Talking Scared

Send us a text Hands up who wants a holiday! Sarah Pearse’s The Sanatorium could be just the thing to purge your lockdown travel desires. It will either transport you to the ice-white peaks of the Swiss Alps, to luxuriate in the views inside your mind. Or, it’ll make you never ever want to stay in a hotel again. The Sanatorium is Sarah’s debut thriller, a novel that sits uncomfortably (in the best possible way) between crime, mystery and horror – with a hospital-cum-hotel that would rank VERY low on TripAdvisor. Cleanliness = 5* Location = 5* Facilities = 5* Chance of survival = 1* Sarah and I discuss the tussle to define a debut novel, we share stories of living in Switzerland and ponder what it is about all that beauty that chills the bone, and we pick apart the comparisons to Stephen King and Agatha Christie. The Sanatorium is published Feb 2nd in North America by Pamela Dorman and Feb 18th 2021 in the UK, by Bantam Press. Stick around after the interview to hear all the big news about what’s coming to Talked Scared later this year. I’m excited, I hope you are. Enjoy! Books discussed in this episode include: The Shining (1977), by Stephen King The Little Stranger (2009), by Sarah Waters Thin Air (2016), by Michelle Paver Dark Matter (2010), by Michelle Paver Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Adrian Flounders for graphic design. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Have you ever had a book scare you so much that part of you wishes you hadn’t read it? That’s the experience I had reading Gemma Files’ latest collection, In That Endlessness, Our End. I don’t know how Gemma does it, but with each story she finds a psychological pressure point that feels specifically mine, and the presses down on it hard with her pen. On more than one occasion I had to stop reading this book because it freaked me out too much. And I mean that as the highest praise. In That Endlessness, Our End is full of stories of multimedia gone mad, sensory overload, mad gods and strange houses, and an alleyway that may take your child and give you something else in return. Gemma is a wealth of fact and opinion on horror. In our conversation we go deep, into the mechanics of horror writing as well as the inspiration behind some of the tales. We get into night terrors, how you evoke panic on the page, and how neurodiversity informs her unique brand of horror. But despite all this fear and intensity, we also have a good laugh. Gemma even takes the time to tell us as fairytale!! Enjoy! In That Endlessness, Our End is published by Grimscribe Press on 15th February 2021. Other books we mention include: The Elementals (1981), by Michael McDowell Ancient Images (1989), by Ramsey Campbell Every House is Haunted (2013), by Ian Rogers Burnt Black Suns (2014), by Simon Strantzas Grotesquerie (2020), by Richard Gavin Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Adrian Flounders for graphic design. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text When your guest calls herself the “Master of the Bitch” you do wonder what you’re getting into. Courtney Summers, by her own admission, wants to upset people. Yet she’s a delight! To kick of Women in Horror week we discuss her new novel, The Project, which follows a young woman as she investigates the New York based cult that has swallowed up her sister. This is FAR from your standard cult novel. As Courtney explains, she wanted to get away from the exploitation and the obvious horrors and instead consider why people search for belonging in such dark places, and whether we would be impervious to The Project’s allure. We also talk about her penchant for ‘unlikeable’ female protagonists, and whether there’s a double standard in how fiction treats challenging women. We celebrate Biden’s inauguration, I tell her about my worst ever spider encounter, and she takes me to school for dissing YA fiction. Enjoy! The Project was published by Wednesday Books on February 2nd 2021. Other books mentioned include: 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 Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Adrian Flounders for graphic design. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Let’s get Gothic! Our guest this week is Laura Purcell, doyenne of the dark, heiress of historical fiction (and other alliterative titles). Laura blew away the cobwebs wrapped around spooky period fiction with her breakout smash, The Silent Companions in 2017. She followed up with The Corset and Bone China and now she’s back with her newest Gothic novel, The Shape of Darkness. The novel examines all the wrinkles and crannies in the Victorian underbelly, from spirit mediums, to mesmerism, and the uncanny art of silhouette portraits. Trust me, you’ll want one for yourself. We talk about the line between gothic and horror, why writing historical fiction can be a way to sneak your horror under the radar, and whether the stereotypes of the period make it frustrating to write about Victorian women. After all, how many times a day can a woman swoon? In an unrelated anecdote, Laura also divulges her secret terror of sloths. Oh, and I waffle on about the history of gothic fiction cos I just can’t resist lecturing people. Other books discussed include: 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 Enjoy! The Shape of Darkness was published by Raven Books on January 21st 2021. Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Adrian Flounders for graphic design. