H.M. Wolfe Credit: H.M. Wolfe
Like many authors right before their book takes off, H.M. Wolfe didn’t expect “Daggermouth” to become a social media darling.
The dark, dystopian story was a palate cleanser for Wolfe, who had been writing mostly fantasy worlds and magic systems. “Daggermouth” was her “last-ditch effort” to make full-time writing work before returning to the corporate world.
“I was also really enraged at the world, and I needed a way to get that out of my body, so I wrote ‘Daggermouth’ in a crazy short amount of time,” Wolfe told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “I had to get words on a page, and then it kind of just took off from there.”
Originally from California and having lived in Utah and New York, Wolfe and her husband have lived in Central Florida for the past three years. She gives some credit for “Daggermouth’s” success to other local authors and reader communities she met in the Sunshine State.
“I feel like I have more love in my life and in my heart that it kind of transcends into the way that I create, and I don’t think that I would have found that without finding my community and my friends here in Florida,” she said, noting her neighbor is the artist behind the original cover of “Daggermouth.”
Indie-published in December 2025, “Daggermouth” is set in a gritty, near-future surveillance state controlled by the Heart—the rich, masked elite and their sadistic president. Despite being snuffed out time and again, a rebellion keeps sparking to life in the Boundary where the poorest and most neglected live. With an ensemble cast and a romance subplot, “Daggermouth” is a thrilling story of rage-fueled rebellion and willingness to sacrifice everything for a chance at a better future for others.
“It’s an angry book; there are a lot of middle fingers to society, not just in America, but across the world,” Wolfe said. “It’s a mirror to our reality. This might be a little bit too heavy and too dystopian for a lot of people’s comfort, but at the same time, I needed it out of my body.”
It’s no secret that reading fiction is good for our brains. That’s especially true for genres like fantasy, science fiction, and dystopian, which can be therapeutic to our information-overloaded minds. For creatives like Wolfe, writing fictional worlds was a way for her to process deep emotions on the page.
“Daggermouth” is dark and violent, full of terrible things happening to people who are just trying to survive. The world is fueled by a cycle of desperation and brutality. And yet, there is still hope.
“While it was so angry, and there was so much female rage…I still get to dictate how that ends,” Wolfe said. “I’m a Black queer woman in American society right now, and that is a hard place to be, and so being able to speak to that and put that on the page, while also knowing that I control the outcome…I think it was a really healthy way for me to process.”
Despite the too-real horrors and violence, reading a story like “Daggermouth” is cathartic and inspiring. The most thrilling scenes are the ones where all the odds are stacked against our heroes, and yet they persist with a hope and a prayer that their actions will be enough to make even the smallest difference.
“I think the scene that stands out to me the most, that stayed with me the longest, is the prison scene at the beginning with Shade,” Wolfe said. “That one showed the power of the people; no matter how oppressed they are, most communities aren’t willing to give up. They are willing to fight to the bitter end.”
Another scene near the end features Lyra, a member of the Elite who finally puts the last piece of her rebellious plan in place to expose the president, also her father. Where Shade’s fighting power is fueled by anger and aggression, Lyra’s is a quiet power that’s severely underestimated.
“It’s just those two moments of women standing up and protecting what they believe in and putting their lives at risk…these two women coming to the forefront and showing their different strengths,” Wolfe said. “I’m a firm believer that a lot of things that are going to get done in our world are going to be done by a woman paving the way.”
Billed as a true enemies-to-lovers romance, “Daggermouth” delivers on that promise in a way that doesn’t diminish the incredibly high stakes. Wolfe didn’t want to “soften a dystopian world by saying everything’s OK because they’re in love.”
In a world so cruel and suffocating, two dangerous, “morally black” characters can and do find love and respect for one another…even if they’re constantly threatening each other with violence.
“The romance in this book is more so that love brings hope…we needed that vein of hope,” Wolfe said. “Bringing (Greyson) and (Shade) together with their backstories was kind of the ignition of this rebellion; they are the catalyst. But it’s also very much what happens when you put two people on opposite sides and they see themselves in each other—what does that look like?”
The book has plenty of steam and spice, but love fuels the rebellion’s Hail Mary moves.
“The vein of this story is, what are you willing to do for the people you love?” Wolfe said. “At the end of the day, love does conquer all; love for your country, love for your people, love for your community.”
Concluding on an epic cliffhanger, readers won’t have to wait long for “Daggermouth’s” sequel, titled “Python,” which arrives in March of next year.
“One thing I can say is I never, in any of my books, write submissive-type women. They may be quiet, but they’re lethal. They may be emotional, which is fantastic, but they get shit done,” Wolfe said.
The Scarlett Press edition of “Daggermouth” is on shelves now as a deluxe hardcover with sprayed and stenciled edges, new cover art by Tomasz Majewski, and a new bonus chapter.
Wolfe goes on a book tour next week, including several stops in Florida and the Tampa Bay area in early August.
She’s also attending Tampa Bay Comic Con on Sept. 4-6 in Tampa.
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This article appears in Aug. 06-12, 2026.
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