Burn our bodies down follows the main protagonist Margot as she tries to find and re-connect with a family she didn’t know she had due to her mother keeping it from her.
When she arrives at her grandmothers she finds herself caught up in something more than just family. She may have got more than she bargained for when she thought she had found the family she wanted.

So this book is definitely different. I loved how this book started, it had me interested and had a real mystery about it but as I got closer to the end of the book it lost me. I understood what happened in the end but it just didn’t do it for me, I found it quite disappointing.

I felt the pacing of this book was strange. The first half of the book was fine, moved along nicely, got a good insight into what was going on, but as you get further in it gets pretty repetitive. Get a clue to what’s happening, confront someone to see how true it is, not get a full answer and repeat.

I don’t think this was a bad book, it just didn’t suit me as a reader. I like to feel a connection to the characters and just found that it was lacking for me in this book.

Burn Our Bodies Down follows Margot, tired of the lack of answers from her mother, she runs away to a grandmother she recently discovers however when she gets to town, she finds herself caught in a mystery with deep roots to her family.

The book is quite slow paced, although the mystery is introduced early on in the book, the book starts off by focusing on the strained relationship between Margot and her mother, which I liked as their relationship and the tense atmosphere between them sets up the book perfectly. I did enjoy the writing style of the book, especially the tone of the book and how suspense was built up gradually, I also liked the setting of the small town and the family house surrounded by farmland which added to the atmosphere of the book.

I quite liked Margot, but the book is short and there is not enough focus on other characters – Margot barely interacts with anyone long enough for me to have an opinion on them. The plot of the book in the first half was good; I liked the change of setting as Margot runs away, the mystery that she finds on the day she gets there and the conversations she has with her grandmother about her mother, but I did not like the second half and the actual reveal. Most of the reveals in the book were predictable, but the main twist was kind of disappointing and also the way it was handled was very anti-climactic.

3/5

This is quite frankly one of the most bizarre books I have read (in the best way), which makes sense considering how I felt about Wilder Girls. Both absorbed me and were extremely fast-paced and left me speechless after finishing them both, in the sense that really you have to sit and process what has just gone on. That is something that you cannot deny, this author has some wacky but yet amazingly unique ideas that I don't think many other writers could pull off.
All this being said I don't think this book has many similarities to Wilder Girls in other respects so I think that even if you didn't love that one you should still consider picking this one up.
Once again the ending wasn't my favorite, I do think it falls into the trap of needing to be rounded up when it could be more impactful if it was finished maybe a chapter before it did. But this is something I can see being executed better and better with each novel.
The premise of this one is super interesting and it did delve into some different themes, I did also enjoy seeing how abusive traits can be unknowingly passed on through parenting which although not discussed on the nose, was still very much a conversation that was being had.
The main character was even slightly unreliable at times and doubted herself which I think added to the suspense. That is what I would classify this as in my eyes, a suspenseful thriller with light speculative elements.
I can totally see how this might not be for everyone, it doesn't quite fit into categorization. However in this case I don't think that is a bad thing, it deserves to be treated as its own entity, and is probably best if you go into it not knowing much about it at all.
It is definitely one that I will be thinking about for a while.
Rated: 3.5 stars

This is such an eerie and odd little read that I surprisingly thoroughly enjoyed. It grabs your attention right away due to how intriguing it is and how fascinating Margot is as a main character.

I don’t really know what I was expecting when I started this book but it wasn’t what I got at all. Burn Our Bodies Down is for a specific kind of reader much like Rory Power’s previous novel Wilder Girls. Due to enjoying her previous novel I had to give this one a go.

This book is incredibly spooky and kept me tense the entire time that I was reading it. There are no jump-scares or over-dramatisation but the lingering horror throughout this book is so much that I’m extremely glad that I didn’t read the before going to sleep.

Much like Wilder Girls, I did not really connect with any of the characters in this book. This is through no fault of the author or her writing. In fact, I feel she did this on purpose to let the horror elements of the book shine through.

The writing of this book is whimsical and intriguing but the pace of the book doesn’t match that. The main part of the story seemed to take ages to get to and I found myself getting quite bored at parts. But, one thing that keep me interesting an had me on edge was how much you feel the frustration, desperation and need that radiates out of Margot. It screams out of each page and I really enjoyed that.

When a book and just tiny details in its writing make you feel as on edge and as spooked as Burn Our Bodies Down did then, it is one that I’ll be recommending a lot. If you are in search for a truly horrific and twisted story, then this is the one for you! Burn Our Bodies Down is well worth a read!

What did I just read?
At first I was like okay, young adult book. Some teenage angst. Family problems... BLAH BLAH BLAH - you get the idea. But the ending to this book just completely knocked me for six. It's not very often that I'm left speechless after reading a book. I'm still not entirely sure what I just read.
I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick read because I just had to keep reading to find out what happened next but nothing prepared me for that story. Definitely worth a read!

