2023 read #99: The Worm and His Kings by Hailey Piper.

The Worm and His Kings by Hailey Piper

116 pages

Published 2020

Read from September 14 to September 15

Rating: 3 out of 5

Hailey Piper is highly regarded as an indie horror author; nowadays she also seems to be enjoying a touch of mainstream success, relatively speaking. I’ve wanted to read her oeuvre for a while. I bought this book maybe a year ago, but wasn’t drawn into it at the time. The book feels like indie press work, in both good and bad ways. It takes on subjects that big presses would shy away from, but (especially in the first couple chapters) the paragraphs are often disjointed, the descriptions often flat. The opening is a big exposition dump that tries to explain too much all at once. Some more editing could help it immensely.

In all fairness, there’s a lot to establish here in an abbreviated space. It’s 1990 in New York City. Monique Lane, homeless thanks to her family’s bigotry and the relentless rent-hikes of capitalism, is searching for her missing girlfriend, Donna. For three months now, ever since Donna disappeared, more unhoused women have been vanishing every day. Rumors link the disappearances to a cloaked monster dubbed Gray Hill, which shambles through abandoned tunnels, ten feet tall, armed with enormous hands and raptor feet. And then there's the empty place. And the Worm. And the cult of the Worm. And a song to pierce the universe.

Some spoilers ahead.

I did adjust to the rhythms of the prose eventually. I quite like the worldbuilding Piper does here, presenting a cosmic horror once summoned by the descendants of dinosaurs, who are retroactively undone by the Worm after they displease it. The raptor-clawed being is the last of the original summoners, though other creatures from her timeline linger in the sunless depths. (Not enough for me to classify this as dinosaur fiction, but I appreciate it.) The cultists below the city — pampered and privileged but craving more, craving kingship even at the cost of sacrificing the world to unspeakable horrors — sing to summon the Worm once again. Which honestly isn’t that different from real life politics in the 2020s. Allegory!

There’s so much potential here, in need of just a little polish. If Piper’s craft has grown alongside her reputation, I’m excited to check out her subsequent books.