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!”  —T. J. Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Falling and Drowning

“Deliriously entertaining…The mix of top-notch suspense and gleeful social satire makes this sing.” —Publishers Weekly

“An entertaining story filled with surprising twists.” —Booklist

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.