Novella; released January 23, 2020 from Unnerving Books
Paperback art by Eddie Generous
Paperback: Bookshop.org and Barnes & Noble,
Ebook, paperback, audiobook on Amazon.
Blackwood, Vermont has one legend to its name—Benny Rose, the Cannibal King. Every local kid knows him and tells his stories, especially on Halloween. When a new girl moves to town in the autumn of 1987, the legend inspires high school junior Desiree St. Fleur and her friends to pull a Benny Rose-themed prank. A few laughs and screams, and they’ll have a Happy Halloween.
But a vicious storm crashes into Blackwood and interrupts the festivities. Soon the girls find themselves trapped and hunted in a strange neighborhood where no one will help them. There’s nothing made-up about Benny Rose this Halloween night. The truth is coming, and it’s hungry.
A tense, dreadful ghost story and slasher novella, Benny Rose, the Cannibal King is Book 3 in the Rewind or Die series from Unnerving.
“An almost cinematic experience … this book has teeth.” – Rue Morgue
“A cathartic and sickening combination of violence and eeriness that’ll take your breath away until the very last page.” – Tor Nightfire
“Terrifying …” – Library Journal
“Hailey Piper is a major new voice in the horror genre, and Benny Rose, the Cannibal King is the perfect place to start with her work. A short and magnificent shock to the system, this one has got everything: great characters, fantastic vintage horror vibes, and a terrifying urban legend at the center of it all. Keep an eye on Hailey’s work; she is seriously going places.”
– Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens
Audiobook art by Don Noble; narrated by Laura Lockwood
“A good urban legend has a way of seeping into your bones and refusing to crawl out; Hailey Piper’s Cannibal King is certainly one of those that will be creeping into my mind, late at night and unbidden, for a long time to come. Benny Rose is an unforgettable terror, rivaled only by the gutsy teens who dare to go up against him.“
– Claire Holland, author of I Am Not Your Final Girl
“Sometimes when we tell ourselves stories, we unwittingly awaken and summon the very monster we thought only lived in our minds…. Witness a brilliant cast of characters take a chomping bite out of a local folk story that proves itself all too real. With haunted hearts and burning teeth, Piper’s sharp prose delivers a whirlwind tale; here, we peel back the layers of our strong, female leads and root for them to conquer the night.“
– Sara Tantlinger, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Devil’s Dreamland and To Be Devoured
“I see your slumber party massacre and raise you a taste of human tragedy, a funhouse ride of plot twists, and a heaping side of gore. Hailey Piper has the audacity to write teenage mean girls as thinking, feeling, bad-ass human beings.“
– Joe Koch, Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author of The Couvade and Convulsive
“[Piper] knows the slasher well enough to do something new and cool with it. Couldn’t have had a better time.”
– Stephen Graham Jones, NYT-Bestselling author of The Only Good Indians and My Heart Is a Chainsaw