Bad Vibrations by Lucy Leitner 

Blood Bound Books, Oct.  2022

ASIN: B0BB86Y3G7

Available: Kindle edition (pre-order) ( Amazon.com )

Bad Vibrations is a wonderfully crazy, somewhat satirical look at a cult of health-crazed nuts that take it to extremes, and how the folks of rural Pennsylvania react to them.  It’s messy at times, and will make you laugh out loud at others.  This book takes the “crazy cult” plot to a whole new level, and does it in slam-bang fashion.

Poor Valerie!  She’s a nice young lady with a decent life and career, but she feels like she just isn’t reaching her true potential.  Like many, she turns to the Internet for help and falls under the spell of Doctor, another self-help/health guru, who promises his followers to unlock the secret of “energy” in their lives.  Valerie goes to the group’s compound for a weekend stay, but unfortunately, the local residents (who hate those damn health nut hippies) show up also.  As you might guess, all hell breaks loose.  

Part 1 of the book details Valerie and her introduction to the group, and that’s where most of the satire and humor is.  The group’s methods are truly hilarious.  Mastering that “energy” consists of things like hula hooping while bouncing on a trampoline, screaming sessions, sex with whoever is around, and the most important part… drinking each other’s blood each evening.  No wonder the locals call them vampires!  It’s highly entertaining, especially reading how the “healthies” insult strangers.  “You have so many free radicals it’s like your body just liberated a gulag!”  “Your vitamin D levels are so low they’re hanging out with you!”  That part alone is enough to justify the price of the book.

Part 2 is the action section, and that’s where the author puts the pedal through the floorboard.  Carnage abounds as tensions between the locals and “vampires” reach the breaking point, and it becomes a big mess of bullets, blades, bows, and flammable liquids.  Valerie has to decide who to side with: does she truly believe Doctor and his teachings, or is everybody but her truly nuts?  It’s non-stop excitement right up to the last page.

Bottom line: it’s nice to have a book that makes the old “psychotic cult” fiction trope interesting again, and Bad Vibrations does exactly that, it’s a thrilling satire that horror readers should flock to.  Recommended.

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson