Synopsis:
Ever since Margot was born, it’s been just her and her mother. No answers to Margot’s questions about what came before. She’s got 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.
Disclaimer:
I received an e-ARC copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
Edition:
E-ARC
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.
Trigger Warnings:
- body horror
- emotional abuse
- gaslighting
- family trauma
My Thoughts:
Anything existing at the cross-section of body horror, gaslighting, and pastoral horror is something I’m kind of automatically inclined to be super into. That’s basically Burn Our Bodies Down distilled.
Margot has a deeply damaged relationship with her mother. It is absolutely fraught with secrets. Margot doesn’t know anything about her family or where they’ve come from. It’s just her and her mother, always. But her mother doesn’t really seem to like Margot all that much. She mostly leaves her to take care of herself.
“I will always wish I were hers, and I will always want to be only my own. I haven’t found a way yet to make the two fit.”
Every time she asks about her father, or where her mother came from, or even if she has other family, her mother abruptly puts an end to the conversation. And why does she make Margot leave a candle burning at all times? Why does Margot have to light the candle for her every morning? It’s like some kind of ceremony.
But one day Margot discovers something which leads her on a quest to the place her mother grew up, and what family she left behind.
As she arrives at the farm her mother grew up at, she is greeted by smoke, flames, and a dead body. And that dead body just so happens to be wearing her face. She’s a dead ringer (pun intended). And her grandmother claims to have never seen her before – despite the fact that she was on her land, and that she looks just like Margot, who looks just like her mother, who looks just like her mother. So, clearly they must be related.
From that moment on shit gets weird. And occasionally gooey.
This book is atmospheric AF. It’s a real slow-burning body horror-heavy mystery story and I absolutely loved it. I loved the themes of emotional abuse/gaslighting, dysfunctional families, a little bit of queerness, and I loved all that corn! And the apricot groves! Although I would have preferred a gorier version of this story, I do accept that it is billed as YA, and therefore must be at least semi-safe reading for the younger teen crowd.
About the Author:
Rory Power grew up in New England, where she lives and works as a crime fiction editor and story consultant for TV adaptation. She received a Masters in Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia, and thinks fondly of her time there, partially because she learned a lot but mostly because there were a ton of bunnies on campus.
She is represented by Daisy Parente at Lutyens & Rubinstein and Kim Witherspoon at InkWell Management.
Rating:
This is my first Rory Power book. I always meant to read Wilder Girls but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Now I feel like I should bump it up to a higher priority. Burn Our Bodies Down was GOOD.
Burn Our Bodies Down By Rory Power Random House Delacorte Press ISBN: 9780525645627 Published: July 7, 2020 Hardcover, Audio 352 Pages Author's Website
