This Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want

by Hailey Piper

A woman, haunted by the disappearance of her sister and best friend thirty years ago uncovers the terrifying urban legend behind the last film they watched together, in this chilling riff on the cursed film subgenre by the Bram Stoker award-winning author of Queen of Teeth.

Perfect for fans of Gretchen Felker-Martin and Andrew Joseph White.

In November 1994, three girls visit their local movie theater to see an obscure film. Only one of them is ever seen again.

Thirty years later, Val McQueen has never forgotten the day she lost her little sister and best friend, but she’s closed the curtain on it, certain she’s moved on despite her parents’ resentment and hounding by true crime enthusiasts.

That is until a stranger’s murder brings it all screaming back—a terror she’s tried to tell herself is only a movie. Enlisting the help of cinephile and former classmate Roxie de la Fontaine to find the film, Val soon realizes that hers is not the only pursuit. Someone, or something involved with the movie is on the hunt, too…

… For the girl who got away all those years ago.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Adult, Lesbian, Audiobook

336 pages, ebook

First published September 15, 2026

About the author

Hailey Piper is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth, A Game in Yellow, A Light Most Hateful, The Worm and His Kings, No Gods for Drowning, Cranberry Cove, and other books of dark fiction.
She is also the author of over 120 short stories appearing in Weird Tales, Pseudopod, The End of the World As We Know It, and many more publications. Her non-fiction appears in Writer's Digest, Tor Nightfire, CrimeReads, and Library Journal. Find her at www.haileypiper.com.

Reviews

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first Hailey Piper book and it was immensely creative. I love all the LGBTQIA representation and appreciate the diverse characters. The haunted movie (there is no movie) premise always lures me in like a fish to water. This one was well beyond what I expected. I adore the creativity of the world of the film and toad man. I will say, I found the prose a bit difficult to get through. I’m not sure why, it just didn’t flow for me the way books typically do. The sentence structure was clunky for me and I found myself frequently re-reading passages to comprehend their meaning. Otherwise, I highly recommend!
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Raquel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I fear the Toad Man and I were simply not meant to be.

The premise had me immediately. A book about a haunted movie is basically like catnip for me. However I spent most of this book waiting for something to happen. The pacing is tediously slow and there honestly wasn’t enough happening in between to keep me interested.

I also never really bought into some of the story’s logic. Val’s parents hating her so much after what happened felt strange to me, especially considering the circumstances, and Colette figuring out the Toad Man’s deal felt way too convenient. There were several moments where I just had to accept something because the book clearly wasn’t interested in explaining it further.

And then there’s the Toad Man himself. I’m sorry, like… 😭 I know horror can be weird and absurd and I’m usually very much here for that but something about this particular curse made the whole thing feel more silly than sinister.

A thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.

[frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Titan Books and Net galley for a copy of this arc!

There have been a slew of cursed media books to come out in the past decade and This Movie Doesn't End the Way we Want is my favorite.

Maybe it’s because this premise, the killing hook, would trap me 100% of the time. My favorite way to consume horror is by going in completely blind, so a limited run of a horror movie with a silly name that I’ve never heard of? Sign me UP.

This concept is a little silly, but that silliness is in itself a lure that pulls you into a complicated family dynamic and nuanced take on survivors guilt and childhood trauma.

Piper seems more in touch with the changing technology trends of the time. Both the film projectors and talk of tiktok feel natural. There are some references that I think ultimately will date this book but I got all of them so it even more made this feel like horror built for ME.

I’m really liking Hailey Piper and I have concrete plans to read as much as I can this year.

Pick this one up if you like cursed media, serious books pretending to be silly and horror that feels like screaming in a cornfield at a sky that only looks like a sky.

Most importantly. Remember. Somehow? Heartbreak feels good in a place like this.

[Crystal Staley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hailey Piper’s books are always imaginative and interesting and this book is no different! I was immediately pulled into the story when it opens up in 1994 and two girls have gone missing from a movie theater….and one got away. But got away from what exactly? The following pages lead us up to the 2024 as we follow the girl who got away as an adult and all that she gone through since that fateful day at the movies. Cursed films have a certain draw to them, it’s the mysterious urban legend-ness of it all. This book really feeds into that mystery and what keeps them alive. I so enjoyed the journey with the characters as we figure out what is going on. It was rich with emotion and feeling for the characters with some genuine spookiness (hello the Toad Man song??). I didn’t want to put it down while reading! I highly recommend!

*thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this for review

[megs_bookrack]

ARC received! Thank you, Titan Books!!!

[Elle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The cursed film concept is such a compelling one. I love the idea of a limited horror film that disappears and is only mentioned in back channels. Of how this story that begins with a teenager hiding from her home life and finds something impossible and disturbing that steals her best friend and younger sister.

Val spends the next several decades doing everything she can to avoid thinking about what happened. Until she can’t anymore. She was an unconventional character - prickly, fists first, desperate to stay in the moment so that the memories can’t touch her - and whilst I liked her I didn’t connect as much as I wanted to.

The haunted movie was interesting, a great concept and well delivered. I wish it was a little more scary, it had more of a mystery feel until the end. Though the cinema scenes were delightfully creepy and tense with the Toad man. The lore behind him and what he actually was cool and the whole book just felt like an appreciation of cinema and movies. The whole production and the feeling and magic movies can make, a reminder that fast content consumption on streaming has lost something.

I will say I found the writing slightly harder to digest but I couldn’t say why. It should have read normally but it was slower to work through for me.

Overall a cool concept and interesting story, and the love, care and inevitable twisting of the movie and how that felt was definitely a highlight. I just wish I’d been able to connect a bit more



Thank you Titan books for the proof copy. All thoughts are my own.

[Krystelle (based on the novel by Stephen King) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I am huge fan of lost media horror when it’s done right. There’s something about a sense of seeing something and being one of the few witnesses or indeed the only witness that we have a fascination with. It’s definitely an eerie setting, and I loved the preamble for this novel.

