Teenage Girls Can be Demons by Hailey Piper
I would like to thank Titan for a copy of this anthology in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Titan
Published – Out Now
Price – £9.99 paperback £6.99 ebook
A wildly inventive and downright terrifying collection of 13 stories covering everything from grisly body horror and ancient eldritch beings to horrifying urban legends, all brought to life by the Bram Stoker award-winning author of Queen of Teeth.
13 coming-of-rage stories the way only Bram Stoker Award-winning author Hailey Piper can tell them—wildly inventive, brilliantly imaginative, and completely and utterly enthralling.
A vicious group of college upperclassmen prey on the freshman girls in “Why We Keep Exploding”; across the world, something is mutating adolescents into bizarre creatures in "The Turning"; a girl on a night out realizes a bizarre cop is hunting her in “The Long Flesh of the Law”; and in the acclaimed novella “Benny Rose, the Cannibal King”, a Halloween prank goes horribly wrong when a murderous ghost steps out of an urban legend and into the real world.
As I get older, I realise remembering what it is like to be a teenager gets harder. Its thirty years since I could last be described as one (argh) and its hard to sometimes remember that this is a period we figure the world out but also start to bump into the world’s cruelties, restrictions and unfairness even more. In Hailey Piper’s impressive short story collection Teenage Girls Can Be Demons we have a distinctly adult set of stories where teenage characters take centre stage and help remind all readers what life is like for the younger generation. For me a collection that further cements Piper as an accomplished horror author to watch.
Among the stories that impressed me were
Why We Keep Exploding – This eerie tale imagines a world where at college if young women are sufficiently tormented and made to hold in their aggression they explode. Piper skilfully makes this world feel real through our character’s narration. It explores the rise of young men who want to be sexist but then claim they are just debating, joking and above all wanting to appear reasonable (I suspect they still use twtter) and we see how no one stops them. Our main character a trans woman is initially a powerless spectator but then she finds a way to strike back. A story that moves from horror to a glorious moment of much needed retaliation.
Unkindly Girls – Here a teenage girl very much under the watchful eye of her father suddenly meets two much more rebellious teenagers (or unkindly girls as her father would say). This story initially feels like it is about rebellion, but things take a much darker and nightmarish descent as family secrets come to light and things go very dark. Despite all this Piper adds a note of justice – our teenage characters here are rarely ever just victims. They have names and revenge will be had.
Thagomizer – Something much darker here as we have a story told in interludes linked to the speed of our main character’s car. We wonder who Jodie is, what does she think she is seeing in the countryside where she drives and why is she increasingly worried. This story is more about parenthood but asks can parents be afraid of their children and are there sometimes good reasons to be so>? An ominous story of revenge unfolds.
Without A Face – Here a school reunion triggers in our main character a revision of painful memories. Our main character Mercy was in the school fencing club under a fairly ambitious gym teacher and things were soon escalated and hidden under the carpet. But Mercy now finds that someone is out for revenge. This is a fascinating story of striking back at those who allowed your torment with a very impressive bloody climax as matters reach boiling point.
Last Leaf of An Ursine Tree – This is a hugely impressive piece of weird horror fiction. It imagines a world where a woman can create a bear when she begins her periods. Our main character is aware of her mother’s darker side and ponder her own fate. It shas a powerful turning point in the story that initially feels incredibly bleak but actually becomes instead about accepting sometimes we all need be our own monsters.
Hopscotch for keeps – Another favourite is this tale of children on a summer day finding a new child on the backstreets challenging them to a game of hopscotch. Sounds simple but this tale morphs into something eerie and sinister as we realise this young girl is not quite what she seems and the stakes get higher and higher. A simpler storyteller would just have a reset ending but Piper has consequences for everyone in the story. The world is not always fair and understandable and this story really makes an impact.
Magical Girls Child Crusader Squad – we meet the secret superheroes of a town saving the world. Fans of Power Rangers may feel this story sounds familiar, but Piper adds some haunting realism to the story. What happens when a superhero dies in the line of duty? Can you balance studies with constant fighting and our main character is a trans woman now happily out to her teammates but not yet to her family. The realism really makes the story pack a punch and then a sinister undercurrent as to what may be really going on adds a further undercurrent to the story. You’ll never see these type of shows I the same way after reading this story.
Autotomy – Another standout tale is told from the perspective of a blind girl who wakes up one day to find her mother has been replaced by someone that her Dad has not noticed. Piper adds a really impressive way of relating the story through voice, smell and touch and creates a very eerie tale of a replaced parent. This soon morphs into a very bloody (without seeing blood) conclusion that surprises us with our main character’s reactions and adds a new dimension of unsettling horror by the end.
The Turning – This story has our main character being impacted y a new strange disease slowly affecting many youths around the world. Her body starts to change; no one has found a cure and her parents are trying to put their heads in the sand. It’s a fascinating story that touches on ideas such as teenagers body changes, illness and finding your own group of people that understand you. It has got a very cool monster to meet and a very twisted but happy ending…
We Who Hold The Median – Two homeless teenagers get a prized area of the streets when a notoriously territorial member of the homeless community dies in a car accident. The duo starts to reap the rewards but one senses there is someone watching them. It’s a neat classic spin on an avenging ghost story that uses the setting very well.
Benny Rose The Cannibal King the longest story is this tale that essentially is a slasher film in story form. We have a classic idea of a community’s urban legend coming back every Halloween. Some guileless teenagers playing wicked games on someone and things go wrong….very wrong….very bloodily long. As well as terrific pace and scares though Piper adds a theme where for a change the teenagers work out what is going on and decide to fight back. It’s a fun but also a very smart story to end the collection on.
I’ve really enjoyed Piper’s novels and this collection further adds to their reputation and I very strongly recommend Teenage Girls Can Be Demons for bringing some much needed joy and terror to these bleak January nights.
