This one was more of a miss than a hit for me. While I enjoyed the BDSM, lesbian, polyamorous play, neither the characters nor storyline felt engaging to me. There was more the feeling of descending into madness/ mundane dread but little to no horror (maybe some at the very last chapter), which is disappointing since the whole BDSM::EDGING::HORROR was something I was REALLY excited for when I first got my hands on this.

A huge part of this story is also associated with The King in Yellow by Robert W Chambers, which I am not familiar with. Trying to relate the source material to this original story left me pretty confused half the time, and with Carmen being an unreliable narrator, I didn’t feel like it was worth the effort trying to figure it out. The main couple also just felt MESSY, neither of them being honest about how they really feel about each other/their roles in the relationship, which in general is a big no no in kink, where honest communication is the standard.

Also cool that nuances in Dom-Sub relationships are highlighted. It may seem that being a Dom is the “easier” role, but that role can come with an overwhelming sense of responsibility for the emotional and physical safety of their Subs, and it can actually be exhausting!

Overall, this felt like a novel targetted to a very niche audience, and unfortunately I wasn’t one of them!

Marketed as “Euphoria” meets “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke”, A Game in Yellow is an intense take on an interesting concept surrounding an urban legend and how it irreparably affects a queer couple.

I was really excited for the sapphic cosmic horror that on paper sounded like it had all of my go to elements. Unfortunately, the story did not work for me on many levels. I found the plot extremely disjointed with the different “story lines” to follow and the characters came across as immature and aggravating. I also found the themes quite ambitious but not dissected enough to fully hook the reader.

I’ve heard great things about this author so am open to giving other things a try but this one just wasn’t for me, although I’m sure there is an audience that will love this!

There’s been an odder-than-usual streak of puritanism running amok these last few years when it comes to sex in media. Some argue that sex scenes are unnecessary or, at the more extreme ends, spout spurious claims of mental harm because they, as the consumer, did not consent to read or witness sex scenes. And that’s not even getting into the weirdo spinster Moms for Liberty whackadoos storming libraries and local school board meetings who can find porn in even the most sterile texts outside their Holy Bible. Or the big, tough manly men in state and local legislatures who cower in terror at the mere mention of gay love and launch a proliferation of book banning laws targeting schools, libraries, and bookstores. The more obsequious among us proclaim that sex scenes don’t serve the plot, as if every line of dialogue, every interaction and character beat, every scene of unrelenting wholesale slaughter must serve that unerringly, grimly strict taskmaster. God forbid that both characters and consumers find joy in sex!

Thankfully, Hailey Piper is not one of these odd prudes, and with A Game in Yellow, she even manages to get ahead of these critics arguing that sex scenes don’t serve the plot by making sex integral to the plot. Kink and the submissive and dominant roles that Carmen and her lover, Blanca, inhabit fully inform these characters and their relationship. They have wants and desires, and their sexual intimacy is a cornerstone of their relationship. Their passions, as detailed to us in various roleplay scenarios and breathing and rope play, and later the addition of a third partner, reveal the level of trust that exists between them beyond the physical and the ways that trust and emotional connectivity can be upended and weaponized by outside forces. These moments don’t exist solely to titillate readers — although if that were their only purpose, that would OK too! — but to give life and definition to these women, to present them as fully-formed, three-dimensional human beings, warts and all.

And oh boy, are there ever warts a plenty. Carmen and Blanca are messy, messy lesbians. Carmen, particularly, is about two steps shy of being an actual walking disaster when we meet her. Their relationship has hit a plateau after two years and Carmen is struggling to maintain an interest in sex with her lover. Blanca is willing to do anything for her partner, as Piper lays out in the first chapter, which sees the couple engage in bondage and asphyxiation play with submissive Carmen tied to a chair and smothered with a plastic bag. For Carmen, ecstasy can only be found in that narrow line between life and death.

But even increasingly dangerous kinks can only hold Carmen’s attention for so long before her disinterest returns. Blanca takes her to The Underground to meet a friend and eventual hookup partner, Smoke. Smoke holds the key to sparking Carmen’s interest and introduces her to a dangerous text, the infamous play The King in Yellow. Those who read the play are driven to madness… or worse. Smoke’s copy is incomplete, but what she possesses is enough to drive Carmen wild. But as one reads the play, so does the play read them, and Carmen is forced to weave between this world and another, plagued by nightmares and waking terrors, performing actions that are out of her control. Or are they? Is, perhaps, the submissive the one who is ultimately in control, or is the living city of dead Carcosa, which exists beyond the veil, the one in charge?

Piper’s writing is positively hypnotic, both cutting and cunning in equal measures, and I found my own reading experience with A Game In Yellow dovetailing Carmen’s obsession with the ancient French play. Much like Carmen, I quickly grew obsessed with these pages, desiring to sink ever deeper into the lush world present in this text, to the point of addiction. I was fully enamored with A Game In Yellow, made drunk on it by the time it was finished. It’s the kind of book I’m torn between hyping up loud enough to see it become a best-seller while also wanting it to become an underground cult classic that inspires obsessive devotees. The kind of book that should be talked about in hushed tones at concerts and convention circuits, with worn, coffee- and nicotine-stained, dog-eared copies passed around by hand to help initiate the curious. One of those reads that’s just our little secret, and if you know, you know, like a modern day “Do you read Sutter Cane?” passphrase that helps one find their tribe.

Pulling plenty of inspiration from Robert W. Chambers The King In Yellow, Piper’s work serves as a modern-day sequel and a welcome addition to the canon of cosmic horror. Chamber’s titular King has enjoyed a bit of a resurgence of late, playing a key role in Jonathan Maberry’s Kagen the Damned horror-fantasy series and Todd Keisling’s The Final Reconciliation, and influencing the first season of HBO’s True Detective. It’s nice to see a forebear to and influence on H.P. Lovecraft enjoying their time under the (twin) sun(s).

Some might claim, and a few might even try to argue, no doubt unsuccessfully, that this story could have been told without such a heavy focus on sex and kink play. To eliminate these elements would wholly undermine Piper’s intent, ambitions, and narrative prowess. The sex, and how Carmen, Blanca, and eventually Smoke, connect with each other via sex, is every bit as important an element as Chambers’s foundational text and provides vital insights in these characters relationships and Carmen’s psychology. Sex is the instigating action from which all else here is derived. To remove these elements from A Game In Yellow would be to destroy it.

If this were the ’90s, A Game In Yellow would sit proudly alongside the works of Kathe Koja or Clive Barker, possibly as a Dell Abyss title, resplendent in its griminess and eroticism. There would still be controversy, to be sure, but I suspect it would feel less like a flashpoint than today. In 2025, with Americans having voted for fascism, where race, gender, sexual identities and preferences are the new Satanic Panic with scores of anti-LGBT and anti-trans legislation, oftentimes coded as anti-pornography bills, sweeping through too many state governments, A Game In Yellow is a timely piece of resistance fiction thanks to its mere existence and the human beings it represents. Focusing on gay relations and sexuality, and authored by a trans woman, it’s the type of work mouth-breathing right-wingers would decry as pornographic (it isn’t), shrieking as they do about the safety of the children while simultaneously clamoring for the elimination and undermining of school lunch programs, child labor laws, environmental protections, sensible gun laws, and vaccination requirements. Piper and her stories are welcome — and, particularly now, vital — works of OwnVoices horror fiction, offering seedy, hallucinatory scares, frightening worlds, and plenty of much-needed representation during a time when it is sorely needed to help push back against Christofascist propaganda.

Even beyond the politics of its existence, A Game In Yellow is just a frighteningly damn good book. It’s easy to get lost in these pages, to lose yourself to the story, to the point that you can very nearly see the twin suns setting across the lake of Hali and the shimmer of lost Carcosa. Just try not to lose yourself, dear reader. I can assure you it’s all to easy to do so.

Let me preface this by saying this is my first foray into erotic horror, I’m completely unfamiliar with The King in Yellow, and I’m not well-versed in BDSM/poly relationships. (However, I went in because reading about these topics was very intriguing to me.)
The horror at the end/the merging of the reality and the play was very well done. The last chapter is sickening.
But ultimately I could never root for Carmen’s and Blanca’s relationship - I am NOT convinced Blanca even LIKES Carmen, considering how poorly she is always talking about Carmen to others. The lack of development between the characters and lack of love made Carmen’s actions feel kind of pointless.

I so badly wanted to like this, but I felt so disconnected from the characters and plot that I felt nothing while reading this. I love the idea of this book, but I wasn’t into the portions of the play we read and I think that’s what pulled me out of it.

