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Book: “All The Hearts You Eat” by Hailey Piper
Publishing Info: Titan Books, October 2024
Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: A visceral and heartbreaking work of gothic horror about small town mysteries, local folklore and the things we leave behind when we’re gone, from the Bram Stoker Award winning author of Queen of Teeth.
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 centre 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.
Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!
We have truly been blessed this past year or so with some great vampire horror. I feel like I’ve read, reviewed, and enjoyed more vampire horror lately than in years past, and I have another title for you to add to the collection of solid vampire lore. I hadn’t read any Hailey Piper before I picked up “All The Hearts You Eat”, though she had been on my radar for a bit with lots of horror people I like really singing her praises. And it seemed this would be the perfect moment to do so.
So first off I want to talk about the vampire mythos in this. I really liked the way that Piper takes it on a creates something super creative and haunting. I was reminded quite a bit of old school vampire legends with transmogrifying powers, but also the heavy air of melancholy and dread that was seen in “Midnight Mass”. I don’t want to give too much away, but the little snippets and glimpses of something supernatural that our characters see are creepy, as are some of the full fledged reveals of what the vampires look like and how they function is so different from what we tend to see in vampire stories as of late. Themes of transformation are abundant, and I really appreciated this take and the scary beats and moments Piper pulls from it all. And the language the Piper uses to describe not only the scary bits but also just the entire atmosphere was so vibrant and rich I was totally swept away by it, like on a wave to Ghost Cat Island.
But what really resonated most with me in this story is how Piper juxtaposes the common emotional themes we see in a vampire story, such as identity, transformation, loneliness, and isolation, with stories of multiple trans characters, whether it’s Cabrina Bright who lost her life and left behind her queer and trans friends (as well as her cold and transphobic politician mother), said friends Xi and Rex who had very different experiences than their now deceased friend when it comes to their queerness and the people who support them, and Ivory, a trans woman who finds Cabrina’s body and is suddenly and understandably obsessed with finding out what happened to the dead girl, and stumbling into some darkness that she never could have anticipated… and wonders if embracing it could possibly be a better reality than the one she is living. Piper fleshes out all of these characters, including Cabrina through her diary, and I felt like I wholly understood all of them and how their trans identities shape the story and their arcs, and how it makes the longing that so many vampires in romanticism laden stories isn’t so hard to understand for these characters because of their gender identities. I found it very bittersweet, but also hopeful in the way it depicts finding the people who make you feel loved and wanted and like you belong.
“All The Hearts You Eat” is a unique vampire story that I greatly enjoyed. It’s time for me to dig into more stories by Hailey Piper.
Rating 8: An eerie and bittersweet vampire tale that takes on identity, transformation, and loneliness in ways that moved me deeply.
Reader’s Advisory:
“All the Hearts You Eat” is included on the Goodreads lists “Queer Horror”, and “2024 Transfem Books”.
The Library Ladies 