Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Clay McLeod Chapman’s Shiny Happy People, which releases on November 11th 2025.

At sixteen, Kyra is still haunted by the horrors she saw growing up with her drug-addicted mother. She doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere—and disturbing dreams come to her at night.

When a new party drug makes its way to her high school, Kyra’s life becomes an actual nightmare. A video challenge spreads among the students—and though she doesn’t participate, Kyra can’t escape the inexplicable side effects.

Everyone around her seems to be mysteriously changing, including the people she loves the most. Her brother has a new personality overnight. Her best friend suddenly feels like a stranger. The only other person who seems to notice the eeriness is Logan, the new boy at school. Like Kyra, he has steered clear of the party scene.

When the strangeness begins to feel sinister—or unnatural—Kyra is determined to find out exactly what is behind the mysterious drug. As she and Logan get closer to the truth, the line between Kyra’s past and present blurs . . . and she will need to face the terrors inside herself, or lose everyone she loves.

Prologue

Party FavorsWhat’s in my drink?

Some guy in the kitchen simply handed Jenna a red Solo cup and she took it. She didn’t ask—­didn’t know—­what it was until the vodka struck her tongue. Now she’s gasping at the burn as the li­quid fire funnels down her throat, blossoming in her belly like one big Molotov cocktail.

“Hoooooly shit!” She laughs, vodka dribbling down her chin. It literally burns to breathe.

Jenna is ready for another.

And another.

One month. That’s it. Only one more month until everyone at Greenfield High can kiss her dimpled ass goodbye and she’s out of this town, off to college, buh-­bye, bon voyage.

Cheers to that.

She finds the dance floor. Or maybe the dance floor finds her. Everyone else merely dances around her, thrashing planets orbiting the sun. She’s the center of this solar system, a galaxy of classmates spiraling to the beat. The music seeps in, dull vibrations sinking deeper—­

Whoa, what’s happening?—­

and deeper and—­

How tipsy am I?—­

the sound system is cranked up so loud, she can see the discarded debris of Solo cups vibrating on the table, countertop, shelves every time the bass kicks in: dum-­dum-­dum-­dum.

The humidity in the basement thickens. Everyone’s hair is wet, slickened tendrils clinging to their temples. The occasional blast of a camera flash from someone’s phone ignites the whole room, solar flares of pics bursting all around, momentarily blinding her.

I am a star!

She feels the heat radiating off her body in these rippling waves, distorting the air. She doesn’t know what the song is anymore, a scorched techno beat burning the wallpaper away.

Gabe comes out of nowhere. He’s been hobbling on crutches these last couple of weeks after a skateboard accident. Look at him now. Crutch-­free. Practically strutting. Grinning ear to ear. He’s radiant. Perfect. My God, it’s like his skin is glowing down here in the basement.

That boy shines. He’s a meteorite heading straight for her.

Collision in T minus three seconds . . .

Everyone splits down the middle, bodies breaking off and forming a valley.

Two seconds . . .

She makes eye contact with Gabe, yearning for him, feeling the very gravity of his presence pulling them together.

One second . . .

The dance beat thickens as Gabe stops in front of her.

Impact!

Jenna presses her palm flat against his chest, right where his heart is, and she swears she feels the vibrations of the beat radiating from him. His heart is one enormous speaker cone.

Everyone else melts away. It’s just her and Gabe now.

Jenna feels outside her own body. She watches as Gabe takes her hand . . . guides her up the stairs . . . leads her down the hall . . . escorts her into the bedroom . . . closes the door behind him and . . .

Gabe kisses her. Thin vibrations tremble through his soft lips, so Jenna closes her eyes and tastes the sound. The sweetest beat. He’s brought the music with him. How considerate.

One second, Jenna is vertical. The next . . .

She’s horizontal.

The two topple onto the bed. Jenna is in Gabe’s arms and laughing all the way down.

Whose room even is this? Jenna doesn’t know. Doesn’t care. It has no personality. Just navy blue wallpaper and boring decor straight out of a Pottery Barn catalog. Peel back the pastel layers of suburban bliss, and these McMansions all look the same, anyway.

It’s Jenna’s room now. Correction: Jenna and Gabe’s. They’re ripping at each other’s sticky clothes, peeling them all off, layer by layer, as if they’re skinning each other.

Gabe presses his lips against hers, mashing their mouths. Deep impact. The meteor of his flesh, his bones, his whole aura collides into her own, and the song inside her just . . . explodes.

Jenna’s about to disintegrate under the brunt of his body, the light from the sun snuffing out in one last frantic gasp of air. She wishes he’d be a little more tender with her.

