Release Day: All the Hearts You Eat

At last, it has washed ashore.

Today marks the release of my new novel from Titan Books, All the Hearts You Eat. A modern Gothic of hauntings, coastal vampires, isolation, identity, love, despair, and ancient cosmic secrets, it’s been a long time coming. I’m so excited for these strange seaborne blood-suckers to finally make landfall, from bookstores into your minds.

“Piper cements her place in the queer horror canon.”

 – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

What really happened to Cabrina Brite?

Ivory’s life changes irrevocably when she discovers the body of Cabrina Brite on the sands of Cape Morning, along with a mysterious poem. How did she die, and why does it seem she was trying to swim to Ghost Cat Island, the center of so many local mysteries?

Desperate to uncover the answers surrounding Cabrina’s death, and haunted by her discovery, Ivory begins to see the pale ghost of Cabrina, only to shake it off as a mere hallucination. But Ivory is not alone. Cabrina’s closest friends have also seen a similar apparition, and as they toy with occult possibilities, they begin to unravel the truth behind Cabrina’s death.

Because Cape Morning isn’t a ghost town, but a town filled with ghosts, and Ivory is about to discover just what happens when you let one in.

“Sharp but tender, delicate but bloody, tragic but triumphant, All The Hearts You Eat will curl cat claws into your chest and take hold of your heart. This is Stephen King’s It for a new generation.”

 – Delilah S. Dawson, author of Bloom

“You think you know how this haunting will go, but you don’t. All the Hearts You Eat has a dark and powerful undertow, and it’ll pull you far, far out to sea.”

– Chuck Wendig, NYT Bestselling author of Wanderers and Black River Orchard

All the Hearts You Eat is a secret spell, a starless sky, the chambers of a heart and the depths of sorrow. Hailey Piper grips us in this gorgeous, yet tragic death poem and life poem, in which we’re struck with the utter heartbreak of how when we are starved of friendship, love, and care we are turned into a monster. As beautiful as the sea and as unsettling as its destructive waves.”

– Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Crime Scene

All the Hearts You Eat is filled with mesmerizing and breathless words that explore violent pleasures, painful desires, insatiable thirst, sacrifices in hopes of acceptance and belonging, scraping both across and under the skin with effortless lyricism—a novel with an alluring pull, like following a hypnotic trail, and by the time you notice how deep you’ve tread, it’s already far too late.”

 – Ai Jiang, Bram Stoker and Nebula Award-winning author of Linghun

“Piper writes about the big, overarching things here – love, loss, desire, belonging – with the same nuance and precision she brings to this novel’s haunting, braided narratives. All the Hearts You Eat has the insistent pull of a fever dream.”

 – Keith Rosson, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of Fever House

All the Hearts You Eat paints monsters from the whispers of the waves, scrying secrets from bittersweet death poetry. Piper examines with uncompromising force the ghosts we leave behind when sorrow is unclaimed by the sea but still eroded by its waves. Utterly haunting.”

 – Sofia Ajram, author of Coup de Grâce

“Piper delivers not only a fresh twist on the vampire mythos, but a juicy reimagining of horror’s archetypal Dead Girl Story. This book contains an ocean of feminist rage, queer love, and trans resistance–and like an ocean, it’s as violent as it is beautiful. All the Hearts You Eat is here to rip a hole in your world.”

 – Lindsay King-Miller, author of The Z Word

“Like Twin Peaks bred with The Lost Boys, unsettling and angry and still full of so much love and life. Absolutely made me a Hailey Piper fan from the word go.”

 – Logan-Ashley Kisner, author of Old Wounds

“Piper breaks it all open, releasing the existential terror (both real and supernatural) into the world, but not without anchoring it with love and hope.”

 – Booklist

“Sad, furious, hopeful and absolutely lovely.”

 – Hildur Knútsdóttir, author of The Night Guest

New September Stories

We’re finishing up September with two all-new stories in two fantastic anthologies!

First is “The Hollow Ones Weep Greasepaint.” I was immediately drawn to Fear of Clowns by its mission statement of not wanting stories about people dressing as clowns for a killing spree. Mine is a dour story about family trauma and isolation in a world where showing sympathy for clowns can lead to a terrible fate.

