All the Hearts You Eat

Starred review from July 8, 2024
Bram Stoker Award winner Piper (Queen of Teeth) delivers a staggering tale of queer horror. While out for a morning swim along the coast of the small beach town of Cape Morning, Mass., trans woman Ivory Sloan discovers the dead body of Cabrina Brite, the trans daughter of a town councilmember. When Ivory starts seeing things shortly thereafter, she thinks it may be Cabrina’s ghost, and begins an investigation into her death, which precipitates further paranormal activity around town and especially on nearby Ghost Cat Island. From the first line—“The sea wanted blood,” a refrain that repeats throughout the story—Piper hits on an evocative combination of the picturesque and the gory, pulling back the curtain on the dark side of quaint Cape Morning. Supporting characters, especially Cabrina’s friends Xi and Rex, also shine. 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.

August 1, 2024
Soon after Ivory, a trans woman in a small, seaside town in Massachusetts, comes upon the body of a trans girl, Cabrina, washed up on shore, she is visited by a ghost cat (is it Cabrina?), who takes her to a hidden world just off the coast. Xi and Rex, trans girl and boy and Cabrina's best friends, also still feel her presence. The search for answers about Cabrina begins intimately, but as the five operatic acts layer on top of one another, the world and its characters are fleshed out, and the pacing, action, blood, and destruction build, engulfing all in intense and visceral emotions until Piper breaks everything open, releasing the existential terror (both real and supernatural) into the world--but not without anchoring it all with love and hope. A great choice for fans of original takes on the vampire trope like Devils Kill Devils, by Johnny Compton (2024), the queer, teen found family of Cuckoo, by Gretchen Felker-Martin (2024), or the grief and cosmic horror of This Thing between Us, by Gus Moreno (2021).

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September 1, 2024

After observing the discovery of Cabrina Brite's body on the beach in Cape Morning, Ivory finds a poem left behind by the young woman. Ivory is soon visited by what appears to be Cabrina's ghost. The dead girl's closest friends also see her ghost, and all are drawn into the mystery of what really happened to Cabrina and why she was trying to reach mysterious Ghost Cat Island. Narrated by four compelling trans characters, Piper's (A Light Most Hateful) latest is a vampire novel full of complex ideas about revenge and fury but also about love and the possibility of acceptance. This is a sensual book with language that draws readers in, written in five parts, with each part driving the story towards a terrifying conclusion. Offering deep characterization and smartly drawn trans experiences, Piper explores what one should do when the world offers grimness and one is haunted by secrets and shadows. VERDICT A must-read for those who enjoyed Piper's Bram Stoker award-winning Queen of Teeth. Like Nat Cassidy's Nestlings, it takes the vampire story and turns it into something new.--Lila Denning

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