The concept of the ‘Toad Man’ is not so much scary as it’s a very direct homage to a very specific brand of horror film. I think that it could have been scarier, but I also totally get what the author was going for. The scene in the cinema was done in the most lurking way that it possibly could have been done.

I think where this book fell over for me was with the characterisation of the main characters. Once we got past the cinema, while I found it interesting, I just think that there could have been more motivation. There was something that just felt a bit two-dimensional about them, and I didn’t feel I enjoyed reading about them too much.

The plot was definitely well done, but I think there could have been better people who could have drawn it through as characters. There’s a lot of potential here, and I just wish I liked those who were playing it out a little bit more.

[KaysKillerReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am finding this book incredibly hard to review. I don’t have anything necessarily bad to say about it, but at the same time, I don’t have anything I absolutely loved about it either.

There were definitely moments when I enjoyed reading it, but they were usually followed by stretches where the storyline dragged. The plot itself was unlike anything I’ve ever read. However, I went into this one with pretty high hopes because the whole haunted movie concept sounded like it could be such a fun time, and it didn’t go in the direction I was hoping for.

There were parts that were really well written, while other aspects felt like they were bordering on a little too cheesy for me. So I found myself constantly going back and forth on how I felt about it.

Overall, it was a fun and somewhat entertaining read. I think the right person could really enjoy this one. Who that person is? I honestly couldn’t tell you but I don’t think that person is me.

Ultimately, I’m giving this 3 stars because the actual writing kept me engaged enough to keep going and made me want to see the story through to the end, even when I wasn’t completely sold on where it was going.

Definitely an interesting one, just not one I think was quite for me.

[Stasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did I have to stop reading at night while my fiancé was gone because I was so creeped out? Yes. Did I have to force myself to not skim the unnecessarily dense climax that lost my interest almost entirely? Also yes.

I love Hailey Piper and am certain she is going to blow up one day, but this didn’t do it for me like her previous works.

The first half had me riveted despite my initial disappointment in a toad man villain. Protagonist Val, her best friend, and her sister wander into a B-movie about a road man stalking a small town. Two of the girls mysteriously disappear, and we carry on to follow the shell of a person Val has grown into. With the arrival of a pretty stranger at a bar, Val is forced to face the curse from her teenage years.

There are a lot of creepy scenes with vivid descriptions of swamp sounds and tension as unknown supernatural villains commence stalking Val and her close friends. Once the cursed media is found again, the book lost me. I struggled with the long winded character explanations of what was happening, not ever feeling completely satisfied with my understanding of events.

I will read everything Piper puts out, but this wasn’t quite for me.

[Tiffany Schulz · Rating 2 out of 5]

ARC review
I don’t enjoy this as much as I had hoped. I do think it would be a really good film noir in black and white. I’m a big fan of Hitchcock-esq things and this seemed like it was that style.
An old movie, haunting rhymes that brings forth a creepy man and people disappear. Yes please! However, I just didn’t connect with the characters and found myself struggling with the writing style.
It is very reminiscent of old time black and whites to begin with, and when we get to “now” time and our protagonist is grown up, she just doesn’t seem like a trusted narrator. I don’t know. It just didn’t connect with me

[Jeff Wait · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible story about our relationship to fiction, this book does everything I love about Hailey Piper books. The characters are painted so well and with an edge that bites on every page. The plot is woven to be both scary and moving. The horror does not miss (c’mon, a movie that eats people? You know I like that). And the main theme works on a level that made me think about it for a long time each time I put the book down. If you don’t like Hailey Piper, you don’t like contemporary horror fiction.

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. One of my favorite reads from Hailey Piper.

Val McQueen is taking it day by day, just trying to survive and live with all of her past trauma. Her sister and best friend disappeared at the movies when she was a teen. She was there that night and what she saw must have been a hallucination. Her parents blamed her, she blames herself. The cold case and wounds are reopened by a true crime podcaster. Val starts to starts to see and feel all those strange things again and people start dying.

Go into this one cold! So much better. I loved Val. Extremely guilt ridden but also one of the strongest characters I’ve read. Lots of cosmic horror, existential dread and a sense of something otherworldly stalking you as the reader. Definitely recommend!

[Michael Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review was originally published at FanFiAddict.

Martin Scorsese once said movies are life. They can open hearts and minds, and take us to other places. In Hailey Piper’s This Movie Doesn’t End The Way We Want, movies – or, at least, one certain shlocky B-movie – are death. They’ll devour us whole if given the chance and leave nothing behind. For Val McQueen, one particular movie is a traumatic reminder of when she lost her sister and best friend, along with parts of her own self and, eventually, her family.

In 1994, teenage Val, her sister Ash, and best friend Colette are enjoying a girls night out at the movies. Val’s eye is immediately caught by the poster advertising a one-night only screening of Blood-Curse of the Toad Man, and since it’s her turn to pick, Colette’s demands to check out Interview with the Vampire fall by the wayside. As the movie progresses, off-screen oddities being to pile up. A strange, swampy smell befouls the screening room, and a large, lip-smacking figure in a trench coat and large hat sits behind them, progressively moving closer and closer despite never actually seeming to get up to change seats. Panic grips Val and she runs to the bathroom near the film’s climax, only to return and discover her companions are gone, along with the shadowy figure that had been lurking behind them. Thirty years later, the movie has returned, and it’s once again begun claiming those close to Val.

Horror fans will no doubt already be familiar with the cursed film trope. Typically, it involves a movie or TV production being struck with a series of strange accidents or shocking deaths that otherwise make for a troubled production, like Brandon Lee’s death on the set of The Crow, or the demise of several actors involved in the Poltergeist series. Within the horror genre, it’s the type of premise that’s ripe for exploitation as a ghost story or slashers, or taken more literally as a form of cursed media as depicted in The Ring or Piper’s own A Game In Yellow.

Piper takes the general conceit of cursed media and breathes life into it in ways that feel fresh, original, and innovative. She tackles the material in several intriguing ways, taking the tried-and-true detective narrative and filtering it through her particular lens of sapphic cosmic horror fronted by messy, messed-up women. If you’ve read her outstanding A Game in Yellow or The Worm and His Kings series, then you know just how damn good, and even special, her work in this arena is. The way she approaches the cosmic angle here is next-level fantastic, not to mention just flat-out cool as hell.

