It’s the tale of a young woman in the dying era of journalism and the YouTube influencer who offers her hope, and much worse things…. I absolutely loved it.

Sarah and I talk about the trad wife phenomenon, where it comes from, what it means, and how it’s all really based in cold hard capitalism. We talk about literary influences, about sustaining extreme weirdness in fiction, and why establishing character properly is so important.

And we even recall the time we bonded over the gift of a mutant duck!

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Pet Sematary (1983), by Stephen King
• Trad Wife (2026), by Saratoga Schafer
• Yesteryear (2026), by Caro Claire Burke
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892), by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• The King in Yellow (1985), Robert W. Chambers
• Rosemary’s Baby (1967), by Ira Levin
• The Ceremonies (1984), by T. E. D. Klein
• Room (2010), by Emma Donaghue
• Station Eleven (2014), by Hilary St. John Mandel

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Daisy Pearce is entering her bog witch era!

The author takes us to her native Cornwall, for a story of haunting and imprisonment, small town baggage and creepy houses in the woods. We talk about the oppressive landscape and the mythical texture of the place. We ask whether anyone in a small town can ever really leave high school behind… and we really look at the fine art of trepanation AKA – having a hole drilled in your head (and what it would feel like!)

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Something in the Walls (2025), by Daisy Pearce
• Water Shall Refuse Them (2019), by Lucy McKnight Hardy
• A Head Full of Ghosts (2015), by Paul Tremblay
• Itch (2025), by Gemma Amor
• The Man From the Train : The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery (2017), by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James
• A Simple Plan (1993), by Scott Smith
• From Hell (1999), by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell

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In both books, there are things that should not be known, and certainly not questioned. Yet questioning is my job – so we get into the expansive and weird universe Marcus is building, and the process of playing games and leaving clues for the reader. We talk about how his own terrors and neurodivergence informs his fiction, and I pass on a lecture from my wife that these books should come with an OCD trigger warning.

Plus – you get not one but TWO recommendations for true existential horror reads.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• We Used to Live Here (2025), by Marcus Kliewer
• House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski
• The Denial of Death (1973), by Ernest Becker
• A Short Stay in Hell (2009), by Steven L. Peck
• The Divine Farce (2009), by Michael Graziano
• Japanese Gothic (2026), by Kylie Lee Baker

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It’s the story of a very particular haunted house, a brutal samurai family, and a murderer who can’t remember his crime. It’s exhilaratingly weird and Kylie leads me through its many strange rooms.

We talk about her own dual heritage, it’s role in the story, and links to the very real historical Samurai. We discuss the meanings of Gothic in her work, the art of writing puzzling fiction, and Timothy Chalamet's role in inspiring the novel.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Bat Eater (2025), by Kylie Anne Baker
• Mexican Gothic (2020), by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• So Thirsty (2024), by Rachel Harrison
• Rekt (2025), by Alex Rodriguez
• Man of Wind and Moss (2026), by Alex Rodriguez

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That’s how I came to meet Caroline Bicks, the inaugural Stephen E. King Chair at the University of Maine, and author of the Monsters in the Archive – the first full-length study of the King literary collection.

It’s part memoir, part literary biography, part granular exploration of King’s editorial process – but ALL fun. I’m a nerd on this subject, and I found out plenty that I didn’t know.

As well as discussing our own relationship with King’s early work, we also talk about the stuff that never made it to print. The exploding vampire babies, the Kaiju-sized Carrie and the original ending of The Shining that is so much darker than you could bear.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Carrie (1974), by Stephen King
• ‘Salem’s Lot (1975), by Stephen King
• The Shining (1977), by Stephen King
• Night Shift (1978), by Stephen King
• Pet Semetary (1983), by Stephen King
• On Writing (2000), by Stephen King
• North Woods (2023), by Daniel Mason
• Ulverton (1992), by Adam Thorpe

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It’s a story about monsters and eldritch beings, about killer cults and evil law-enforcement, about wellbeing scams and a boss from hell – but it’s also a springboard for a whole conversation about the cons (many) and pros (debatable) of capitalism. Carter indulges my devil’s advocacy, before we get back to the matter of strange forest disappearances and horrible shit that happens with bears.

It’s a whole range of ways to feel scared of the world.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• The Ritual (2011), by Adam Nevill
• Last Days (2012), by Adam Nevill
• All the Fiends of Hell (2024), by Adam Nevill
• The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion (2017), by Margaret Killjoy
• Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1989), by Frederic Jameson       
• Debt: The First 500 Years (2011), by David Graeber
• Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist (2017), by Kate Raworth
• The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North America’s Wildlands (2020), by Jon Billman
• Rust Belt Femme (2020), by Rachael Anne Jolie
• Night of the Grizzlies (1969), by Jack Olsen

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That’s the focus of her new novel, The Curse of Hester Gardens, which asks whether the deaths gunning for the young men of an inner-city housing project are criminal, or something much weirder!

Yeah, that’s right. Listen to a cossetted little English guy try and keep up in an conversation about gun crimes and street life.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• The Rats (1974), by James Herbert
• The Ghosts of Sleath (1994),by James Herbert
• Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century (2022), by Kim Fu
• Mystery Lights (2024), by Lena Valencia
• “How to Do Diversity When You’re Lazy, Ignorant and/or Malicious” (2018), by Tamika Thompson – Link HERE

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Such are the ideas in Annie Neugebauer’s You Have to Let Them Bleed, and her logic-shattering novella The Extra. The Uncanny Valley, obsessional thoughts, dangerous knowledge, mothers who aren’t mothers and a camping group that destroys the workings of math and memory… these are just some of the inexplicabilities we discuss in this week’s episode.

If this episode gives you an existential crisis, ontological collapse, or just plain migraine nightmares – well, I can’t and won’t be held responsible. You’re all adults.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• “If Those Ragged Feet Won’t Run” (2018), by Annie Neugebauer
• Things We Say in the Dark (2019), by Kirsty Logan
• Silent Nightmares: Haunting Stories to Be Told on the Longest Night of the Year (2026), edited by Chuck Palahniuk and Michael C. Bailey
• There is No Antimemetics Division (2025), by qntm
• House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski
• Delbert Judd (2014), by Dan Hammond Jr.
• Incidents Around the House (2024), by Josh Malerman

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Our guest is Avery Curran and her debut novel Spoiled Milk. It’s a story of spiritualism and sapphic desire, set in a 1920s boarding school where death, rot, haunting and much worse things (patriarchy!) runs rampant.

Avery is a specialist in the history of spiritualism (with a brand new PhD to her name) and this conversation is a deep and deeply enjoyable route through all of her books haunted classrooms.

It’s one of those episodes when we ALL learn something, listeners.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• The Wells of Loneliness (1928), by Radclyffe Hall
• “The Female World of Love and Ritual” (2006,) by Carroll Smith-Rosenberg
• Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire (1985), by Eve Kososfky-Sedgewick
• IT (1986), by Stephen King
• The Haunting of Alma Fielding (2021), by Kate Summerscale
• Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower (2020), by Tamsyn Muir
• A Canticle for Liebowitz (1959), by Walter M. Miller Jr

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Christopher Buehlman is the guest, author the hugely-acclaimed 2012 medieval horror fantasy, Between Two Fires – now being reissued for a new, wide audience. It’s a book that everyone has been screaming at me to read, and I’m glad I did.

Christopher and I get hellishly geeky, talking history, plague, angelology and demonology, Biblical reference and epic poetry. But he also tells us about his past career insulting drunk people at ren-fairs.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

Those Across the River (2011), by Christopher Buehlman

The Blacktongue Thief (2021), by Christopher Buehlman

The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death (2005), by John Kelly

Angel Down (2025), by Daniel Kraus

The Starving Saints (2025), by Caitlin Starling

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Cat is back on the show this week, to talk Nowhere Burning – a horror novel informed by everything from Peter Pan (it has its own Tinkerbell), to certain disgraced megastars, and even the CIA checklist on what constitutes a cult!

It’s a lot, and we talk about all of it, as well as various weird mysteries, the grimmest cult we’ve ever heard of, and Cat’s various brushes with fame over the years.

This little precise may have you thinking WTF? – but the way I see it, that’s the perfect set-up for a Cat Ward novel.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• The Last House on Needless Street (2021), by Catriona Ward
• Looking Glass Sound (2023), by Catriona Ward
• Peter & Wendy (1911), by J. M. Barrie
• Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah (2005), by Colm A. Kelleher and George Knapp
• Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings (2020), by Neil Price
• Tradwife (2026), by Sarah Langan

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I don’t have a punchline to that joke. But something…something … revenant!

Brennan LaFaro’s The Denizens is about a small southern town with a very unusual relationship with death. What precisely is the nature of the corpses roaming the woods, and what do they want with the living. You’ll have to listen to find out.

What is certain is that this book gives Brennan and I a launchpad for a conversation about writing action-horror scenes, the ethics of suffering and pain, what comes after death, and all the horrible little small towns that inspired his own.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• On Sundays She Picked Flowers (2026), by Yah Yah Schofield
• Pet Semetary (1983), by Stephen King
• Knockemstiff (2008), by Donald Ray Pollock
• The Devil All the Time (2011), by Donald Ray Pollock
• Donnybrook (2013), by Frank Bill
• The Complex (2016), by Brian Keene
• The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch (2015), by Daniel Kraus

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I’ve invited Agatha, my friend and sister-in-Gothic, host of She Wore Black podcast, for a conversation about Wuthering Heights.

It’s known as “the greatest love story ever told,” but that’s such nonsense. Instead we talk about mania and melancholy, hate and power, cannibalism and necrophilia… and we also look ahead to the Hollywood adaptation with bated (but amused) breath.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• David Copperfield (1850), by Charles Dickens
• The Brontës (1994), by Juliet Barker
• The Gabriel Hounds (1964), by Mary Stewart
• East of Eden (1952), by John Steinbeck
• The Vampyre (1819), by John Polidori
• The Favourites (2025), by Layne Fargo

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This is a techn-othriller about AI run amok in the medical establishment, and the junior doctor who must navigate a shadowy conspiracy, a fatal (and horrific) disease, all whilst making time for class at the sole human-led teaching hospital left in the country.

It’s a lot. And a lot of fun – when it’s not ambushing me with one of my greatest medical phobias!!!

Justin and I talk about the real horrors of his medical school experience, what he’s learned about human connection from his work in psychiatry, and we have that rare thing – a genuinely nuanced conversation about the role of AI in society.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned: 

• The World Wasn’t Ready for You (2023), by Justin C. Key
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000), by Stephen King
• Insomnia (1994), by Stephen King
• Ender’s Game (1985), by Orson Scott Card
• Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming (1994), by Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold
• The Curse of Hester Gardens (2026), by Tamika Thompson
• Nuclear War: A Scenario (2024), by Annie Jacobson

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 Georgia writer, Yah Yah Schofield comes to discuss her Southern Gothic debut, On Sundays She Picked Flowers – a story of monsters, spirits, swamps, and generational trauma. There’s a very bad mama and a very haunted house.

Yah Yah and I talk about mother-daughter relationships, the difference between ghosts and haints, the influence of elders, and why the rules are different for Black ‘weird girls.’

Plus, in Yah Yah’s own words – we discuss tongue-kissing monsters.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• The Haunting of Hill House (1959), by Shirley Jackson
• Haints: American Ghosts, Millennial Passions and Contemporary Gothic Fictions (2011), by Arthur Redding
• The Colour Purple (1982), by Alice Walker
• Beloved (1987), by Toni Morrison
• Sula (1978), by Toni Morrison
• In the Dream House: A Memoir (2019), by Carmen Maria Machado
• The Lamb (2025), by Lucy Rose
• We Are Here to Hurt Each Other (2022), by Paula D. Ashe
• Between Two Fires (2012), by Christopher Buehlman

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That’s the premise of Courtney Summers’ This is Not a Test, her 2012 zombie novel of teen despair amongst the undead, now reissued in a fresh ‘definitive’ version for 2026. When better than a time in which the mindless, greedy and brutal are running amok in the real world.

Courtney and I talk about zombies in 2012 and now, we discuss optimism versus despair, we track the challenges of writing a survival thriller with a suicidal protagonist, and she offers advice on rapid character building and writing teen dialogue.

It’s a good one.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• The Project (2021), by Courtney Summers
• Room To Dream (2018), by David Lynch and Kristine McKenna
• The Stand (1990), by Stephen King

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Kristi returns to the show for the first time since 2022, to talk about her novel of religious hypocrisy, patriarchal control and feminine revenge. It’s a three-timeline story of curses through the century and the dark magic that underpins everything.

She tells us about her own childhood in the fundamentalist church, we look back at the cruelty culture of the mid-noughties, and we revel in the wrath of witches with nothing to lose.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Such a Pretty Smile (2022), by Kristi DeMeester
• Itch (2025), by Gemma Amor
• Gather the Daughters (2017), by Jennie Melamed
• Grey Dog (2024), by Elliot Gish

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The year is over, and it’s time to offer my thoughts on the best books that made it bearable. Here’s my top-10 favourite horror novels of 2025.

