Acquired Taste

PASTE MAGAZINE MOST ANTICIPATED HORROR BOOKS FALL 2025
BARNES AND NOBLE BEST BOOKS TO READ FOR HALLOWEEN


Few writers are as dependably, delightfully depraved as Clay McLeod Chapman, and few pleasures remain in this world like being terrorized by his words. Please don’t start charging us a subscription fee, Clay–with stories like these, it’d be impossible to say no!—Nat Cassidy, author of When the Wolf Comes Home and Mary


Daring and dread-inducing, creepy and clever, Clay McLeod Chapman defines contemporary horror. He holds a magnifying glass to everything we want to turn away from and forces us to look, and to look closely—Rachel Harrison, USA Today Bestselling author of So Thirsty and Black Sheep


Clay McLeod Chapman is a true master of horror.—CJ Leede, author of Maeve Fly and American Rapture


Masterful. Each individual story in ACQUIRED TASTE is instantly iconic, with sharp prose, dark humor, and situations that feel inexplicably real. This deserves to be talked about in the same breath as King’s NIGHT SHIFT and other such classics.—Sam Rebelein, Bram Stoker Award Nominated author of EDENVILLE and GALLOWAY’S GOSPEL


An absolute blast of a collection, full of unforgettable imagery packed into tightly crafted, page-turning gems of short fiction.—Paste Magazine


My favorite quasi-Kingian book is “Acquired Taste: Chilling Stories,” by Clay McLeod Chapman, whose excellent shorts recall the winking audacity of King’s stories.—Chicago Tribune


Acquired Taste… will gross you out, make you laugh and get under your skin in the best kind of way. There’s a story in here for everybody, perfect for the spooky season and beyond.—Page Six


From scary to unsettling to just plain satiric, ACQUIRED TASTE shows Clay McLeod Chapman using his unique voice to cover horrific moments and thoughts that reflect on both the hidden and overt things in the modern world around us.—BookReporter


Twisted, tender, deranged, Chapman has a singular voice that is strange and weird and beautiful, and does not falter throughout… it is a privilege to be a horror reader who exists at the same time [he] is writing.—FanFiAddict


If you’re already a fan of Chapman’s writing, “Acquired Taste” is a must-own. If you’re new to his work, it’s the perfect jumping-off point. —Macabre Daily


Chapman excels in taking something familiar and twisting it to show that there are horrors beyond belief in ordinary places.—Library Journal, starred review


A literary punch to the heart—New York Times on Stay on the Line


A modern horror maestro—Dread Central


PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR


“The Purge ain’t got nothin’ on this.” Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestseller and author of I Was a Teenage Slasher


“Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is a damn roller coaster of a novel, the kind that leaves you shaken and shrieking and smiling. Clay McLeod Chapman has taken all that’s troubling our nation in the current day and, somehow, makes it all more frightening. Rough, ruthless but you can still tell Chapman is having a blast.” Victor LaValle, author of Lone Women


“Clay McLeod Chapman is one of my favorite horror storytellers working today.” Jordan Peele


“Wake Up and Open Your Eyes doesn’t just hit close to home – it’s a needle sliding under your skin until you bleed, a rabbit hole stocked with terror all the way down.” Christina Henry, author of Alice and The House That Horror Built


“A profoundly terrifying, riveting, intense, nerve-shredding modern horror epic. With brutal insights into very real American vulnerabilities and the dangers that exploit them, this novel is the truth and a warning and essential reading. It’s also wild and scary and everything a great horror novel should be. This is Clay McLeod Chapman at the peak of his craft. Brilliant.” Rachel Harrison, USA Today bestselling author of So Thirsty and Black Sheep


“Brace yourself. This novel is relentless and utterly merciless. Chapman takes unflinching aim at modern American culture and nobody is safe in this brutal, insightful apocalypse!” Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Road of Bones and The House of Last Resort


“This is a bold badass book. Chapman has seemingly grown impatient with the vague stances and topical hints that must naturally be found in some books of an era such as ours: here he lays it out, naked, in full, what he thinks, what he sees, what he knows is happening in the spinning world. This lens is flat-out frightening, not only for its relevance, but for how easily us readers see the same modernity of horrors in our private lives… By the book’s grand finale, the title has been twisted so that it’s no longer only a mantra for characters trapped in its pages, but for those of us too immersed in the story to turn away.” Josh Malerman New York Times bestselling author of Incidents Around the House


“With Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, Chapman isn’t merely checking the pulse of America—he’s tapping the vein. And trust me, there’s blood everywhere. This book throbs with body horror and familial conflict and most notably, the sociopolitical nightmare we find ourselves in.” Chuck Wendig, bestselling author of The Book of Accidents and Black River Orchard


“Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is an apocalypse of the mind that leaves no one behind, illuminating a world on fire that is too eerily similar to our own and revealing the cannibalistic nature of humanity along with the dangers of becoming like sheep—an eye-opening sociopolitical fever nightmare that you won’t soon forget.” Ai Jiang, Hugo Award-nominee and author of Linghun


“Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is the scariest book I have read in years. It’s a book for our times and I can’t stop thinking about it. A must read this year.” V. Castro, Bram Stoker Award-nominee and author of The Haunting of Alejandra


A modern American classic. Clay McLeod Chapman’s panic-inducing, adrenaline-fuelled epic digs its fingers into the cracks in 21st-century life and pries them open to expose the rot beneath. Daring, cinematic, funny, horrifying and compulsive in equal measure, this novel is akin to the celluloid nightmares of Cronenberg and Peele—like Videodrome meets Us. A vital work of contemporary horror fiction. — Josh Winning, author of Heads Will Roll


“Disturbing and dangerously prescient, there’s the dark shadow of a world-spanning blight spreading deep inside the mottled heart of Clay McLeod Chapman’s latest novel, Wake Up and Open Your Eyes. A searing and deeply unnerving apocalyptic thriller executed with the true nerve of a master storyteller.” Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke


“Gut-wrenching, grief-soaked, the book perfectly embodies the panic of seeing the people you love transform into monsters. An utterly disconcerting mirror held up to the terror of our present.” Cassandra Khaw, USA Today bestselling author of Nothing but Blackened Teeth


“Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is a pedal-to-the-metal, body-horror mash-up of The Purge, Pontypool, and Malcolm Devlin’s And Then I Woke Up. Chapman has an absolute gift for the unforgettably, mind-saturatingly horrific, and I shall be sending him my therapy bill.” Ally Wilkes, Bram Stoker Award®-nominated author of All the White Spaces and Where the Dead Wait


“Only Clay McLeod Chapman can poignantly illustrate the tragedy of families splitting in American political turmoil while simultaneously serving up maximum gross-out, page-turning, balls-to-the-wall chaos. This book felt so much truer than I wanted it to. It’s devastating that I know every character, and so do you. Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is supercharged, gloriously maximalist, terrifying, and disgusting. But mostly it’s tragic, and hits much closer to home than any of us want it to.” C. J. Leede, author of Maeve Fly and American Rapture


“A harrowing horror experience. Like watching through a window as the world explodes, realizing too late you should have sought shelter.” Johnny Compton, author of The Spite House and Devils Kill Devils


“A horror novel so prescient, it’s barely even allegorical… just a notch or two above non-fiction. Clay McLeod Chapman takes the radicalising power of far-right rhetoric to its bloody, gooey, bone-crunching conclusion – this is a gripping, apocalyptic vision of Trump-era America that rattles along at a terrifying pace. Videodrome meets George Romero’s The Crazies meets InfoWars. It’d be a delicious piece of mischief if it wasn’t so chillingly topical.” Adam Leslie, author of Lost in the Garden


“Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is a fever-pitched maelstrom of modern-day anxieties and terrors. It’s the end of the world as only Clay McLeod Chapman can depict it: twisted, witty, absurd, horrifying, devastating, and suffused with a grief that things could ever get this bad. Or, perhaps more accurately, are almost this bad already.” Nat Cassidy, author of Mary: An Awakening of Terror and Nestlings


“Surreal, hypnotic, unrelenting, profoundly claustrophobic, and an absolutely scathing sendup of the pitfalls of American divisiveness.” Keith Rosson, author of Fever House


“A sickening indictment of modern society crafted into a horror frenzy.” Polly Hall, author of Myrrh


“A scathing indictment of an all-too-close reality, Wake Up and Open Your Eyes doesn’t just get under your skin, it slices all the way through—then twists.”—Lindy Ryan, author of Bless Your Heart and Cold Snap




PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR


“Bristling with uneasy energy, What Kind of Mother seizes you by the throat and never lets go. An ink-black story about grief, courage, and what we’ll do for those we love.”—Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street and Sundial

“There’s a moment in What Kind of Mother when a character worries that he’s telling the story all wrong. The opposite is true of Clay McLeod Chapman. His lyrical prose shimmers, moving us seamlessly from one wounded soul to another. A good old-fashioned salty summer scare about the beautiful, terrifying power of belief.”—Caroline Kepnes, New York Times best-selling author of the You series

“What Kind of Mother mixes Southern Gothic, a missing child story, and body horror into an entertaining brew sure to inform your nightmares.”—Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts

“A tremendous, heartbreaking work of dark fiction, where the horror seeps in quietly until you’re left drowning. You won’t forget about this tale anytime soon. A masterpiece.”—Ronald Malfi, best-selling author of Come with Me

“I’m not sure how Clay McLeod Chapman manages to be both tremendously tender and brilliantly hideous in What Kind of Mother, but he does—in this strange, poetic, and gut-wrenching portrait of parenthood.”—Erika T. Wurth, author of White Horse

“Another stunner . . . one of horror’s modern masters. Beautifully written, deftly plotted, and completely engrossing, What Kind of Mother will get under your skin and take your breath away and break your heart and chill you to the bone. A profound exploration of parental love and loss, of regret and sacrifice.”—Rachel Harrison, national best-selling author of Cackle and Such Sharp Teeth