After a freshly made acquaintance disappears under extraordinary, and all too familiar circumstances, Val hires Roxie, a detective of sorts that specializes in tracking down lost media, to find out whatever she can about this movie that has been haunting, and perhaps even hunting, Val for decades. Yet, for all intents and purposes, Blood-Curse of the Toad Man doesn’t exist beyond the hushed warnings and rumors, with only a few having ever heard of it. Reading about Roxie’s research or Val’s pursuit of a large, shadowy figure through an alley outside her tattoo parlor, you can all but see the Dutch angles of a desaturated, if not straight-up black and white, strikingly shadowed, neo-noir flick like the Coen Brothers’s Blood Simple or The Man Who Wasn’t There.

This Movie Doesn’t End The Way We Want is intensely cinematic – not just because of its subject matter, although that’s certainly key, but because of Piper’s writing style and influences. This is a book that’s as rich in mood and vibes as it is in mythmaking. It’s a cosmic horror book written by a lover of cinema for fellow cinema lovers. You can’t only pinpoint the influences of David Lynch’s surrealistic imagery or the destruction of one’s sanity and certainty in their understanding of the world, like in John Carpenter’s At The Mouth of Madness, you can feel them, strongly and intensely, in the escalating creeping dread of it all. Piper doesn’t just craft a horror lover’s ode to the movies — she carries it a huge step further in the ways she makes the concept of film otherworldly and larger than life, taking the darkness and flickering lights of your local cineplex and turning them into a playground for terror, destroying the lines between spectator and victim.

[Georgia T-S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any form of art is notoriously a thing that can move me to tears very easily, and it's not like I haven't cried at the acknowledgments section of a book before, but recently I have become so tired and so angry at the way in which AI has permeated the uniquely beautiful human parts of this world while helping to destroy it and us at the same time, that the idea that maybe one day the themes this book touches upon will become irrelevant and unrecognisable is just something I kind of needed to hear. A lot of the time when I talk about AI in a negative light I'm made to feel like I'm being dramatic, annoying or embarrassing myself, but I don't care anymore, I'm not going to become despondent, that's what those backing these fascism fuelling machines are hoping for...

"My sincere hope is that this aspect of This Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want becomes irrelevant someday. That humanity has discarded the machine, and it is no longer poisoning Black communities, evaporating natural resources, polluting information, pushing people to destroy themselves and others, or stealing from creatives."

It wasn't actually until I was half way through that I realised you could even apply a metaphor for the destructive, warping and unreality-making nature of AI to this book, and in some ways I am glad that that metaphor didn't come to the author until a later point too, but rather appeared as the book grew. Roxie is right about it all.

But that's not all this book touches on, and not really what it's about at all, there was so much that I loved in here. I had a great time reading! It was compelling, enticing and I really enjoyed getting to know the main characters (big love for there being a buff butch mc!) I'm kind of enamoured by the concept of Piper wanting to take something special to her and 'ruin it a little' and this book being the outcome. You can certainly feel the deep appreciation and knowledge of films and cinema in here and the way in which the story unfolds around that was so good.

I don't want to be one of those people that reviews something with the 'it's like blank mixed with blank' description, but I felt sparks of I Saw the TV Glow, Backrooms, a little of Nope, and, of course, many Creature Features/Monster Movies of the past. I haven't read or watched that many thriller-esque things so I cannot suggest what it feels like there, but I loved that mystery, horror, thriller edge to it too. A few years ago I read The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O'Meara and I kept thinking about that also.

Aside from the film aspect of the book, the exploration of processing, or not processing, trauma/grief and how Val's parents handled, or did not handle, everything was so interesting. And getting to see the thrill of the hunt from Roxie's perspective was something I loved - I love research and I love the moment where you find that one thing that makes it all so worth the hours spent!

The way events/the 'thing' are described in this book was so cool. The visuals I have in my brain are really something. What a cool concept that I'm going to be thinking about it for a long time... the swamp pouring out of the screen, Roxie wading through it, the distorting, compacting of spaces, the man-not-man trying to understand how to open a door. For some reason, that image in particular makes me feel slightly ill at the uncanny, wrong-ness of it. I love that.

I felt it got a tiny bit slow nearer the end, the climactic event felt like it went on for a long time for me (that could have just been me being impatient to find out what happens!) and I got a little lost at the end with Val, but I think some of that confusion is intentional, because what can Val herself be in that moment but disoriented and confused. The ending did feel so fitting though, echoing many horror movies where there's that little hint at the end, that even after all that work, sacrifice and death that, something, them or us, just isn't quite letting go.

I haven't come across Hailey Piper's work before, but I can't wait to read more now!

Thanks Netgalley!

[Alex Doenau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who doesn't love an unwieldy title? This Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want is a long walk to say or type out every time you think about it, but it's quite possible that author Hailey Piper couldn't have got away with naming the book for the movie the title refers to, Blood-Curse of the Toad Man (also a loveable title, but maybe difficult to hand sell). This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want is an amiable and intriguing entry in the cursed film horror subgenre, an occasionally disturbing and even philosophical piece.

In 1994, Valerie McQueen took her sister and best friend to a screening of Blood-Curse of the Toad Man, but they both disappeared from the cinema without trace before the credits rolled. Thirty years later, Val lives alone, has few friends, is quick to anger, and hasn’t seen a movie for decades. When someone comes asking questions about her sister, Val begins to see things that she’d long repressed, and realises that Blood-Curse of the Toad Man is not yet done with her.

This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want is written by a cinephile of the sort that can’t really conceive of people who don’t like movies — if you’ve ever met the movie averse in real life, it is a somewhat disquieting experience; we’re inured to people who don’t read by now, but to eschew movies as well is beyond the pale — and so Val’s life seems colourless for reasons beyond the obvious. 

