Shelf Awareness--Burn Our Bodies Down

YA Review: Burn Our Bodies Down

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power (Delacorte Press, 352p., ages 14-up, 9780525645627, July 7, 2020)

Relationships are at the heart of Rory Power's creepy thriller about three generations of women who bear an uncanny resemblance to each other.

Margot Nielsen has always done the best she can to make a life for herself "inside the mess of [her] mother's head." She would "give anything to know what happened to leave her like this. As long as it's not waiting to happen to [Margot]," that is. Her mother is quick to fight, quick to flinch away from affection and so deeply involved with the secrets in her own mind that Margot mostly fends for herself. Mother and daughter look so much alike--down to the same streaks of gray at their temples--that Margot wonders where her mother came from, but Jo won't open up. " 'Nobody but you and me,' " her mother often repeats, "like a curse [they] can't shake."

Even so, Margot's been tucking cash under her mattress, hoping to escape life in Calhoun. She's tried to leave, but without "another shot at family," there's nothing to run to. That is, until she pays a visit to the Heartland Cash for Gold pawnshop to buy back some items her mother pawned. She discovers an old Bible with a photo tucked inside, and there's a phone number on the back. Margot immediately calls, and Vera Nielsen, her grandmother, picks up. Margot sneaks out that very night and hitches a ride to Phalene, a town three hours away.

In Phalene, she's surprised that everyone seems to know exactly who she is. She meets rich, entitled Tess, who, along with friend Eli, offers to show Tess the way to Fairhaven, her grandmother's farm. They race over, hearing a report that "somebody lit the Nielsen farm on fire again." But before they can get to the house, Margot spots something in the cornfield along the road. She goes in to explore and pulls out a dead girl--a dead girl who is wearing Margot's face.

In her sophomore novel, Power (Wilder Girls) drives the dark investigation into one family's twisted roots with strong, suspenseful writing and pitch-perfect touches of horror. Margot, emotionally battered yet determined to find out where she came from, is compellingly tough when it counts, while Gram, who both embraces Margot and keeps her at arm's length, makes a worthy foil. The growing sense that something is dreadfully wrong will keep readers plowing through the pages of this eerie and unnerving tale of empowerment. --Lynn Becker, blogger and host of Book Talk, a monthly online discussion of children's books for SCBWI.

Shelf Talker: In this dark YA thriller, Margot, who grew up with her look-alike mom, searches for the family she's never known.