Cover reveal: She Isn’t Herself Tonight

A few sleuthing readers have found this ahead of time, but today’s the official announcement day: I have a new book coming from Saga near Halloween!

She Isn’t Herself Tonight is probably best described as my weird girl lit book, or if you like comparisons better, Saint Maud by way of The X-Files. It’s somewhat literary fiction, somewhat psychological horror, and all heart, one of those stories I just needed pulled out of me, perhaps by UFOs.

The cover art is by the wonderful Caroline Johnson, who also was the artist behind the cover for last year’s A Game in Yellow.

She Isn’t Herself Tonight will haunt your night skies on October 27th!

“A propulsive, thrillingly strange genre-bending novel full of yearning, that’s magically poignant, earnest, squirmy, and unsettling in equal measure. Blissfully twisted and genuinely heartfelt.”

– Rachel Harrison, New York Times bestselling author of Play Nice and So Thirsty

Available for pre-order at: Bookshop, Barnes and Noble, LibroFM, Amazon, Simon and Schuster

When Rabbit was ten years old, she was abducted by aliens. Then, it happened again when she was twenty. Now thirty, she’s ready for their next visit. What she isn’t prepared for is her boyfriend callously ending their long-term relationship and ejecting her from their shared home.

As her birthday approaches, the aliens still haven’t arrived. Rabbit descends into a spiral of growing paranoia and bizarre bodily transformations, until soon it seems that even her reflection has a mind of its own. With her only refuge being the chaos of strangers who might not have her best interests at heart, Rabbit worries that her ex’s abandonment not only severed her from his life, but also from her own. Struggling to orient herself within a world growing more topsy-turvy by the day, Rabbit must regain control before her aliens at last return.

No Gods for Drowning is back

Posted on 2026-03-03 by Hailey Piper aeg no gods for drowning novel

No Gods for Drowning is back in print at last!

My noir-inspired dark fantasy horror crime novel has been unavailable in paperback and audio for years, but it’s returned from Bad Hand Books who previously published my haunted hotel novella Cranberry Cove.

This book was my baby, the story I became a writer to tell, growing in me over many years. I’m elated new readers can meet Lilac, Arcadia, Alex, Cecil, and everyone else in the drowning city of Valentine.

Available from: Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, Politics & Prose, Amazon , Libro.fm, Audiobooks.com

Locus Award Finalist 2022, Dragon Award Finalist 2022

IN THE BEGINNING, MAN WAS PREY. WITHOUT THE GODS, THEY’LL BE PREY AGAIN.

The old gods have fled, and the monsters they had kept at bay for centuries now threaten to drown the city of Valentine, hunting mankind as in ancient times. In the midst of the chaos, a serial killer has begun ritually sacrificing victims, their bodies strewn throughout the city.

Lilac Antonis wants to stop the impending destruction of her city by summoning her mother, a blood god—even if she has to slit a few throats to do it. But evading her lover Arcadia and her friends means sneaking, lying, and even spilling the blood of people she loves.

Alex and Cecil of Ace Investigations have been tasked with hunting down the killer, but as they close in—not knowing they’re hunting their close friend Lilac—the detectives realize the gods may not have left willingly.

As flooding drags this city of cars and neon screaming into the jaws of sea demons and Arcadia struggles to save the people as captain of the evacuation team, Lilac’s ritual killings at last bear fruit, only to reveal her as a small piece in a larger plan. The gods’ protection costs far more than anyone has ever known, and Alex and Cecil are running out of time to discover the true culprit behind the gods’ disappearance before an ancient divine murder plot destroys them all.

NO GODS FOR DROWNING is part hunt for a serial killer, part noir detective story, and unlike anything you’ve ever read before.

“Glorious and visceral, No Gods For Drowning drips with evocative prose and proves Hailey Piper to be a storyteller with wonderfully sharp teeth. This book sang to me, and if you let it, it will sing to you, too.” – Chuck Wendig, New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents

“Wrathful gods, drowning cities, and an ancient, bloody mystery—Piper’s novel had me from the jump. No Gods For Drowning is a superior offering.” – Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase

“Piper, a rising star in horror, is announcing her intentions to break through onto a larger stage with this confident and compelling tale that is as fun as it is thought-provoking.” – Library Journal

“If you only know Hailey Piper from contemporary horror, you’ll want to see what fantasy inventions she has up her sleeve, because this is a whole other side of one of our finest genre writers.” – Bloody Disgusting

“A roller coaster of tension! I was desperate to read on, yet terrified. A truly addictive read.” – Hannah Lynn, award-winning author of Athena’s Child

“Incredibly atmospheric detective horror. This mythology is now resident in my brain.” – Maya Deane, author of Wrath Goddess Sing

“Strange and wonderful … Look, if I have to put on a ceremonial robe and make a sacrifice to Hailey Piper to get more books like this, so be it.” – Dea Poirier, author of The Girls in the Fire

“an audacious novel, a mind-bending blend of noir, mythology, urban fantasy, apocalypse story, and murder mystery … Fans of the unclassifiable and the weird should not skip this one.” – Vulture

“a genre-blending story that’s unlike anything you’ve read.” – The Lineup

Bram Stoker Award Finalist Teenage Girls Can Be Demons

Posted on 2026-02-23 by Hailey Piper article award collection short story teenage girls can be demons

Absolutely ecstatic to share that Teenage Girls Can Be Demons is a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award in Superior Achievement in Fiction Collection!

These demons are part of a terrific set on the final ballot alongside collections by Sara Tantlinger, John Langan, Gemma Files, and Clay McLeod Chapman.

Also nominated for Anthology is The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand edited by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene, which includes my story “Prey Instinct,” and for Long Non-Fiction Why I Love Horror edited by Becky Spratford, which includes my essay “The Giant Footprint of Horror.”

This year’s Bram Stoker Awards will be in Pittsburgh this June at StokerCon (the convention’s tenth anniversary)! Can’t wait, and congratulations to all the nominees up and down the ballot!

cover reveal: This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want

Posted on 2026-02-06 by Hailey Piper novel this movie doesn't end the way we want

It’s cover reveal day! I’m overjoyed to share the cover for my upcoming cursed film novel This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want!

As with my other Titan Books, the art is again from the incredible Julia Lloyd, and its eerie atmosphere and sense of mystery fit the book down to its written celluloid. I’m immensely grateful to Paul Tremblay for taking time to read and to offer the book his kind words.

“This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want is a fun, creepy, and thrilling twist to the cursed film genre, with more than a hint of King in Yellow, that will keep you guessing and compulsively turning the pages. The Toad Man will like you best.”

– Paul Tremblay, author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts

This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want opens its cover to audiences on September 15th! Let’s all go to the movies and never come back.

Pre-order: Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Penguin Random House

And now, a trailer for our coming attraction:

A woman haunted by the disappearance of her sister and best friend thirty years ago uncovers the terrifying urban legend behind the last film they watched together, in this chilling riff on the cursed film subgenre by the Bram Stoker award-winning author of Queen of Teeth.

Perfect for fans of Gretchen Felker-Martin and Andrew Joseph White.

In November 1994, three girls visit their local movie theater to see an obscure film. Only one of them is ever seen again.

Thirty years later, Val McQueen has never forgotten the day she lost her little sister and best friend, but she’s closed the curtain on it, certain she’s moved on despite her parents’ resentment and hounding by true crime enthusiasts.

That is until a stranger’s murder brings it all screaming back—a terror she’s tried to tell herself is only a movie. Enlisting the help of cinephile and former classmate Roxie de la Fontaine to find the film, Val soon realizes that hers is not the only pursuit. Someone, or something involved with the movie is on the hunt, too…

… For the girl who got away all those years ago.

Teenage Girls Can Be Demons in audio!

Posted on 2026-02-04 by Hailey Piper audiobook collection teenage girls can be demons

Teenage Girls Can Be Demons is now out in audiobook!

Produced by Tantor, it’s been narrated by the wonderful Moniqua Plante and is available at all the usual audiobook places like LibroFM, Chirp, Barnes & Noble, and more.