Slow down, she wants to say. Just a little slower—­

There’s a record scratch within Gabe’s skin.

Skkkkrtch!

The music completely halts in his body. His bones lock. Spine goes rigid. Everything within him suddenly petrifies, and Jenna can’t find the rhythm anymore. She loses the beat.

Loses him.

What happened? What’s wrong? When she opens her eyes, she sees Gabe hovering directly above her. His eyes have rolled up into his skull, leaving behind nothing but white.

A bubbling spume seeps out from his mouth. It cascades down her face. Jenna tries to wipe it away, out from her eyes, but there’s too much. Sick, she thinks. He’s sick—­

Jenna tries to move, slide out from under Gabe’s locked body, but he won’t budge. His arms are two pillars at either side, pinning her in place. She can’t free herself. Can’t escape.

“Gabe?” she hears herself ask, but for some reason it doesn’t sound like her. Doesn’t seem as if his name came from her mouth. Someone else must’ve said it. “What’s wrong—­”

Gabe starts to judder. His body is a rocket launched into the cosmos, battling g-forces that buckle against his very bones. He must be having some kind of epileptic fit or—­or—­

Oh God, Jenna thinks, he’s—­

dying—­

OD’ing. He must be in some kind of toxic shock. What’s he on? What did he take?

Gabe rolls off of Jenna and sprawls across the bed, spasming like a windup toy that won’t stop twisting, his torso turning in one direction, legs heading in the other.

Jenna gasps for air, sitting up. Call 911. Now! What did she do with her phone?

Where the hell’s my—­

Downstairs.

Gabe hasn’t stopped convulsing. The spasms only grow worse, the jarring music shocking his body. The foam thickens. The froth is darker. Rustier. Blood. It’s blood . . .

What should I do?

The song keeps skipping in her head, that mental record needle caught in the groove, looping the same frantic lyrics over and over—­What should I do what should I do what should I . . .

Help. She needs to find help.

Someone downstairs will know what to do. But she doesn’t want to leave Gabe like this. She can’t just abandon him, can she? What if he—­

Go. Now. GO.

Excerpted from Shiny Happy People by Clay McLeod Chapman Copyright © 2025 by Clay McLeod Chapman. Excerpted by permission of Delacorte Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Hi, Clay! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

First off—thanks so much for chatting with me about Acquired Taste. Really means a lot to me.

Hi—I’m Clay. I’m trying hard to tell stories. Spooky stories. I’m one of those guys who has navigated the world in the weirdest possible ways, spinning yarns for a living. Some times that’s fiction. Other times, it’s comics. Occasionally it’s for film. But it all comes back to this central premise of my sense of self—I want to tell stories. For better or worse, those stories tend to be a little, well… dark.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I grew up in the state of Virginia, where Poe ran rampant. I lived in his shadow for most of my childhood. Virginia—Richmond, in particular—loved to tout it’s ties to Edgar, so I was exposed to his words at a pretty early age.

My problem, though, was I was a pretty bad student. I’m sure I would’ve been diagnosed with some kind of attention deficient disorder by today’s standards, but way back then, when I was a kid, two hundred years ago, I just had a wandering imagination… and my grades totally showed it. But there was this one teacher—Ms. Royer, sixth grade English—who noticed where my mind might’ve been wandering and tried her damnedest to steer it in a productive direction. Even though I was failing her class, she struck a deal with me: Write a story, enter it into a competition, get some extra credit, pass her class, and move onto the seventh grade. Me, being a bit of an enterprising young lad, figured the more times I entered this particular writing competition, the more extra credit I’d get… so I ended up submitting a handful or bizarro stories… and, well, as fate would have it, one of them won. That’s all it took. I was hooked. Still a pretty terrible student, though. Head in the clouds.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: The Terrible Halloween Night by James Stevenson
• The one that made you want to become an author: Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

Your collection of stories, Acquired Taste, is out September 9^th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Nobody will come near me.

What can readers expect?

Twenty-five of the loveliest, most sumptuous, heartrending stories this side of Jane Austen.

Where did the inspiration for Acquired Taste come from?

Given that these are short stories, the inspiration is a bit scattershot… but to be honest, it’s a sturdy display of a lot of my pet obsessions: fears of parenthood, the disruption of politics and the schisming of humanity, food, food, food, social media as monster, our bodies betraying ourselves, food, grief as a catalyst for catharsis, kids say the darnedest things, breast pumps, and food.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I love writing short stories. It’s how I got started. My first book is a collection of short stories. Acquired Taste is my third. In some strange alternate reality, I’d be writing nothing but short stories… but apparently, that’s a tough road to hoe for a writer. The stories here are gathered from 2017 to, say, 2023, which is a solid cross section of stories. I can step back and look at a lot of these pieces and say to myself, Oh, man, look at what I was frightened of at that point in my life… It’s oddly calming, pleasant, even, to view them that way. My fears in the rear view mirror.