I invite comment and debate. The polite kind. Don’t make me set Ted on you.

Enjoy.

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This is the mega-episode, in which I gather a darkly-inclined supergroup of horror fans and commentators—a horror cabinet, if you will—to cast their informed eyes and minds over the year’s best horror.

We talk trends, generation gaps, terrifying moments, and pick what they consider to be their favourite scary books of 2025.

I am just a bystander and the man with the edit button. Bringing the talent and the opinion are Emily Hughes, Anna Dupre and George Dunn. Together they present a tapestry of horror in red and black and other hideous colours.

Suffer your TBR piles.

Enjoy.

Books Picked

Angel Down (2025), by Daniel Kraus

Black Flame (2025), by Gretchen Felker Martin

Futility (2025), Nuzo Ozoh

One Yellow Eye (2025), by Leigh Radford

Play Nice (2025), by Rachel Harrison

Spread Me (2025), by Sarah Gailey

Veil (2025), by Jonathan Janz

When the Wolf Comes Home (2025), by Nat Cassidy

What Hunger (2025), by Catherine Dang

Books Anticipated

Cruelty Free (2026), by Caroline Glenn

Daytide (2026), by Chris Panatier

Femme Feral (2026), by Sam Bessinger

For Human Use (2026), by Sarah G. Pierce

Headlights (2026), by C.J. Leede

Itch (2025), by Gemma Amor

Japanese Gothic (2026), by Kylie Lee Baker

Kiss Slay Replay (2026), by Rachel Harrison

I Know a Place: Rest Stop and Other Dark Detours (2026), by Nat Cassidy

Molka (2026), by Monika Kim

Nothing Tastes as Good (2026), by Luke Dumas

Nowhere Burning (2026), by Catriona Ward

On Sunday’s She Picked Flowers (2026), by Yah Yah Schofield

Our Cut of Salt (2026), by Deena Helm

Persona (2026), by Aiofe Josie Clements

The Children (2026), by Melissa Albert

The Curse of Hester Gardens (2026), by Tamika Thompson

The Fourth Wife (2026), by Linda Hamilton

The Hive (2026), by Ronald Malfi

The Last Story of Jamie Gunn (TBC), by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

The Red Sacrament (2026), by Sara Hinkley

Spoiled Milk (2026), by Avery Curran

Trad Wife (2026), by Sarah Langan

Worry Box (2026), by Chris Panatier

Wretch (2026), by Eric LaRocca

Other Books Mentioned

Come Knocking (2025), by Mike Bockoven

Old Soul (2025), by Susan Barker

Rekt (2025), by Alex Gonzalez

The Lamb (2025), by Lucy Rose

The Starving Saints (2025), by Caitlin Starling

Bat Eater, and Other Names for Cora Zeng (2025), by Kylie Lee Baker

Greedy (2026) by Callie Kazumi

The Eyes Are the Best Part (2024), by Monika Kim

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes (2025), by Clay McLeod Chapman

The Unworthy (2025), by Augustina Bazterrica

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Remember that time literary superstar Carmen Maria Machado came on the show? No? Well here’s your chance to catch up on what you missed.

Carmen spoke to me about Her Body and Other Parties and In the Dream House – the former a collection of folktale and fable, spun to hideous effect; the latter a piercing fictionalised memoir of abuse and haunted relationships.

This was a daunting interview – we went deep into life, love and all the horrors they can bring. But we came up smiling.

It’s a happy memory.

Enjoy.

The Argonauts (2015), by Maggie Nelson

The Ghost Variations (2021), by Kevin Brockmeier

A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip: A Memoir of Seventh Grade (2014), by Kevin Brockmeier

Proxies: Essays Near Knowing (2016), by Brian Blanchfield

Monster Portraits (2018), by Sofia Samatar

The Hot Zone (1994), by Richard Preston

The Haunting of Hill House (1959), by Shirley Jackson

The Bloody Chamber (1979), by Angela Carter

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This is a myth that has arisen since Jeff came on the show back in 2021, to discuss his eco-espionage crisis thriller, Hummingbird Salamander.

Well, this trip back to the Vault will hopefully dispel that rumour.

Instead what you’ll hear is a conversation with the Emperor of Weird fiction, talking about conservation and climate catastrophe, about plans to save the world and the villainy of tech – and about the furthest (Southern) reaches of a mad imagination.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Annihilation (2014), by Jeff VanderMeer
• Borne (2017), by Jeff VanderMeer
• The Rain Heron (2020), by Robbie Arnaut

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Will Dean’s The Last Thing to Burn is one of very few 10/10 books i've ever featured on this podcast. It’s a flawless study of isolation, survival, exploitation and the most toxic of masculinities – all about a Vietnamese immigrant, trapped in the home of her ‘husband,’ the monstrous Leonard.

Will is an amazing writer, with an amazing life. He’s creating classics like this, as well as the ongoing Tuva Moodyson series, all from the depths of a Scandinavian forest. We talk about his journey from small town UK to his fairytale present, the role of landscape and isolation in his work, broken psyches and much more…

Trust me, this book will stay with you!

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Misery (1987), by Stephen King
• On Writing (2000), by Stephen King
• Room (2010), by Emma Donaghue
• The Collector (1963), by John Fowles
• The Road (2006), by  Cormac McCarthy
• Asylum (1996), by Patrick McGrath

Tickets for the Northern Weird event at Blackwells, Manchester.

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Courtney came on the show to discuss The Project, a novel of sinister elite cults, evil charisma and radicalisation. At the time Trump had just been kicked out of office, so those things seemed safe to talk about.

Alas… they are maybe scarier now.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Sadie (2018), by Courtney Summers
• Redder Days (2021), by Sue Rainsford
• The Children of Red Peak (2020), by Craig Di Louie
• The Need (2019), by Helen Phillips

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I’m on a short break from the show, to recoup, read without pressure and generally try not to implode. So we’re heading into the vault for some older conversations that new listeners may have missed and long-termers may enjoy anew.

Where better to start that in a haunted house with a Queen of 21st century horror – Ms Tananarive Due!

This was our first conversation together, back in May of 2021 – and we explored her bad-place archetype, The Good House, the elegiac horror of her collection, Ghost Summer, plus forays into her scholarship, film and TV work, and her relationships with Stephen King and Jordan Peele.

It’s a lot of fun.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

Dark Dreams (2004), edited by Brandon Massey

“The Comet” (1920),  by W.E. Dubois

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I’m celebrating Halloween week on Talking Scared with the very cream of the bucket list. Joe Hill is finally on the show!

The author of Heart Shaped Box, NOS4A2, “The Black Phone” and Lock & Key is back with his first novel in nearly a decade, and it’s a beast!

King Sorrow is an epic of dragons, diabolical deals, decade-spanning friendships, love and hate and everything in between. It’s bloody brilliant!

Joe talks about the triple inspiration of The Hobbit, The Secret History and Friends. We tackle tech-bros and trolls (literally), and the formidable role of his mother, Tabitha King. And if we disagree on certain characters in King Sorrow, we’re certainly on the same page when it comes to the role of love in life and writing.

This is a special one for me. A special book and a special conversation.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• 20th Century Ghosts (2005), by Joe Hill
• Heart Shaped Box (2007), by Joe Hill
• The Fireman (2016), by Joe Hill
• The Hobbit (1937), by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Secret History (1992), by Donna Tartt
• The Dead Zone (1979), by Stephen King
• Cloud Atlas (2004), by David Mitchell
• Old Soul (2025), by Susan Barker
• The Trap (1985), by Tabitha King
• “The Jewbird” (1963), by Bernard Malamud
• Coffin Moon (2025), by Keith Rosson

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We are talking about The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale – his brand new career-retrospective, collecting the stories that have defined him for decades as one of the most edgy, provocative writers of the grim and grotesque.

We cover some of the classics, like “Bubba Ho Tep,” “Mr Weed Eater” and “On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks” – asking where the craziness came from, and finding the roots in Joe’s colourful life.

But we also discuss more serious matters, such as the hatred depicted in “The Night They Missed the Horror Show,” and what it means in our current puritanical, easily-outraged era.

Enjoy! Beware!

Other books mentioned:

• The Thicket (2013), by Joe R. Lansdale
• Paradise Sky (2015), by Joe R. Lansdale
• The Nightrunners (1987), by Joe R. Lansdale
• “A Rose For Emily” (1930), by William Faulkner
• “Cannibalism in the Cars” (1868), by Mark Twain
• “Duel” (1971), by Richard Matheson
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), by Mark Twain
• Neither Beg Nor Yield: Stories With an S&S Attitude (2024), edited by Jason M. Waltz
• Swords in the Shadows (2025), edited by Cullen Bunn
• The Only Good Indians (2020), by Stephen Graham Jones
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (2025), by Stephen Graham Jones
• The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild (2025), by Bryan Burrough
• Lonesome Dove (1985), by Larry McMurtry

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So I set up a whole episode of my podcast to talk about my own book – Good Boy! My debut novella about small English towns, the bonds between men and dogs, and a battle between bravery and monsters.

Thankfully, I have friends who will facilitate this type of nonsense, so thanks to Nat Cassidy and Rachel Harrison for asking me questions and flattering my ego.

We talk about literary and personal inspirations, about what I’ve learned from 5 years of interviewing authors, about local folklore and the composition of monsters… and of course, about dogs!

This was the greatest pleasure for me. I hope you enjoy it half as much.

Other books mentioned:

• IT (1986), by Stephen King
• From a Buick 8 (2002), by Stephen King
• The Fisherman (2016), by John Langan
• Any Human Heart (2002), by William Boyd
• The October Film Haunt (2025), by Michael Wehunt

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We remain in the North of England for this second part of a weeklong celebration of the Northern Weird Project – six novellas published by Wild Hunt Books (including one by yours truly!).

This time it’s conversation with Matt Wesolowski, about his train-bound folkloric horror, Don’t Call Mum, Jodie Robins, with her magical seaside lament for lost youth, The Off Season, and Stephen Howard, who has sent the uncanny home into a whole new paroxysm of sorrow, withThis House is Not Haunted But We Are.

We moan about the weather. About trains. About southerners. It’s all very northern and grim.

But there are also ghosts, monsters, mad circuses and VAMPIRE RABBITS!!!

Other books mentioned:

• Wuthering Heights (1847), by Emily Brönte
• “Rawhead Rex”, in Books of Blood Volume 3 (1986), by Clive Barker
• Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), by Ray Bradbury
• The Iceman Cometh (1940), by Eugene O’Neill
• White is for Witching (2009), by Helen Oyeyemi
• Mr Fox (2011), by Helen Oyeyemi
• Skin Thief: Stories (2023), by Suzan Palumbo
• Nowhere Burning (2026), by Catriona Ward
• Quest for the Hexham Heads (2012), by Paul Screeton

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But thankfully, it’s also weird. Deliciously, darkly, disturbingly weird!

This week we are celebrating the Northern Weird Project – six novellas published by Wild Hunt Books (including one by yours truly!). In this first roundtable, I’ve gathered two of the writers and the genius behind the project, Ariell Cacciola, to talk about Northern literary culture in the North, haunted landscapes, isolated oddness, and the North/South divide.

Gemma Fairclough brings The Retreat, her story of creepy wellness culture in the Lake District, and Katherine Clements has written a psycho-geographic haunting of the Yorkshire moors in Turbine 34. Yet whilst displaying the diversity of northern weirdness, these two novellas are twinned and entwined in fascinating ways.

Enjoy – there’s more coming all week.

Other books mentioned:

• Bear Season (2024), by Gemma Fairclough
• The Coffin Path (2018), by Katherine Clements
• Every Day is Mother’s Day (1985), by Hilary Mantel
• Beyond Black (2005), by Hilary Mantel
• A Place of Greater Safety (1992), by Hilary Mantel
• Dark Matter (2010), by Michelle Paver
• The Night Ocean (2017), by Paul LaFarge

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Some of the best horror writer’s ask that question. Some, like Michael Wehunt, live in the spaces in between.

Michael’s new novel, The October Film Haunt bends reality in fascinating ways, in a story about online legend, digital demons and analog horror  – all the stuff that keeps me awake at night.

We talk about all of it, as well as formative found-footage movies, and whether we need a new ethics for online storytelling. It’s a deep, intelligent chat (just like the book).

Enjoy. Don’t open strange emails or watch unmarked VHS tapes.

WhiteFace Explained - Bloody Disgusting

I'm A Search and Rescue Office For the US Forest Service...

Other books mentioned:

• Greener Pastures (2016), by Michael Wehunt
• Wake Up and Open Your Eyes (2025), by Clay McLeod Chapman
• Last Days (2012), by Adam Nevill
• Horror Movie (2024), by Paul Tremblay
• The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995), by Carl Sagan
• If You Knew Me (2025), by S.P. Miskowksi

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Since he and I last spoke, in 2022, he’s published a wealth of amazing, terrifying, heartfelt horror, emerging as a major voice, and one of my favourite writers.