Fortunately Val is counterbalanced by her high school classmate, lost media detective Roxie de la Fontaine, who has kept up on cinematic trends. The introduction of Roxie and a newly split focus in the narration opens up the book and allows for different attitudinal approaches to the situation; Val’s need for the now clashes with Roxie’s desire for answers no matter the cost, even though Roxie’s involvement is contingent upon Val’s request. The push and pull of the narrative from the fear of knowing to the thrill of discovery works well and, through Roxie, Piper is able to reveal information about the Toad Man without coming across as overly didactic or expository.

The most refreshing aspect of This Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want is that its two female leads are lesbians without a single iota of erotic frisson between them. Roxie is married and her wife is overseas for work but there’s never a question of infidelity, which in the mists of time would likely have been passed down into the narrative via editorial decree. Val is a character who has understandably flattened herself due to trauma, but Roxie is the sort of woman you could base a franchise around if you had enough ideas for future stories (admittedly, if movies kept trying to kill you, you probably would eventually abstain).

From a horror perspective, This Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want has a constant edge of unreality, and the concept is eerie. Part of the conceit is a feel and a smell, and Piper’s descriptions become revoltingly tactile as needed. The mystery of Blood-Curse of the Toad Man is a refreshing twist on the cursed film formula, and it forms a nice bridge between the analogue age of Val’s first screening and the digital frontier of urban legend. Parts of the climax are somewhat byzantine and abstract, yet the overall effect is one of cohesion.

Less successful is the recurring, constantly changing, song that accompanies Blood-Curse of the Toad Man. No matter how you look at the song, the words that follow the “Toad Man, Toad Man” refrain are consistently difficult to make scan. Piper’s acknowledgements say that her wife has asked her never to sing the Toad Man song aloud again: I promise you it’s all in her head and has not escaped containment.

If you like a good cursed film story — and are well aware that there are some bad ones out there — This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want is a solid addition to the canon. The magic of the hyperreality of cinema is played with and stretched to its darkly logical conclusion; if you ever felt that a movie was made specifically to kill you, this book will help confirm your suspicions.

An Advanced Reader Copy was provided by Titan Books for review.

[Justin Soderberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any story that takes horror cinema into a horror novel has my attention, add in Hailey Piper at the keyboard, you have me hooked. Piper takes the cursed film horror trope and puts her own unique spin on it in The Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want . Just when I thought it was one thing, the book took a turn into something else, in the best possible way.

In November 1994, three girls visit their local movie theater to see an obscure film. Only one of them is ever seen again.

Thirty years later, Val McQueen has never forgotten the day she lost her little sister and best friend, but she’s closed the curtain on it, certain she’s moved on despite her parents’ resentment and hounding by true crime enthusiasts.

That is until a stranger’s murder brings it all screaming back—a terror she’s tried to tell herself is only a movie. Enlisting the help of cinephile and former classmate Roxie de la Fontaine to find the film, Val soon realizes that hers is not the only pursuit. Someone, or something involved with the movie is on the hunt, too…

… For the girl who got away all those years ago.

The simple idea of watching a film and something horrible happening to you, in this case Val's sister and friend disappearing, is truly frightening. But I didn't think of what goes on around such horrifying moment and the aftermath. Such as the grief felt by those left behind, such as Val, and those parents who have lost their child. Not to mention the blame and distance it can cause between someone like Val and her parents. The weight this adds to a story is so heavy that made the events to take place thirty years later hit even harder.

I love that horror is a genre and that it can take all shapes and forms when telling such stories, but truly love when horror cinema finds its way into horror novels. The use watching a rare horror film grabs me each and every time, as I feel like I would be that person. A limited showing of a movie I had never heard of, what a fun time. What wouldn't be me, is watching it thirty years later or watching the film while researching the horror that took place when someone else watched it. Sorry, but no thanks. This is when you want to yell at the pages, STOP, don't do it!

What also had me hooked was the mystery surrounding the film, the research into hits history thirty years later, and how our memory can work differently over the years. Was there actually a movie, if not, how come people are talking about it elsewhere, but why is there no information about it on the internet. It's a plot point I have seen only a few times over the years, but one that I absolutely love. Are you crazy, or did you actually see the film where your sister and friend vanished. The actual horrifying event, but also the horror of what is reality.

There is so much more I want to dive into here with The Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want, but will spoil what turned out to be a large surprise from me in the end. What is important is that Piper crafts a story that is horrifying, but one that is also grief-filled, and emotional. A horror story that has so many levels, and one that will take you by surprise.

The Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want is a horrifying, yet emotional, grief-filled tale that surprised me. Hailey Piper takes a familiar trope and makes it her own while scaring us along the way. The Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want will not make you disappear, but what's inside just might.

The Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want hits bookstores everywhere on September 15, 2026 from Titan Books. The audiobook, narrated by Jeremy Carlisle Parker, is available via Libro.fm!

NOTE: We received an advance copy of The Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want from the publisher. Opinions are our own.

[Mona Sami · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of *This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want* by Hailey Piper in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to enjoy *This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want*, especially because the premise sounded so creepy and interesting. The story follows Val McQueen, who has spent thirty years haunted by the disappearance of her younger sister and best friend. In 1994, three girls went to the cinema to watch an obscure film, but only one of them came back. Years later, Val is still carrying the trauma of that day, and when a stranger’s murder brings the past back to the surface, she is forced to look again at the film, the urban legend surrounding it, and what may have happened all those years ago.

On paper, this sounded like exactly the kind of horror story I should have liked. I usually enjoy dark, unsettling stories with a mystery at the centre, especially when there is an urban legend or cursed film element involved. The idea of a strange movie connected to disappearances had a lot of potential, and I thought the concept itself was strong. Unfortunately, the execution just did not work for me.

My biggest issue was the pacing. The book felt very slow, and I struggled to properly get into it. Even though the premise was interesting, I found myself not feeling as pulled into the story as I expected to be. There were moments where I thought the tension was going to build, but then the story seemed to slow down again, and I found it difficult to stay fully engaged. I did manage to finish the book, but it felt like a slow read for me rather than something I was excited to keep picking up.

