Rory Power

Burn Our Bodies Down

"[A] deliriously creepy tale...that'll keep your nightmares up at night." --Melissa Albert, New York Times bestselling author of The Hazel Wood From the author of the New York Times bestseller Wilder Girls comes a feverishly twisty thriller about a girl whose past has always been a mystery--until she decides to return to her mother's hometown . . . where history has a tendency to repeat itself. Ever since Margot was born, it's been just her and her mother, struggling to get along. But that's not enough for Margot. She wants family. She wants a past. And she may have just found the answer: A photograph, pointing her to a town called Phalene. Only, when Margot gets there, it's not what she bargained for. As soon as they see her face, everyone in town knows who Margot belongs to. It's unmistakable--she's a Nielsen. And when a mysterious girl who could be Margot's twin is pulled from a fire, Margot realizes that her mother left Phalene for a reason. But was it to hide her past? Or was it to protect Margot from what's still there? The only thing Margot knows for sure is there's poison in their family tree, and their roots are dug so deeply into Phalene that now that she's there, she might never escape. Praise for Wilder Girls: 4 STARRED REVIEWS! "Fresh and horrible and beautiful....readers will be consumed and altered by Wilder Girls."-NPR "This thrilling saga...is sure to be one of the season's most talked-about books, in any genre."--EW "The perfect kind of story for our current era."--Hypable "Your new favorite book."--Cosmopolitan

I felt like the book really drags on but the last few chapters are so good its almosttttt worth it..almost. 

mina

had almost all the twists figured out by like 30% through because it was exactly how i would've done it lol - that said, listened on audio and devoured this, love twisted maternity stories

Nessa Luna

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This has not changed my opinion in any way.

I read Wilder Girls two months ago and enjoyed it but for the ending. I was still very excited about Rory's new book and was very happy when I got approved. I went into this book not having read the synopsis (not that it tells me much) and was quite surprised. 

Personally, I think the story starts off alright - I wasn't a huge fan of Margot's mother at all so I was happy when Margot left for Phalene. I did think the first half of the book dragged a bit and had hoped for a bit more action. It was still enjoyable to read, and I loved Tess' introduction. When I got more into the book, I found it difficult to put it down, and by the time the really creepy stuff happened, I just could NOT stop reading. I once again stayed up past my bedtime to finish this book and said 'what the fuck' multiple times towards the end. 

Highly recommend if you loved Wilder Girls but wanted some actual closure, highly recommend if you love truly creepy stories.

Alexa M

McKenzie McWhorter

3.5 - This book definitely had me coming back for more because I wanted to find out what was happening but I feel like there was a lot of circling around the answer just for maybe 20 pages of conclusion. It just fell a little flat for me. 
I really like Margot and her story and I even liked the weird aspect to the ending it just felt rushed overall. 
I wanted more from Tess too, it felt like she was thrown in out of necessity only.

Cheri McElroy

It’s always been just Margot and her mom. No answers about family or her past. Until one day when Margot discovers a phone number for her Grandmother...and sets of a chain of events she could never foresee.

Rory Power writes YA thriller/horror books like no one else. Wilder Girls was a bit too body-horror for me, but I could tell there was a giftedness there. Burn Our Bodies Down was twisted, addicting, and surprising, and I loved every second.

Dee B. 

I think I reaaaally liked this one. I wasn't sure what to expect or what I wanted out of this second novel by Power but somehow she managed to provide it anyway. This was the equal to Wilder Girls' wtf is actually happening here that we all deserved, in fact, much like that book, the ending of this one sealed it for me. I was confused but intrigued right up until the ending wrapped up as neatly as possible while still leaving that bittersweet feeling in my heart that I've come to associate with Power.

Burn Our Bodies Down is a quick read that keeps you confused enough to want to continue reading. I look forward to whatever Rory publishes next.

Latitude Tamarind

this book is the breakdown you and your mom trauma deserve

Cassie Annesi

What the actual f? I have no idea what I just read but it was interesting nonetheless.