First we spend a good hour on Philips’ new novel, The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre – talking about geriatric slashers, elderly protagonists and how Phil’s own loss transformed the novel. Then we take a tour through some of his other books, including the modern classic Boys in the Valley and the nasty demonic desk romp, Gothic.

Plus, a lot of info about future books and movie adaptations.

Enjoy! Phil is fantastic company.

Other books mentioned:

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• Boys in the Valley (2021), by Philip Fracassi
• Gothic (2022), by Philip Fracassi
• A Child Alone With Strangers (2022), by Philip Fracassi
• No One Is Safe (2024), by Philip Fracassi
• The Third Rule of Time Travel (2025), by Philip Fracassi
• Serafina (2026), by Philip Fracassi
• The Thursday Murder Club (2020), by Richard Osman
• Fahrenheit-182 (2025), by Mark Hoppus
• “The Veldt” (1950), by Ray Bradbury
• Daytide (2026), by Chris Panatier
• The Reformatory (2023), by Tananarive Due
• Your Favorite Scary Movie: How the Scream Films Rewrote the Rules of Horror (2025), by Ashley Cullins

EVENT LINKS

Good Boy Book Launch, with Gemma Amor (October 10th) – Tickets

Powerhouse of Horror Party (October 24th) – Tickets

Creepaway Summer Camp (June 29th – July 3rd 2026) – Tickets

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If it’s the latter, you’ll very much enjoy KeithRosson’s Coffin Moon. It’s a 70s-set bareknuckle revenge road trip of a book, with some of the meanest vampires you’ll ever meet (and love).

Keith is back in the show for the second time in a year, to talk all about it. We get into his problem with ‘classic’ vampires aesthetics, the lure of backstory, taking hard advice from editors, and violence… a whole lotta violence!

This is a joy of a book, and a blast of a conversation.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Fever House (2023), by Keith Rosson
• The Devil By Name (2024), by Keith Rosson
• Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (2025), by V.E. Schwab
• King Sorrow (2025), by Joe Hill

EVENT LINKS

Good Boy Book Launch, with Gemma Amor (October 10th) – Tickets

Powerhouse of Horror Party (October 24th) – Tickets

Creepaway Summer Camp (June 29th – July 3rd 2026) – Tickets

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No-one gives good literary conversation like John Langan – and this week he returns to Talking Scared to discuss the watery influences, metafictional experimentation, and snake-legged women in his new collection: Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions.

It’s my favourite collection of John’s so far, and as ever, he merely used it for a jumping-off point into a cosy fireside conversation about all the books and stories that he keeps in his Alexandrian Library of a head!

It’s the most accessible college course you’ll ever take.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• The Fisherman (2017), by John Langan
• Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies (2022), by John Langan
• Survivor Song (2020), by Paul Tremblay
• Fever House (2023), by Keith Rosson
• King Sorrow (2025), by Joe Hill
• Great Expectations (1861), by Charles Dickens
• Dombey and Son (1848), by Charles Dickens
• Jane Eyre (1847), by Charlotte Bronte
• Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature (2025), edited by Becky Spratford
• “Lamia” (1820), by John Keats
• She Said Destroy (2017), by Nadia Bulkin
• Issues With Authority (2025), by Nadia Bulkin
• A Game in Yellow (2025), by Hailey Piper

EVENT LINKS 

Powerhouse of Horror Party (October 24th, 2025) – Tickets

Creepaway Summer Camp (June 29th – July 3rd 2026) – Tickets

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Kailee Pederson’s Sacrifical Animals was one of my top horror novels of 2024. I missed Kailee first time round, but now the book is out in paperback, I jumped at the chance to speak to her.

 I was NOT prepared for how highbrow this would go though. From a story about toxic families, American Gothic and Chinese mythology, we found our way to opera, classic Latin texts, and more.

But we also talk about violence and sex and evil. So it really does cover all the bases.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Wuthering Heights (1847), by Emily Bronte
• East of Eden (1952), by John Steinbeck
• Blood Meridian (1985), by Cormac McCarthy
• The Road (2006), by Cormac McCarthy
• Absolom, Absolom (1936), by William Faulkner
• Salome (1893), by Oscar Wilde

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This time around we have 8 guests, each armed with a story, pitted together in four short burst of conversation. I’m not saying who, cos that would spoil the fun… but there are BIG names.

We discuss sadness and hope, evil birds and heroic dogs, varied visions of the far far future, and we look at how the Superflu has ravaged other parts of the world beyond the USA.

This anthology really is a who’s who of horror in this golden, apocalyptic age of ours – and it’s been a privilege to put these episodes together for you.

But I am off for a nap now.

Enjoy!

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We may have reached the final pages of the novel, but the power of its story expands ever outwards. Now we turn to the brand-new anthology of stories set in King’s plague-shocked world

In The End of the World as We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand, editors Brian Keene and Christopher Golden have pulled together 36 of the biggest and brightest names in horror, and charged them with expanding Captain Trips and the good-versus-evil battle to new frontiers.

With so many contributors to consider, no single roundtable could ever suffice. So I’ve done something a little different, and a little more befitting of this mammoth project. It’s a lot of conversation, about a lot of very different stories.

Enjoy!

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Just watch for the mushroom clouds.

The guest is Scott Carson, pseudonym of thriller writer, Michael Koryta, and author of The Chill (2020), Where They Wait (2021), and last year’s phenomenal Lost Man’s Lane. His new novel, Departure 37 is something totally different – it has Cold-War conspiracy, AI anxiety, tech-terror and nuclear brinkmanship.

Y’know, it’s like the news … but fun!

Scott and I discuss all of that, as well as the aviation mysteries that fascinate us both, and I give a much-deserved nod to the 90s brilliance of Michael Crichton.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Where They Wait (2021), by Scott Carson
• Lost Man’s Lane (2024), by Scott Carson
• The Chill (2020), by Scott Carson
• Sole Survivor (1997), by Dean Koontz
• The Shining (1977), by Stephen King
• Nuclear War: A Scenario (2024), by Annie Jacobsen
• Six Days of the Condor (1974), by James Grady
• The Auctioneer (1975), by Joan Samson
• King Sorrow (2025), by Joe Hill

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Oh … and it’s told in one long 300 page sentence. Cos Daniel can.

It’s not a gimmick, nor pretentiousness. No, this week, you’ll hear how the medium is very much the message. As well as our conversation about angels in horror, capturing the particular nightmare of 1914, and all the practical challenge that come with this single-sentence attempt.  

It’s an inspiring episode.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Whalefall (2023), by Daniel Kraus
• Blood Sugar (2019), by Daniel Kraus
• The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch: Volume One (2015), by Daniel Kraus
• Ducks, Newburyport (2019), by Lucy Ellman
• Hurricane Season (2017), by Fernanda Melchor
• Wolf at the Table (2024), by Adam Rapp
• The Remembered Soldier (2025), by Anjet Daanje
• From Under the Truck (2024), by Josh Brolin

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Back on the trails for a mind-melting trip this week.

Wendy Wagner is in the hot-seat, playing shaman as we discuss The Girl in the Creek – her brand new novel of fungoid-terror, eco-thrills and psychedelic strangeness. It’s a beautiful, bewildering hallucination of a book.

Wendy’s inspirationsrange from cutting edge science to the antics of Scooby Doo and the gang, along with a sprinkle of Lovecraft, and a hint of self-hypnosis. We cover it all, along with a discussion of eco-grief, higher states of consciousness, weird non-fiction obsessions and a little bit of trail running chat – which I promise we make macabre.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• “An Infestation of Blue” (2023), by Wendy Wagner
• The Deer Kings (2021), by Wendy Wagner
• Entangled Lives (2023), by Merlin Sheldrake
• Are We Smart Enough To Know How Smart Animals Are? (2016), by Frans de Waal
• The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens – and Ourselves (2020), by Arik Kershenbaum
• “The Colour Out of Space,” (1927), by H.P. Lovecraft
• Lost in the Dark, and Other Excursions (2025), by John Langan
• The October Film Haunt (2025), by Michael Wehunt

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This week we’re talking about my Roman Empire. BIGFOOT!!

But this time I have good reason to get geeky – my guest is Giano Cromley, hairy-hominid enthusiast, certified wildlife tracker, and author of the deeply charming American Mythology.

It’s the story of a group of lost souls, joined in their search for the fabled ‘squatch of the North American woods. It’s spooky for sure, but just as concerned with wonder and friendship as it is with fear.

Giano and I talk at length about Bigfoot – our theories, our stance, his personal encounter – as well as the treatment of positive male friendship in the novel, and the role that sceptics and pseudoscience play in our culture.

This one was a blast for me. I hope you enjoy it.

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 And that is exactly the topic that this week’s guest has written all about. Rose Keating is an Irish writer, whose debut collection, Oddbody, presses enquiring fingers deep into the bizarre meat of our lives. These stories are about the inherent disgust of bodies and their processes.

There are women who lay eggs each morning, dads who turn into tapeworms, and ghosts who are toxically obsessed with these meat sacks we’re all carrying around.

Rose and I have a great conversation about fem-gore, surrealism and the mad outer limits of body horror.

Enjoy.

Other books mentioned:

• Where I End (2022), by Sophie White
• “Skeleton” in The October Country (1955), by Ray Bradbury
• “The Swimmer” (1964), by John Cheever
• “The School” (1974), by Donald Barthelme
• The Debutante and Other Stories (2017), by Leonora Carrington
• Mystery Lights (2024), by Lena Valencia
• Earthlings (2018), by Sayaka Murata

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S.A. Cosby is a writer on a meteoric rise. After the insane success of Razorblade Tears, and the Gothic horrors of All the Sinners Bleed, he’s back with a fresh crime epic of titanic brutality.

King of Ashes is the tale of a family under threat from criminal forces, and the shocking depths they will go to in their fight back. It’s a challenging book, full of unexpected character arcs, Shakespearean intrigue, and a candid exploration of kink.

It’s also bloody, very damn bloody. The crematorium at the story’s centre gets well fed!!

We talk about all of that, as well as the strange commonalities of our small town lives, and the influence of violent men.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

All The Sinners Bleed (2023), by S.A. Cosby

Razorblade Tears (2021), by S.A. Cosby

Blacktop Wasteland (2020), by S.A. Cosby

A Thousand Acres (1991), by Jane Smiley

“The Dog Park,” (1983), by Dennis Etchinson

Darkness, Take My Hand (1996), by Dennis Lehane

Gone, Baby, Gone (1998) by Dennis Lehane

Jar of Hearts (2018), by Jennifer Hillier

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This week’s episode is a foray into non-fiction, but no less scary for it. I’m talking to Pulitzer-winning Caroline Fraser about Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers

This is no grotesque revelling in death and sadism,however. Murderland examines the extreme violence that plagued her native Pacific Northwest in the late 20th century – and posits a link with the environmental damage of heavy industry in the region.

It’s a compelling argument, and a horribly fascinating book. I slip the jokes in where I can (mostly at BTK’s expense), but this one is a chiller!

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Praire Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder (2017), by Caroline Fraser
• God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church (1999), by Caroline Fraser
• The Balkan Trilogy (1960), by Olivia Manning

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It’s also tragedy and freedom and Queerness, and sex and death.

We talk about all of these thing with V.E. Schwab, when we sink our teeth into her new epic novel, Bury our Bones in the Midnight Soil.

It’s the story of three women who lead complicated, violent, sensual lives across the centuries. The interconnect. They love. They kill.

It wasn’t the book I was expecting…and I loved it. I think you’ll love this conversation too.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020), by V.E. Schwab
• Vicious (2013),  by V.E. Schwab
• Carmilla (1872), by Sheridan Le Fanu
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (2025), by Stephen Graham Jones
• The Vampire Lestat (1985), by Anne Rice
• The Time Traveller’s Wife (2003), by Audrey Niffenegger
• King of Ashes (2025), by S.A. Cosby
• Razorblade Tears (2021), by S.A. Cosby

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John Connolly is, in my opinion, the greatest living writer working in the overlap of crime and horror. His long-running series of novels—focused on the Strange cases of his haunted detective, Charlie Parker—is now over twenty books strong.

The latest, The Children of Eve is a pivotal instalment, so this seemed a good time to get John on the show, to grill him about this saga’s many mysteries, and hideous horrors.

We talk about creating iconic villains, writing violence against the vulnerable, the monstrous feminine and the strange truth of Parker’s nature.

There’s also some very exciting info on a possible TV adaptation!

Enjoy!

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It’s a week of sadness and hilarity on Talking Scared.

The happy stuff comes courtesy of Sarah Pinborough, author of Weird domestic gothics, like Behind Her Eyes and the brand new ghost story (or is it?) We Live Here Now.

We talk about confounding expectations, about the rules of the psychological thriller, about the British horror scene then and now, and about the dark truth that we all lie to each other.

The sadness... well you’ll hear that in the outro if you want to stick around for it. If not, no worries at all.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned: 

• The Reckoning (2005), by Sarah Pinborough
• Breeding Ground (2006), by Sarah Pinborough
• Behind Her Eyes (2016), by Sarah Pinborough
• Every Dead Thing (1999), by John Connolly
• The Sleepwalkers (2024), by Scarlett Thomas
• The Woman in Black (1983), by Susan Hill
• The Shining (1977), by Stephen King
• The Haunting of Hill House (1959), by Shirley Jackson
• No One Gets Out Alive (2014), by Adam Nevill
• The Hamlet (2025), by Joanna Corrance

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In April I was invited to chair a conversation between Michelle Paver and Ally Wilkes at the Oxford Literary Festival. I duly leapt on a train and bundled my way there – to ask the two survival horror queens about their stories of haunting and isolation in the coldest parts of the world.

We talk about handling the Victorian attitudes of exploration horror, the unique properties of fear in the vast open, and how their law careers led them to write such wild stories.

Also, we hear quite a lot of juicy info about their forthcoming jungle horror novels.

Thanks to the Oxford Literary Festival for the invitation.

Other books mentioned:

• The Worst Journey in the World (1922), by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
• Female Husbands: A Trans History (2020), by Jen Manion
•  “The Man Whom The Trees Loved,” (1912), by Algernon Blackwood.

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Perhaps the greatest benefit of having a book podcast like mine is the opportunity to speak to my very favourite authors. I’ve been reading Joe Abercrombie’s violent, world-weary dark fantasy for TWENTY years! And now he’s on the show.

Consider me excited.

His new book may be called The Devils, and it may contain werewolves, vampires, necromancers and oceans of blood – but it’s quite a cheery affair for Joe. I have never laughed so much in preparation for an interview.

We talk writing the most anti of antiheroes, gender-flipping the catholic church, and why you shouldn’t sleep with people who own swords.

It’s a lot of fun.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• A Game of Thrones (1996), by George R. R. Martin
• Wizard of Earthsea (1968), by Usula K. Le Guin
• LA Confidential (1990) by James Ellroy
• Blood Meridian (1995), by Cormac McCarthy

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…and I had never read any of them.

This absolute horror faux-pas (and my embarrassment) is the reason that it’s taken so long to get Brian on the show. But I set a week aside and read as many Keene books as I could and here we are… on a leisurely stroll through Brian’s life and career,both of which he has devoted to stories of really nasty s*** happening to undeserving people.

We talk abouthis bleak coming-of-age novel, Ghoul, his story of a homicidal nightfrom hell, The Complex, and his sombre study of mortality and writing inthe 21st century, The End of the Road.

And between all that we cover hope and nihilism, we ask if horror could help shore up the failing centre, and Brian talks me through all the great writers I missed when I wasn’t paying enough attention to horror.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• The Rising (2003), by Brian Keene
• Entombed (2011), by Brian Keene
• Ghoul (2007), by Brian Keene
• End of the Road (2020), by Brian Keene
• The Cellar (1980), by Richard Laymon
• The Beast House (1986), by Richard Laymon
• The Island (1995), by Richard Laymon
• A Writer’s Tale (1998), by Richard Laymon
• The Girl Next Door (1989), by Jack Ketchum
• Survivor (2002), by J.F. Gonzalez
• A Choir of Ill Children (2007) by Tom Piccirilli
• “Sticks” (1974), by Karl Edward Wagner
• “West Of Matamoros, South of Hell” (2017), by Brian Hodge (in Best Horror of the Year, Volume 10, edited by Ellen Datlow)
• The Day of the Door (2024), by Laurel Hightower
• The Better To Eat You With (2024), by Wesley Southard

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Nat Cassidy comes to Talk Scared about When the Wolf Comes Home, his new novel that I –and people like me – are already calling out as one of the Best Books of the Year™.

It’s a shaggy, undisciplined, sprinting beast of a book that obeys no rules. You may think it’s a werewolf novel, and you may be right... but also very wrong. It’s a book about transformations of many kinds, about fatherhood and the very nature of fear itself. But it’s also funny, scary and sad as hell.

You’ll love the damn thing, and this conversation.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

Mary: An Awakening of Terror (2022), by Nat Cassidy

Nestlings (2023), by Nat Cassidy

Play Nice (forthcoming, 2025), by Rachel Harrison

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Katherine Arden is the author of The Warm Hands of Ghosts — a novel set in the trenches of the First World War and on the borderline between horror and fantasy. It’s a Faustian pact made in No-Man’s Land, where our memories are the price we pay for keeping ourselves alive.

In this episode we talk a lot about history, about inflection points and moments of no-return. We talk about how systems of power can seem so complex that they lead only to ruin – but we also talk devils and fairies and angels and brave, brave nurses with scarred hands.

It’s a joy of a conversation, about the most hideous time to be alive.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• The Bear and the Nightingale (2017), by Katherine Arden
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (2025), by Stephen Graham Jones
• Wasteland: The Great War and the Origin of Modern Horror (2018), by W. Scott Pool
• Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004), by Susanna Clarke
• The Master and the Margarita (1940), by Mikhail Bulgakov
• Lud in the Mist (1926), by Hope Mirrlees
• Ghosts Have Warm Hands: A Memoir of the Great War (1968), by Will R. Bird
• Between Two Fires (2012), by Christopher Buehlman
• Ghost Eaters (2022), by Clay McLeod Chapman
• Wake Up and Open Your Eyes (2025), by Clay McLeod Chapman

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Tariq’s The Midnight King is a tricky, quasi-metafictional murder mystery about cursed manuscripts, familial secrets and the most heinous murders. It’s also a love letter to the kind of occult-tinged American crime epics that both he and I grew up loving.

We talk about the challenge of writing about serial killing without exploitation, about the unstable boundary between crime and horror fiction, about the allure of Hannibal Lecter and the pressure of a good twist.

But mostly we just pay homage to the messy, bloodsoaked myth of America that inspired us so much over the years.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Welcome to Cooper (2021), by Tariq Ashkanani
• Red Dragon (1981), by Thomas Harris
• Galveston (2010), by Nic Pizzolatto
• The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper (2019), by Hallie Rubenhold
• The Devil All the Time (2011), by Donald Ray Pollock
• Uzumaki (2000), by Junji Ito

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The anthology of stories inspired by punk and alternative rock songs came out just a few weeks back. It brings together a mosh-pit full of authors, both new and established, to transmute their favourite songs into nasty little stories.

I invited the anthology editor, William Sterling, and two of his contributors, Wendy Dalrymple and Brian McCauley, to talk about punk, and horror and the affinity between the two.

We get into our favourite ever gig experiences, the creepy assumptions behind certain emo-songs, and why punk (and music generally) is such an important light in dark times.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk (2024), by Kathleen Hanna
• Victorian Psycho (2025), by Virginia Feito
• Blood on her Tongue (2025), by Johanna van Veen
• Credenza (2025), by Wendy Dalrymple
• Breathe in, Bleed Out (2025), by Brian McCauley
• Poisoned Soup for the Macabre, Depraved and Insane: An Anthology of Nostalgic Terrors (2025), edited by Wendy Dalrymple and Grace R. Reynolds

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No, this time, we’re talking vampires! Or are we?

Stephen’s new novel, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, is his best yet. Or at least the one that I love the most. It’s an epic and brutal saga of American history and shame, told through three very distinctive voices, speaking across the centuries. There are monsters with fangs AND with flags.

We talk about Stephen’s relationship with so-called Indian stories…about his use and misuse of animals in fiction, and the white-knuckle, red-hot writing style that leads to some truly crazy things.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Ledfeather (2008), by Stephen Graham Jones
• The Only Good Indians (2020), by Stephen Graham Jones
• The Babysitter Lives / Killer on the Road (2025), by Stephen Graham Jones
• Ceremony (1977), by Leslie Marmon Silko
• Riddley Walker (1980), by Russell Hoban
• A Game of Thrones (1996), by George R. R. Martin
• The Devils (2025), by Joe Abercrombie
• I Am Legend (1954), by Richard Matheson
• Dark Places (2009), by Gillian Flynn
• Dubliners (1914), by James Joyce
• Angel Down (2025), by Daniel Kraus
• The Warm Hands of Ghosts (2024), by Katherine Arden
• Victorian Psycho (2025), by Virginia Feito
• Curse of the Reaper (2022), by Brian McCauley
• Breathe in, Bleed Out (2025), by Brian McCauley

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This first instalment features Alex Grecian, talking about his fantastical vision of the Old West (and East) in 2023’s Red Rabbit and the brand-new follow-up, Rose of Jericho.

We cover western inspirations, the melancholia of ghosts, Kansas legends and surprising witches. There’s also a nerdy little cryptid section thrown in there too cos you know I can’t resist.

It’s a charmer this week. With a glint in its eye.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• The Yard (2012), by Alex Grecian
• Lonesome Dove (1985), by Larry McMurtry
• The Staircase in the Woods (forthcoming 2025), by Chuck Wendig
• The Summer People (2015), by Kelly Link
• “Skinders Veil,” in White Cat, Black Dog (2023), by Kelly Link
• Knock Knock, Open Wide (2023), by Neil Sharpson
• Pet Semetary (1983), by Stephen King

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After Tender is the Flesh made us all consider vegetarianism, now she’s back for a long hard look at patriarchy, religion and populism in The Unworthy.

It’s a quiet end of the world, set almost entirely in the confines of a strange convent, and the cult who will do anything to maintain their power.

We talk about how Agustina finds the necessary voice of her characters, why love is just another form of madness, how science-fiction just can’t look away from misogyny, and how she once read five books to find a new word for penis.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

•  
• Tender is the Flesh (2017), by Agustina Bazterrica
• The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), by Margaret Atwood
• Caliban and the Witch (2004), by Silvia Federici
• Dune (1965), by Frank Herbert
• A Canticle For Liebowitz (1959), by Walter M. Miller Jr.
• Silent Spring (1962), by Rachel Carson
• Fever Dream (2014), by Samanta Schweblin
• Los Demenios En El Convento (1985), by Fernando Benitez
• Brat (2024), by Gabriel Smith
• The Perfect Nanny (2016), by Leila Slimani

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My guest is Scott Derrickson, one of the best horror movie makers to ever do it. He scared us with Sinister, moved us with The Black Phone, marvelled us with Doctor Strange, and ruined my life with The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

He’s back with The Gorge, a mad genre mashup, starring Anya-Taylor Joy and Miles Teller,  currently streaming on Apple+.

Scott joins me for a leisurely conversation about making that artistically-inclined ‘drive-in’ movie, as well as a tour through the highs (and lows) of his filmography.

We get into the beauty and terror of super 8 film, his relationship with Joe Hill, and the challenge of the substantial, character led horror film. All complemented with blasts of lilting birdsong from Scott’s LA garden.

Plus, a little hint of what to expect from The Black Phone 2!

Enjoy!

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Sophie White and I have got you covered!

In this expansive chat, we talk about her calculatingly distressing novel, Where I End – in which an isolated island community plays host to the worst, cruellest kind of loneliness. And that books is a springboard for others things, psychosis, weaponised empathy, real-life atrocity and the way that all that darkness can seep into a place forever.

But then we also have a good old chat about books we love, and we swear a lot… so there’s a bright side.

This is a key conversation for me. A pivotal episode.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Recipes For a Nervous Breakdown (2016), by Sophie White
• Corpsing: My Body and Other Horror Shows (2020), by Sophie White
• Apt Pupil (1982), by Stephen King
• The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• The Girl Next Door (1989), by Jack Ketchum
• Sharkheart: A Love Story (2023), by Emily Habeck
• The Lamb (2025), by Lucy Rose
• Tender is the Flesh (2017), by Augustina Bazterrica
• Lunar Park (2005), by Bret Easton Ellis
• Our Wives Under the Seas (2022), by Julia Armfield
• Follow Me To Ground (2018), by Sue Rainsford

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Kirsty Logan is the master of certain kind of edgy, on-the-margins fiction, Queer in every meaning of the word. She can be witchy and folkloric, or contemporary and cutting edge – and all of that range is showcased in her new collection, No & Other Love Stories.

We talk about female desire and monstrous fantasy, formal experimentation and the personal logic of stories…and some reassuringly unsettling focus on the erotics of human flesh and menstruation.

Don’t say we shy away here at Talking Scared.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Things We Say in the Dark (2019), by Kirsty Logan
• The Unfamiliar: A Queer Motherhood Memoir (2023), by Kirsty Logan
• “Skeleton,” by Ray Bradbury (1945), by Ray Bradbury
• Carrion Crow (2025), by Heather Parry
• “Tiptoe,” in Not a Speck of Light (2024), by Laird Barron

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Virginia Feito’s new novel, Victorian Psycho, is all about good behaviour, positive standards and polite conduct…and what happens when you flout all that, by – I dunno – slaughtering a houseload of people.

It’s a much buzzed about book that takes the psychopathy of American Psycho back to the straightlaced, be-corseted world of the 19th Century, then let’s rip. We talk about glorious violence, the humour of extremity, Charles Dickens and Bret Easton Ellis…and have a deeply amusing conversation about infanticide.

