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A review by magik_the_cat
Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power
5.0
I got an ARC of this book so what I read might be slightly different from what you read. And what I read was nothing like what I was expecting. I never read Wilder Girls and all I knew about it was that it had LGBT rep and some of my book friends didn't like it. It made me a little hesitant to read this but I am glad I did.
I thought it was going to be a YA contemporary mystery thriller but it was more like a YA contemporary mystery horror. Horror which it undoubtedly starts right into in the first chapter. Margot's mother is emotionally abusive and neglectful. She gaslights her daughter and ignores her when she is all but pleading for her to just be a regular mom. This is horror that is heartbreaking real. We feel it so strikingly as a reader too because it's in first person present. We are Margot and we feel what she feels. Margot just wants normal. She wants normal which is family and love and being wanted. This book is her quest for that, for normal, for answers to why she doesn't have normal.
She starts in one small failing town and ends up in another small failing town. The smallness of the towns create an intimacy. Their brokenness, especially with Phalene, the second town, creates a feeling of something not quite right. A feeling which only increases the more you read. And wow does it get weird and unsettling.
The writing is beautiful. Rory Power has a way of describing things that's such a joy to read even when it's weird and unsettling and heartbreakingly painful. And the pacing is perfect. It's slow but not like painfully slow, like that slow tense buildup that makes you keep reading because you have to know what comes next.
Margot is such a complicated character. She's broken and just trying her best. I really like her as a character. Which is good considering the book is all her. I like that she is a lesbian but it's not part of the plot at all. She just is. Like, maybe we've finally gotten to a point with society that a story doesn't have to be about the character being gay but rather the character can just be gay. If that makes any sense.
The ending is wild. I saw part of the big twist long before it happened but that's not a surprise. I usually do. It wasn't a surprise out of left field. I thought it was built up really well too, giving you bits and pieces that don't quite make sense until you see the whole picture.
I don't know that this book is for everyone. There is a complete list of TW/CW here: https://itsrorypower.com/books/burn/. It's very hard to read at times but I really liked it. I liked the weird. It's been a long time since I read something contemporary so that was refreshing in a way.
I thought it was going to be a YA contemporary mystery thriller but it was more like a YA contemporary mystery horror. Horror which it undoubtedly starts right into in the first chapter. Margot's mother is emotionally abusive and neglectful. She gaslights her daughter and ignores her when she is all but pleading for her to just be a regular mom. This is horror that is heartbreaking real. We feel it so strikingly as a reader too because it's in first person present. We are Margot and we feel what she feels. Margot just wants normal. She wants normal which is family and love and being wanted. This book is her quest for that, for normal, for answers to why she doesn't have normal.
She starts in one small failing town and ends up in another small failing town. The smallness of the towns create an intimacy. Their brokenness, especially with Phalene, the second town, creates a feeling of something not quite right. A feeling which only increases the more you read. And wow does it get weird and unsettling.
The writing is beautiful. Rory Power has a way of describing things that's such a joy to read even when it's weird and unsettling and heartbreakingly painful. And the pacing is perfect. It's slow but not like painfully slow, like that slow tense buildup that makes you keep reading because you have to know what comes next.
Margot is such a complicated character. She's broken and just trying her best. I really like her as a character. Which is good considering the book is all her. I like that she is a lesbian but it's not part of the plot at all. She just is. Like, maybe we've finally gotten to a point with society that a story doesn't have to be about the character being gay but rather the character can just be gay. If that makes any sense.
The ending is wild. I saw part of the big twist long before it happened but that's not a surprise. I usually do. It wasn't a surprise out of left field. I thought it was built up really well too, giving you bits and pieces that don't quite make sense until you see the whole picture.
I don't know that this book is for everyone. There is a complete list of TW/CW here: https://itsrorypower.com/books/burn/. It's very hard to read at times but I really liked it. I liked the weird. It's been a long time since I read something contemporary so that was refreshing in a way.