All The Hearts You Eat
Hailey Piper
October 15, 2024

5 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Combining the picturesque with the grotesque, Hailey Piper delivers one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking horror novels I've read in a very, very long time. Atmospheric, captivating, creepy and so viscerally written ... A strong sense of dread

** Little ole' critical me (according to BookSirens, Lol) couldn't find ANYTHING to critique about this horror masterpiece. **

My only real gripe is that I wish I'd written it. 😆 The concepts, the writing, the gruesome body horror, the pacing, the way it's all formatted and put together ... I'm jealous of the raw talent that is All The Hearts You Can Eat; scary, sad, surreal, and - above all else - so SMART.

(Maybe a tad long-winded in sporadic spots, but when you're as talented a writer as Hailey, that's not necessarily a negative. This is perfection on paper.

I can't wait to recommend this book to my friends, my family, and my AgoraphoBookClub members ... as well as my mother's Barnes and Nobel bookclub - 'Hippies, Homos, and Horror Hounds'.

I'm genuinely eager for others to read and hopefully njoy it as much as I did. And I'm betting high that they will.

Bravo, Hailey. What an important voice to have in the horror-sphere.

Thanks to Netgalley, Titan, and Hailey Piper for this ARC in exchange for an optional review and my honest thoughts.
Honestly, it's my favorite book of 2024, hands down ... Not the SCARIEST, but the one that got under my skin most effectively ... and the one that I'm most eager to purchase, pass around, and read again.

Horror lovers ... don't sleep on this one. October 15th.
You won't regret it.

On the shores of Cape Morning, Ivory Sloan is out for her morning swim in the ocean when a dead body washes up and with it, Ivory finds a death poem. What makes for an already unsettling experience is exacerbated when Ivory is repeatedly visited by the woman's ghost. Ivory, along with the woman's friends, begins to dig deeper in to what really happened and how to local, mysterious island of Ghost Cat played a role.

Wow, this story is amazing. It's Hailey Piper so, of course, there is wonderful trans representation through our MC, Ivory, as well as many other characters throughout. Each character adds something special to the greater picture.

The angst is THERE right from page one with eerie, atmospheric descriptions and foreboding passages of Ivory's inner mind. There is dread and monsters and body horror and everything you could really want in a horror novel. At times, long-winded but overall a winner from Piper.

Thank you Titan Books and NetGalley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review! Available 10/15/2024.

Content Warnings: Gore, Body Horror, Transphobia (Deadnaming, Denying gender affirming care, Physical assault), Depression, Suicidal Ideation, Body dysmorphia,

For the sex averse, there are several sexual encounters / mentions of sexual encounters which are mildly graphic in sexual detail but sometimes highly graphic in gory detail. They are not always telegraphed and usually not skippable, but they are skimmable.

Hailey Piper is an author whose name I have read frequently but whose work I, sadly, had never had a chance to read prior to this novel. I had no real expectations; I was still blown away. All the Hearts You Eat is pretty much everything I love about horror. It's simultaneously beautiful and ugly, heart-wrenching and affirming, sensuously inviting and repellent. I loved its take on vampires and vampirism and how it remixed and reimagined some of the defining vampiric traits. I loved how it captured small-town-folklore-spooky vibes alongside larger-societal horrors.

The core of this book, though, is its trans cast. I can say with no hesitation that I loved them all, for different reasons. Cabrina, who comes to us physically after death but also mentally and spiritually through her diary, is the driving force for everyone else, and she stands up to that throughout the book. Ivory, who like us readers travels down the mystery of Cabina's death and the supernatural mysteries that occur alongside it, is the perfect foil / mirror-narrative. Xi and Rex, Cabrina's best friends, take readers back and forth between the two, and their stories are equally compelling. Having a majority trans cast and allowing each of them to be unique, though connected, and seeing how each reacted to the events of the story was great.

My rating of 4 stars is due to some personal tastes. For me, there were sections of the novel that could have been trimmed out due to improve the pacing. Some build up scenes felt repetitive, even if the prose itself or the scenes themselves were okay individually. I also always dislike when romantic / sexual love is given more weight than any other form of love/intimacy (self, familial, friend), but that's a personal peeve as an aroace, not really a problem with the book itself.

All that said, this is a fantastic book that I enjoyed tremendously. I will definitely be recommending it to all my horror loving buddies. Though this is my introduction to Piper's work, I can't wait to read more of her writing.

This was not for me.

I appreciated the representation but it was too long and wordy. At times it was confusing.

This is Hailey Piper at her best. Fans of her work will recognize this as the culmination of the skills displayed in her previous works. There’s body horror, incredible monsters, and so much emotion on every page. I love how she writes. (This is devolving into a pro-Hailey rant. Oops.) This one has some mystery, lots of fantasy and lore, skillful use of a diary and multiple POVs, and a conversation with great literature; and it all feels so unique and so full of both rage and love. It instantly became one of my favorite books. Wouldn’t be surprised if this won the Stoker.

I so wanted to love this book. It's a big one, coming in at 447 pages and at times it felt way too long to me. This book has a lot going on between the pages and the central mystery is what really happened to Cabrina Brite.

I found this book to be raw, dark, intense, and deep. This book explores identity, the trans experience, love, friendship, secrets, family, acceptance, things that haunt you, pain, and vampires.

As this is a horror book, there is a fair amount of gore and violent moments. The vampires in this book are not your typical literary vampires and I applaud the author's unique and original take. I did find this book to be beautifully written and well thought out.

Others are enjoying this book more than I did, so please read their reviews as well.

Thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com 📖

This is a viscerally grotesque, twisted, and disturbingly heart breaking novel about identity and some of the most terrifying "vampires" you'll ever read about.

Unapologetically queer and deliciously disgusting, this story follows Ivory who happens to be on the beach one morning when the body of a teenage girl is discovered.

Something will follow her home that day. Something hungry and full of malice. But what starts as a haunting soon turns to something much more horrific. And just when you think you know what's going on, you absolutely don't.

This is as much about love as it is the creatures. And love can be selfish and cruel and cut you deep at times. The themes of identity and isolation, feeling as if you don't belong, are dealt with throughout this book but the crushing terrifying narrative begs you to keep reading until the horrible truth is laid bare.

This one is frightening, amazing, and is un-put-down-able. I highly recommend it.

I received this book from the publisher this morning and just finished. That’s how good it is; I could not put it down! This is a must-read for horror fans, especially if you’re looking for something unique. I also appreciated the trans representation done with care and compassion. This is going to be a book with tons of buzz. Thanks for the opportunity to read in advance!

Wow. This book is powerful, gritty, sad, and scary as hell. Such a completely new look at the way vampires can be portrayed in literature. The trans representation is beautiful in this book as well, and these four main characters will live with me for a very long time. This is an absolute must read for horror fans and anyone that wants to read something that is truly original