Review: Burn Our Bodies Down

Title: Burn Our Bodies Down
Author: Rory Power
Genre: Young Adult, Horror
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: July 7, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Wilder Girlscomes 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.

Review:

Margot has always lived with her mother, and she has never had any other relatives. They live a secluded life, and Margot longs for some family history. She finds a photo of her mother as a child with her grandmother’s phone number on the back. Margot decides to go and find the rest of her family, but she ends up discovering their secrets that should have stayed hidden.

This was an intense story. The tension grew slowly as different parts of Margot’s family’s past were revealed. There were some hints as to what was coming, though I only noticed that looking back on the story.

It’s difficult to talk about the story without giving away the ending. I can say that I really liked the way the story progressed. I was actually cringing at the descriptions by the end, but it was well worth the wait to find out what happened.

I enjoyed this suspenseful novel!

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Have you read Burn Our Bodies Down? What did you think of it?