Queen Victorian would be appalled.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Mrs March (2021), by Virginia Feito
• American Psycho (1991), by Bret Easton Ellis
• A Christmas Carol (1843), by Charles Dickens
• Nightmare Abbey (1818), by Thomas Peacock
• The Secret Garden (1911), by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The Lamb (2025), by Lucy Rose
• Come Closer (2003), by Sara Gran
• The Fate of Mary Rose (1981), by Caroline Blackwood
• David Copperfield (1850), by Charles Dickens

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Depending on your…erm… tastes, the next hour of conversation will do strange things to your appetite. Our guest is Lucy Rose, whose debut novel, The Lamb renders muscle and fat and sorrow down into a rich stew of cannibalism and rural Gothic.

We talk about how rooted this book is in the landscape, history and folklore of Northern England – and we also talk a lot about eating people. How to make it sound gross… how to make it sound weirdly poetic.

This is a book that’s gonna get people talking.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Tender is the Flesh (2017), by Augustina Bazterrica
• No & Other Love Stories (2025), by Kirsty Logan
• The Tryst (2017), by Monique Rossey

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Susan Barker’s Old Soul is a globe-trotting, decade-spanning supernatural tour of autocracies, from behind the Iron Curtain to contemporary China. If that isn’t frightening enough, it also features an ageless woman who curses anyone she meets, a grand cosmic entity, and the exhilaration and terror of deep time. 

Heady stuff, and Susan and I talk about all of it – and just why she likes to write about as many times and places in each book as she can.

Enjoy.

• Incarnations (2014) by Susan Barker
• Sayonara Bar (2005), by Susan Barker
• Ghostwritten (1999), by David Mitchell
• Number9Dream (2001), by David Mitchell
• Slade House (2015), by David Mitchell
• House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski
• Under the Skin (2000), by Michelle Faber
• Audition (1997), by Ryū Murakami
• The Denial of Death (1973), by Ernest Becker
• The Three Body Problem (2006), by Cixin Liu
• You Like it Darker (2024), by Stephen King
• Starve Acre (2019), by Andrew Michael Hurley
• Barrowbeck (2024), by Andrew Michael Hurley
• The Ritual (2011), by Adam Neville

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Kate van der Borgh’s debut, And He Shall Appear is basically a sinister version of my own life. It’s about a young working class lad, like me, who goes to a prestigious university, like me… but there ours paths diverge, as he meets a fellow student who perhaps has diabolical powers.

It’s a twisted, obscure, psychological study of unreliable memory, inescapable guilt, and the haunting of not-knowing oneself. Kate and I talk about all of that, as well as the class divide, northern accents, the terror of infinity, favourite ghosts stories, and memories of underrage drinking in the same bars.

The book is great. I’m delighted to help celebrate it.

Enjoy.

• The Sense of an Ending (2011), by Julian Barnes
• The Little Stranger (2009), by Sarah Waters
• The Pallbearer’s Club (2022), by Paul Tremblay
• We Were Villains (2017), by M. L. Rio
• The Secret History (1992), by Donna Tartt
• “All Souls,” in The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton (1973), by Edith Wharton

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Our first guest of the year has written the book that best captures this mad future we’re living in. Clay McLeod Chapman returns to Talking Scared, to talk about Wake Up And Open Your Eyes – his new novel of mass demonic possession, transmitted through poisonous media, and the destruction of families and communities.

It’s… disturbing.

It’s also gross as hell. Deliciously so. And we talk about that urge for the the ick! As well as his motivations in writing this book, his anxiety over releasing it, and the sadness that underlies our political echo chambers.

It’s a hell of a way to kick off a wild, weird year.

• What Kind of Mother (2023), by Clay McLeod Chapman
• Ghost Eaters (2022), by Clay McLeod Chapman
• The Deluge (2022), by Stephen Markley
• Come Closer (2003), by Sara Gran
• The Stand (1990), by Stephen King
• Found: An Anthology of Found Footage Horror Stories (2022), ed by, Andrew Cull and Gabino Iglesias
• American Rapture (2024), by CJ Leede
• Feast While You Can (2024), by by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta

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How else to end 2024 than with an entirely subjective list of the best things I’ve read over the year?

How many of you will guess the number one spot? I bet none of you will guess the number two? 

Let me know your thoughts – what you loved, and what you think I missed

Enjoy!

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It’s that time of year again. When I celebrate the winter solstice by getting some horror authors to come and talk in deep, emotional detail about a scary book that we like.

This time the Christmas Special Deep Dive kicks the tires and looks under the hood of Stephen King’s most underrated novel: From a Buick 8. My friends on this weird-ass-road trip are Ally Malinenko and Nat Cassidy. I asked them to do it for a coupla reasons. 1) They are lovely 2) hey really get King, and 3) they can speak to this book’s focus on grief and loss.

And oh boy do we talk grief, loss, afterlives and everything else. Turns out it’s not just a book about a car after all.

Don’t worry though, Ally is charming, Nat is snarky and together we’ll make you laugh. 

And Christmas is supposed to be tinged with melancholy isn’t it…

Enjoy!

Other Books Mentioned

• Matterhorn (2009), by Karl Marlantes
• Hearts in Atlantis (1999), by Stephen King
• The Colorado Kid (2005), by Stephen King
• “The Night Flyer” and “Popsy,” in Nightmares and Dreamscapes (1993), by Stephen King
• Nestlings (2023), by Nat Cassidy
• This Appearing House (2022), by Ally Malinenko

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… and we’re back! Just in time for this seasonal tradition. The State of the Horror Nation 2024 – our expert-led review of the best that the year had to offer in terms of horror writing and pen-and-ink nightmares.

I’m joined, as ever by my stalwart co-host for this gig, Emily Hughes, author of Horror For Weenies (go check her mammoth 2025 anticipated horror book list at ReadJumpScares.com)

Our special correspondents are Anna Dupre, reviewer and interviewer at Anna Rose Reads, and Stephani Gagnon of the landmark, can’t-be-beaten horror podcast, Books In the Freezer

They pick their books of 2024, and we talk about the things that have defined the year, whilst also looking forward to what’s next.

Enjoy!

Anna's Essay on IT

https://filmfreakcentral.net/2024/10/terrifier-3-2024/

Books Picked

The Eyes Are the Best Part (2024), by Monika Kim

Cuckoo (2024), by Gretchen Felker-Martin

American Rapture (2024), by C.J. Leede

Woodworm (2024), by Layla Martinez

Horror Movie (2024) by Paul Tremblay 

Night’s Edge (2024), by Liz Kerin

So Thirsty (2024),  by Rachel Harrison

Model Home (2024), by Rivers Solomon

I Was a Teenage Slasher (2024), by Stephen Graham Jones

Books Anticipated

Victorian Psycho (2025), by Virginia Feito

The Poorly Made (2025), by Sam Rebelein

The Unworthy (2025), by Augustina Bazterrica

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (2025), by Stephen Graham Jones

Bat Eater (2025), by Kylie Lee Baker

Sick Houses: Haunted Homes and the Architecture of Dread (2025), by Leila Taylor

The Haunting of Room 904 (2025), by Erika T. Wurth

8114 (2025),by Joshua Hull

When the Wolf Comes Home (2025), by Nat Cassidy

Senseless (2025), by Ronald Malfi

King Sorrow (2025), by Joe Hill

And He Shall Appear (2025), by Kate van der Borgh

Nowhere Burning (2025), by Catriona Ward

Girl in the Creek (2025), by Wendy Wagner

The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre (2025), by Philip Fracassi

The End of the World As We Know It: Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand  (2025), edited by Brian Keene and Christopher Golden

Old Soul (2025), by Susan Barker

rekt (2025), by Alex Gonzalez

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes (2025), by Clay McLeod Chapman

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This is the last way-back episode before the show returns with a scream next week.

But this is an episode worth remembering – my first ever conversation with Catriona Ward, about her game-changing The Last House on Needless Street too!

This was a big ask for a novice interviewer. How the hell do you talk about a book that hinges on such a huge secret. Somehow we managed to walk that tightrope, whilst also talking about cats (feline) serial killers, and the haunted bedroom of Cat’s (author) girlhood.

It’s fun to retread this grim path.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Rawblood (2015), by Catriona Ward
• Little Eve (2018), by Catriona Ward
• The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper (2019), by Hallie Rubenhold
• Spider (1990), by Patrick McGrath

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A chance to revisit one of my favourite books and favourite ever conversations this week.

Zakiya Dalila Harris’s The Other Black Girl came out in early 2021, and for once I was ahead of the curve! Right from the start, I adored this novel of workplace micro-aggression and satirical horror in the publishing industry – and I’m glad to see the world has since agreed.

It’s a high-concept thriller that blends the paranoia of Rosemary’s Baby with the bite of Get Out – and for once it’s a story that deserves those comparisons. Zakiya talks about her own background in publishing and how it informed this nightmare. We talk about discussing racism in fiction, and (in a slightly meta way) we discuss how interviews LIKE THIS ONE may actually perpetuate a degree of othering. In short, I tie myself in white millennial knots, but Zakiya is wonderfully generous.

God I love this book. Some may say it’s not horror. I’d disagree so much that I stuck it on my list of best horror novels ever. Let’s see what you think. 

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• All Her Little Secrets (2021), by Wanda M. Morris
• Rosemary’s Baby (1967), by Ira Levin

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I’m feeling Gothic this week. Must be the weather. 
 
In lieu of a new episode, I searched the vault and found this cracker from January 2021, in which Laura Purcell — doyenne of the contemporary British Gothic —  talked me through her Victorian spookshow of mesmerism and haunted silhouettes, The Shape of Darkness.
 
 We also get into the social nightmare of Victorian England – when life was even more gothic than it is now, believe it or not!
 
 Enjoy!
 
 Other books mentioned:
 

•  The Residence (2020), by Andrew Pyper
•  The Haunting of Alma Fielding (2020), by Andrew Pyper
•  Shadowland, or Light From the Other Side (1897), by Elizabeth d’Esperance
•  “The Blue Lenses,” in The Breaking Point (1959), by Daphne du Maurier
•  “The Mezzotint”, “A View From A Hill” and “Oh Whistle and I’ll Come To You My Lad”, found in The Collected Ghost Stories of M.R. James

 
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This From the Vault episode is not quite so dusty. Gemma and I recorded this in 2022, but it’s more pertinent than ever. One because Gemma’s great uncanny novella The Folly is being reissued this week, and two, because the world is a mad place right now, and we all need to take care of our minds.

This conversation is all about that. An epic conversation about the issue of mental health as creators and consumers of dark stories. We dig DEEP into our own neuroses, and talk about how great horror comes with great responsibility.

Yes, there is difficult, challenging stuff to churn through —  but there’s also chat about the Uncanny Valley, Men in Black, Creepypasta and Black Mirror. And the ethics of vandalising racist statues.

Enjoy!

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Still on a break – still releasing episodes “From the Vault.”

But this week’s was carefully chosen. In a time of darkness and doom-laden days, laughter is the best thing I can lace your horror with. And thankfully T. Kingfisher exists in the world.

The funniest horror writer I know. We spoke WAAAAY back in October 2020, in episode 9, when The Hollow Places had just come out. 

Yes Ursula and I talk about that book, and The Twisted Ones (2019) and how they twist Weird classics into fascinating new shapes. But we also cover building your own Golem, the homicidal value of pig farmers, and the anxiety of being a frog biologist. 

I dunno guys… just liste! Hope it makes you smile.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• “The White People” in The House of Souls (1906), by Arthur Machen
• “The Willows”, in The Listener and Other Stories (2007), by Algernon Blackwood
• It Will Just Be Us (2002), by Jo Kaplan
• From a Buick Eight (2002), by Stephen King
• The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
• Coraline, by Neil Gaiman
• Firefly Rain (2008), by Richard Dansky

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I’m on a break – but couldn’t resist releasing something. 

Especially on today of all days, when lovers of democracy require audio sustenance whilst they wait in line to preserve America.

For the first From the Vault episode, I’ve gone back to December of 2020, for an interview with Michael Marshall Smith. We talk about his 30 years of writing horror, fantasy, science fiction and assorted dark imaginings – captured in his career-spanning Best Of collection.

Michael gives us all the good stuff about where ideas came from, why he writes the way he does, and all those details that literary voyeurs like us, want to know.

It’s also a trip back into the weirdness of the pandemic, and the dying days of the Trump presidency. Have your trauma shields up just in case. 

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Things are heating up as we approach Halloween.

I’m joined by a good friend of Talking Scared – Rachel Harrison – to talk about the hot kind of immortality

Her new novel, So Thirsty, does much more than that though. It weighs the weaponization of beauty culture, it asks how women can navigate a world in which youth seems to be everything, and it illustrates the sheer social awkwardness of immortality.

Plus – it prompts a frank reckoning with just how badly I would cope in an orgy. 

This is a fun episode, a deep episode, the perfect kind of bookish sign off for a few weeks whilst I take a break. And maybe a good hour of respite from the manic news cycle.