Stoker Preliminary Ballot 2026

Posted on 2026-01-27 by Hailey Piper a game in yellow award collection novel teenage girls can be demons

I’m thrilled to share that both A Game in Yellow and Teenage Girls Can Be Demons have made the preliminary ballot for this year’s Bram Stoker Awards! They join a feast of incredible books up and down over a dozen categories that will hopefully be up on the Horror Writers Association website to share soon. Mid-February will tell which works make the final ballot as nominated fiction, but it’s an honor for both of my 2025 book releases to be selected. Thank you to everyone who’s been reading them!

Splatterpunk Award Finalist: Teenage Girls Can Be Demons

Posted on 2026-01-10 by Hailey Piper audiobook award collection teenage girls can be demons

Absolutely thrilled to share that my recent collection Teenage Girls Can Be Demons has been nominated for a Splatterpunk Award in Best Collection!

This is the first time one of my works has been nominated, and it’s a wonderful bloody honor to join the legacy of Splatterpunk Finalists. Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees!

In more collection news, we’re less than a month from the February 3rd release of the audiobook, narrated by Moniqua Plante, coming from Tantor.

Bloody Disgusting’s Best Books, Onward to 2026

Posted on 2025-12-29 by Hailey Piper a game in yellow collection no gods for drowning novel teenage girls can be demons this movie doesn't end the way we want

One last post for 2025!

I’m so excited to share that A Game in Yellow is back in Bloody Disgusting, this time for “The Best Horror Books of 2025”, joining a fantastic assembly of new horror from this year, some of them favorites of mine, others I’m still eager to read.

“Perhaps the gutsiest conceptual leap from a major horror writer this year, Hailey Piper’s latest novel is a riff on Robert W. Chambers’ revered collection The King in Yellow, a foundational weird fiction book that gets an unexpected expansion through A Game in Yellow. The book follows a lesbian couple in a BDSM relationship whose limits are tested when they read pages from a mysterious play that’s said to drive you mad, and even beyond the ties to cosmic horror history, it’s a phenomenal showcase in character study from one of the best horror writers working right now.”

And that’s a wrap on 2025 for me. 2026 is shaping up to be a busy new year, with lots of events, and more releases to come.

January 23-25: MystiCon in Roanoke, VA

February 3: Teenage Girls Can Be Demons releases in audiobook

March 3: No Gods for Drowning returns to print from Bad Hand Books

June 4-7: StokerCon in Pittsburgh

September 15: This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want releases from Titan Books

October: … it hasn’t been announced yet, but there will be another book coming. Stay tuned!

Have a Happy New Year!

Library Journal Best Books 2025

Posted on 2025-12-10 by Hailey Piper a game in yellow benny rose the cannibal king collection novel novelette short story teenage girls can be demons

I’m delighted to share that both A Game in Yellow and Teenage Girls Can Be Demons have made the Library Journal Best Books 2025 list along with many wonderful books of horror. This was an enormous year for me, and I’m so happy seeing people enjoying my new novel and new collection, both of which had starred reviews in Library Journal earlier this year.

Four Past Meat Night also released recently, however, the limited print run sold out before the boxes even shipped. It includes my new novelette “The Lie and Death of a Trickster God,” so if you can find a copy, there’s crime horror with dinosaur bones out there waiting.

That’s my final publication for 2025! A novel, a collection made up of 9 reprints and 4 original stories, 3 more original stories, 2 more reprints, and 2 non-fiction essays. I also attended more in-person events than any previous year.

BookPage Best SFF and Horror 2025

Posted on 2025-11-21 by Hailey Piper a game in yellow novel

“You have never read another piece of weird fiction like this.”

– BookPage (starred review)

Just a small update to share that A Game in Yellow made BookPage’s “Best SFF & Horror 2025” alongside novels by R.F. Kuang, Joe Hill, and more!

A Game in Yellow previously got a starred review in BookPage, and I’m thrilled to see it on their annual list of Best of’s in speculative fiction!

A kink-fixated couple, Carmen and Blanca, have been in a rut. That is until Blanca discovers the enigmatic Smoke in an under-street drug den, who holds pages to a strange play, The King in Yellow. Read too much, and you’ll fall into madness. But read just a little and pull back, and it gives you the adrenaline rush of survivor’s euphoria, leading Carmen to fall into a game of lust at a nightmare’s edge.

Hailey Piper