Lauren Tabor

"Keep a fire burning. A fire is what saves you."

This was amazing. After reading Wilder Girls and really liking it, I couldn't wait to get to read Burn Our Bodies Down! This was such a fast read for me and I enjoyed it immensely. It was strange, and sometimes disturbing and really gave me the weird vibes that I love in a book. Rory Power has a gift to make a book seem normal and make you feel as if the weird things that are happening are things that happen in real life, but also give you that 'what the actual heck' feeling. I don't even know if that makes sense, but I just liked this a lot and I think if you want a book that is towards the hard-hitting contemporary with weird, creepy, abnormal vibes, then this is the book for you. Of course if you liked Wilder Girls I think you'll like this as well. My only critique is down below, but may be spoilers, so I'll leave it at the bottom, read it if you want. This was such an interesting family dynamic, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time wondering what in the world was going on. I do wish we got more of the side characters and had more interactions with them. The few side characters we got felt a little flat to me, and while they weren't 100% pertinent to the main plot itself, it would've been nice for them to be a little more dimensional than they were. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for allowing me to read and give an honest review for this in advance! 

**possible spoilers** **read at your own risk**

My one reason for giving this 4 stars instead of 5 is that I was anticipating an ending similar to Wilder Girls. That mind blown/I don't know what just happened/was that even the ending type of ending. And we didn't get that, we got a mostly nice, wrapped up ending. Which is fine, and is really my own fault for fully expecting something else. I would've loved there to be a creepy/weird twisted ending of some sort, but hey ho we can't always get what we want.

Lisette Haasnoot

I liked some pieces of the book but I didn't like the book as one story

** spoiler alert **
           i think this book should have leaned more in either the "we are weirdos and horrible people" direction or the supernatural direction in order to give is truly effective horror. this was a bit meh.

Sarahi Flores

This was definitely a creepy book!

This book took a different turn of events near the end and wow did not expect that all. It left me asking my self out loud, “Did I hear this right?” (I did listen to the audiobook lol).

Let me start with the Narrator of this audiobook. I did not like the narrator one bit. She made the whole story with this type of whiny voice which I really didn’t see the protagonist, Margot being. Margot may have demanded some questions to be answered but not in a whinny type of way. She seems defiant, in a good way. She wants answers and she found a way to get them. So narrator made her seems like she was a small sensitive teen. A complete opposite.

There was just so many things that was very weird from the beginning and that made me engrossed to the story. The plot was a bit slow but not something that would bore me.

This was a good creepy book and I would definitely recommend to just read it rather than listen to it. I would have given this a 5 star review but that narrator killed it for me and it in a way ruined the persona of Margot so I’m giving this a 4 out of 5 stars.

"Margot doesn't know anything about her family, beyond her quiet life with her mother. But she wants more and when she finds a clue that leads her to a town called Phalene, she leaves to investigate. Only Phalene and her family history are full of secrets, some that may prove more dangerous and deadly than Margot ever could have bargained for"--

Sara Bean Duncan

Where to begin?! The unraveling of the mystery that is Margot’s family’s past seems like the start of a classic family drama, but there is more than meets the eye here! As Margot follows the promise of an old photo towards Phalene, she starts to discover certain family secrets that should have stayed buried.

It’s next to impossible to show off any more of the plot without spoilers coming in like a flock of birds, so I want to dive right into what I love about this book.

Creepy/Forboding Vibes ✔️
From the moment Margot arrives in Phalene, something feels just…wrong. With every chapter, that feeling grows and the number of times you’ll stop, flip back a few pages, and go “wtf just happened” increases. One of my favorite things about Rory Power is her ability to turn the most mundane sounding activities into portentous plot points.

Not 100% likable MC ✔️
Margot is somehow both a friend you want to have on the eve of the apocalypse and also the friend you wouldn’t trust with cat-sitting for a weekend. I am infatuated with morally grey characters and as the story unfolds I started to wonder if she was the hero or the villain of this book.