I also found it hard to connect with the characters. Val should have been a really compelling main character because she has such a traumatic past and is clearly carrying a lot of grief and fear, but I personally did not feel very emotionally attached to her. I understood what she had been through, and I understood why she was haunted by the past, but I did not feel as invested in her journey as I wanted to. The same applies to the other characters — they had interesting roles in the story, but I did not feel strongly connected to them.

The cursed film/urban legend side of the story was the part I was most interested in, but even that did not fully land for me. I wanted the horror to feel more gripping, more unsettling and more addictive. There were creepy ideas in the book, but I did not feel the level of fear or tension I expected from the set-up. For me, it felt more strange than scary, and while I do not mind weird horror, I still need to feel hooked by the story and the atmosphere.

That being said, I do think there will be readers who enjoy this more than I did. If someone likes slow-burn horror, cursed media stories, unusual writing and a more surreal atmosphere, this may work better for them. The concept is definitely original, and I can see what the book was trying to do. It just was not the right fit for me personally.

Overall, *This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want* had an interesting idea, but I found it too slow-paced and difficult to get into. I finished it because I wanted to give it a fair chance, but unfortunately, I did not enjoy it as much as I hoped. The premise had potential, but the story did not keep me engaged, and I struggled to connect with the characters or the horror.

**Rating: 2 stars**

[Nicole Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Titan Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

If you tell me a book is about a cursed, mostly-lost horror movie, I'm already completely invested. “This Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want” by Hailey Piper completely scratched that cursed media itch and ended up being one of the most creative horror novels I've read in a while.

The story follows Val, who, as a teenager in 1994, went to see The Blood Curse of the Toad-Man with her little sister and best friend and was the only one who walked out of the theater. Thirty years later, the mystery still haunts her, and when new disappearances begin, she's forced to confront whatever happened that night alongside lost media expert Roxie.

The premise is fantastic, especially if you're obsessed with lost media, creepy urban legends, or horror stories that blur the line between fiction and reality. The mythology surrounding the Toad Man is incredibly unique, and I loved uncovering how the curse actually works. There's even a surprisingly fascinating explanation involving nature that tied everything together in a way I wasn't expecting. The whole thing has this wonderfully cinematic feel, like you're watching an eerie late-night cult horror movie unfold page by page.

I also appreciated that this isn't just about a scary monster. Beneath all the creepy movie theater scenes and unsettling horror is a story about grief, survivor's guilt, childhood trauma, nostalgia, and the power of art and media. Val is such a sympathetic protagonist, carrying decades of guilt over what happened, and I really enjoyed her partnership with Roxie. Their friendship felt genuine, and I loved that the story let them build a close emotional connection without forcing a romance.

Once the mystery really got going, I had so many questions. What exactly is the Toad Man? What happened inside that theater? Why does this movie seem to disappear from history? Every answer only made me want to keep reading, and several of the horror scenes, especially the movie theater itself and a few later encounters, were wonderfully unsettling.

My biggest complaint is the ending. The final act leans heavily into surreal, dreamlike horror, and while I admired how ambitious it was, I found myself a little confused by what was literally happening versus what was symbolic. A few plot points also felt like they wrapped up a little too quickly after such a fantastic buildup.

Overall, “This Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want” is an incredibly original combination of cursed media horror and emotional character drama. If you love stories about forbidden films, lost media, and horror that has a lot more on its mind than just jump scares, I'd definitely recommend giving this one a shot.

[Annelise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three girls saw a horror movie in 1994, and only one left the theater. Thirty years later, Val can't stop thinking about what went wrong that night. A man in a trench coat appeared behind her, her sister, and their friend, and then they were gone. Everything about the movie, 'The Blood Curse of the Toad-Man', seems lost to history. There are no clips of it online, the IMDb page is mostly empty, and even the poster that Val remembers so vividly disappeared as quickly as Ashley and Colette did. When a true crime podcaster begins hounding her for personal details, Val contacts a lost media hunter to confront the monster of her childhood.

Starting strong with a D.A.R.E. t-shirt and a 'Doug' reference (though I think 'Killer Tofu' is the better The Beets song), 'This Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want' submerges you in 90's nostalgia. This is contrasted abruptly to the high-tech yet isolating world of the 2020s--Val's relationship with her parents is fraught, she has few friends and doesn't have much of a social media presence, and she's fallen out of love with movies since the Toad-Man incident. I would be remiss not to mention how the true nature of 'The Blood Curse of the Toad-Man' has parallels to AI 'artwork', something made without the drive to create (and something that does not go unmentioned in Hailey Piper's Acknowledgments at the end). It never goes so far as to say modern technology is ruining humanity, but it does highlight how communal movies are--between how many people it takes to make one and how much of an 'event' the theater can be.

Val is a great protagonist: a cool butch tattoo artist but also a withdrawn and self-deprecating person who constantly compares herself to Ashley, her little sister who never got to grow up. Her relationship with Roxie, the Narrows Quadruplex owner's daughter-turned-lost-media-finder, is sweet, and what I really loved was that they never became romantically involved. Both are lesbians, and while Roxie is happily married, her wife is conveniently on a work trip for the duration of the book. I was worried that this would result in the two having a fling and Roxie having to leave her wife or keep an affair secret, but it never does! The two develop an intimate friendship learning about the movie together, but a line is never crossed, and this is a breath of fresh air.

'This Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want' is a bit of a slow burn, but once the true nature of the movie was revealed I was hooked. I don't want to spoil anything in this review, but I think it's a creative way to write a cursed movie. A definite recommendation for those who love stories about cursed and lost media!

[Milt Theo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was incredible! Analog horror, lost media, cursed films, urban legends about them especially, really give me the creeps. I literally can't have enough! But I also love cosmic horror - and what a surprise this book turned out to be: it spills into cosmic horror territory right before the reader's eyes, taking the haunted film premise and transforming it into a spooky and weird "There is no movie!" twist of astonishing proportions! I can't believe how good the idea is: it overturned all my expectations, turning the excellent concept driving the plot for over half the book, into mere groundwork for an extraordinary, fascinating novelty in the corresponding genre.

