The Worm and His Kings

A homeless woman follows a person-snatching monster hoping to track down her missing partner, and discovers a strange and terrifying underground cult centred around the worship of a cosmic worm who once went back and changed the distant past on a whim, wiping out a whole world and replacing it with ours, and is ready to do so again at any moment, possibly when someone finds it a worthy bride. Through horrors and betrayal, this builds to a vision of cosmic transcendence, all in a compact hundred or so pages. Remarkable, and moving, particularly Monique's survival of a botched back-street surgery and attempted kidney harvesting with the help of the then-indomitable Donna, leaving her scarred and traumatised but somehow stronger and show more willing to defy that darn ol' cosmic worm. show less

Ok, so this was both my first Hailey Piper book and my first foray into cosmic horror. I am thrilled to have found an author I really love! And I am confused as hell about what I just read. So the story was great, creepy stuff going on, characters I liked and identified with. Spectacular representation of queer characters and also a homeless MC, very rare. I was able to follow and enjoy this completely for almost the entirety of the book. It wasn't until the last few pages that I became completely lost and still don't understand what happened. It's ok, I still liked the ending, I just don't know what happened. I'm sure there are people out there that are far smarter than myself that followed every detail up to the ending and know what show more happened. Those people are welcome to let me know their opinion because I am stumped but not even mad about it. Loved the book and am super excited to read more by Hailey in the future. If the future still exists, because I'm not sure after that ending. show less

I picked this up from the library since it was on some 'must read' lists and form its length I figured it would be a relatively quick read.
I enjoy more marginalized, fringe, or under-represented populations showing up in my horror, as we have here with most of our main characters being unhoused and/or lgbtq. Its something I think Michael Shea is sort of the master at when we're looking at urban landscapes in weird fiction/horror. I also typically enjoy the idea of playing with sound and music in these contexts (erik zahn, rahxephon). Unfortunately, I don't think either is done masterfully here.
There are a lot of really good elements here, alternate history, weird fiction adjacent elder gods, mysterious creatures, the aforementioned show more components I typically find great in horror, and the lgbtq representation is nice as well. There's some great internal reflection on the trans experience. But it never really gels. I'd blame it on the length, but a lot of Shea's work is similar in length or shorter and works great. It feels like a lot of different, good, elements that the author tried to frame into a single story and it just doesn't quite get there, and everything is sort of neatly wrapped up (happily or not) at the end. Early on it feels like there are going to be some interesting mystery, even crime noir, elements, but that never really pans out either. Answers are pretty quick in coming, people are pretty much who we're set up to think they are/probably will be. Not bad, just also not great. show less

A really well flushed out shorter story. I loved how it all progressed and it sucked me in rather quickly. All of this author's stories tend to have some weird storylines that really throw you for a loop, and this one is no different.

4.25/5