Bad Vibes: Octavia Butler meets Gail Honeyman in this hilarious eco-satire
By (Author) Aja Barber
Octopus Publishing Group
BRAZEN
12th August 2025
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Speculative fiction
Narrative theme: Environmental issues / the natural world
Science fiction: near future
Paperback
224
Width 135mm, Height 216mm
I find it funny that London still has street buskers. Like the band on the Titanic, buskers will play us straight through a mass extinction event.
If you liked SEVERANCE and SUCH A FUN AGE, you'll love BAD VIBES.Hope isn't having fun coming of age during the uncoming of an age.One, she's the only black girl at school. Two, her activist parents just got fired. And when not casually surviving the end of times, she's basically invisible next to her blindingly blonde frenemy.A decade later, Hope is the uncredited workhorse behind the biggest fundraising charity on Earth. That is until she's chosen to lead a spiritual retreat for the elite - but as the weekend degenerates into ayahuasca-fuelled chaos, her big break might just end up breaking the system...BAD VIBES is a hilarious debut novel about hope and the struggle of keeping it alive as the world crumbles into a steaming cesspool of white supremacy and single-use plastic.PRAISE FOR AJA BARBER:'Powerful... Essential' LAYLA SAAD'A voice we MUST listen to' CLEMENTINE FORD'SUCH integrity. Aja is no bullsh*t' FLORENCE GIVENPowerful... Essential -- Layla Saad, author of Me and White Supremacy
SUCH integrity. Aja is no bullsh*t -- Florence Given, author of Women Don't Owe you Pretty
Barber's isn't just a voice we should listen to - it is a voice we MUST listen to -- Clementine Ford, author of Boys Will Be Boys
Aja Barber is a hugely influential voice and thought leader. She has been featured in the New York Times, Vogue, Dazed, Independent and Guardian. She is also a contributing editor at ELLE.
Instagram @AjaBarber