Enjoy.

Other books mentioned:

• The Return (2020), by Rachel Harrison
• Cackle (2021), by Rachel Harrison
• Such Sharp Teeth (2022), by Rachel Harrison
• Black Sheep (2023), by Rachel Harrison
• Nestlings (2023), by Nat Cassidy
• Reluctant Immortals (2022), by Gwendolyne Kiste
• The Militia House (2023), by John Milas
• The Unsuitable (2020), by Molly Pohlig

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As we gear up for Halloween, we get all gussied up in Gothic.

Del Sandeen joins me to talk about the curses, colorism, and all the many influences in her Southern Gothic debut This Cursed House. It’s a novel that twists the sub-genre’s typical reliance on race, for a more subtle, pernicious form of prejudice. 

But it’s also chock full of all the haunted house–cursed family–secret rooms–and weird incest that you could want from a truly Gothic novel. It’s a damn good time, as is this conversation.

We talk about New Orleans hauntings, the inspiration of Del’s grandmother, forgiveness as a theme, and the relative ickiness of incest.

Consider this your starting gun for spooky season.

Enjoy.

Other books mentioned:

• Voodoo Dreams (1993), by Jewel Parker Rhodes
• The Good House (2003), by Tananarive Due
• Beloved (1987), by Toni Morrison
• The Vanishing Half (2020), by Brit Bennett
• Sing, Unburied Sing (2017) , by Jesymn Ward
• When the Reckoning Comes (2021), by LaTanya McQueen
• “A Rose For Emily,” (1930), by William Faulkner
• “Jordan’s End,” in The Shadowy Third (1923), by Ellen Glasgow
• The Elementals (1981), by Michael McDowell
• The Conjure Woman (1899), by Charles W. Chesnutt
• The House Behind the Cedars (1900), by Charles W. Chesnutt

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Things get disinhibited on Talking Scared this week, when CJ Leede joins us for a conversation about her new novel, American Rapture.

The novel plunges middle America into a torrid apocalypse, as a sexual plague spreads across the nation, creating “lust hell on earth.” In this framework, C.J crafts a story of sexual awakening, sacrifice, found family, hypocrisy and cruelty.  It’s a book that is both extreme and comforting in equal measure.

We talk about that crazy balancing act, about the threat of fundamentalist thought, the terror of demons, the delights of Americana, and the cathartic power of killing your characters. 

Oh…and gear up for some very forthright opinions on religion. 

Enjoy.

Other books mentioned:

• Maeve Fly (2023), by C.J. Leede
• American Gods (2001), by Neil Gaiman
• Bury Your Gays (2024), by Chuck Tingle
• Camp Damascus (2023), by Chuck Tingle

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Hold hands, we need to stick together.

This week’s episode plunges us into the impossible and endless dark, with Sofia Ajram and her experimental, existential headf*ck of a debut novella, Coup de Grâce. It’s the tale of a man who gets lost in an endless subway station – and the monsters inside (and inside himself)

We talk about everything from the mythical history of mazes, to legends of the early internet,  the mystery of Elisa Lam and what Sonic the Hedgehog has to tell us about the readers role in a story. Plus, a fair bit of chat about mental health, depression and suicidal ideation.

That makes it sound a lot less fun than it is, but only fair to warn you.

This is an episode for the adventurous and terminally online.

Enjoy.

Other books mentioned:

• I Am the River (2018), by T.E. Grau
• Water Statues (1980), by Fleur Jaeggy
• Misery (1987), by Stephen King
• House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski

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Release your inner child! 

…I mean through reading, not by letting it burst out of your stomach like some horrible sugar-coated xenomorph.

Lora Senf can help. Her Blight Harbor Trilogy is a piece of magic, an umbilicus of imagination between the tired old grump that you’re halfway to becoming, and the wide-eyed wonder you once were. 

Lora and I talk about the challenge and reward of writing horror for kids, we talk about the influence of M.C Escher and his mad architecture, we talk about Bradbury and King and other inspirations (including the tiny role that I played in this story). And we also talk about the profound heartsick sorrow of loneliness.

Enjoy.

Other books mentioned:

• The Hike (2016), by Drew Magary
• The Library at Mount Char (2015), by Scott Hawkins
• “Kaleidoscope,” (1949), by Ray Bradbury 
• All Summer in a Day (1954), by Ray Bradbury
• “There Will Come Soft Rains” (1950), by Ray Bradbury 
• The Foghorn (1950), by Ray Bradbury 
• Pet Semetary (1983), by Stephen King
• Misery (1987) by Stephen King
• Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), by Ray Bradbury
• Coraline (2002), by Neil Gaiman
• The House With a Clock in its Walls (1973), by John Bellairs

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More devilish fun on Talking Scared this week when an old friend returns to talk about god, angels, demons and other things out there in the cold reaches of the universe.

Johnny Compton is the author of The Spite House, one of my most admired books from 2022. In his newest, Devils Kill Devils, he starts with a compelling question – “what if your Guardian Angel was a murderous threat” – and then heads off in grander directions. 

We talk about how Johnny’s childhood religious confusion played a role in this book, what we both love about world-building and fan-theories, and our shared enthusiasm for the Alien universe. And Johnny gives my current favourite answer to the questions “what really freaked him out recently?”

Enjoy.

Other books mentioned:

The Spite House (2022), by Johnny Compton

Carrion Comfort (1989), by Dan Simmons

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Keith Rosson is our first guest to be personally recommended by Stephen King! 

And the praise doesn’t stop there. Keith’s Fever House was one of the biggest hits of 2023, and now he’s back with the sequel, The Devil By Name, which takes the contained punk-rock fury of the first book in a whole different, nation-spanning direction.

This is an epic tale of occult magic, diabolical messages, punk rock, political machinations and, eventually, apocalypse. So there’s a lot to talk about. And I hope you enjoy the following. Especially the part where I crowbar Stevie Nicks into the conversation, because I’ve developed the world’s most belated obsession with her.  

Enjoy.

Other books mentioned:

• Mercy of the Tide (2017), by Keith Rosson
• Spiral (1995), by Koji Suzuki
• The Stand (1990), by Stephen King
• Knockemstiff (2008), by Donald Ray Pollock
• The Low Desert: Gangster Stories (2021), by Tod Goldberg
• Controlled Burn: Stories of Prison, Crime, and Men (2005), by Scott Wolven

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Laird Barron is on the podcast. This feels like cause for celebration. 

Not only is Laird Barron a phenomenal writer. Not only is it wonderful that he’s back to writing and talking about writing. Not only am I lucky to be able to speak to him…

We also talked about DOGS! 

Granted, a cybernetic, immortal monster hound called Rex – but a dog nonetheless. That’s just one of the crazy concepts that make up the stories in Laird’s new collection, Not a Speck of Light… and I mean crazy. These stories involve evil fathers, strange invasions, billionaire bird-women and a disaster-addicted monster – and we talk about how Laird balances the bizarre and brutal, the cosmic and the cynical, the horrific and the hardboiled.

Plus a lot of info on a very exciting project he’s currently working hard on.

Let’s all just be happy, Laird Barron is back. He’s writing. And he’s Talking Scared.

Enjoy. 

Join the Laird Barron Reddit Read-along 

 Other books mentioned:

• When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson (2021), edited by Ellen Datlow
• The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All (2013), by Laird Barron
• Blood Standard (2018), by Laird Barron
• The Fisherman (2016), by John Langan
• “On Skua Island” – in Mr Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters (2009), by John Langan
• The Children of Old Leech: A Tribute to the Carnivorous Cosmos of Laird Barron (2014), edited by Ross E. Lockhart and Jason Steele
• The Delicate Prey, and Other Stories (1950), by Paul Bowles
• The Sheltering Sky (1949), by Paul Bowles

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Are you a Weenie? Don’t be offended. I am. 

Weenies are the curious-but-nervous. Those of us who love horror, but who never feel safe from its power to ruin our sleep (and a week of our life). If that’s you, or if you know someone who suffers from Weenie-ism, then Emily Hughes is here!

Emily’s new book, Horror For Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You’re Too Scared to Watch is a public service for the scared. It will save relationships, help ease you into horror and hopefully teach you a thing or two about fear along the way.

In this conversation, we talk about how Emily came to write this most particular of books, and how she chose which films made the grade. We also hear about her own relationship with horror, from the film that haunted her as a child all the way to her grown-up reintroduction to scary movies. 

And I finally try to back up my dislike for Hereditary.

Enjoy.

Other books mentioned:

• Birdbox (2014), by Josh Malerman
• Nightmare Fuel: The Science of Horror Films (2022), by Nina Nesseth
• Tampa (2013), by Alissa Nutting
• Come Closer (2003), by Sara Gran
• The Family Plot (2016) by Cherie Priest
• Camp Damascus (2023), by Chuck Tingle
• Cuckoo (2024), by Gretchen Felker-Martin
• Manhunt (2022), by Gretchen Felker-Martin

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Anna Bogutskaya is one of the UK’s most prominent film critics, with a penchant for horror. She knows her scary onions. And in her new book, Feeding the Monster, she asks an important question (well, important to the likes of you and me) – Why does horror have a hold on us?

In concise but free-ranging essays, she looks at the prominent themes that sets the horror oft the last decade apart, peeling back the skin of the genre to see how it’s muscle flex and grip, and also give you tons of films to watch in the process.

We have a similarly freewheeling conversation in this episode, talking about everything from our primal horror movie experiences, to the meme-ification of monsters and why Mike Flanagan is both outlier and heart of the genre.

Also… Anna introduces me to the concept of Vecnussy, which may ruin Stranger Things for you, like it has for me.

Enjoy

Other books mentioned:

• Death of a Bookseller (2023), by Alice Slater
• Penance (2023), by Eliza Clark
• Danse Macabre (1981), by Stephen King
• Red Dragon (1981), by Thomas Harris
• Coup de Grace (2024), by Sofia Ajram

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Send in the clowns. Tell them not to forget their crossbows and chainsaws.

This week our guest is Adam Cesare, who’s Clown in a Cornfield trilogy reaches a climax (I won’t say end) in Book 3: The Church of Frendo. I read all three books in one mad rush and they confounded all of my horror-savvy, slasher-weary expectations. These books are a State of the Nation story for the ages – think George Orwell’s Animal Farm, but with fascist clowns rather than Bolshevik swine.

Adam and I have one of those very Talking Scared conversations. We get into the political and the personal, touching on his time as a teacher, the challenge of empathy, the role of guns in fiction and the rural/urban divide in America. 

But also… clowns! Horrible face-painted bastards that they are.

Enjoy.

• The Indian Lake Trilogy (2021-2024), by Stephen Graham Jones
• “The Lottery” (1948), by Shirley Jackson
• Influencer (2024), by Adam Cesare
• Rest Stop (2024), by Nat Cassidy

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Literary or genre fiction? Dumb question.

This week’s guest showcases just how dumb! With her debut collection of stories, Mystery Lights showing that horror is literary and literary is horror. These tales of the American desert are full of hauntings, monsters, killers, and other oddities, yet they take a non-typical approach to the strangeness. They care more about the human in the mix than the weird thing in the corner.

I loved them – and they proved that every time I think I know my own reading tastes, I find an exception to the rule.

Lena and I talk about her literary allegiance to the desert, about the literary establishment’s appetite for strange things, about women treating women poorly, and about how she writes stories that don’t need to “click.”

Enjoy.

• The Shining (1977), by Stephen King
• “Lamb to the Slaughter,” (1953), by Roald Dahl
• The Garden (2024), by Claire Beams

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Finally, Gabino Iglesias is on the show. 

I tried, and failed, to get him for his break-out Stoker-winning smash, The Devil Takes You Home. Now he’s here to talk about his brand new barrio-noir, House of Bone and Rain. It’s an amalgamation of brutal street violence and Lovecraftian otherness – all taking place in the sweltering eye of a Puerto Rican hurricane.

Gabino and I talk about the parts of the book that reflect his own life and youth. We talk about his rapid rise, and follow-up nerves. We talk about reclaiming Lovecraft. But mostly, we talk about violence – the horror of it, the reality, the sheer awful immediacy, and how the real thing is nothing like the stuff on a movie screen.

It’s a good chat, about the right kind of manhood.

Enjoy.

The Devil Takes You Home (2022) by Gabino Iglesias

Hungry Darkness (2015) by Gabino Iglesias

Zero Saints (2015), by Gabino Iglesias

The Ballad of Black Tom (2016), by Victor LaValle

Woodworm (2021), by Layla Martinez

Lost Man’s Lane (2024), by Scott Carson

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Remember those books you read in the summer when you were young? Kids fighting evil in their small town? Bikes, and blood brothers and promises to keep? 

If you love those kinda stories then you’re in good company. This week Jonathan Janz joins me to talk about the coming-of-age horror in his ongoing epic, Children of the Dark. Book One was rereleased earlier this year, just in time for the sequel The Nightflyer’s to continue the story of Will Burgess and the monstrous secrets in his backyard. 