The plotting works wonders, right from the start: the opening scene, taking place in a movie theater in 1994, with three girls watching a B-movie creature feature, "Blood-Curse of the Toad Man" - creepy and tense as he'll. The story continues thirty years later, with very strong and interesting female characters, chilling family drama, and plenty of guilt and regret - essentially the story of the one survivor of the 1994 tragedy, when two of the three girls vanished without a trace. Val, the surviving girl, now an adult and a tattoo artist full of rage and bitterness, has to face that life-defining day head on, as the "Toad Man" is ready to claim her at long last. But very little is at it seems, and the story has some major up and downs till what actually happened that day is finally revealed!

There's a very strong LGBTQIA representation in this one, somewhat integral to the dynamics of the story, despite some rather convenient coincidences (both main female characters being queer, one of them a lost media investigator just when the other needs one, the other two female characters being queer and urban legend podcasters, and so on and so forth), but it makes for a tightly controlled, plothole free, and fast-paced story. The writing gave me some trouble, the dialogue was a little stilted, given though that most characters have messes they're dealing with (and one of them, Val in fact, is quite traumatized), the clunkiness sorta makes sense.

I highly recommend the book to cursed films afficionados and fans of lost media; cosmic horror readers too will find a lot to dig in!

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of This Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want.

This is my first book by the author, and I loved the premise.

It’s a fresh take on the cursed-film trope: a movie that may not exist in our reality but lives on another plane, feeding on its viewers.

** Minor our reality non-spoilers ahead **

Two women, Val and Roxie become personally invested in discovering if this film truly exists; the former because the film disappeared her little sister and BFF and the latter is tasked with locating the obscure film.

Roxie soon becomes obsessed with finding this not-quite-film — the Blood-Curse of the Toad Man — and I understand why she can’t let it go once she starts down that path.

I can't let go of certain things too, especially a mystery.

The narrative builds a creeping sense of dread mixed with unreality and an unsettling atmosphere that kept me engaged as people around her begin disappearing, just as they did decades earlier.

The novel is a good blend of horror, mystery, and urban-legend, raising new questions and building suspense.

I also appreciated the book’s commentary on how the theater-going experience is changing—how streaming dominates, how audience demographics and viewing habits have shifted, and which genres now draw crowds.

My main issue was Val: she’s wracked by survivor’s guilt and periodically lashes out in violence.

Her parents are losers and a couple of the worst parents ever; unsupportive, insensitive and they blame Val for her sister's disappearance.

Their appearance at the end was an unpleasant surprise but I was happy they got their comeuppance.

My other issue was I wasn’t frightened by the Toad Man — I’m just not scared of toads (Freddy Krueger, yes; Toad Man, no).

I was really intrigued by the film’s backstory and wanted more exposition: who created it and why, where and when did it originate, how far back do the disappearances go, and what patterns, if any—locations, victim profiles, or rituals—connect the incidents.

But I just love a good mystery with my horror.

[Padmavathy Divakaran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviewing an Advanced Reader’s Copy/Uncorrected Proof from Net Galley

Thank you to NetGalley, Titan Books, and Hailey Piper for providing me with an advance reader's copy of "This Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want" in exchange for an honest review.

This horror novel revolves around a cursed film, a subgenre I had never explored before. The premise immediately intrigued me, and I found the concept highly original. That said, I struggled somewhat with the opening and only became fully invested around the 15-20% mark. Once it found its footing, however, the story became much more engaging.

At first, the Toad Man felt more strange than frightening, but I gradually came to appreciate why the creature works so well as a horror figure. Like many childhood fears, it preys on vulnerability and imagination, becoming increasingly unsettling as its influence spreads beyond children to adults.

One of my favorite aspects of the novel was the explanation of how the curse functions. The comparison to the blue alcon butterfly and Myrmica ants was fascinating and provided a memorable framework for understanding the horror at the heart of the story. It was easily one of the book's strongest ideas.

The novel's greatest strength is its characters, particularly Val and Roxie.

Val is a deeply sympathetic protagonist. At fifteen, she loses both her best friend, Collette, and her younger sister, Ashley, to the Toad Man's curse. Her grief is complicated by unresolved feelings for Collette and conflicting emotions surrounding Ashley, leaving her burdened by guilt, confusion, and loss. As the sole survivor, she is forced to carry a traumatic experience that no one around her can truly understand. The way this trauma shapes her later life is portrayed with remarkable sensitivity and emotional depth.

Roxie was equally compelling. Her love of cinema and connection to her father's movie theater give her character a strong emotional foundation. After losing both her father and the future she had envisioned for herself, she finds purpose in preserving forgotten pieces of media and helping others reconnect with meaningful memories. Through her, the novel thoughtfully explores themes of nostalgia, memory, and the lasting impact media can have on people's lives.

The horror sequences were also highly effective. The events at the dentist's office, Delilah's fate, Gaia's experience at the tattoo parlor, and the scenes involving Val's family were among the most memorable moments in the book.

The novel additionally excels at showing how grief can drive people toward terrible choices. Val's parents, willing to sacrifice their surviving daughter in the hope of getting Ashley back, were among the most disturbing characters in the story. Kate's willingness to exploit tragedy for personal gain made her equally unsettling.

Unfortunately, the story became increasingly difficult for me to follow during the final third. The prose often felt dense and abstract, and certain plot developments lacked clarity. One example was Kate's discovery of the final screening. Earlier in the novel, Roxie and Barnaby explain how difficult information about the cursed film is to find on the internet, so I struggled to understand how Kate was able to locate it exactly when she needed it and organize her plan so quickly. Perhaps I missed something, but it felt underexplained.

The ending was my biggest issue. While I appreciated the dreamlike and surreal atmosphere, I found myself struggling to distinguish what was literal from what was symbolic. Val's experience inside the creature, the memories she witnesses, the fire, the swamp-like landscape, and Roxie's shared visions all blended together in a way that left me more confused than intrigued. As a result, the emotional impact of the climax did not land as strongly as it could have.