It was the cover that got me wanting to read this, I thought it was a really good read and characters well established. Took me a while to get into but I did enjoy it and I am happy at how strong a character Margot is in fighting for what she believes and standing up for herself when needed; putting a label on herself before others do.

Thank you Rory and NetGalley for allowing me to this ARC!

Rory Power is a really good writer. I enjoyed this book too. I can't not mention the covers, they are so gorgeous!
I enjoyed the story, the folk elements, the characters, and thrill in this book. Loved it!
Thanks a lot NG nad the publisher for this copy.

I enjoyed this book but I didnt enjoy it as much as I wanted to. I loved Wilder Girls so much and recommended it to every customer looking for a great YA horror read. After a brilliant book like that, it would be hard to match up.
I enjoyed the set up, but once Margot gets to her grandmother's town, the story just moved too slowly for me. The ending was good, full of gothic folk horror, but there just wasnt enough of that and too much of the 'this is weird what's going on?' phase. Still worth a read though as Rory Power is a brilliant writer.

2.5 stars
I wasn’t a fan of Wilder Girls (but was seduced by the cover), it left me wanting me more but I I liked that it had a different, edgier feel than a lot of reads. Burn Our Bodies Down definitely has an edge! I
This book is weird, not necessarily in a bad way but it’s an unsettling, quite bizarre set up that I don’t really know where to start with without spoilers. Margot is likeable enough, although petulant at times, but Tes was my favourite character and, along with Jo, Margot’s mother, these were the 2 most interesting and needed more time on the page. This is a short read, I like Power’s writing style too and from the start it’s intriguing and mysterious and I wanted to know more about Margot’s relationship with her mother.. What significantly ruined the book for me though is some gratuitous, senseless horror near the end of the book, the violence didn’t really add anything to the story and just made me quite sad and uncomfortable in how unnecessary it was.

I read Wilder Girls earlier this year and loved it. Okay, so I was expecting something a little more creepy and gross by the reviews than what I got, but I still loved it. So I was excited to read Burn Our Bodies Down.

It was a good book, I’ll say this before I say anything else. I enjoyed reading it! The mystery had me hooked, the characters were great, I found it a quick and easy read. I just didn’t quite like it as much as Wilder Girls.

In Burn Our Bodies Down, we follow Margot, who lives alone with her not-very-motherly mother. When Margot finds out some of the secrets her mother has been keeping, like a family she ran away from and has since denied Margot, she resolves to go find them. Only, she finds herself wrapped up in yet more secrets and a town that sees her name alone as a portent of trouble.

This book had a slower start to it than Wilder Girls and I think that, in part, is where it lost me a little. It took a while for Margot to even make it to Phalene, let alone for the creepy events to start happening. And really, there wasn’t a whole lot of build-up for these events. They didn’t even feel particularly creepy at the time. In all honesty, I was not particularly horrified by this horror. Which I think may just be a recurring theme for me and Rory Power’s books. I didn’t find Wilder Girls nearly so creepy and gory as all the reviews suggested. I didn’t find this one that horrifying.

So, while the mystery had me hooked and I read it quickly and didn’t put it down, I felt I could have put it down, really. And I was reading it at night, I feel like I should have been terrified, but I just wasn’t. I think what it lacked for me was a steady build of inexplicable and genuinely frightening events, which grow and grow until you reach the explanation (which, as a side note, I still don’t quite understand. I don’t feel like it actually explained a whole lot really). As it was, it felt a bit… lacklustre I guess, though that sounds quite harsh.

One thing I did love about this book however was the fact it had Margot describe herself as a lesbian. I know I keep harping on about this, but until seeing the word lesbian in print is a normality and not, you know, something you feel like you see in one book out of a hundred and that’s being generous, I won’t stop. I also loved that here it came without a romance too, because being lesbian isn’t an on/off thing related to being in a relationship. I feel like a lot of LGBT lit focuses on relationships and less on just existence.

So, I would recommend this book, overall. I just might recommend it with a tiny bit less enthusiasm than Wilder Girls.

I’m not going to lie, I haven’t got the faintest clue what I have just read but GRIPPED is an understatement. I picked this book up two hours ago and haven’t put it down since.

THE PLOT:
Here’s me thinking I’m going into a book reading about a girl who has a crappy mother and wants to learn more about her family but this isn’t that kind of book at all. From about 30-40% a crap load of eerie came over me and from then on, I was hooked. The ending has actually flawed me.
THE CHARACTERS:
I really relates to Margot and her quest to find information and I enjoyed reading from her perspective.
I wish we got more from Margot’s mother, especially in some of the later scenes.
I thought Tess was a good side character also!
THE PACING & WRITING:
This was a fast paced book and like I said, I couldn’t put it down. I was hooked from the first page and I adored the writing. Rory really has a talent!

This is definitely a book everyone should read. It’s a mix of so many different things and has left me reeling!
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.