Bodies to die for
Available June 11, 2024
Perfect for fans of You Shouldn’t Have Come Here and None of This Is True, Bodies to Die For is a brilliant psychological thriller that will have readers wondering whether the perfect body really is worth dying for.
Popular fitness influencer Gemma has transformed herself from a Before into an After, complete with washboard abs, thriving business, and gorgeous husband. But social media can be deceiving. Offline, the cutthroat world of bikini bodybuilding may just eat her alive. That’s if she’s not first devoured by the secret nemesis that lurks beneath her polished surface, waiting to destroy her.
Software engineer Ashley is fat and frustrated. Frustrated with failed diets. With a world that wants her to shrink. With biased doctors, online trolls, and even her own mother. Until Ashley falls in with a mysterious and radical sect of Fat Activists who are fighting back… by any means necessary. She’s never felt so alive, so full of purpose. She’ll do whatever it takes to ride this high, destroy Diet Culture, and win the approval of her charismatic leader.
But when Gemma’s toughest rival turns up dead, and more fitness girls fall like dominoes, it’s beginning to look like the body image war has gone too far.
With breakneck pace and keen insights, Bodies to Die For takes a hard look at social media, the $70 billion diet industry, and the war on women’s bodies—the wars we wage with each other, and with ourselves.
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Praise for Bodies to Die For
“Bodies to Die For is a brilliant debut. Lori Brand has cleverly penned a timely, page-turning thriller that will leave you questioning the true cost of perfection. A personal favorite this year!”
— TJ Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Falling and Drowning
“Bodies to Die For is a wild, twisty romp through the world of bodybuilding and murder. Brand does an excellent job of showing how diet culture really is hell—no matter the size of your body. Lori Brand’s thriller is perfect for any readers looking for Ruth Ware meets the podcast ‘Maintenance Phase.’”
— Halley Sutton, USA Today bestselling author of The Hurricane Blonde
“Twisty, surprising, and dripping with satire, Lori Brand puts the “die” in diet in this strikingly original murder mystery set in the world of competitive bodybuilding. A fascinating cast of deliciously demented characters will keep you guessing who dunnit, and who’s next. I absolutely devoured it!”
— Susan Walter, acclaimed author and director
"Bodies to Die For has it all: deliciously demented kills, side-splitting humor, and razor-sharp satire of the diet and fitness industry.”
— Laura Picklesimer, author of kill for love
"Brand takes you deep inside the fitness mania. She gives us a peek behind the Instafabulous curtain on how influencers’ lives are less than perfect, and way less than meets the eye; all in a contest where the stakes are literally life and death.”
— Alberto Mansur, author of Only the Dead Know Peace
“In short, punchy chapters that alternate perspectives, Brand—herself a former bodybuilder—sets the two women on a deliriously entertaining collision course. The mix of top-notch suspense and gleeful social satire makes this sing.”
— Publishers Weekly
“The most physically—and emotionally—healthy thriller I’ve read in some time.”
— Crimereads
“Brand’s debut thriller doesn’t shy away from calling out the ways women are exploited by social media and the fitness and diet industries while simultaneously delivering an entertaining story filled with surprising twists.”
— Booklist