Weird farm setting ✔️
I grew up on a (much less ominous) farm and, after a few too many books set in paranormal cities, the seemingly simple and wholesome setting of a farm town slowly fading away lulled me into a false sense of security.

Pick up this book when you’re suffering a Wilder Girls or Mexican Gothic book hangover

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Wilder Girls comes a new twisty thriller about a girl whose past has always been a mystery--until she decides to return to her mother's hometown . . . where history has a tendency to repeat itself. 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? The only thing Margot knows for sure is there's poison in their family tree, and their roots are dug so deeply into Phalene that now that she's there, she might never escape. Praise for Wilder Girls 4 STARRED REVIEWS "Fresh and horrible and beautiful....readers will be consumed and altered by Wilder Girls."-NPR "This thrilling saga...is sure to be one of the season's most talked-about books, in any genre."--EW "The perfect kind of story for our current era."--Hypable "Your new favorite book."--Cosmopolitan.com

Shannon Lamoree

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power is about a girl, Margot, who longs for a family and history. For as long as she can remember it has just been her and her mother, until one day she finds a picture that leads her to her grandmother. Margot takes the trip to her mother’s hometown and soon finds out her family has a secret. 

I love a good mystery. This book has a good storyline and continues to touch the hidden secret. Overall it was good writing and I do recommend trying it out.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the copy of the book. All opinions are my own. 

#BurnOurBodiesDown #NetGalley

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power is about a girl, Margot, who longs for a family and history. For as long as she can remember it has just been her and her mother, until one day she finds a picture that leads her to her grandmother. Margot takes the trip to her mother’s hometown and soon finds out her family has a secret. 

I love a good mystery. This book has a good storyline and continues to touch the hidden secret. Overall it was good writing and I do recommend trying it out.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

Esra

I liked how the whole book was ‘wtf’ but that the ending actually made sense even tho it’s a quite ‘unbelievable’ story

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? The only thing Margot knows for sure is there's poison in their family tree, and their roots are dug so deeply into Phalene that now that she's there, she might never escape. Praise for Wilder Girls: 4 STARRED REVIEWS! Fresh and horrible and beautiful....readers will be consumed and altered by Wilder Girls.-NPR This thrilling saga...is sure to be one of the season's most talked-about books, in any genre.--EW The perfect kind of story for our current era.--Hypable Your new favorite book.--Cosmopolitan.com

Linda 

This book wasn't what I expected at all, the whole book I felt a bit confused about what was going on but the end definitely made up for it.

Carol

This was only OK for me. For how outlandish this book is trying to be, you can pretty easily figure out what's going on in the early stages of the book. The atmosphere just wasn't really there for me, I think more time could have been spent on world building and there were some missed opportunities for interesting character development.

Lauren Attaway

The writing is lovely, the story is interesting, this book was just not for me.

Tatiana Alvarez 

Yes, you saw that correctly. This book is a 1 star. One. Star. Yikes.

So before I get into this review, I think it's important to point out that I genuinely like the Rory Powers as a person. I have seen her speak at a few panels and she is so down to earth and funny. I think if I were an angsty teen, this book would be right up my ally. But it fell off a cliff and burned for me.

I went into this book with no expectations because after reading Wilder Girls and not liking it, I wanted to give Powers a second thought and this book seemed interesting enough. The premise is this girl named Margot and her mother live secluded away from the rest of their family. It has always just been the two of them, but Margot desired more. After snooping, she comes across a photograph which leads her to her mother's hometown in Phalene. There she meets her grandmother and finally feels as if she can connect with more of her family. But the town isn't what she thinks and when Margot discovers a dead girl that looks exactly like her, she realizes that this town holds more secrets than answers.

Doesn't this sound cool? Because it sucked me in. I was a fool.