Next is The Darkest Night, an anthology of winter horror. It includes my grief horror tale “The Vermin Moon,” which is kind of like Willard meets Laurel Hightower’s Crossroads along with something else I won’t spoil.

Both these books are stuffed with talented authors and incredible stories.

I should have at least one more short story coming out this year in Old Moon Quarterly, so I’ll be sure to share about that once issue 7 is released. And we’re less than 3 weeks until the release of my vampire novel All the Hearts You Eat.

“Unkindly Girls” in Fears, All the Hearts You Eat in Autostraddle

A bunch of coolness out this week!

First, my story “Unkindly Girls” has returned to print in Fears, edited by Ellen Datlow. This anthology focuses on human monsters and psychological terror. 99.9% of the time, I’m at least waist-deep in the speculative, but here the horror is people.

I’ll have a couple more stories out this month, one coming on Tuesday the 17th, and one more on the 24th. Possibly another as well, but I don’t have a date on that one yet!

Off into the territory of the weird and the queer, my upcoming vampire novel All the Hearts You Eat has appeared on multiple anticipation lists!

First in Autostraddle’s “72 Most Anticipated Queer Books Coming Out Fall 2024,” a tremendous honor alongside queerness of all genres!

Next, Bookstr including it in their “Fall Fantasty Spotlight” of 2024.

And last but not least, Book Riot included it alongside a number of fascinating-sounding queer books in their list “10 Biggest and Buzziest New Queer Books Out in Fall 2024.”

I’m so psyched to see all the excited readers, and I can’t wait to introduce you to Cape Morning and its seaside of bloodsuckers and tragedy this October 15th!

“The Majestic Art of Flesh” and “A Year in the Angel-Handed House”

Unfortunately I’m a little behind on updating short stories here! Let’s make up for that with TWO Neon Hemlock anthologies I have stories in:

The Crawling Moon published on July 30, a book filled with queer gothic depravity by Suzan Palumbo, Donyae Coles, Caitlin Starling, myself, and many more! My tale “A Year in the Angel-Handed House” follows a couple thrown into the shadowy uncertainties of hauntings, legacies, genders, and strange futures.

And then even more recently, Embodied Exegesis released August 27, an anthology of transfem cyberpunk with stories by Maya Deane, Ryka Aoki, Jess Levine, and more!

I never thought I would return to the world of my first novel Queen of Teeth, but “The Majestic Art of Flesh” returns three years after the book and across the river from Newark, where a new business has taken root, a business of flesh. You don’t have to have read the book to read the story, though book fans will have a different perspective on the world. Maybe I’ll come back again someday! We’ll see.

Booklist review for All the Hearts You Eat

All the Hearts You Eat has a glowing review in the latest Booklist! You can check it out here with an account. Becky Spratford also included the review and notes on her blog, describing my upcoming vampire novel as “operatic” and “terrifying.”

And now that it’s being shown on LibroFM and elsewhere, I’m delight to share that the audiobook will have a FULL CAST narrating the individual point of view characters, starring Jeremy Carlisle Parker, L Morgan Lee, Alexis Vandom, Sena Bryer, and Em Grosland!

All the Hearts You Eat releases on October 15th from Titan Books!

Release day: The Ghostlands of Natalie Glasgow

I said it would be soon, and I meant it: The Ghostlands of Natalie Glasgow is out in paperback today! Surprise!

Ghostlands returns my 2018 debut novella The Possession of Natalie Glasgow to print alongside 6 all-new connected stories, including a new novelette, following the novella’s characters and making Ghostlands an unusual story collection. Explore the Glasgow family across years and supernatural activity along with Margaret Willow, who seeks both to right the world and to find redemption for her own past.

You can find the paperback on Amazon and Barnes & Noble now, and hopefully elsewhere soon. An ebook will also be coming in the near future. Full description here:

From the imagination of Stoker-award winner, Hailey Piper, The Ghostlands of Natalie Glasgow is a new collection of seven interconnected stories surrounding the events of The Possession of Natalie Glasgow.

There’s no getting used to the strange. That’s the philosophy of Margaret Willow, and as a supposed expert in the supernatural, or allegedly a modern witch, she’s seen a strange thing or two, and even lived to tell about it.

But she’s never met an eleven-year-old as dangerous as Natalie Glasgow.