In Hailey Piper's latest novel, A Game in Yellow, we follow a couple whose search to spice up their intimacy ultimately leads them down a path of madness. Bianca and her partner Carmen are fixated on kinks and find themselves in a bit of a rough patch in that department. Bianca gets her hands on some pages from a mysterious play, The King in Yellow, which is fabled to give the reader a rush of adrenaline and euphoria if you read just enough. But, read too much? You'll be flirting with madness. This book was such an imaginatively crafted tale. Hailey is the champion of cosmic horror and does not disappoint. I paired this with a reread of The King in Yellow and this is the only way to go y'all. Thank you so much to Saga Press for sending me an ARC and NetGalley for the eARC. You can give this a read when it publishes August 12, 2025!

This one hits different. It could be because I am not well-read, but I loved the side quest to read The King in Yellow. Even halfway through A Game in Yellow, it made the second half that much richer.

This story expands into territory that can be hard to follow. The wisp of a threat slowly grows. Something in the corner of your eye while you read. When you accept that imagined reality and physical reality are blurring, you will truly experience the horror of A Game in Yellow. Give up your control.

In addition, there are compelling dynamics between Carmen, Blanca, and Smoke. The book beautifully lays out kink in a way that incorporates it into everyday life. It is not there for shock and awe.

A Game in Yellow will haunt me. A second read will be in order, see what new insights reveal themselves. Hailey Piper has yet to disappoint. Do not sleep on it!

Carmen and Blanca are in a rut, sexually. They love kink play but Carmen has been feeling removed/not herself in the bedroom lately. Blanca tries to find a solution and the two happen upon a play called The King in Yellow from a mysterious figure named Smoke. This play has to potential to give the reader what they desire, but don't read too much! But what happens if you can't resist and the lines between fact and fiction are blurred?

I think a large part of why I didn't love this book was that I have a problem with how this book was marketed. I would not call Carmen and Blanca "kink-fixated" or "kink obsessed." They seem like a normal sexual couple to me. I would not call the comps Eyes Wide Shut just because there's a sexual masquerade element. I would not call this Euphoria, because this book is about adult women. And while I like the idea of the play King in Yellow, I didn't think that the actual play was all that mesmerizing to read. I kept reading because I found the characters (especially Carmen) very loveable and, like author Hailey Piper says in her afterward, the characters were really her babies that she's been sitting with for a while. I am a huge Hailey Piper fan but this was not my favorite of her books, which is a bummer!

A damn haunting of a book. A sapphic tale about tangling with forces we don’t understand when the world becomes too mundane to bear. Piper takes the original text of The King In Yellow and uses a brush that is missing from the majority of Chambers and Lovecraft-inspired work—subtlety.

Which might be a laughable compliment, given that this is a book about self-destruction and a Barker-like scramble for finding the outer limits of physical feeling. But it’s true: Piper shows you the shadows of the horrors that lurk, never giving in to the temptation to let us see the big, gross evil in its rubber costume, letting you down after you’ve built up expectations that can’t possibly be matched. And as a result, A Game In Yellow is a slow burn that really seems to understand and appreciate the work that inspired it.

If I had any hangups, it would be the character of Smoke. I just don’t feel like I got to know her as well as Carmen and Blanca, which is mysterious and interesting at first, but feels distracting by the end. It’s a small quibble in the grand scheme of things.

If I can give Piper another compliment: great combination of novel and script. It flows well and adds a lot of depth. Overall a terrific, weird book.

I was given an advance reader copy of this book by the publisher, and I swear that no promises of riches or threats by malevolent beings influenced my opinion.

This book is a ride! It's queer, kinky cosmic horror and I ate it up. Some parts lost me a little, but overall the pacing, characters, and themes were spot on. Need to read more Hailey Piper.

Yeah I didn't like this. I thought the premise was interesting but I did not like how it was executed.

What the fuck???

I really enjoyed this. Hailey Piper's brain must be a wild place.

This story unfolded beautifully, slowly revealing that Carmen is an unreliable narrator and also kind of sucks. She is pretty self-centered despite telling herself (and Blanca) that all she wants is to be owned by her girlfriend.

A lot of things about this book disturbed me and made me uncomfortable - in a good way, for this kind of mind-bending horror. Smoke's and Blanca's relationship was shady and secretive from the beginning. But how justified was Carmen in her accusations? How much is really plausible? I didn't particularly like or trust Smoke's character, but I'm not sure she intentionally tried to drive Carmen to complete madness to steal her girlfriend.

The formatting of the play within a book was well-done and didn't feel forced or choppy. I could feel The King in Yellow taking over and butting unwillingly into Carmen's thoughts. The last two chapters were bonkers - I really thought they all went mad. And then we get to the last chapter and it all makes tragic sense.

