Title: Even the Worm Will Turn
Series: The Worm and His Kings: Book Two
Author: Hailey Piper
Publisher: Off Limits Press
Length: 146 Pages
Category: Horror
Rating: 5 Stars
At a Glance: Hailey Piper is a fantastic storyteller and my new favorite Horror author, homing in on things in the real world that we all fear while merging it with the bizarre and ghastly.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Four years after the events of The Worm and His Kings, Donna Ashton ekes out a life far removed from her troubled past, only to be abducted one December night by a monster in man’s skin.
Held prisoner by operatives of a clandestine research facility and drugged into a sickened state, each day brings questioning and punishment. Escape should be possible when Donna faces only mortal hands this time, but the more she sees, the worse her mind splinters with horrific understanding.
This facility has punched a hole in space and time. Within it lie secrets mankind should never know of a darkness beyond the universe, the legacy of the almighty Worm, and revelations behind Donna’s ordeal four years ago which now might get her killed.
Review: I’m not sure Hailey Piper had Walt Whitman in mind when she conceived this series; however, “Do I contradict myself? / Very well then, I contradict myself. / (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” is written into the books by virtue of a Worm god, the schism between Donna Ashton and Monique—the woman Donna loved, the woman Donna once saved and then sacrificed for the sake of the Worm—the duality of nature, and a time paradox that leaves one woman in a fight against herself in an impossibly literal sense. Confused? Believe me, my brain is still in knots.
Even the Worm Will Turn is a turn of phrase that is a fulfillment of everything that’s happened thus far. The most docile of people will fight back when pushed to their limit. The only difference is that Monique was fighting for love. Donna was fighting Monique on behalf of the Worm in order to usher in a more perfect world. Donna is following the Spock principle: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.” The problem is that she wasn’t the one making the ultimate sacrifice. She expected that of Monique, instead.
I don’t believe this is a story in which we’re supposed to pick a character and root for them. As this is a Horror series, I did very much feel horrified for Monique and Donna, though. Hailey Piper is a fantastic storyteller and my new favorite Horror author, homing in on things in the real world that we all fear—homelessness, hunger, desperation, and, in this case, being followed at night on a deserted sidewalk by a strange man. Piper turns that man, Tower, into Donna’s worst nightmare. The claustrophobic atmosphere of that scene, the tension when he approaches, and everything that happens after are top notch for those who like a little clenching and nail-biting while reading.
What happens next is anyone’s guess.
You can buy Even the Worm Will Turn here:
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