“What Kind of Mother is a deeply unsettling, oddly sweet book about what love can become.”—Sarah Gailey, best-selling author of Just Like Home

“What Kind of Mother is both a breakneck story about running from your past and also a meditation on loss and guilt. Which is typical Chapman, a writer who always finds ways to marry our real-life fears with crescendos of pure unadulterated horror. His writing is intense, beautiful, disturbing, heartbreaking, and this book is no different. First it takes you by the hand, then it takes you by the wrist.”—Gus Moreno, author of This Thing Between Us

“What Kind of Mother is a masterpiece—a beautiful, intimate work. Clay Chapman is the storyteller supreme, and I will follow him anywhere.”—Andy Davidson, author of The Hollow Kind

“Equal parts terrifying and beautiful. Chapman crafts a folk tale that slides under your skin and burrows its way into your heart. Visceral. Surprising. Stunning. Not to be missed.”—Erin E. Adams, author of Jackal

“What Kind of Mother will make you pace the room, reconsider your own sanity, and question the stubborn instinct to nurture.”—Rachel Eve Moulton, author of The Insatiable Volt Sisters


Shades of Flatliners and addiction drama pepper this tale about a woman who learns her college sweetheart died of an overdose – from a drug that allows folks to see the dead.”—USA Today


“Trainspotting meets Requiem For A Dream, rewritten as an avant-garde horror movie soundtracked by Nine Inch Nails.”—Esquire


“A legitimately terrifying ghost story and also a thoughtful and smart (if grim) exploration of how addiction destroys lives, Ghost Eaters should make Clay McLeod Chapman a star.”—Vulture


“Full of great character moments, unbelievably tense hauntings, and an emotional core that runs so deep you’ll still be unpacking it long after the last page.”—Paste


“A keenly observant narrative that, with a mix of body horror and just plain horror, plucks at the raw nerves of the grieving process.”—SCI FI Magazine


“Rife with body horror and hallucinations…the narrative sucks readers into its dark, disorienting world. It’s equal parts moving and gruesome.”—Publishers Weekly


“Chapman has created an experience so anxiety inducing, immersive, and intense that readers will feel like something is actually there, lurking over their shoulder as they turn the pages. A great choice for fans of A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Orphans of Bliss, edited by Mark Matthews.”—Booklist, starred review


“A high anxiety, utterly original, and compelling contemplation of what it means to be haunted.”—Library Journal


“If Clay McLeod Chapman’s previous novels hint at his burgeoning talent for horror storytelling, Ghost Eaters sees it fully realized…A compelling, relentless read…”—Rue Morgue


“The best book from Chapman yet…wicked, full of heart, and lasting, or more appropriately, haunting.”—Cemetery Dance


“Fans of body horror will rejoice as Chapman leads readers through a trippy world.”—Book Riot


“A nuanced, heartfelt story about addiction, grief, loss, and regret…Ghost Eaters is as humane as it is horrific—which is another way of saying it’s Chapman doing what Chapman does best.”—The Big Thrill


“I truly loved it and all its creepiness.”—Lauren Simonis-Hunter for AARP


“While this book warns you away from mainlining Ghost, because of, you know, ghosts, what you will get hooked on here is Clay McLeod Chapman’s writing.”—New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones, Don’t Fear the Reaper


“A Gothic-punk graveyard tale about what haunts history and what haunts the human soul. An addicting read that draws you into its descent from the first page.”—Chuck Wendig, New York Times best-selling author of The Book of Accidents


“Clay McLeod Chapman’s guided tour of a shroom-and-gloom ghost world, where everyone is addicted to death, reads like a scared straight program that horrifies you into choosing life.”—Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of The Final Girl Support Group


“A terrifying meditation of the horrors of modern life and our collective fixation with death. Clay McLeod Chapman’s Ghost Eaters promises to fix what ails you, existentially speaking. But be warned: follow Chapman down this rabbit hole and you will see dead people.”—Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor


“Ghost Eaters is one of those rare horror novels that have everything: a dash of humor, real life demons, complex characters, a heavy dose of the supernatural, and the kind of ending you never forget. This is high-grade horror, and Clay McLeod Chapman is the real deal.”—Gabino Iglesias, author of The Devil Takes You Home


“Clay McLeod Chapman is a weaver of nightmares and Ghost Eaters is his darkest creation yet. A non-stop thrill ride, all you can do is strap in and prepare to be haunted. Chapman is the 21st century’s Richard Matheson. He’s that good.”—Richard Chizmar, New York Times best-selling author of Chasing the Boogeyman


“A quintessential ghost story with a fresh, trippy twist. Chapman weaves hair-raising, goosebump-inducing horror through a sharp exploration of loss, addiction, and grim history. Haunting guaranteed.”—Rachel Harrison, author of Cackle and The Return