Publication Date: June 11, 2023
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.
Gemma and Ashley are on a collision course headed for the Olympia, the bodybuilding competition where futures are made. And lost. 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.
When a dead body is discovered before the finals of a bodybuilding convention, it illustrates the cutthroat world of bikini bodybuilding.
Author Lori Brand teases readers with the present-day scenario, making them wonder what led up to the murder of one of the top competitors in Bodies to Die For.
The story unfolds two months prior to the competition and showcases Gemma, who has the perfect before-and-after story. She’s an interesting character, fighting against her inner “Fat Gemma” to maintain her looks.
However, the message of perfection doesn’t set well with everyone. A group of Fat Activists will do whatever it takes to destroy diet culture. Ashley, a member of the group, plays a pivotal role in this psychological thriller.
Each chapter is narrated in first person by a different character, allowing the author to weave multiple perspectives together.
Bodies to Die For delivers a fast-paced story of suspense that puts the main character on an emotional roller coaster ride.
Lori Brand is a lifting enthusiast, group fitness instructor, yoga teacher, and software quality engineer. In past lives, she’s been a gymnast, dancer, Playboy model, and bodybuilder. Her time in the body wars trenches led to her realization that getting strong, rather than shrinking, is the way out. In an effort to spread the word, she’s had articles published in STRONG fitness magazine, T-Nation, Inside Fitness magazine, D’FYNE Fitness Magazine, and more. Bodies to Die For is her first novel.