As well as a whole lot of chat about favourite movies, a million book recommendations and Jonathan’s beautifully wholesome horror movie bond with his daughter – we also discuss the canon of coming of age horror, how to write honestly about childhood, the role of theme in a story, and where Jonathan’s monsters originated.

Climb up to our treehouse. Bring snacks.

Enjoy.

• Savage Species (2013), by Jonathan Janz
• Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), by Ray Bradbury
• Dandelion Wine (1957), by Ray Bradbury
• The Body (1982), by Stephen King
• The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012), by Stephen King
• Boy’s Life (1991), by Robert R. McCammon
• The Dark Valley (1998), by Joe Donnelly
• The Deer Kings  (2021), by Wendy Wagner
• The Reformatory (2023), by Tananarive Due
• Summer of Night (1991), by Dan Simmons
• Ghoul (2007), by Brian Keene
• The Beast House (1986), by Richard Laymon
• The Girl Next Door (1989), by Jack Ketchum
• Incidents Around the House (2024), by Josh Malerman

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Why is Adam Nevill so scary? 

I don’t know. Do you? He’s a nice guy – as you’ll hear in this episode. Yet he tells stories that crawl under your skin and stay there. Stories that squat in your subconscious.

His latest novel, All the Fiends of Hell is no exception. Same elusive nightmare mystery, but expanded to a whole epic end-of-the-world canvas. And when Adam says end of the world, he means it.

In this conversation we talk about apocalyptic fantasy, about angels and demons, about the sea and its endless hope, and about his own unique style when it comes to fear and monsters. 

Oh… and about a certain prog-rock masterpiece that plays a big part in this story and in each of our childhoods.

Enjoy.

• The War of the Worlds (1898), by H.G. Wells
• The Road (2006), by Cormac McCarthy
• Nuclear War: A Scenario (2024), by Annie Jacobsen
• Apartment 16 (2010), by Adam Nevill
• Last Days (2012), by Adam Nevill
• Banquet for the Damned (2004), by Adam Nevill
• Invasion: The Inside Story of Russia’s Bloody War and Ukraine’s Fight for Survival (2022), by Luke Harding
• The Turn of The Screw (1898), by Henry James
• The Exorcist (1971), by William Peter Blatty

Here is the link for Adam’s story - “Where Angels Come In” at Nightmare Magazine

And the link to the Shadows at the Door Kickstarter for EARWORM

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Part One was epic. Part Two is just as good. In that way, it’s much better than the adaptation of IT!

In the second part of this celebration of King short stories, a whole other roster of Constant Readers come along to talk about their favourites. We have writers for all ages, a fellow podcaster and a filmmaker with important updates. 

All of them united by one thing – their love of these little twisted word-worlds that Stephen King has given us over the years. 

This was a blast, but god I’m glad it’s finally done.

Enjoy!

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What’s your favourite Stephen King story? Everyone has one.

Hot off the back of the recent interview with the man himself, it seemed a neat idea to get a few friends on the show to talk about their own preferences from King’s huge back-catalogue of short fiction.

I am the architect of my own doom!

What was supposed to be a small side project grew, like Grey Matter, or unnatural mist, into FOUR HOURS of top-notch King chat, with some of the best and brightest constant readers. I’m not telling you who they are… why spoil the surprise.

But in this first of a double-bill you can hear old and new friends of Talking Scared talk about the King short that lights their fire, freezes their marrow, or breaks their heart. It’s a whole lot…and it’s only half.

Enjoy!

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Stephen King is back!

What other intro do you need?

Okay, fine. He talks to me about the stories behind the stories in his new collection, You Like it Darker. I had the audacity to ask him “where he got some of his ideas.” 

He also updates us on the potential of a third Jack Sawyer book, to follow The Talisman and Black House. He hints at what’s next from him, and Holly Gibney. He gives a perspective on his view from the top of the horror pyramid, and I finally get to ask him about a beloved-yet-underappreciated novel.

Is that enough for you, or do I need go on?

Thought not…

Thanks for listening – and enjoy.

Other books mentioned:

• Waiting for Winter (1966), by John O’ Hara
• Horror Movie (2024), by Paul Tremblay
• A Head Full of Ghosts (2015), by Paul Tremblay
• Survivor Song (2020), by Paul Tremblay
• Fever House (2023), by Keith Rosson
• Nestlings (2023), by Nat Cassidy
• Come With Me (2021), by Ronald Malfi
• American Rapture (2024), by C.J. Leede

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200 episodes! Madness. Who knew there could be so much to say about horror? 

I knew. You knew. And here we are.

It turns out that the real cursed treasure was the friends we made along the way – and how better to celebrate the bicentennial, than by inviting some of the Talking Scared nearest and dearest, to tell us their scariest story?

I called, they answered – with tales of voyeuristic ghosts, horrifying roadside encounters, disappearing witches, whispering demons, damaged eyeballs, lost children and ….Richard Simmons!!

Enjoy this. You deserve it. Thank you so very much for your ear, your attention and your support over these last four years.

Onward. 

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My unpaid cohost returns. Josh Malerman ladies and gentlemen.

Josh has been on the show many times before, but never have I been so excited to speak to him. His latest novel, Incidents Around the House is about as good a horror book as I’ve ever covered on this show… or possibly read in my life. It’s the story of a young girl, her family, and the entity pursuing them, but – as you’ll hear – it goes a whole lot deeper (and unforgivingly darker) than that.

Josh tells us about the unique process of writing this book. We discuss the challenges of child narrators. I beg insight into the demons and half-glimpsed horrors of his story… and I assault him with odd comparisons.

It’s all very freewheeling and fun. As the 199th episode should be, before we tip over the edge into a whole new century.

Enjoy – and read this damn book!

Other books mentioned:

The House of Last Resort (2024), Christopher Golden

Coraline (2002), by Neil Gaiman

The Exorcist (1971), by William Peter Blatty

Good Night Sleep Tight (2024), by Brian Evenson

Nightmares and Dreamscapes (1993), by Stephen King

From a Buick 8 (2002), by Stephen King

11/22/63 (2011), by Stephen King

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Paul Tremblay returns to Talking Scared on a long orbit, like that fabled Planet X that’s going to kill us all. 

He’s back after two years for another discussion of horror aesthetics, introspective terrors and mixed-media nightmares – this time in Horror Movie, his meta-take on cursed cinema and lethal creativity. 

Horror Movie is about young filmmakers and the shoot that marks them all, even unto death. It’s also about the making of art, the machinery of fear and the cynicism of Hollywood. But beneath all that self-reflexive interrogation, it’s also just a damn creepy story. And Paul talks to me about all of it.

Note – there is jet lag aplenty in this episode. An arms race of confusion and forgetfulness. It makes for a good time. Bear with us.

Enjoy

Other books mentioned:

• The Pallbearer’s Club (2022), by Paul Tremblay
• A Head Full of Ghosts (2015), by Paul Tremblay
• “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” (1966), by Joyce Carol Oates
• Greasy Lake and Other Stories (1985), by T. C. Boyle
• The Stand (1978/1990), by Stephen King
• A Better World (2024), by Sarah Langan
• Curdle Creek (2024), by Yvonne Battle-Felton

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Elle Nash’s Deliver Me ruined my week. In the best possible way.

This book, about a woman so desperate for a child that she does truly terrible, no-good things, contains some of the bleakest, most brutal scenes I’ve read in a while. And it’s not even really being treated as a horror novel. 

Elle and I talk about that.

We also talk about the hot-button topics of the novel, the patriarchy, the toxic Christianity, the… insect erotica! But we also discuss her wandering heart and the empathy and provocation that drives her work.

It’s a lovely, laid back conversation about a challenging book.

Enjoy

Other books mentioned:

Geek Love (1989), by Katherine Dunn

Violent Faculties (2024), by Charlene Elsby

Frisk (1991), by Dennis Cooper

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Todd Keisling can write the hell out of a short story. So well, in fact, that they may convince you to resist a bully, stop going to church, or tell your boss to f**k off! 

Cold, Black and Infinite is full of liminal tales of the between-places. Cosmic “Otherness” that defies religion or belief. Corporate soul-hells that take everything you have…and more.

Weird then, that they are so fun.

Todd and I talk about all of that connective tissue between his stories. Plus, we map The Southland, this “pocket cosmos” of weird Appalachia that is destined to be the stage for the next era in his career.

It’s a blast. And this conversation is the anti-corporate, anti-fundamentalism, anti-bully screed you’ve been waiting for.

Enjoy.

Cold, Black and Infinite was released September 2023, By Cemetery Dance 

Other books mentioned:

• Ugly Little Things: Collected Horrors (2017), by Todd Keisling
• The Final Reconciliation (2018), by Todd Keisling
• Devil’s Creek (20200, by Todd Keisling
• In the Lake of the Woods (1994), by Tim O’Brien
• The Raw Shark Texts (2007), by Steven Hall
• ‘Salem’s Lot (1975), by Stephen King
• The Bad Book (2021), ed. by John D. Taff (contains “Gethsemane”)
• The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters (2002), by Chip Kidd
• The Ceremonies (1984), by T. E. D. Klein

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Something new for me this week. A bold venture into uncharted territory. 

The graphic novel!!

As is proper, I’ve started with one of the best. Emil Ferris joins me to talk through the creation of her landmark epic, My Favourite Thing is Monsters. Volume 1 came out in 2017 to rapturous acclaim, and now, Volume 2 picks up exactly where that story of cute werewolves and cherished monsters let off. This is an EVENT!!

Emil talks me through this alternative form of storytelling. She tells me about the laborious process behind the books, and how it saved her life (literally). Most of all though, we talk creativity, and how art and monsters are the things that will preserve humanity.

Enjoy.

My Favourite Thing is Monsters is released May 28thth from Fantagraphics 

Other books mentioned:

Maus (1986), by Art Spiegelman

The Talisman (1984), by Stephen King and Peter Straub

The Shape of Water (2018), by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus

Whalefall (2023), by Daniel Kraus

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We return to Australia for the second time in a month, to find that (once again), home invasion isn’t the worst thing to happen on a typical day.

Alan Baxter’s Blood Covenant is a violent, thrilling story of a threeway battle between an innocent family, a nasty criminal gang of bogans (see, I’m learning!) and an otherworldly force that is even worse! Think, what if The Strangers took place in the Overlook Hotel.

It’s a hugely enjoyable book that prompts a conversation about the influence of 70s and 80s paperback classics, the overlap of horror and crime in Australian fiction, some extreme horror movies and a whole long celebration of unpretentious storytelling.

Enjoy!

Blood Covenant is released May 24th from Cemetary Dance 

Other books mentioned:

The Gulp (2021), by Alan Baxter

Hidden City (2018), by Alan Baxter 

The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding (1986), by Robert Hughes

“Devil” by Glen Hirshberg, in Screams From the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous (2022), edited by Ellen Datlow

The Fog (1975), by James Herbert

The Hunted (2021), by Gabriel Bergmoser

Terra Nullius (2017), by Claire G. Coleman

Dirty Heads (2021), by Aaron Dries

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A charming man approaches. With dark secrets to tell you.

Yeah, that L.P. Hernandez. Author of the novella In the Valley of the Headless Men and the forthcoming collection, No Gods, Only Chaos. Both are great; both are entirely different. One of them will expand your horizons. One of them will shrink you in horror. 

I’ll let you find out which. 

We talk about both books in this episode, digging into the real historical mystery behind the novella (it’s fascinating) and the craft and commitment that went into the collection. How to write emotion and character concisely, using action within metaphor, the presence (or lack of) military vets in horror, and when, exactly, LP knew he was becoming a better writer.

If you are starting out as a storyteller, I think you’ll find this episode enlightening and inspirational. I did. Kudos to L.P. for that!

Enjoy!

In the Valley of the Headless Men  was published on January 29th by Cemetery Games

No Gods, Only Chaos is published on June 4th, by DarkLit Press

Other books mentioned:

Stargazers (2022), by L.P. Hernandez

The Militia House (2023), by John Milas

Mr Shivers (2010), by Robert Jackson Bennett

Bound Feet (2022), by Kelsea Yu

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Opinions are like assholes, they say. Everybody has one.

The subtext of that, is that you shouldn’t show them to people.

Well my guest and I don’t hold back on ours this week. Robert Ottone joins me for a conversation about his debut novel for adults, The Vile Thing We Created, which is almost exactly one year old. 

I loved it, which is more than either of us can say for the one-year old little boy that it is about. This novel skewers the impulse to procreation – presenting a horror story of parenthood that will make the child-free sweat and the happily en-familied nod sagely (though hopefully your child isn’t a cosmic-horror menace.

Robert and I wade into the controversy over not having children? We ask, how people summoj the courage to do it in such a frightening world, and we also hold forth on other topics, such as why most colleagues are boring and some ill-advised movie opinions. I blame Robert, I’m usually so shy and retiring.

Seriously though, this is a great conversation. More disorganised and discursive than usual. Though for once, that is no bad thing.

Enjoy!

