• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
FanFiAddict

FanFiAddict

A gaggle of nerds talking about Fantasy, Science Fiction, and everything in-between. They also occasionally write reviews about said books. 2x Stabby Award-Nominated and home to the Stabby Award-Winning TBRCon.

  • Home
  • About
    • Reviewers
    • Review Policy
    • Stance on AI
    • Contact
    • Friends of FFA
  • Blog
    • Reviews
      • Children’s / Middle Grade Books
      • Comics / Graphic Novels
      • Fantasy
        • Alt History
        • Epic Fantasy
        • Fairy Tales
        • Grimdark
        • Heroic Fantasy
        • LitRPG
        • Paranormal Fantasy
        • Romantic Fantasy
        • Steampunk
        • Superheroes
        • Sword and Sorcery
        • Urban Fantasy
      • Fear For All
        • Demons
        • Ghosts
        • Gothic
        • Lovecraftian
        • Monsters
        • Occult
        • Psychological
        • Slasher
        • Vampires
        • Werewolves
        • Witches
        • Zombies
      • Fiction
      • Science Fiction
        • Aliens
        • Artificial Intelligence
        • Alt History
        • Cyberpunk
        • Dystopian
        • Hard SciFi
        • Mechs/Robots
        • Military SF
        • Space Opera
        • Steampunk
        • Time Travel
      • Thriller
    • Neurodivergence in Fiction
    • Interviews
      • Book Tube
      • Authorly Writing Advice
  • SFF Addicts
    • SFF Addicts Clips
    • SFF Addicts (Episode Archive)
  • TBRCon
    • TBRCon2025
    • TBRCon2024
    • TBRCon2023
    • TBRCon2022
  • FFA Book Club
  • FFA TBR Toppers
    • Advertise Your Book on FFA!
  • Writer Resources
    • Artists
    • Cartographers
    • Editing/Formatting/Proofing

Review: All the Hearts You Eat by Hailey Piper

September 23, 2024 by Josh Hanson Leave a Comment

Rating: 8.5/10

Synopsis:

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:

All the Hearts You Eat opens like a riff on Twin Peaks, with a girl’s body found on the beach of a small resort town, a mysterious poem/suicide note, and an ever-expanding web of connections to the troubled victim.

A little further in, it feels like we’re reading Fire Walk With Me as if directed by Jean Rollin.

But, finally, the real touchstone is none of these, but rather the work of Hayao Miyazaki. Like Miyazaki’s best work, Piper’s novel spins mythology out of the salt air, never once feeling the need to explain, building a story whose world operates by its own slanted logic and illogic. Also like Miyazaki, there is a profound sense of sadness at the heart of All the Hearts You Eat that is never quite covered over by the larger-than-life plot events, or the young protagonists’ best intentions.

Ivory is a barista in Cape Morning, and she is also a deeply traumatized woman. When she sees the body of Cabrina Brite, another trans woman, there is a profound sense of identification, and Ivory sets out to discover the true story of Cabrina’s death.

Or maybe the connection is less profound than she thinks. Just as in the aforementioned Twin Peaks, the portrait of Cabrina that emerges is really just a variety of projections by the people around her. The question quickly shifts from “What happened to Cabrina Brite?” to “Who was Cabrina Brite?”

There’s a novel’s worth of ideas in this set up, but there are also ghosts, vampires, and maybe the end of the world.

Piper’s vampires are all but unrecognizable, save for the blood drinking, but they are chilling, as is the surreal cosmic doorway into Cape Shadow, the underground inverse of Cape Morning. Soon, Ivory is caught up in the vampire’s machinations, and things get very bloody.

All the Hearts You Eat gleefully resist summary, riding a tidal wave of bad vibes, bloody violence, and existential horror, occasionally plunging the reader beneath the surface, where the dark things wait.

Filed Under: Body Horror, Cosmic, Fear For All, Ghosts, Gothic, Grief, Lovecraftian, Reviews, Vampires

About Josh Hanson

Josh Hanson (He/Him) is the author of the novel, King’s Hill (Wicked House), the novella, The Woodcutters (Outpost19), and Fortress (Off Limits Press 2025). He lives in northern Wyoming where he teaches, writes, and makes up little songs. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in various anthologies as well as The Deeps, The HorrorZine, Siren’s Call, The Chamber, BlackPetals, and others.

Other Reviews You Might Like

Review: A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

Review: Becoming a Druid (Protectors of Pretanni 1) by Mike Mollman

Review: Exodus — The Archimedes Engine (Book #1 of the Archimedes Engine Duology) by Peter F. Hamilton

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Sponsored By

Use Discount Code FANFI For 5% Off!

FFA Newsletter!

Sign up for updates and get FREE stories from Michael R. Fletcher and Richard Ford!

What Would You Like To See?(Required)
Please select the type of content you want to receive from FanFi Addict. You can even mix and match if you want!

FFA Author Hub

Read A.J. Calvin
Read Andy Peloquin
Read C.J. Daily
Read C.M. Caplan
Read D.A. Smith
Read DB Rook
Read Francisca Liliana
Read Frasier Armitage
Read Josh Hanson
Read Krystle Matar
Read M.J. Kuhn

Recent Reviews

Recent Comments

  1. Mark Matthews on COVER REVEAL: To Those Willing to Drown by Mark MatthewsJanuary 7, 2025
  2. Basra Myeba on Worth reading Jack Reacher books by Lee Child?January 5, 2025
  3. Ali on Review: Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav BarsukovJanuary 5, 2025
  4. Carter on So you want to start reading Warhammer 40,000? Here’s where to start!January 4, 2025
  5. M. Zaugg on Bender’s Best LitRPG reads of 2024January 3, 2025

Archive

Copyright © 2025 · Powered by ModFarm Sites · Log In