These stories delve into the shadows of society, weaving in intriguing vignettes of ordinary life. The transition between tales is smooth, offering astute observations without moralizing. Extremely entertaining, this book proves a delightful read. Replete with gore, suspense, vengeance, and more, it is a valuable asset for horror enthusiasts' bookshelves.

Influence
by Lucy Leitner

Well, this was a nice, surprising treat.

I'm usually not big into reading about "influencer culture", but these stories were so smart and sharply written; this is horror satire at its finest. There wasn't a dud in the bunch.

These are frighteningly funny stories, told with an incredibly dark sense of humor.
Filled with keen observations about our current "influencer-obsessed" culture, this collection is creepy, thought provoking, and conversation-starting.

These are stories you don't want to miss.

4/5

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Lucy Leitner’s Influence #horrorstories is a chilling and satirical collection that delves into the dark underbelly of modern society. Through a series of experimental stories, Leitner exposes the horrors lurking behind our everyday interactions and obsessions, making this book a thought-provoking and unsettling read.

The collection comprises four short stories, one novelette, one novella, and a sneak peek at an upcoming novel. Each story is a standalone piece, yet they all share a common thread of exploring the macabre aspects of contemporary life.

Leitner’s characters are vividly drawn, often reflecting the absurdities and vulnerabilities of modern existence. In “The Sky is Full of Snakewolves,” we meet a Florida man whose bizarre encounter in a Walmart parking lot sets the tone for the surreal horrors to come. 

Themes and Writing Style: Influence #horrorstories tackles themes such as the dangers of social media, the superficiality of wellness culture, and the psychological toll of isolation. Leitner’s writing is sharp and incisive, blending dark humor with genuine horror to create stories that are as thought-provoking as they are disturbing.

The pacing of the collection is well-balanced, with each story building tension in its unique way. Leitner’s ability to maintain suspense across different narrative forms—from short stories to novellas—demonstrates her versatility as a writer.

Influence #horrorstories is a compelling and unsettling collection that showcases Lucy Leitner’s talent for blending horror with social commentary. Her stories are not only entertaining but also serve as a mirror reflecting the darker aspects of our modern world.

This book is a must-read for fans of horror who appreciate a satirical edge and are looking for stories that challenge their perceptions of reality.

This short horror collection features satirical social commentary on the modern age often with a bloody twist. Personally unfortunately not a lot in here worked for me. While I enjoyed reading about the AI exorcism and the deadly injuries acquired in a new online trend, I also did not enjoy the way some of the satirised people were treated in the end. Mostly I have to say that the stories did fall a bit flat too me and did not dive deep enough into the topics they were satirizing and so I was left bored or feeling like it was too easily predictable, so all in all, only a two star read.

They Say the Sky is Full of Snakewolfs: a short story about what to do when there's a monster in your home, but there's also monsters outside, interesting and tense and a really quite good investigation of domestic abuse. TW: graphic domestic abuse, rape, violence, gore, murder

Get Me Out of this Shimmering Oasis: Wellness influencer is invited to a new resoir, somethings off though and soon she will realize it too. Interesting concept but it quickly loses steam as the big twist behind this one becomes quite obvious. Personally it does not sit well with me that the influencer claims very many rare illnesses, because this idea of a faker just makes life so much harder for people actually affected. I think the shitty sides of wellness culture can be much better explored by showing who is exploited by the people in it than call sick people fakers. Finally I also did not feel like the implications of the ending sat too well with me. TW: ableism

Karen: A woman chooses vehicular manslaughter as a solution to all her problems, satirically evil in a very Kill Your Friends way it follows am eating disordered Karen who receives a device that transmits her thoughts to those around her, could have been interesting if it had been snappier, we know shes a fatphobic pos after the first two times she kills and it just gets unrealistic after a while. I did enjoy this story more than Get Me Out (...), but again I hated the way she was punished in the end (disability is Not a punishment and seeing it used that way while the story literally uses the c-slur in the same part is just... really bad). I also don't think that a story that supposedly satirizes fatphobia and fatphobic societal ideas of fat people being lazy (etc.) really works if by the end the character is told that without her leg she too will now be unable to work out and eat her pain away and grow fat due to being lazy. I would have found it more interesting if her comeuppance had been something that didn't reproduce harmful tropes such as the disabled & disfigured villain where their battered outsides finally match their horrible inside thoughts. Unfortunately a case of a story that could be interesting that just really got ruined by the end for me. TW: eating disorder, fatphobia, murder, ableism, c-slur

The Shoe Box Challenge: A new tiktok challenge leads to some gruesome injuries that get shared far and wide online and so find their own kind of audience. Features some really gruesome gorey descriptions, which I liked and the story is fun. I enjoyed that it explored the bloodthirsty side of potentially harmful online trends, while including some social criticism at the same time. TW: gore, injury

Xorcize.me: A interview of a new start up that offers AI exorcisms. Interesting exploration of tech bros, combining AI and religion and creating an really quite interesting world which I enjoyed reading about a lot. TW: murder, gore, rape

The People Around You: What if you went to the bathroom at a bar and when you came out your friends are turned into charicatures of 4chan misogynist, instagram influencer and hysteric buzzword warrior? Could have been fun & I enjoy the gore, but the end kind of stole a lot of the story's power unfortunately. TW: misogyny, violence, murder

These stories are a look at the dark side of society with juicy tidbits of everyday life.
Great flow from story to story while offering somewhat of an editorial without being preachy.
Highly enjoyable.