The Vile Thing We Created was published on April 18th 2023, by Hydra.

Other books mentioned:

The Triangle (2022), by Robert Ottone

Less Than Zero (1985), by Bret Easton Ellis

Lunar Park (2005), by Bret Easton Ellis

Imperial Bedrooms (2010), by Bret Easton Ellis

Sefira and Other Betrayals (2019), by John Langan

Watchmen (1987), by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Filthy Creation (2023), by Caroline Hagood

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Ah the madhouse. The loony bin. The ASYLUM!!

A classic horror location. One of my favourites, but problematic as hell in the wrong hands.

Thankfully, I have the right author for the topic. Christ Panatier has the talent and the sensitivity to ensure that his novel, The Redemption of Morgan Bright can engage with the tropes without perpetuating them. He brings something as old-as-time but very new to asylum horror, and the results are dizzying, terrifying, awful.

We talk about the perils of research for an empathetic horror writer, we discuss some hideous medical practices from the past, and we look hard at the desecration of rights that we all grew up assuming were here to stay. 

Plus, the way to make friends in the horror community...

Enjoy!

The Redemption of Morgan Bright was published on April 23rd by Angry Robot Books

Other books mentioned:

• The Phlebotomist (2020), by Chris Panatier
• Stringer (2022), by Chris Panatier
• Annihilation (2014), by Jeff VanderMeer
• The Haunting of Hill House (1959), by Shirley Jackson
• Never Let Me Go (2005), by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Mad Wives: Schizophrenic Women in the 1950s (1988), by Carol A. B. Warren
• Full Immersion (2022), by Gemma Amor
• The Grip of It (2017), by Jac Jemc
• The House at the End of Lacelean Street (2024), by Catherine McCarthy
• The Spite House (2023), by Johnny Compton
• The Day of the Door (2024), by Laurel Hightower

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We all love a good spooky house. And most of us enjoy a terrifying home-invasion ordeal (or at least, I know I do).

What happens when you put them together? Kaaron Warren’s The Underhistory is the answer, but it’s nothing at all like what you’d expect.

This new novel by the award-winning Australian writer is a story of memory, of rooms and architecture, of violence and misogyny, and of a very unusual old lady. We talk about all of that and more. It’s a great conversation, one in which we go hunting for the secrets of her book together.

Enjoy!

The Underhistory was published on April 11th by Viper

Other books mentioned:

• Slights (2009), by Kaaron Warren
• The Grief Hole (2016), by Kaaron Warren
• Any Human Heart (2002), by William Boyd
• The Measure of Sorrow (2023), by J. Ashley-Smith

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I bite off a lot this week, in a five-way conversation with editors and contributors to the ever-so-of-the-moment anthology The Black Girl Survives in This One. That’s a promise right there on the title page, but as you will find out, survival is not always the same thing as living happily ever after. 

Saraciea J. Fennell, Desiree S. Evans, Monica Brashears & Eden Royce talk to me about the vision (and necessity) of the project and where their stories came from? We discuss the role of urban and family legend, authentic dialogue, writing for younger readers and how horror’s treatment of Black writers and characters has changed. 

Enjoy!

The Black Girl Survives in This One was published on April 2nd by Flatiron Books

Other books mentioned:

• Beloved (1987), by Toni Morrison
• 60 Black Women in Horror Fiction (2014), by Sumiko Saulson
• Of One Blood (1903), by Pauline Hopkins
• Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror (2023), ed, by Jordan Peele and John Joseph Adams
• The Vampire Huntress Legends Series (2003-2009), by L.A. Banks

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I’m in literary hero territory again … at least this time it’s sunny!

My guest is Scarlett Thomas, the groundbreaking writer of PopCo, Oligarchy, The Seed Collectors and the (post)modern speculative classic, The End of Mr Y. She’s one of my favourite writers, who has never seen five or six separate genres she can’t mash together.

This time around we are talking “Hot Gothic” in The Sleepwalkers, a darkly playful tale of a vacation–and a marriage–gone horribly wrong. 

We cover accidentally arriving at a structure, the many ways to build characters from scratch, the dark consequences of sex and desire taken too far – and we agree on how hotels are just inherently creepy.

Great book. Great guest. 

Enjoy!

The Sleepwalkers was published on April 9th by Simon and Schuster

Other books mentioned:

• The End of Mr Y (2006), by Scarlett Thomas
• The Seed Collectors (2015), by Scarlett Thomas
• Oligarchy (2019), by Scarlett Thomas
• Open: An Autobiography (2009), by Andre Agassi
• The Woman in White (1860), by Wilkie Collins
• The Moonstone (1868), by Wilkie Collins
• Gone Girl (2012), by Gillian Flynn
• The Talented Mr Ripley (1955), by Patricia Highsmith
• Hangsaman (1951), by Shirley Jackson

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Carrie White turns 50 years old today!

April 5th, 1974 – the day King’s debut came out, and the world of horror we know live in changed forever. 

To celebrate such an auspicious anniversary, there are only two people I could invite to this party. Step up Nat Cassidy and Ally Malinenko – writers who understand King and that bitter, brutal world between childhood and adulthood.

We talk about empathy and monsters, about the horror of high school, the abject and the menstruation taboo and about how we are all living in Margaret White’s America now…

Raise a glass to the prom queen of horror. She can light her own candles.

Enjoy!

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Alas, we come to the end!

Stephen Graham Jones’s The Angel of Indian Lake brings the most important horror trilogy of the century to its conclusion. For one last time we return to Proofrock, Idaho – to watch Jade Daniels do battle with monsters in the wood and the demons in her head. 

SGJ also comes back to Talking Scared to finish our adjacent trilogy of conversations about these books. We talk about slashers and final girls for sure, but as ever with Stephen, these are windows onto something more profound – and he gives us his insight into how horror, justice, violence and luck operate in fiction.

This all sounds very profound. It is. But in the coolest way possible. The man is a rock star….

… but I STILL manage to freak him out with a ghost story.

Enjoy – it’s been a ride!

The Angel of Indian Lake was published on March 26thth by Saga Press and Titan Books

Other books mentioned:

• Where the Red Fern Grows (1961), by Wilson Rawls
• Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars #10 (1984), by Jim Shooter
• In Cold Blood (1965), by Truman Capote
• Morphology of the Folktale (1928), by Vladimir Propp
• The Red Badge of Courage (1895), by Stephen Crane
• The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1991), by Jean Baudrillard
• The Name of the Rose (1980), by Umberto Eco
• The Hollow Kind (2022), by Andy Davidson
• Piranesi (2021), by Susannah Clarke
• A Tale of Two Cities (1859), by Charles Dickens
• The Art of the Ridiculous Sublime: On David Lynch’s ‘Lost Highway’ (2000), by Slavoj Žižek
• The Warm Hands of Ghosts (2024), by Katherine Arden
• The Bear and the Nightingale (2017), by Katherine Arden
• The Others of Edenwell (2023), by Verity Holloway
• “A Fish Story” (2002), by Gene Wolfe

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Chi-Town!!

We’re heading to the midwestern metropolis this week, for a conversation with Cina Pelayo – all about murder, mystery, history and strange things in the water.

Her new novel, Forgotten Sisters is a heady, dreamlike concoction of Chicago lore and much older horrors. It features a pair of very wyrd sisters and a house by a river that holds nothing good. 

As well as all of that, we talk about Cina’s personal journey with the paranormal, mermaid sightings, writing law enforcement, and wrestling with weird voices in fiction. 

Oh, and the abject horror of social media!!

Enjoy!

Forgotten Sisters was published on March 19th by Thomas & Mercer

Other books mentioned:

• Children of Chicago (2021), by Cynthia Pelayo
• The Shoemaker’s Magician (2023), by Cynthia Pelayo
• Loteria (2023), by Cynthia Pelayo
• Into the Forest and All the Way Through (2020), by Cynthia Pelayo
• The Reformatory (2023), by Tananarive Due

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Never mind the floor is lava. This week the ground has teeth.

Joshua Hull is our guest, to talk about his obsession with dangerous, weird holes. He wrote one into his hilarious, grisly horror movie, Glorious (on Shudder) and now he’s given a hole a whole personality in his debut novella, Mouth. 

It’s a grindhouse, b-movie celebrations, with larger than life characters, grisly death, and the most lovable monster of the year. 

We talk about writing endearing creature features, about forgotten American serial killers, about the difference between writing for books and writing screenplays and, yes, about HOLES!

Enjoy!

Mouth was published on March 15th by Tenebrous Press

Other books mentioned:

The Day of the Door (2024), by Laurel Hightower

Frankenstein (1818), by Mary Shelley

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Time to get liminal and haunted. 

Gwendolyn Kiste comes back to Talking Scared for another high-concept twist on the Gothic. In The Haunting of Velkwood, and entire street turns ghostly overnight. Yeah, I can’t explain that any more clearly, we’ll leave it to Gwendolyn.

Despite this being a book centered on trauma and angst, we do a whole lot of laughing. Amongst the chuckles we also sneak in conversation about the many meanings of the word haunted, child-free horror fiction televisual references, and just what makes the American suburbs so damn creepy!

Enjoy!

The Haunting of Velkwood was published on March 5th by Saga Press

Other books mentioned:

• Reluctant Immortals (2022), by Gwendolyn Kiste
• Suburbia (1973), by Bill Owens
• Twilight: Photographs (2002), by Gregory Crewdson
• The Daughters of Block Island (2023), by Christa Carmen

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Sometimes you meet someone who just gets you.

Like Tim Lebbon. A man who writes riotously good adventure-horror novels, and also likes running outrageous distances up big hills. What a pleasure it was to speak to him.

The main topic of conversation is his new novel eco-horror novel, Among the Living. A story of ancient buried history and ‘intelligent’ infection, it blends the paranoia of The Thing with the ragtag group heroism and intensity of Aliens. In short, it’s good!

Tim and I talk about eco-horror, about the biological menaces facing mankind in the future, we discuss how writing action helps with writing character, and I tell him why this book freaked me out so much.

Oh, and we do spend some time talking about running up big hills. But we try and keep it relevant to the horror and the writing… Give me a break, how often do I meet a soul-brother like this?

Enjoy!

Among the Living was published on February 6th by Titan Books

Other books mentioned:

• Eden (2020), by Tim Lebbon
• The Last Storm (2022), by Tim Lebbon
• The Hunt (2015), by Tim Lebbon
• Come Closer (2003), by Sara Gran
• The Bang Bang Sisters (2024), by Rio Yoeurs 

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Back from a too-short break, but ready to delve into the greatest haunted house of them all! Shirley Jackson’s Hill House. The place where the scary things walk alone.

Thankfully, I am not alone. I’m joined by my own group of creepy ghost-hunters: Paul Tremblay (A Head Full of Ghosts, Cabin at the End of the World), Johnny Compton (The Spite House) and Catriona Ward (Last House on Needless Street, Looking Glass Sound). I can think of no better collective to explore the corridors of this book and house.

We get INTO it. The crafted magic of that infamous opening paragraph, the long legacy of creepy houses in American fiction, the choice between the haunted void and hideous, mundane reality. Plus, a raft of film recommendations, and a few brief forays into our favourite real haunted places.

This one was necessary. Hope you enjoy it.

Other books mentioned:

House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski

Carrie (1974), by Stephen King

‘Salem’s Lot (1975), by Stephen King

The Shining (1977),  by Stephen King

The Spite House (2023), by Johnny Compton

The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers (1983), by John Gardner

The Letters of Shirley Jackson (2021), edited by Laurence Jackson Hyman

When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson (2021), ed. by Ellen Datlow

“Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” (1904), by M.R. James

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Yes I put sex in the title to make you download it. Did it work?

It shouldn’t be necessary, ‘cos this week’s guest is an absolute literary icon. Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club, Haunted, Lullaby, Choke, and last year’s Not Forever, But For Now – a writer who helped shape the nihilism and extremity of 90s and noughties fiction. The man who makes people faint with his short stories. 

He’s here, talking to us!

In this conversation Chuck and I roam all over the blasted map of his fiction. We talk about transgression and provocation, about extremity in life and story, about bad reviews, toxic interviews and toxic masculinity. And yes, we talk about “Guts.”

This was a privilege. I hope you are shocked and appalled.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Fight Club (1996) by Chuck Palahniuk
• Haunted (2005), by Chuck Palahniuk
• Lullaby (2002), by Chuck Palahniuk
• Diary (2003), by Chuck Palahniuk
• Rant: The Oral Biography of Buster Casey (2005), by Chuck Palahniuk
• Adjustment Day (2018), by Chuck Palahniuk
• Cold Comfort Farm (1932), by Stella Gibbons
• Rosemary’s Baby (1967), by Ira Levin
• “The Lottery” (1948), by Shirley Jackson
• Interview with the Vampire (1976), by Anne Rice
• Geek Love (1989), by Katherine Dunn
• Most Delicious Poison: From Spice to Vices – The Story of Nature’s Toxins (2023), by Noah Whiteman
• Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (2021), by Eric LaRocca