Oh… who am I kidding? I’ll always be afraid of these things. These fears will never go away.

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

I have a pretty persistent inner-critic. Their voice is a bit all too encompassing when it comes to my writing. That voice never goes away. Still hasn’t. So—to say I’ve overcome this particular challenge isn’t the case. It’s still there. The crippling sense of self consciousness, of low self esteem, it’s all somehow baked into the writing itself. I don’t think it’ll ever go away. I’ve ‘learned to live with it’ in the sense that I just push through it most days. Others, I don’t. But I’m forced to face it every day I sit down to write.

What’s next for you?

Titan Books still hasn’t learned their lesson. Did you know they’re letting me write a novella for them? Bodies of Work may just end up being the weirdest, darkest thing I’ve written… Out in April 2026!

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

I’ve read so many… but, my God, when I close my eyes, the one book that materializes is Old Soul by Susan Barker. It’s profoundly upsetting. Maybe one of the bleaker books I’ve read this year. It hurt me so much and I absolutely adored it. I can’t say enough about it. So confounding, so unforgiving.

As far as books I’m looking forward to reading… man oh man, maybe the new Catriona Ward? Can you imagine living in a world where there’s a new Cat Ward novel on its way? More, please! More!

Thanks so much for listening to me yammer… Such a pleasure, Nerd Daily!

Will you be picking up Acquired Taste? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Clay McLeod Chapman, Author of ‘Acquired Taste’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Read on to discover our picks and tell us in the comments below if you will be picking up any!

Find Me (Call Me By Your Name #2) by André Aciman
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

In this spellbinding exploration of the varieties of love, the author of the worldwide bestseller Call Me by Your Name revisits its complex and beguiling characters decades after their first meeting.

The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A woman trying to outrun her past is drawn to a quiet coastal town in Maine–and to a string of unsolved murders–in this haunting tale of romantic suspense from New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen.

How Fires End by Marco Rafala
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A dark secret born out of World War II lies at the heart of a Sicilian American family in this emotional and sweeping saga of guilt, revenge, and, ultimately, redemption.

The Remaking by Clay McLeod Chapman
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Inspired by a true story, this supernatural thriller for fans of horror and true crime follows a tale as it evolves every twenty years—with terrifying results.

Christmas Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

#1 New York Times bestselling author Sophie Kinsella returns with a festive new Shopaholic adventure filled with holiday cheer and unexpected gifts.

Olive, Again (Olive Kitteridge) by Elizabeth Strout
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

#1 New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout continues the life of her beloved Olive Kitteridge, a character who has captured the imaginations of millions of readers.

Quantum by Patricia Cornwell
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

International bestselling author Patricia Cornwell delivers pulse-pounding thrills in a series featuring a brilliant and unusual new heroine, cutting-edge cybertechnology, and stakes that are astronomically high.

One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

One sultry summer, Maureen Haddaway arrives in the wealthy town of Opal Beach to start her life anew. But Maureen’s new life just might be too good to be true, and before the summer is up, she vanishes. Decades later, when Allison Simpson is offered the opportunity to house-sit in Opal Beach during the off-season. But when she becomes drawn into the mysterious disappearance of a girl thirty years before, Allison realizes the gorgeous homes of Opal Beach hide dark secrets. And the truth of that long-ago summer is not even the most shocking part of all…

The Widow of Rose House by Diana Biller
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A young widow restores a dilapidated mansion with the assistance of a charming, eccentric genius, only to find the house is full of dangerous secrets in this effervescent Gilded Age debut novel.

Cilka’s Journey (The Tattooist of Auschwitz #2) by Heather Morris
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

From the author of the multi-million copy bestseller, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, comes the new novel based on an incredible true story of love and resilience.

The House of Brides by Jane Cockram
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Jane Cockram makes her thrilling debut with this page-turning tale of psychological suspense in which a young woman whose life is in tatters flees to the safety of a family estate in England, but instead of comfort finds chilling secrets and lies.

The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street by Karen White
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The Christmas spirit is overtaking Tradd Street with a vengeance in this festive new novel in the New York Times bestselling series by Karen White.

Will you be picking up any of these releases? Tell us in the comments below!

The post October 2019 Book Releases: Fiction appeared first on The Nerd Daily.