This book is told in first person through Margot's POV. Margot is not a happy character, literally nothing makes her happy and we are stuck inside her ramblings the entire time. She is extremely dramatic, which I can understand to an extent due to the craziness of this town. But her inner ramblings get sillier and sillier as they go on and it soon becomes a story about her thoughts and loses all semblance of a plot.

After twenty off pages of her dramatic inner dialogue, we finally get the plot moving. The thing is, the book could have been done so well. It had all the creepy elements, but the execution of these plot points were hidden beneath layers and layers of stream of consciousness. This town is creepy. People are getting killed. Girls are miraculously getting pregnant (yeah, you read that correctly) and then more death.

I am not going to skip over this miraculous pregnancy, which could have had the potential to be really cool...but once again Power let me down in some major ways. If you are going to add a weird/crazy plot point like this, you have to play it up correctly. It was just absurd and left more questions than answers. And when you think that there is finally some clarity...BAM they dead now.

This book is marked as a new twisted thriller, but it should be filed as "This book is too absurd to comprehend, trying something else." Anyway, I read this so you guys did not have to. You're welcome and I'm done taking one for a team.

Sam Pulliam

The only family member Margot knows is her mother. She often has to anticipate her mother’s mood and take care of both of them and she’s tired of it. She wants to know more about her family but her mom refuses to talk about it. When Margot is able to get in touch with her grandmother, she is determined to visit her and look for the answers she’s desperately seeking but she quickly starts uncovering more questions than answers.
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It’s been a little while since I finished this book but I still am not quite sure how I feel about it. I think it was incredibly atmospheric and I really liked Margot as a character. She wanted answers and something different from the life she had at home and there were many times growing up where I could relate. I also really liked Tess. She starts out pretty unlikable (or at least I was unsure about her) but I grew to love her more as the story progressed. The problem for me was that I felt that the first 75% of the book was really slow. I had some theories about the mystery that’s presented (I was wrong) and some of the early clues and reveals were exciting but overall, I just felt like it was so slow. I wanted something more but I can’t quite put my finger on it. The ending, on the other hand, was phenomenal. I really liked the direction the story took and I was satisfied with the ending. It was a wild time and I’ll never think about corn or apricots the same ever again.
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Trigger warnings from ItsRoryPower(dot)com:
Fire.
Emotional abuse by a parent, including gaslighting. Familial and generational abuse.
Nonconsensual pregnancy – note, no sexual assault or rape.
Body horror, some gore, blood (lighter, relative to Wilder Girls).
Death. On page character death. Child/infant death (takes place off page but implied violence – pages 301 and 308 in the print ARC).
Off-page gun violence.
Emesis (mention of vomiting).

'Twisty and unnerving' Holly Jackson, bestselling author of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. From the author of the New York Times bestselling Wilder Girls comes a twisty thriller about a girl whose past has always been a mystery – until she decides to return to her mother's hometown, where history has a tendency to repeat itself . . . Ever since Margot was born, it's been just her and her mother. No answers to Margot's questions. No history to hold on to. 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 when she finds a photograph pointing her to a town called Phalene, she leaves. But 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? Burn Our Bodies Down is a blistering horror-thriller from Rory Power that will grip you from its very first page, and won't let you go until long after you've put it down . . .

Esme Kelly

This book managed to keep my attention throughout but lacked a lot of substance. Not sure how well I will remember this book in a few weeks time.

Jelke Lenaerts

I received a galley of this book through Netgalley in exchange of an honest review. 


I really liked the writing in this book and it made me excited to read more books by this author. For quite a lot of this book I was kind of expecting it to be a five star depending on how it would be wrapped up but that kind of missed the mark for me. It just felt a bit confusing for me. It didn't really answer a lot for me and made me confused over what was going on and the probability of it. I liked the characters in this book. I mean, most aren't the most likeable characters but I still thought they were interesting and well done. The plot was very engaging and I liked how everything was revealed bit by bit. It was a very interesting read. I maybe would have liked a bit more of the small town aspect but I also get why it wasn't really a part of this book. I'm really glad I read this.

Burn Our Bodies Down

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