Overall, This Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want is an ambitious and highly original horror novel with memorable characters, creative horror sequences, and compelling themes surrounding grief, trauma, memory, and media. While the dense prose and confusing final act prevented it from being a higher-rated read for me, I still admired its creativity and emotional depth.

I would particularly recommend this novel to readers who enjoy surreal storytelling, cosmic horror influences, and atmospheric horror centered around cursed media.

[LeeAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

What begins with strong B-movie horror energy gradually becomes a story about grief, survivor guilt, and what happens when a terrible event freezes someone in place. It was a good story with a genuinely interesting horror concept, though I kept feeling like it had the pieces to become a great one and never quite got all the way there.

Depth

The strongest theme is the way grief can trap someone in the moment something terrible happened. The book explores how pain can become something a person keeps living around instead of truly moving through, and that gave the story more weight than I expected from the setup.

Connection

I genuinely felt for the main character and the way she seemed emotionally frozen by what had happened to her. The people around her were much harder for me to sympathize with, which actually made her isolation and survivor's guilt hit harder.

Momentum

The book moved well and was easy to stay with, especially once the horror elements started escalating. The entity had a very *It*-like quality to it — eerie, predatory, and psychologically invasive — and that was one of the most interesting parts of the story for me.

Who It’s For

Readers who like horror with a cinematic, B-movie flavor but still want real emotional stakes underneath it. It should also work well for readers interested in grief, survivor guilt, queer characterization, and supernatural entities that are as psychologically unsettling as they are physically threatening.

Who It’s Not For

Readers looking for fully literary horror or a deeply layered psychological exploration may feel like the book stops just short of its potential. The ideas are strong, but some of them could have been developed further to make the story hit even harder.

Shelf Verdict

Read & Release. I’m glad I read it, and there is a lot here that works — especially the emotional core, the LGBT characterization, and the entity — but it ultimately felt more like a very good story than a great one.

Rating: 3.5 stars

[Pudsey Recommends · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for novels built around cursed films, Silver Nitrate, Rogue, Flicker are firm favourites, so I was thrilled to add This Movie Doesn't End The Way We Want to that shelf, and it more than earns its place.

It opens with the stuff of nightmares. As teenagers, Val, her best friend Colette, and her younger sister Ash sneak into a screening of a film called The Curse of the Toad Man, one they're certain will become the next cult classic. It's rated above Ash's age, and money's been borrowed from Mum to get them there. But that screening will change everyone's lives forever. Decades on, Val is a tattoo artist still carrying that night, when the curse she thought was a one-off resurfaces.

Hailey Piper is such a deft storyteller. Val, Roxie, Kate and all the other characters carry real weight and history, and their interconnectedness all goes to conspire to a superb ending. I was obsessed with how memory itself becomes a horror setting. Val can't always trust what she remembers, and the film itself seems able to warp the line between recollection and reality, her mind becoming a kind of backstage where suppressed horrors wait behind the curtain. Nostalgia becomes something genuinely unsettling here too, the pull of believing the past can somehow be reclaimed rather than simply replayed, distorted, or weaponised.

Genre-wise, it's a proper smorgasbord: psychological horror in Val's fractured memory, cosmic horror in the entity's refusal to fit human categories, body horror in its melted-film imagery, lost-media horror in the fragments the film leaves behind, domestic horror in the blame waiting at home, and true-crime horror in a podcast host turning Val's trauma into content.

At its heart, this is a book about survivor's guilt, and watching Val slowly loosen its grip is genuinely moving. Survival here comes at a cost I wasn't ready for, but it's exactly the ending this story needed. This movie doesn't end the way we want, but this book absolutely does.

#pudseyrecommends

Very grateful to Titan Books for the physical arc.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

TL;DR: An absolutely fantastic horror about what haunts you.
Source: NetGalley, thank you so much!

Plot: Val survives an even that takes her sister and friend and she lives with that while it haunts her.
Characters: I really enjoyed everyone in this story. Flawed but engaging and believable.
Setting: This felt very important especially with the setting of the theatre. Fantastic.
Horror: The Toad Man itself was scary, but the insidious guilt and creepy weight of Val’s mental state really sold it.

Thoughts:

There is a lot to this book that I truly enjoyed, and I can’t wait for more people to try it. Val is a tattoo artist, living in the shadow of her sister and friend’s disappearance in 1994. She wanted to take the two to a movie, and chose the creature feature of the day, The Blood Curse of the Toad Man. But in the end she was the only one who walks out alive. What she experienced however makes it unreal, and she’s left with questions and confusion. Did she remember it right? What actually happened?

We read about the mystery of what happened and how Val’s life has been effectively lost to this event. She left a piece of herself behind, and she’s lived only in each moment trying to escape her past. It challenges us to think, what are we letting haunt and define us? Additionally there is a deep anger here at something unnatural or monstrous that mimics art. Something that steals what it cannot truly create and molds it to some semblance of something new (sound familiar?).

I loved so much of this. The discussion on grief was perfectly toned and weighted. The creature feature aspect, especially once fully revealed in the end was amazing. I think this is a must read for fans of horror, especially queer horror. Give this one a read.

[Tami Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley, Hailey Piper, and Titan Books for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

This was my second Hailey Piper novel, and the combination of the cover, premise, and horror-movie atmosphere immediately caught my attention. Thirty years after her sister and best friend vanished following a local movie screening, Val McQueen finds herself pulled back into the mystery when a new murder reignites questions about what really happened in 1994.

One of my favorite aspects of this book was its cinematic feel. The writing is vivid and immersive, making it easy to picture every scene unfolding like a movie. The mythology surrounding Blood-Curse of the Toad Man and the creeping sense of unreality created a genuinely unsettling atmosphere that kept me invested. I especially enjoyed following Val and her former classmate, Roxie, as they dug deeper into the mystery while people around them began disappearing, just as they had decades earlier.

The novel does a great job building suspense, blending horror, mystery, and urban-legend vibes into a story that constantly had me asking questions. What really happened in 1994? What is the Toad Man? How much do Val's parents know? The deeper I got into the story, the more I wanted answers.

