BOOK REVIEW | ALL THE HEARTS YOU EAT | HAILEY PIPER

 

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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.

REVIEW

In her new novel, Bram Stoker award winner, Hailey Piper turns her hand to the vampire novel. Combining epistolary storytelling with a traditional narrative, Piper tells the story of two trans women, Ivory Sloan and Cabrina Bright.

The story centres around Ivory Sloan, who in order to fit in following a terrifying ordeal in her teens hides behind an almost Victorian epitome of womanhood, quiet and subservient. Hiding in plain sight, Ivy comes across the body of Cabrina Bright after her morning swim. Whilst examining the body she finds her suicide note, which turns out to be more of a poem rather than a message of pain. This leads Ivory to find out more about the dead girl and the reasons why she was found washed up on a beach.

As she digs deeper, her search leads her to the terrifying secrets of Ghost Cat Island and the bloodthirsty entity that wants to be set free on the world.

Now I have to say, I wanted to love this book, and guess what? I bloody well did. The story starts off small, examining the lives of the people that live in the town of Cape Morning, slowly transforming to a murder mystery to finally reaching its gore soaked crescendo and going absolutely batshit crazy.

Piper presents a different vampire story, and with her inimitable ability to draw from absolutely all the influences and a few more besides. The vampires themselves at times reminded me of those ones in the Stephen King film, Sleepwalkers as they are kind of a werecat. However, with her ability to use all the influences from both horror cinema and fiction, Piper crafts something new.

The book uses all the elements of gothic fiction, but changes them to give a distinctive feel, such as changing the looming, dark castle for a haunted island. However, the other elements are there, such as the ghostly figure, the malignant atmosphere and the ominous and superstitious elements, but the direction changes dramatically in the fourth act.

Throughout the book there is a definite argument against the traditional TERF diatribe that demoralise and stigmatise trans women, which is encapsulated by the two main characters, both the alive one and the dead one.

However, Piper hides this in the story and never hits you over the head with it, as this not only an angry shout at those that deny transwomen their womanhood and the trauma they inflict, it is also entertainment and Piper does this with style. Especially in the last act of the book, where the story becomes a climactic battle of Ivory’s rage and those around her.

All The Hearts You Eat is a brilliantly original take on the vampire legend and gives it a fresh vibrancy that breathes new life into the dusty old genre.