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A review by pushingdessy
Bad Vibrations by Lucy Leitner
dark
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
I received this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
“Sex. Yoga. Blood.” Interesting, right? I thought so.
In “Bad vibrations”, we ride with Valerie to a rural Pennsylvania town for a weekend retreat at a new wellness community that sprouted after the COVID-19 pandemic, where residents are committed to clean living and energy nurturing… and the newly discovered miraculous properties of blood drinking.
This satire makes fun of the current wellness craze aided and abetted by social media; of the mental hoops people jump through to believe in conspiracy theories and justify horrendous acts in the name of the greater (selfish) good; of the willingness of people to follow someone who tells them what to do; of gentrification.
It was a fast-paced, entertaining read and, as a very short book, you can’t expect much depth, but it read like a crack premise that wasn’t taken very seriously. All the characters seemed stereotypical cartoonish - the cult members: mostly rich, white Millennials with no identifiable jobs except for the protagonist; the cops: ignorant rednecks; all of them talked like they were in a parody. And I suppose they were! But I felt dumber by reading it, like when you watch Scary Movie.
I almost DNF’d near the beginning when the protagonist and the first cult buddies she meet are confronted by two of the townspeople and she thinks they’re “surrounded by enemies, like the Israelis”. I was confused for a sec - did the author mean the cult members were like the Palestinians surrounded by enemy Israelis? But of course she didn’t. Given that the protagonist, while slightly smarter than the rest, was still a brainwashed idiot with rotten opinions, I decided to let it go, but it still left a bad taste tbh.
All in all, this was an ok read; I didn’t hate it but I don’t think this type of satire works for me because it didn’t feel particularly clever.
“Sex. Yoga. Blood.” Interesting, right? I thought so.
In “Bad vibrations”, we ride with Valerie to a rural Pennsylvania town for a weekend retreat at a new wellness community that sprouted after the COVID-19 pandemic, where residents are committed to clean living and energy nurturing… and the newly discovered miraculous properties of blood drinking.
This satire makes fun of the current wellness craze aided and abetted by social media; of the mental hoops people jump through to believe in conspiracy theories and justify horrendous acts in the name of the greater (selfish) good; of the willingness of people to follow someone who tells them what to do; of gentrification.
It was a fast-paced, entertaining read and, as a very short book, you can’t expect much depth, but it read like a crack premise that wasn’t taken very seriously. All the characters seemed stereotypical cartoonish - the cult members: mostly rich, white Millennials with no identifiable jobs except for the protagonist; the cops: ignorant rednecks; all of them talked like they were in a parody. And I suppose they were! But I felt dumber by reading it, like when you watch Scary Movie.
I almost DNF’d near the beginning when the protagonist and the first cult buddies she meet are confronted by two of the townspeople and she thinks they’re “surrounded by enemies, like the Israelis”. I was confused for a sec - did the author mean the cult members were like the Palestinians surrounded by enemy Israelis? But of course she didn’t. Given that the protagonist, while slightly smarter than the rest, was still a brainwashed idiot with rotten opinions, I decided to let it go, but it still left a bad taste tbh.
All in all, this was an ok read; I didn’t hate it but I don’t think this type of satire works for me because it didn’t feel particularly clever.