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“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!

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!

No Gods for Drowning update

As you might have seen on social media, Polis Books is closing down and its titles are going out of print. This includes No Gods for Drowning, my novel mixing dark fantasy, noir, and horror into a genre stew of serial killers, detectives, sea monsters, and bloodthirsty gods.

The audiobook from Dreamscape, narrated by the ever-talented Jodie Harris, will remain available.

There will also continue to be short stories set in the world of Aeon.

No Gods for Drowning will find a new home in time. Until then, thank you to everyone who’s taken the visit to the shores of Aeg.

cover reveal: All the Hearts You Eat

I’m a day late but not a vampire short: yesterday Titan Books revealed the cover to my upcoming modern gothic coastal vampire novel, All the Hearts You Eat!

The sea wants blood, and Julia Lloyd’s gorgeous cover screams out its beastly thirst. It also shows a few kind words from Chuck Wendig:

“A dark and powerful undertow … it’ll pull you far, far out to sea.”

All the Hearts You Eat is up for pre-order at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Target, Bookshop, Libro.FM & more, and will wash ashore from Titan Books on October 15th.

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.

 

All the Hearts You Eat in Paste’s Most Anticipated 2024

Happy New Year! We’re into 2024, which is going to be a big year for horror. I have four titles releasing this year, and the fourth had the good fortune to appear in Paste Magazine’s article, “The Most Anticipated Horror Books of 2024.”

Alongside exciting upcoming titles by Stephen King, Stephen Graham Jones, Rachel Harrison, Johnny Compton, Josh Malerman (you don’t need me to list everyone, check the article!) comes All the Hearts You Eat, coming October 15th from Titan Books. From the article:

Why We’re Excited: Hailey Piper will deliver several new books in 2024, but All the Hearts You Eat is the one that intrigues me most. Apart from the title, which might be the best Piper’s delivered so far (and that’s really saying something), there’s the promise of another tale of a small town full of mysteries and darkness, and the young woman at the center of it all who must dig for the truth. Throw in the Gothic touch of a ghost girl trying to point the way, and you’ve got a book I need in my hands right this second.”

Right now it can only be pre-ordered from UK retailers Waterstones & Forbidden Planet, but hopefully Titan will be expanding on that soon! And also soon, a cover reveal. Can’t wait!

Also, Queen of Teeth got a lovely mention in BookRiot’s “9 Horror Books with Romance at Heart.” I’ve said it before, so remember: horror and romance are lovers!

A Light Most Hateful also got a shout-out on The Line-Up’s “From the Haunted Stacks: 2023 Horror Book Highlights,” saying “If Neil Gaiman, Mary Shelley, and Shirley Jackson could birth a book baby, this stunning novel would be the outcome.”

A Light Most Hateful in Paste’s Best Horror Books 2023

I keep thinking I’ve hit my last site update for the year, and then another thing will happen and I’m jumping back in here.

Paste Magazine today published their article “The Best Horror Books of 2023,” and among such recent titans as Tananarive Due’s The Reformatory and Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones is the storm of my most recent novel, A Light Most Hateful!

“One of the most imaginative horror authors in the game right now, Hailey Piper outdid even herself with A Light Most Hateful (link to Paste’s review), the story of a small Northeastern town transformed into a nightmarish dreamscape over the course of one fateful night.

The horror starts in the opening pages and never lets up, as Piper spools out fascinating image after fascinating image, weaving them all into an unforgettable tapestry of fear, beauty, and humanity.”

A Light Most Hateful in Library Journal Best Horror of 2023

So jazzed to share that my recent Titan Books novel A Light Most Hateful landed on Library Journal’s Best Horror of 2023 list!

” If Neil Gaiman, Mary Shelley, and Shirley Jackson could collaborate, this stunning novel would be the result.”

It’s an honor to see my cosmic horror tale appear alongside brilliant work by Tananarive Due, Grady Hendrix, Stephen Graham Jones, Cassandra Khaw, Victor LaValle, Josh Malerman, Cynthia Pelayo, Jade Song, and Chuck Tingle.

This year was another incredible time to be a horror fan, and I can already tell 2024 is shaping up to be another beautiful storm.