This was great. I'm recommending it to all my horror-loving friends.

Did you like the Smile movies? Or Macbeth? Read this.

I received an advance copy of this book from Saga Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Game in Yellow intrigued me initially from the cover, which I saw in a flat lay on booksta (shout out to the cover artist 😍) so I was so excited to receive an arc copy for review. This was my first book from author Hailey Piper, and I’m happy to say I will definitely be reading more. This novel, a cosmic queer horror drawing on the mythology of Robert W. Chamber’s A King in Yellow, takes an oft-referenced subject (see True Detective Season 1) and reignites it in a way that feels wholly original and contemporary.

Piper’s prose is clear and unpretentious, but still nuanced, as are her characters. Each “actor”, their motivations, and their actions felt genuine. Being a relatively short book, (just under 300 pages) I finished this book in just a few hours on this Sat. morning. The pacing and length felt just right!

This is for the readers who enjoy horror that doesn’t solely rely on the physical, but the deeper terror found in the psychological. I would especially recommend this book for fans of True Detective S.1, The Lathe of Heaven, Lovecraft, and Bradbury, among others.

This one was t my cup of tea. I normally really enjoy this author’s writing but this one I just couldn’t get into for whatever reason… but the concept was still cool and I look forward to seeing what else Hailey puts out in the future!

This book was amazing. Cursed media in the queerest way possible. Five stars, two thumbs up, 10/10

What a unique and interesting novel. I tend to shy away from books that I know contain lots of sexual themes, but thankfully A Game in Yellow wasn’t overly graphic in that area. It made it a lot more palpable for me. Although the sex is central to the novel, it isn’t ridiculously over the top. I really enjoyed the layout - how it switched between the story and the scenes. It really created a much more immersive experience. The ending was completely unexpected and perfectly done. That aside, I was hoping for more horror scenes. However, there was a significant eerie vibe from start to finish that makes the reader uncomfortable. Love that.

Oh man. This one is fantastic. It’s kinky, cosmic, scary and a punch to the heart. Hailey is an author who amazes me with every word she writes, and with this one, she once again delivers. The use of form (mixing prose and stage play) creates a whimsical experience that adds to the haunting reality of love and lust. The characters read so real. It’s all just so good. (Can you give a standing ovation in a review? If so, insert that here.)

Thank you to Saga Press and NetGalley for access to the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I'm not the biggest fan of erotica (which is hilarious given what I read on AO3), but the horror elements were awesome. I've never heard of "The King in Yellow" so this was a new concept for me. I thought it was an interesting touch to add bits of the play into the book! While I'm not too fond of the erotica, I do appreciate that it was a lesbian couple because we just don't get enough of that, tbh. All in all, I'd love to read a bit more from Piper!

Going into this, my knowledge of "The King in Yellow" was pretty much limited to True Detective, which was very minimal. So I wasn't really sure what to expect but wow! What an inventive novel Piper has crafted! Maybe I partly embodied Carmen because I was obsessed with the play sections of this book. Yes, you need to read them carefully, and they can be kinda confusing (aren't all old plays)? But as the play read more and more of Carmen, I just thought it was incredible 🤌

Carmen is clearly a character who's going through some stuff. She's kind of chasing the dragon, trying to find some new kink that'll excite her again. She has quite a low opinion on herself and worried frequently that her gf Blanca will leave her if she can't find something to reignite her sex drive. This is how the play "The King in Yellow" falls into Carmen's lap. I liked the incorporation of the character Smoke into this story as well as that mystery about her and her motives.

I did think the first half of the book was a little slow at times. I also wasn't entirely invested in Carmen and Blanca's relationship. I think this was due to Carmen's poor self-esteem (felt like she didn't fight super hard for Blanca) and the fact I'm jealous by nature and struggle to understand poly relationships. But the 2nd half was really good and the ending was perfecto!

This book focuses heavily on a Dom/Sub relationship. I would say there are no sexual graphic sex scenes in it (compared at least to what's out there in modern romance) but it's such a heavy focus that if you have no desire to read about BDSM then this probably is not the book for you.

Thank you to Netgalley and Saga Press for a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A Game in Yellow s a compelling read that offers a mix of engaging storytelling, well-developed characters, and thoughtful themes. Piper does a great job of drawing the reader into the world of the book. I could not put the book down. I read the entire book within two days. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat.