Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power
I received a complimentary ARC from the publisher, courtesy of NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Book Summary
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.
Book Details
Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power
Published on July 7th 2020 by Delacorte Press
Young Adult Fiction / Mysteries & Thrillers
Hardcover, 352 pages
My Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Review
Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power is filled with dark secrets, unsettling atmosphere, and a mystery the Nielsen women have been keeping for generations.
Apricot trees and Cornfields, words spoken so sweet and sharp they cut, and a young girl who searches for the meaning behind family.
There is a compelling and haunting way the author writes in this story that lures you into it. Toxic family dynamics are surrounded by a mystery that slowly unravels—namely what are the Nielsen women hiding.
At the beginning of the book, we are introduced to the protagonist Margot, a teen who desperately wants answers about her family, and why her mother refuses to talk about them.
Immediately Power’s creates a sense of foreboding that some things should be left alone, but when Margot finds her mother’s bible with a photograph hidden in it, she has finally had a clue. A town called Phalene and a grandmother who runs the Nielsen farm there called Fairhaven.
Although the plot is filled with some twists and turns, and there is this undeniable creepy atmosphere, it is the relationships between mother and daughter, the way the women interact with one another, that persuades you to keep turning the pages.
I found myself fascinated and appalled at the same time by their interactions, how their words are at once soothing and yet cutting. Their turn of phrases and strange magnetism to each other despite how they hurt.
You can’t help but feel for Margot as she struggles to find answers even while they reveal a deeper layer of betrayal and lies.
The setting of Fairhaven with its aging farmhouse, its rippling fields of an almost alien cornfield and the strange and bent trees of its orchards leave the hairs on the back of your neck tingling. The chilling letters Margot discovers just add a sense of foreboding.
Power’s writes magical realism with quick, lyrical sentences while enticing our senses. I gave the story a lower rating because, despite my overall enjoyment of the characters and writing, the plot and story’s ending left me wanting more.
