Prepare Yourself.

Debut Novel Arriving

Feb 2026

An unforgettable debut, For Human Use is a twisted tale of modern love that bends every genre, sears itself into your brain, and presents a horrific romantic comedy unlike anything you’ve ever read before.

Modern dating is dead.

Finding a human connection online has become impossible. Enter Liv: a dating app that matches people with dead bodies. Somehow, it has taken the world by storm. Millions of users are convinced that life with a corpse presents a better alternative to conventional relationships.

Flailing against Liv’s popularity, venture capital superstar Tom Williamson—whose company is funding Liv —isn’t buying it. Mostly because dating an embalmed cadaver, let alone monetizing it, is obscene.

Believing that Liv is the future, Auden White, the insufferable “visionary” behind the app begins demanding more and more funding, quickly making enemies with Tom.

It's no secret that Tom struggles with people, dead or alive, but when he has a chance meeting with the woman who knows Auden (and his secrets) best, Mara Reed, he realizes everything is about to change for all three of them.

With Liv’s userbase growing by the day, the need for cadavers rapidly increases. Humanity might not want to connect with other living, breathing people anymore, but they do want to connect with something. What could go wrong?

"An utterly ingenious horror-romcom, darkly zeitgeisty, and unnervingly plausible—funny as hell, too. You will not forget this book."

—Heather Aimee O'Neill, author of Jenna's book club pick THE IRISH GOODBYE

“A fantastic novel. For Human Use is incredibly fun to read, and, at the same time, it probes serious questions about how we normalize social behaviors, how we develop human relationships (or not), even how we think about personhood and relationships and consent. The notion of how we treat The Dead - and how we bury death or abide with it or deny it or romance it - while taken to an extreme, really prompts significant questions.”

—Jenny Emery Davidson, Ph.D. Executive Director of The Community Library, Sun Valley Ketchum

“From the crackling dialogue to the cracking pace, FOR HUMAN USE is a surprising and stunning literary debut—a smart horrormance packed with big ideas and brilliant satire on both today’s dating scene and the world of investment capital.”

—Craig DiLouie, author of MY EX, THE ANTICHRIST

"A razor-sharp satire of venture capitalism, online influence culture, and The Discourse, Pierce holds a mirror to an all-too familiar reality where the unthinkable becomes thinkable if there's profit to be made and prestige to be gained. A human romance in a world gasping for human connection, this one goes places!"

– Bitter Karella, author of Moonflow