“A Change in Universal Flavor” in Good for Her

Posted on 2025-06-30 by Hailey Piper short story

It’s release day for Good for Her: An Anthology of Women’s Rage!

From Nefarious Bat Press, an anthology of horror celebrating women’s rights and women’s wrongs. I’m honored to join RJ Joseph Jackson, Ai Jiang, and more with my story “A Change in Universal Flavor,” about a young woman at the end of her rope, forced to choose between cruelty toward herself or feeding two predators, only to find a third road opening to her, one she never expected.

This story has been out of print almost since its publication nearly three years ago, so I’m excited to give everyone another chance to read it, especially here. All proceeds go to the charity Sisters Uncut.

cover reveal: No Gods for Drowning

It’s a joy to share the new cover to No Gods for Drowning!

After years out of print, my dark fantasy novel is returning thanks to Bad Hand Books, now with this glorious art by Anna Chiara Stagi, beautifully blending elements of the book into this eerie seaborne radiance of the nine-pointed star and the prostration toward a bloodthirsty goddess.

I can’t wait to bring new readers to this noir-inspired world where they can meet god-descended Lilac in her desperate determination, the haunted yet gentle flood fighter Arcadia, private detectives Alex and Cecil on the trail of a murderer, and everyone else trying to survive at all costs in the drowning city of Valentine.

Right now Bad Hand Books has limited signed pre-orders up while they last.

The tide rolls in, early 2026.

A Game in Yellow in Library Journal

Posted on 2025-06-02 by Hailey Piper a game in yellow novel

Pleased to share that A Game in Yellow has also received a starred review from Library Journal!

This joins its starred review from last week in Publishers Weekly. I’m delighted Carmen, Blanca, and Smoke are drawing people into their tangled erotic web cast by The King in Yellow. It was fun to develop my own vision of the infamous cursed play, and I hope we keep seeing more Yellow Mythos stories for years to come.

A Game in Yellow releases August 12 from Simon and Schuster, only a couple months away!

A Game in Yellow in PW, CrimeReads

Posted on 2025-05-28 by Hailey Piper a game in yellow novel

Two spotlights on A Game in Yellow!

Publishers Weekly took a look at my queer cosmic horror novel coming from Saga on August 12 and gave it a starred review, calling it “masterful” and “a dreamlike but still utterly absorbing page-turner.” I’m thrilled to see it, and to see the relationships in the book given center stage.

Also wonderful, CrimeReads included it in their article “The Most Anticipated Crime Fiction of Summer 2025,” gathering up 80 mysteries, thrillers, and horror books coming in the hottest season of the year.

We’re less than three months away from A Game in Yellow’s release. I can’t wait for the cursed play to draw you in.

No Gods for Drowning returns in 2026

Posted on 2025-05-21 by Hailey Piper no gods for drowning novel

I have fantastic news to share! After a couple of years of being out of print, my dark fantasy/crime/horror novel No Gods for Drowning is coming back into publication.

Bad Hand Books, the wonderful publisher behind so much excellent dark fiction, including my 2024 supernatural crime novella Cranberry Cove, is giving the novel a loving new home and a fresh coat of paint, with new cover art and interior art.

Right now Bad Hand is running a limited pre-order for a signed bookplate edition ahead of release, which is looking to be early 2026.

We’ll have more specifics on the release date and cover art as the year goes on, but I’m thrilled the book is coming back! This was my baby, the story I became a writer for in hopes that I would eventually have the skill to tell it. Seeing it fall out of print was crushing, and so seeing its return is a joy. I can’t wait to share the new edition with you all and see Lilac and the others invite readers new and old into this world.

A Game in Yellow: final cover

Posted on 2025-05-12 by Hailey Piper a game in yellow novel

With exactly three months to go until the release of my new novel A Game in Yellow, I’m thrilled to share the final front cover, with immensely kind words for the book from Christopher Golden and Eric LaRocca.

A Game in Yellow brings the madness on August 12th from Simon and Schuster!

Cover reveal: Teenage Girls Can Be Demons

Posted on 2025-03-13 by Hailey Piper collection teenage girls can be demons

It’s cover reveal day!

I’m delighted to share the cover art for my upcoming collection Teenage Girls Can Be Demons, releasing September 16th from Titan Books! This one is another stunner from Julia Lloyd, who did the art for my previous two Titan books, A Light Most Hateful and All the Hearts You Eat.

Pre-order available from: Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, and other places shown on Penguin Random House

13 coming-of-rage stories the way only Bram Stoker Award-winning author Hailey Piper can tell them—wildly inventive, brilliantly imaginative, and completely and utterly enthralling.

A vicious group of college upperclassmen prey on the freshman girls in “Why We Keep Exploding”; across the world, something is mutating adolescents into bizarre creatures in “The Turning”; a girl on a night out realizes a bizarre cop is hunting her in “The Long Flesh of the Law”; and in the acclaimed novella “Benny Rose, the Cannibal King”, a Halloween prank goes horribly wrong when a murderous ghost steps out of an urban legend and into the real world.

These stories take our most difficult years of transformation and twist them into new and terrifying shapes, where the monsters are real and you’ll do whatever it takes to get away, or get even.

March update

Posted on 2025-03-01 by Hailey Piper a game in yellow even the worm will turn novel novella song of the tyrant worm the worm and his kings your mind is a terrible thing

Hi all! I might be setting myself up for inaccuracy with “March update” as if there will only be one, but it’s good enough to start the month. Two bits of news for right now, good and bad.

The good news: my upcoming psychosexual cosmic horror novel A Game in Yellow appeared in Men’s Health magazine’s “The 25 Most Anticipated and Best Horror Books of 2025.” It’s there with so much amazing horror both coming out this year and already released for our reading pleasure.

So now the bad news: Off Limits Press will be closing their doors within the next couple months, meaning The Worm and His Kings trilogy and Your Mind is a Terrible Thing will all be going out of print. Their audiobooks will remain available from the usual places, and I’m hopeful the paperback and ebook versions will find new homes soon, but it’s still unfortunate to see them go alongside the many wonderful books by other authors Off Limits Press has helped usher into print over the years. It was a good home for them and will be missed.

February update

Posted on 2025-02-14 by Hailey Piper a game in yellow all the hearts you eat novel podcast

A quick update!

First, I had the pleasure of joining Agatha Andrews on the She Wore Black podcast, where we talked about All the Hearts You Eat, A Game in Yellow, and recommendations for Gothic fantasy. Check it out here!

And, Den of Geek featured A Game in Yellow in their article “The Biggest Horror Books of 2025.” It’s with some stunning company on its way to the August 12th release!

2025 Begins

Posted on 2025-01-05 by Hailey Piper a game in yellow all the hearts you eat collection cranberry cove novel novella short story teenage girls can be demons

Happy New Year! A couple of quick updates:

First, glancing back, All the Hearts You Eat made Paste Magazine’s “The Best Horror Books of 2024,” one of fifteen titles full of nightmares. Honored that my vampires made the cut, calling the novel “a triumph in a career increasingly full of them.”

Supernatural crime novella Cranberry Cove also got a mention in The Lineup’s “2024 Horror Book Highlights.”

Now to this year! I have two books coming, both in quarter 3:

A Game in Yellow releases from Saga on August 12, 2025, a queer erotic cosmic horror novel tangling with the infamous King in Yellow.

Teenage Girls Can Be Demons releases from Titan on September 16, 2025, a collection of coming-of-rage stories about our most difficult years and the horrors that find us. Among the new stories are two new novelettes and the inclusion of a very special cannibal.

I’ll have other short fiction releasing through the year, including “Prey Instinct,” coming in the first anthology to be based off a Stephen King novel, The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand. The TOC is frankly jaw-dropping, and I’m overjoyed to have a story amid the work of these much-celebrated authors.

Lastly, A Game in Yellow made Paste Magazine’s “The Most Anticipated Horror Books of 2025.” So many fantastic-looking books lie in wait. It’s going to be another tremendous year for horror!

Hailey Piper