Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Powers
Synopsis:
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.
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.
My Thoughts:
The pandemic did terrible things to my Netgalley to-read pile! So I totally forgot I requested this, but I was very excited to rediscover it. I'm a big fan of Power's first book, Wilder Girls, which is a poetic powerhouse of body horror. I know, I know. Body horror isn't usually = poetry. But like Wilder Girls, Burn Our Bodies Down is both horrifying and enchanting.
Are there mysterious relatives, a secretive past, and a dead doppelganger? Why yes, yes there is. And honestly, that's not giving anything away.
Margot lives alone with her mother. Her emotionally distant, borderline abusive mother, who, by the way, has a strange affinity with fire. Anyhoo, Margot wants to find out more about their family, and basically live her own life. She finds information about her maternal grandmother in a pawn shop, and embarks on an adventure to find out what it REALLY means to be a Nielsen girl.
All the stars for this one!! And many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.
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