Q&A: Hailey Piper, Author of ‘Teenage Girls Can Be Demons’

We chat with author Hailey Piper about Teenage Girls Can Be Demons, which features 13 coming-of-rage stories the way only Bram Stoker Award-winning author can tell them—wildly inventive, brilliantly imaginative, and completely and utterly enthralling.

Hi, Hailey! Welcome back! How has the past year been since we last spoke?

Hi! It’s certainly been a busy one to say the least.

Teenage Girls Can Be Demons is a new collection featuring 13 stories written by you! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Unsettling, transformative, honest, defiant, angry

What can readers expect?

As you can probably guess by the above, there are several different kinds of stories. Some of them are the haunting kind that creep up behind you with the face of a stranger, or worse, with a face you know. Others are about loneliness, and some are about triumph. But they’re also a journey together, and the only way out is through.

Where did the inspiration for Teenage Girls Can Be Demons come from?

The title comes from a line in the collection’s final story, “Benny Rose the Cannibal King,” a few words that grew into a rallying concept. There’s a lot of pain leading up to, experiencing, and even after adolescence. Being young is already scary, and a horror story about it with monsters, human and otherwise, is a representation of that, not a new invention. Some people forget that because they don’t want to face what’s happened to them, or what they’re doing now. It always bewilders me that people watch slashers and are rooting for the killer. I want those teens to live and grow up, so I’m rooting for them. My editor Daniel Carpenter applied “coming-of-rage,” which perfectly describes the book.

Can you tell us a bit about the process of pulling together and writing 13 short stories?

I’ve written A LOT of coming-of-age horror in short stories. Putting together the collection meant cutting some favorites, and there’s honestly enough to do another volume if we want. But for this one, I wanted a range of experiences that reflected the varying nature of adolescence. Stories at school, stories at home, stories on the playground. Stories of kids without parents or without homes, or with parents and homes and peers who are themselves monstrous. Coming-of-age is a complex subject, with many varied acets to approach, and I wanted the collection to honor that.

Was there a particular story you enjoyed writing the most? One you had the most challenges with?

I remember enjoying writing “Hopscotch for Keeps” a lot. Once the hopscotch kid became a living character in my head, she kind of took over the story. As for challenges, probably “Magical Girls Child Crusader Squad” was the most challenging because it’s very much an episode in the life of these busy characters (like the movie Dredd) while they deal with all the outlandish circumstances constantly thrown at them. I’ll probably have to check in on them again someday.

Do you have any other coming-of-rage recommendations, be it books, movies or shows?

I’d highly recommend reading The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson for being in the thick of that coming-of-rage, and likewise The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim. Mister Magic by Kiersten White for looking back on your coming-of-age and finding rage at it after the fact. In TV, there’s the criminally underwatched mini-series Ares on Netflix. Movie-wise, the recent film Cuckoo, and one of my all-time favorite movies, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.

What’s next for you?

Early next year, my dark fantasy noir novel No Gods for Drowning returns to print from Bad Hand Books, and then in September 2026, my next Titan Books novel This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want releases, about a 1990s incident where two girls disappeared during the viewing of a cursed film, and how the girl who survives investigates the film 30 years later to find the truth.

Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?

I think my favorite new reads this year have been Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin, Spread Me by Sarah Gailey, and Devils Kill Devils by Johnny Compton. And I can’t wait to read Issues With Authority by Nadia Bulkin and Cyanide Constellations by Sara Tantlinger.

Will you be picking up Teenage Girls Can Be Demons? Tell us in the comments below!