Ever since the death of Natalie’s father, her family has found themselves caught in a series of bizarre experiences of their own. Unexplainable, irrational, and yet all too real. Has a demon latched onto Natalie’s soul? Or are her family’s circumstances bound up in the aftermath of her dead father?

The Ghostlands of Natalie Glasgow collects the original 2018 Natalie Glasgow novella, The Possession of Natalie Glasgow, along with six all-new interconnected stories following Margaret, Natalie, her family, and their entanglements in their haunted pasts and ghostly futures.

“[Piper’s] fiction is remarkable in its range” – Esquire

“Downright chilling.” – Rachel Harrison, USA Today Bestselling author of Cackle and Black Sheep

“Eerie and thoroughly engrossing.” – K.P. Kulski, Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of Fairest Flesh

“Truly original.” – Sara Tantlinger, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Devil’s Dreamland

Cranberry Cove audiobook release

Cranberry Cove is out today in audio!

Narrated by Jenn Lee (narrator of audiobooks for Queen of Teeth and Cruel Angels Past Sundown), this supernatural crime novella ventures into the abandoned hotel of Cranberry Cove to uncover its sinister secrets.

Find the audio on: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, Libro.FM

Something unspeakable is happening at Cranberry Cove.

For decades, the chilling mystery within the derelict hotel has claimed those foolish and unwary enough to go inside.

Following the violent assault of a criminal kingpin’s adult son, enforcer Emberly Hale takes a dark journey into the haunted core of Cranberry Cove—and her own past—to find out the horrible truth.

“The best crossover episode of Law & Order: SVU and X-Files that you never knew you wanted and now cannot live without.”

—Booklist

“A hell of a read.”

—Cemetery Dance

“Possession No. 239 in E Major, Op. 1” and TGONG paperback cover

Previously only available as a limited edition direct from the publisher, Playlist of the Damned has now released wide! Nearly 30 stories of music-based horror from cursed albums to doomed cosmic concerts. My story “Possession No. 239 in E Major, Op. 1” follows what happens when a song won’t stay stuck in your head, but wants the rest of you as well.

Also previously only a limited edition hardcover, I’m excited to share the paperback and ebook cover for The Ghostlands of Natalie Glasgow!

Hardcovers have been landing over the last few weeks, and the wide release should spread sometime in August.

Last but not least, haunted hotel novella Cranberry Cove is coming to audio from Tantor and the incredible Jenn Lee, who also narrated Queen of Teeth and Cruel Angels Past Sundown. That releases on July 30th, so not long from now!

Starred PW review for All the Hearts You Eat

I’m a couple days late posting it here, but I’m thrilled to share that my upcoming modern Gothic/coastal vampire novel All the Hearts You Eat has received a starred review in Publishers Weekly!

“Weaving classic horror elements into a powerful tale of trans solidarity and the life-sucking toll of being forced back into the closet, Piper cements her place in the queer horror canon.”

Check out the full review here!

All the Hearts You Eat releases from Titan Books on October 15th!

Release day: Song of the Tyrant Worm

The end has come.

It began in 2020 with The Worm and His Kings, continued in 2023 with Even the Worm Will Turn, and now concludes with Song of the Tyrant Worm, out today in ebook and paperback from Off Limits Press and audiobook from Tantor and available from Barnes & NobleBookshop, Amazon, Libro.FM, Audiobooks.com.

Cassie Daley drew up the gorgeous cover art, depicting the Gray Maiden against eerie cosmos.

I’ve already listened to the audiobook and Allyson Voller brings the narration to a haunting close.

This has been a long journey. I could’ve never foreseen a short story I wrote and abandoned in early 2019 would become a book, and then two books, and then a trilogy. I’m ever grateful to the readers, reviewers, booksellers, and other authors who’ve taken this story of kings and gods and New York into their hearts, as well as a massively supportive publisher who’s weathered delays from me, changes of plan, and more to bring this book into the world.

Thank you all. Now to follow the Gray Maiden beneath Manhattan one last time.

New York City, 1990: The Gray Maiden has served the almighty Worm and his faithful for her entire life. Recently that has meant abducting women off the street to find the Worm’s destined Bride, but any brutality is worth his promise of a better world to come.