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Title details for Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power - Available

Burn Our Bodies Down

by Rory Power
Lauren Ezzo
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
2 of 2 copies available

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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 7, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781094148731
      • File size: 292530 KB
      • Duration: 10:09:26

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 620
    • Text Difficulty: 2-3

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from May 25, 2020
      For Margot Nielsen, 17, it’s always just been her and her mother, Jo. Nearly identical down to the gray streaks in their hair, the two share a cramped one-bedroom apartment. Margot’s mother insists that she follow very specific rules: keeping a candle lit, and never asking about her father or her mother’s family. After a fight with Jo, Margot heads to the pawn shop to repurchase one of her mother’s trinkets as a means to apologize; there,
      she finds her
      mother’s childhood Bible and, tucked inside, a photo of a woman who looks remarkably similar to both her and her mother, with a phone number scrawled on the back. Armed with this information, Margot runs away to find her grandmother, Vera, at a farm called Fairhaven. Once there, Margot begins to uncover deep family secrets and realizes that Jo may have had good reason for her strange behavior. Power (Wilder Girls) creates a vivid world with a gothic horror–like setting, where mutant corn stalks produce double helix cobs with pink flesh and where grandmothers are not exactly what they seem. Through Margot, Jo, and Vera, Powers examines the sometimes claustrophobic relationships of mothers and daughters with a genre twist that makes for a riveting, often frightening read. Ages 14–up. Agent: Kimberly Witherspoon and Jessica Mileo, InkWell Management.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Suffocating generational trauma gets a speculative twist in this eerie YA tale narrated by Lauren Ezzo. Ezzo ably portrays the pent-up emotions of Margot, who's been kept in isolation by her volatile, inscrutable mother. After discovering the grandmother she's never met, Margot runs away to join her at the fire-stricken family homestead, where the burning apricot groves yield uncanny fruit: the body of a girl who looks exactly like Margot. Ezzo leans into the story's slow-burning pace, suffusing Margot's low voice with longing for familial love (no matter how toxic) and for the truth that eludes her right up until the gruesome conclusion. Ideal for horror listeners who prefer mystery and creeping dread over straight-up scares. R.A.H. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
    • BookPage
      Margot lives with her mom in a run-down apartment. They’re barely getting by; there’s never enough food or heat, and forget about love. After she finds a photograph from her mother’s younger days, Margot becomes obsessed with trying to learn about her mother’s past. Why did she leave Phalene, the small town where she grew up? Why won’t she talk about it? Burn Our Bodies Down takes off when Margot goes to Phalene to unravel the fabric of her life, starting with a devastating fire and the death of an unidentified girl who happens to look just like Margot. Add in a grandmother who seems loving but who’s definitely hiding something, a tangled ancestral mystery and a heaping dose of brimstone, and you’ll only have scratched the surface of Rory Power’s fast-paced, unnerving thriller. Burn Our Bodies Down is a tightly woven tale of intergenerational trauma and abuse that maps out a truly poisonous family tree. The novel’s earth-shattering suspense builds to a resolution that will leave readers unsettled in the best way.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:620
  • Text Difficulty:2-3

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