This book was serviceable and kept me entertained enough to finish it. The narrative was straightforward, and while there were some engaging moments, the overall experience was rather average. It’s a good book to pick up if you’re looking for something to read without high expectations.

I am not usually a big fan of short stories, and these were super super short in my opinion.
But I wanted to give it a chance bc it was horror themed.
The stories were written well I guess just not my cup of tea. I was not able to get into them or really enjoy them. I was kinda bored 🥱
This might just be a me thing so you might want to read this book yourself so you can base your own options.
Since it's such a short read it's not like you will be wasting too much of your time.

Lucy’s new collection, “Influence” mixed themes of postmodern horror with the bizarre and weird. Two of the stories I actually already have (from the Call Me Hoop collection and a standalone from Godless). It would’ve been a bit more interesting to sub out the Hoop story, as a lot of people who read Lucy’s work may have already read or own it.

I think my favourites were “They Say the Sky is Full of SnakeWolves”: an interesting look at domestic violence when the world is in lockdown (from monsters).

“The ShoeBox Challenge”: this viral trend was so strange. I would’ve liked to see this story expanded a bit more, maybe with interviews with the teens that are going to try the fad out.

The other stories were unique, but again two of them I’ve read elsewhere.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Blood Bound Books for a copy.

Influence
by: Lucy Leitner
2023
Blood Bound Books
5 stars

A little off center and a perfect bullseye-these stories will open your mind and your imagination. I really enjoy Lucy Leitners' unique ingenuity and creative power in setting a scene. Each of the stories will startle your psyche with their sarcastic side-ways glances at societies obsessions with platitutdes. Superb- I loved it.
Thanks to netgalley for sending this e-book ARC for review.
#Influencebloodboundbooks #netgalley

This was such a fun read. Packed full of gore, paranoia, revenge, and more, this would be a great addition to any horror enthusiasts bookshelf. There really is something for every fan in here (my personal favorites being the first two stories). I can't wait to see more of Lucy's writing.

I loved all the stories in this book. They were very modern and I love anything with influencers. The author did a really good job with each story and I am interested in reading more from her.

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I am usually not a great fan of short story collections but this author’s mind had me craving for me. While I did not rate them all perfect scores, I loved her approach to classic horror scenarios with a twist of our current climate in 2024. Of course, some were ridiculous because that’s how we are as a society which makes them hilarious. We do get some light gore in some of them which was a great addition to them. This book never takes itself serious and it’s defiantly easy to read. The writing is not great, but can be easily forgotten about with the unique story lines. I would recommend this to people looking for novellas and fan of dark mirrors

A solid collection of scares that doesn't shy away from the modern day. Each makes good use of common pervasive horrors.

This was one of the rare short story collections where I actually liked all of the stories. Loved the author's writing style and her satirical take on horror. The story titled Karen was one the best short stories I've read in a long time. It was equally funny as it was horrifying.

If you're looking for a good horror short story collection then pick this up.

I will definitely be checking out the authors other works as well.

Not quite a splatter punk and too cut throat to be considered a thriller, this collection of stories was my first delve into Lucy's mind and it was unlike anything I've read before.

I love a good extreme horror novella and this collection of short stories, while not quite gory enough to put me off my dinner, was very entertaining, fast paced and a very clever look at today's influences from social media and the internet.

Lucy's writing is really quite special and it's pretty safe to say that this won't be the last book of hers that I read.

A group of six short stories and novellas. They were fine. “Xorcize Me” was the only real stand out, for me. I ran into the first story in the collection just a week later in the anthology BLOOD BANK which I will review soon.

Excellent collection of short horror. Modern and refreshing. Well told and sprinkled with humor and sarcasm. I'll be looking for more from this author.

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories, the social media element in each of the creepy stories made them so much more creepy to me.

Lucy Leitner writes modern, relevant horror that uses current themes like social media and alternative medicine. The reason I enjoy her so much is because she's also funny, sarcastic, and uninhibited, and I always get at least a little personal satisfaction from her stories (sometimes a lot!). This is a short book of stories and I actually have one of the stories in another collection. I was not disappointed, and found myself smiling at completely inappropriate times, because Leitner knows how to shock. Thanks so much to NetGalley for letting me read this.

Horror Bookworm Reviews
Influence by Lucy Leitner
https://horrorbookwormreviews.com/

- A young woman’s way of life consists of an environment where terrifying monsters live outside of her home as well as inside. With nowhere to hide and nowhere to escape, survival options are scarcely limited.
- Desperate for acceptance and a desire for attention, a new adolescent craze has gone viral on the city streets. This novelty has kept the public informed by its exploitative videos.
- A Karen uses her BMW X6 as a justifiable solution to her prejudice problems. Her self entitled carnage of flesh and bone far exceeds the scope of what is normal and acceptable in society.

Influence by Lucy Leitner is a collection of short stories based on website applications enabling users to create and share content. From a morbid transcribed podcast to an individual’s unwholesome journey on Instagram, Leitner has put her own unique spin on social networking. These morbid #Horrorstories permits the reader to visit strange cities, view peculiar posts and learn how to change the people around you…literally.

Unleashing her own brand of specialized horror, I feel it is my civic duty to share, promote and recommend to the public this intense reading experience. Hit that like button, subscribe to that blog and upload the latest viral video…Influence is bound to provoke reactions from all those involved with social networking sites.

Lucy Leitner educates the reader with her invaluable lessons of…the significance of a selfie…actions to be taken when sounds of civil defense sirens are heard…visiting Xorcize.Me if you think a loved one is a victim of demonic possession. If these tutorials sound like stable advise then grab your copy of this five star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Horror Bookworm Recommendation today.