While I found the final section a bit uneven and the ending didn't land quite as strongly for me as the rest of the book, it didn't diminish how much I enjoyed the journey getting there. The atmosphere, creativity, and movie-within-a-book concept more than made up for a finale that felt slightly flat in comparison to the buildup.

Overall, this was a fun, creepy horror read with memorable imagery, strong mystery elements, and a unique premise. If you enjoy horror novels that feel like you're watching a late-night cult movie unfold on the page, this one is definitely worth checking out.

[BookishlySonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a fun book with some genuinely scary moments woven throughout. A cursed media story that follows Valerie after the disappearance of her sister and best friend during a movie outing in which she was the only one left. Rather than seeing the immediate aftermath, we join her 30 years later and are able to see how the world may have moved on but the trauma she experienced crystallized her life. Now at 45, she’s a single tattoo artist who keeps people at arms length and lives in constant fear that the Toad Man song will leak from her mind into reality and cause more to disappear.

I loved how the author used flashbacks to show the emotional parts of losing loved ones and how the world reacts around you and towards you while maintaining forward momentum in the present. These were seamlessly integrated and never really felt tacked on which can sometimes happen with flashbacks.

There are some truly scary scenes and I think an audiobook production of this book would elevate it even more as these scenes deal with a rhyme and while reading I once read it out loud and my hair stood on my arms and that’s was just me who has no narration talent. I also love that both main characters are lesbians and one of them is happily married and she doesn’t cheat! I know this sounds like duh but you’d be surprised how often cheating is added when lesbians are in the same narrative.

My only complaint is that I do feel the characters overall were a bit flat and the pacing needed some tweaking. I hardly ever say this but this could have been a bit longer with more time spent building out the world as it does feel kind of rushed in terms of how quickly things devolve.

Overall, I had a great time and would absolutely recommend! This would make a great Summerween read!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

[Megan Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a lifelong film lover, This Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want had me from the moment Hailey Piper began weaving old theaters, film history, Technicolor, and the actual mechanics of cinema into the horror. But what I loved most was that film wasn't simply an aesthetic backdrop for the story—it ultimately became the vessel for the monster itself. That was wildly creative and easily my favorite aspect of the book.

The story occasionally ventured a little farther into the fantastical/sci-fi side of horror than my personal tastes usually take me, and that's really the only thing keeping this from five stars. Because even when the story stretched beyond my usual suspension of disbelief, I couldn't help admiring just how inventive the concept was—and how completely Piper committed to it.

The characters were well established, particularly the protagonist and her wonderfully twisted family history. As someone who always wants to crawl just a little farther inside a character's head, I would have happily taken even more psychological exploration—but that's very much a personal preference rather than something the story necessarily needed to accomplish what it set out to do.

And on a completely personal note, I loved having a tough-girl tattoo artist as our protagonist. After meeting Hailey Piper at Haunt the Readers this summer and having an absolutely delightful conversation with her about tattoos, that detail made me smile every time it surfaced.

It's easy to understand why Piper's work has earned praise from writers like Stephen Graham Jones. This is bold, strange, cinematic horror with a concept that feels genuinely original. Thriller readers should absolutely have it on their radar, but horror lovers especially should put this one near the top of their list.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

[GJO AND PUPS · Rating 4 out of 5]

With thanks to NetGalley and Titan books for the ARC

I really struggled with rating this book.

I loved the premise... cursed footage is one of my favourite horror subgenres—and I absolutely adored the characters.

I was gripped immediately. When teenage Val and her best friend take Ash, Val's little sister, to a pop-up horror screening, the '90s nostalgia hits instantly. Unfortunately, Val is the only one who leaves the auditorium.

Thirty years later, Val is still haunted by the events of that night and blamed for Ash's disappearance, a cold case that remains unsolved. Despite her self-sabotaging tendencies, Val is an incredibly likeable protagonist.

She reaches out to Roxie, a former schoolmate who now specialises in tracking down lost and forgotten footage. Roxie is another fantastic character: strong, supportive, and the ultimate girls' girl.

The supporting cast is equally well developed, and I found myself either loving or hating each of them with a passion.

The premise feels fresh despite drawing heavily on nostalgia, and it's executed in a really unique way. I enjoyed the author's writing, and their love of horror films shines through in the knowledgeable references and vivid descriptions throughout the story.

Unfortunately, I struggled with the pacing. Although the plot itself moves forward quickly, there was a lot of dialogue that made it feel as though it took a long time to reach each major development. By around the 80% mark, I was ready for it to wrap up. It wasn't boring—not at all—but it felt like it took a lot of words to get where it was going.

Overall, I loved the concept, the characters, and the atmosphere far more than I disliked the pacing, but it's that issue that made rating this one so difficult.

[Caroll-Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

📖 The Movie Doesn‘t End the Way We Want by Hailey Piper

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book through NetGalley. The novel is set to be released in mid-September, and I was incredibly excited to pick it up. A horror story centered around a supposedly haunted movie sounded right up my alley. The story follows Val, who in 1994 watches a mysterious film with her younger sister and her best friend. While Val manages to escape, her sister and friend vanish without a trace. Thirty years later, Val is still struggling to cope with the trauma of that night and is determined to move on. However, the murder of a stranger suddenly drags her back into the mystery she has spent decades trying to leave behind.
The concept was easily the most appealing aspect of the book for me. The urban legend surrounding the movie gave me slight The Ring vibes, which immediately caught my interest. Unfortunately, the execution didn’t quite live up to the premise. I wanted to become much more immersed in the story than I ultimately did, largely because I never felt a strong connection to Val as a protagonist. She didn’t feel as fleshed out or personal as I had hoped, which made it difficult for me to fully invest in her journey. The pacing was another issue for me. At times, the story moved very slowly and lost some of its momentum, which caused my attention to drift during certain sections.
That said, I still enjoyed the overall story and was invested enough to want to see how everything would unfold. While it didn’t completely meet my expectations, I’m glad I read it. Readers who enjoy slow-burn horror with an intriguing central mystery may find a lot to appreciate here.