages to build tension really convincingly with the introduction of characters who may or may not be what they seem. The narrator of this audio book is wonderfully subtle in her vocal shifts so as to make the various characters different from each other but not over the top. Her reading is very well-paced, and she has a great handle on appropriate times to change her vocal levels depending on what's going on in the narrative. I really enjoyed this, I thought the pay-off worked, and I will revisit this author.

Margot Nielsen, almost eighteen, lives with her mother and only her mother, who has kept any other family she may have a secret from Margot. Her mother is volatile, unpredictable and from a young age Margot has had to learn how to manage her mother and take care of her own self. When she goes to the pawn shop to buy back something of her mother's as a peace offering, she discovers an old bible, a photo of her mother and other women who look just like her, and a phone number. When Margot calls her grandmother picks up. Margot decides to run away to this grandmother because it has to be better than life with her difficult distant mother, right? Not quite.

Phalene is a small town where everyone one knows each other and definitely knows about the Nielsen family. Margot suddenly finds herself in the middle of a strange and dangerous mystery where most of the people don't know what's going on, and those who do aren't telling.

Honestly, this audiobook was a little difficult for me to get through. The narrator did an excellent job bringing Margot's pain to her tone, but it hurt to hear it. The narration also felt slow at times, so I sped it up to 1.25 which then diminished some of the tone. It was also difficult to watch Margot flail through most of the book only to come out strong in the last few chapters. What really kept me going was the mystery aspect. I had to know WTF was going on.

Margot is fed up with her mother evading all questions about their past and family. Margot is desperate for connection, and when she finds an old photograph tucked in her mother’s Bible, she’s afraid to believe she may have found the missing link. Hitching a ride to Phalene feels like a step towards getting the answers she’s always wanted. But all she gets when she arrives are more questions. Something is very wrong about Phalene, and Margot is starting to wonder if maybe her mother was right to leave and never look back.

I read Rory Power’s debut novel Wilder Girls and enjoyed it, so when I heard she was at it again I knew I wanted to see what she had up her sleeve!

First of all, I love how weird this novel is. Power has some incredibly unique and intriguing ideas and I love being surprised by the direction the story takes!

The book has a very creepy and unsettling feel throughout and had some genuinely chilling moments. I appreciated that the violence and gore weren’t gratuitous and yet still had an impact on me as a reader. The characters are not particularly likable but are complex and flawed.

Lauren Ezzo’s narration, while very fitting for the tone of the novel and Margot’s character, was a bit monotone for my taste.

I also found the pacing through the climax and resolution somewhat rushed. Everything was wrapped up quite quickly after a slow burn beginning, and I wish we’d been given a bit more in the way of an explanation at the end. But this is largely due to the fact that I found the concepts and twists so fascinating that I wanted even more detail!

I appreciated the LGBT representation, though it wasn’t the focus of the narrative. It's nice to see queerness in stories in which romance isn't a major part. I also found the commentary on generational trauma and cycles of abuse incredibly thought-provoking.

Overall I enjoyed this eerie mystery thriller!

I would recommend this book to young adult and adult readers with a penchant for dark and twisted things and who don’t mind not getting all of the answers. I am very interested to read Rory Power’s next work!

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for providing an audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

TW: murder, teen pregnancy, discussion of abortion, emotional abuse, gaslighting, gore, and body horror

Reading this book was a unique and haunting experience. From the first line I knew there was something more under the surface than what the characters were revealing. The entire story pulsed with questions and the desire to keep looking for the answers.
Margot’s emotionally abusive relationship with her mother has always made her long for more family. When she finally discovers a Bible and a photograph with her grandmother’s phone number she thinks she’d found a way out. She goes to meet her grandmother in the town of Phalene, but it’s not what she expected. Phalene has secrets, her grandmother is at the center of them. The more Margot learns about her mother’s past, the more she realizes why she left.
There was an otherworldly sense to the entire setting that made me feel like the book was almost supernatural, though not a true fantasy or sci-fi. The twist at the end was just enough to make it all worth it.
I enjoyed the book immensely and will definitely be recommending it to my library.

Burn Our Bodies Down is a YA mystery following Margot who has always been living alone with her mother in a small town. Margot finds a number and the name of a town in her mom’s older books and goes out on a journey to find the rest of her family. But why did her mother leave home?

I think Rory Power writes very compelling stories. I absolutely loved Wilder Girls, it was weird and atmospheric. Burn Our Bodies Down opens a very intriguing mystery and it truly made me want to figure out all its pieces. The only thing that made the story feel a bit off to me was the shift when the mystery was revealed. It was made into another story and I didn’t vibe with that exactly! It was a bit weird, haha. Wilder Girls for sure was weird as well, but at least it started out weird. But I still enjoyed the book and will for sure read everything Rory Power writes in the future. 4/5 stars.

I also got the audiobook from netgalley. I don’t really have much to say about it other than the audio narrator did a great job showing emotion and made me feel very engaged in the story. It was a very good audiobook and I would recommend it for anyone wanting to listen to the story!

3/5 ⭐
Didn't have many expectations going in but I have heard good things about Wilder Girls. I had no idea this was a YA horror, it didn't hit until maybe 40% into the book that perhaps this was more than murder mystery. I finished this audiobook feeling disappointed, it was an interesting story but I couldn't get into the suspense, it was hard to really care about the characters. While the narrator did a great job and I loved that I could distinctly differentiate between different characters in her voice, but the protagonist was also just yelling half the time which got a bit annoying. There was a lot of angst and the sapphic relationship and side characters didn't feel developed very well. It mostly made me sad that I couldn't connect with Margo as much as I wanted despite having such a complex relationship with her mother. This was like one of those psychological thriller movies that leaves you half confused and half exhilirated by the crazy concepts. The pacing was slower than I would've liked and if I read this physically I'd say it could've cut down at least 50 pages. Overall, it was pretty enjoyable but filled with more potential than satisfying execution.

Wow, this book took me all over the place! Margot runs away to live with her Gram that she just found out existed. She's running from a mother that is pretty awful, only to land in a town that distrusts her on sight, and a grandmother that keeps so many secrets Margot feels the need to figure it all out on her own. This book was a slow-burn for me, but I found myself unable to step away from it. I needed to find out what happened next!

I read this e-arc and listened to the audio. I thought the narrator did a great job with this book. She put the right amount of inflection and cadence that it flowed wonderfully!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.