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text In a week in which the White House becomes a little less orange, it’s hard to dwell on the nasty side of life. But this is Talking Scared and we can find the grim and creepy on even the most optimistic days. Our guest is C.J. Tudor – the current queen of the British thriller. She sits quite comfortably on the cusp of horror and crime, and we get into the subject of exactly where that borderline is. Her new novel, The Burning Girls continues her blending of the fast-paced American thriller, with the folk-tradition of the British horror story. A tale about a vicar, who moves with her daughter to a small Sussex town, with a terrible history of child sacrifice, and a more recent taste for murder and suicide – what’s not to like? C.J and I talk in depth about the perils of causing offence in your fiction, how to write a vicar protagonist, and what it felt like when Stephen King said he liked her book! Oh, and I may cause a bit of controversy when I give Kubrick’s adaption of The Shining a good kicking. The Burning Girls is published by Michael Joseph Books on January 21st 2021. Other books discussed include: The Chalk Man (2018), by CJ Tudor The Other People (2020), by CJ Tudor The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (2018), by Stuart Turton The Last (2019), by Hanna Jameson If It Bleeds (2020), by Stephen King The Shining (1977), by Stephen King Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Adrian Flounders for graphic design. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Ready for the first GREAT book you’ll read this year? Our guest this week is Will Dean, calling all the way from the middle of a Scandinavian forest to talk about his new novel, The Last Thing To Burn. I’ve been banging on about this book since I read it in December. It’s a latter-day masterpiece, a read-in-one-sitting, this-has-to-be-a-movie kind of book. Think Misery, think Room and then think how much worse could the horrors be. The truth, a lot worse. Will and I talk about off-grid living, both his bucolic existence and his protagonist’s torment. We talk about the difference between writing the English and Swedish landscapes, and why the English fens are much scarier than the Scandi woods. We also talk about how you capture a monster’s voice, and whether you know you are going too far in a novel. It’s a great conversation, and you’ll end up inspired you to quit your job, build a house, and live in it! If you want advice on how to do it, or just to peer into his idyllic life, you can find Will on Youtube @ Will Dean Forest Author Along the way we discuss a range of classic novels, including: 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 Enjoy! Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing and Adrian Flounders for graphic design. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text I like this year better than last year already. Ok, we may be plunged back into lockdown 3.0 and it may be cold, and the cinemas may still be shut. But we have a vaccine, Trump looks like he’s got nappy rash … and there’s a whole year of horror fiction to look forward to. Unfortunately for you, there’s no guest this week. Instead, you’re stuck with me as I talk you through the highlights and predicted hits of horror fiction 2021. I’ve already read two books that are fighting their way into my ALL TIME BEST HORROR list, could there be more. We have new books from the likes of Grady Hendrix, Stephen Graham Jones, Christina Henry, Cassandra Khaw, Laura Purcell, Catriona Ward, Richard Chizmar, Zoje Stage, Zakiya Dalalila Harris, Chuck Wendig and more. Listen, consider, argue, rant, email me and tell me I’m wrong. But get ready to take the horror out of the nightly news and back into your bedtime reading. Enjoy! Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing and Adrian Flounders for graphic design. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text 2020 is nearly behind us (woohoo!) but we have time for one more interview with a master of horror. Our guest this week is Michael Marshall Smith the genre polymath and man of a thousand pseudonyms (all of them involving ‘Michael’.) He is joining me to discuss his new career retrospective, The Best of Michael Marshall Smith, published in a beautiful volume by Subterranean Press. It’s a huge collection of stories, covering Michael’s 30 years of writing, from his recent work, all the way back to his debut story “The Man Who Drew Cats” – which won the British Fantasy Award. Along the way we talk about living and writing on both sides of the Atlantic, our shared love of Stephen King and why Michael writes about cats so much. We also establish that I’m a dog person. And just to make sure we cover all the bases, we also devote a few minutes to discussing the orange baby currently tantrum-ing his way out of the White House, cos it is 2020 still, after all. Lastly, if that isn’t enough for you, I run through the first “Talking Scared Top-Ten Horror of the Year” list. Next year there might be prizes, who knows. It’s been an astonishing year for horror and the first few months of this show have exposed me to writing and thinking that I may otherwise have missed. I can only hope it’s done the same for some of you. So, see you in 2021, when the skies will be blue, the birds singing, and the ghosts moaning a bit more cheerfully. Enjoy! Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing and Adrian Flounders for graphic design. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Merry Christmas and/or time-off-work-week! For all of you currently freezing your asses off in cold climes, this week’s episode may make you feel a little too warm under the collar. Our guest is Gabriel Bergmoser, an author who exploded onto the horror scene in early 2020 with The Hunted, a pulpy, violent, visceral hell ride through the Australian wilderness in the company of very human prey and predators. Considering the amount of people hanging from hooks and suffering violent deaths in his fiction, Gabriel proves to be a thoroughly charming guest. We talk at length about the problem of masculinity down under (and, as it turns out, everywhere else!). Gabe’s thesis includes anecdotes from Australian history and the time that he was personally chased down the street by a kid with a nail-studded cricket bat. The Hunted is an EXCEPTIONAL horror novel. It flaunts its genre credentials, allowing us to get back to the blood and guts basics of the genre. At the same time, though, it’s got a lot to say about a lot of things. You’ll read it in one night and still think about it months later. The Hunted was published in May by Faber and Faber Oh, and a listener asked me to finally flesh out the list of my top-ten horror novels of all time. You don’t have to ask me twice, so at the end of this episode you’ll get some extra bonus content (whether you want it or not) whilst I indulge myself in banging on about books I love. I get quite pretentious in parts. Red Dragon (1981), by Thomas Harris The Golden Age (1985), by Louis Nowra Soon (2017), by Lois Murphy A Head Full of Ghosts (2015), by Paul Tremblay The Haunting of Hill House (1959), by Shirley Jackson Lunar Park (2005), by Bret Easton Ellis The Terror (2007), by Dan Simmons Beloved (1987), by Toni Morrison Ghost Story (1971), by Peter Straub The Little Stranger (2009), by Sarah Waters Swan Song (1987), by Robert R. McCammon The Stand (1978), by Stephen Kind House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski IT (1986), by Stephen King Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing and Adrian Flounders for graphic design. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This late into 2020 we are all craving a) a holiday and b) time with friends. Our guest this week may cast a slightly different perspective on both. Rachel Harrison is the author of The Return, a novel that looks into the dark heart of friendship and asks “do you REALLY know who your friends are?” The book was published all the way back in March, by Berkley in the US and Hodder in the UK. I finally found time to catch up with Rachel and to tell her why this book scared me so badly. Yep, this may be the single most unnerving novel I’ve read in 2020 (and that includes a couple of fictional pandemics in the middle of our real pandemic). The Return presents female friendship in all its complexity, compassion and cruelty. As you’ll hear, I didn’t always get on with the women in this book, but they left a lasting impression on me (and on Rachel). Plus, it prompts Rachel to tell me hew own personal ghost story. It’s a lot more benign than the one in her story. Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing and Adrian Flounders for graphic design. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Stand back! Our Guest this week is Christopher Golden, author of all manner of horror, adventure and generally freaky fiction. His latest book is Red Hands, the third featuring Ben Walker, action-hero and expert in the batsh*t weird! I have used the words ‘relevant’ and ‘prescient’ more than ever in 2020 – this being, after all, the year that all our horror stories became true. Even by that standard Red Hands is creepily on the money though. It’s the story of a plague that is transmitted by simple touch, and kills in seconds. That may sound like grim reading right now, but trust me, it’s a hell of a good time. Action-packed and surprisingly philosophical in approach, it also features a KILLER first chapter. Christopher and I talk about our shared love of historical mystery and folklore, the pros and cons of writing series fiction, and how you balance pace and character in a book that wants to raise your pulse and make you care. Red Hands would have been too horrible to bear a few months ago. Now, with a vaccine on the way, it is the propulsive popcorn read that may perfectly pair with your holiday. Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing and Adrian Flounders for graphic design. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week our guest is Sam J. Miller, author of The Blade Between - a novel for anyone who loves or loathes their hometown. It’s a story of small-town ghosts, hidden hatreds and sudden violence. And behind it all looms the issue of gentrification, in all its ugliness and beauty. Listening to Sam talk, you may think differently about that cute little bistro that’s opened down the street. Y’know, the one that took over from that local place that had been there for years . . . Sam’s previous works include The Art of Starving (2017) and Blackfish City (2018), both novels that take no truck with easy ideas of genre. They, like The Blade Itself are freewheeling stories, and as you’ll here, Sam is more than willing go down some weird alleyways and to spill his own blood on the page. He’s also got a lot of things to say about queer identity in horror, about how no-one ever thinks they are the villain in the story, and the worry of how people in your hometown may feel when you savage it in your story. The Blade Between was published December 1st 2020, by Ecco Books. Books we mentioned include: The Art of Starving (2017), by Sam J. Miller Needful Things (1991), by Stephen King Drawing Blood (2010), by Poppy Z. Brite The Cabin at the End of the World (2018), by Paul Tremblay Plain Bad Heroines (2020), by Emily Danforth A Spectral Hue (2019), by Craig Lawrence Gibney Never Have I Ever (2021), by Isobel Yap Homesick (2019) and Finna (2020), by Nino Cipri Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing and Adrian Flounders for graphic design. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text If you’re a fan of podcasts and horror (and of course you are!) then chances are you’ll recognise our guest. Jonathan Sims is the author of Thirteen Storeys, but you may know him (or his voice) as the creator and narrator of The Magnus Archives. Yep, that’s right, I’m interviewing The Archivist himself. Thirteen Storeys takes a lot of what makes The Magnus Archives great, and blends it with contemporary social realism to create a book that’s horrifying in more ways than one. It’s an anthology novel that comprises … well … thirteen stories, all about the haunted corridors of an inner-city tower block. Horrible things happen to good and bad people and, true to form, stuff gets very, very weird! Jonny is every bit as good an interviewee as you’d expect from someone who does his day job. We get into all sorts of nooks and crannies about both the book and the show. We discuss how to create a singularly horrifying image, why M.R. James is still the man, and delve into the birth and forthcoming end of The Magnus Archives. Oh … and Kenny Loggins makes an appearance. Enjoy!Thirteen Stories is published by Gollancz on November 26th, 2020. Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Things get a little cultish this week on Talking Scared. Our guest is Craig DiLouie, author of the brand-spanking-new creepy commune novel, The Children of Red Peak – released November 18th from RedHook Books. It’s a tale of crazy goings-on in the desert, of ritual mutilation and lasting trauma. All that fun stuff! Craig immediately has me in his thrall, even without the Kool-Aid. (interesting fact, it was actually Flavour Aid that the Jonestown cultists drank). We talk about the difference between a religion and a cult, how to capture the spiritual essence of music in prose, and we also get deep into what is so scary about religion and faith tipping over into something darker. On top of that, Craig confronts us all with one of the big moral questions – how many arms would YOU feed to a shredder if you had to? Along the way we mention some other books, including: It (1986), by Stephen King Kin (2011), by Kealan Patrick Burke Last Days (2012), by Adam Neville Suffer the Children (2014), by Craig DiLouie Hater (2006), by David Moody The Power (2016), by Naomi Alderman Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week Rumaan Alam presents us with a wholly ambiguous end of the world. Rumaan’s new novel, Leave the World Behind has taken the publishing landscape by storm. Reviews are everywhere and critics are shouting its name from the rooftops, with good reason. Leave the World Behind is a strange, uneasy tale of the world going wrong. What begins as a family getaway to Long Island spirals into fear as strangers arrive, bringing news of a blackout in New York City. From there, things only get worse as the possibilities of what is actually happening become terrifyingly limitless. We spend a good hour talking crises of masculinity, why kids are better equipped for apocalypse than their parents, and why literary fiction needs to get the chip off its shoulder a little. We also both realise that we’d be functionally useless in any kind of real crisis. A few books mentioned in this episode include: Swimming Home (2011), by Deborah Leavy. Never Let Me Go (2005) by Kazuo Ishiguro Pet Sematary (1983) by Stephen King Enjoy!Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text If you are feeling nervous today, or just want something to distract you from the doomscrolling, then welcome to our Election Day special. Our guest is Andrew Pyper whose latest novel, The Residence, is an historical tour around a White House under siege from a demon. This particular spirit is arrogant, spiteful and determined to use the Oval Office for dire purposes – but he’s not orange at least! Andrew is no stranger to creepy, spirit-infested fiction. His previous work includes The Guardians (2011), The Demonologist (2013) and The Damned (2015), amongst many others. We talk about the nature of evil, both personal and political, and consider the sex life of a president (no, not this one!) Andrew also takes us on a tour through the intriguingly haunted history of Pennsylvania Avenue. Who knew the White House had so many ghosts? Enjoy! Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text It’s Halloween and in lieu of any trick and/or treating this plague year, I offer you a conversation with Colin Dickey, mystery-maestro and curator of the creepy. Colin is the author of Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places (2016) and The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters and our Obsession with the Unexplained – books that plumb the depths of the human mind and our fixation on the creepy things at the margins of the known world. In this wide-ranging discussion, we touch upon the remnants of lost civilisations, cryptozoology and the link between wonder, fear and the conspiracy theory. I also offer my favourite (and fool proof) theory as to why all photos of Bigfoot are blurry. I hope you all have the best Halloween possible in current circumstances. It’s been great creating this podcast so far and, today, on a horror-fan’s favourite holiday, I hope you are all well and enjoyably scared. Enjoy! Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Where do you stand on horror and comedy? Can a book be too funny to be scary, or too terrifying to raise a chuckle? Our guest this week would argue not. T. Kingfisher is the author of the critically-acclaimed The Twisted Ones (2019) and her brand-new release The Hollow Places. Both are scorching horror tales, with some hideous imagery, exquisite world-building and nightmare-fuel ideas . . . but they are also both laugh-out-loud funny, at least to us sickos anyway! T (short for ‘The’ or ‘Terrence’, depending on her mood) and I discuss the world’s maddest museums, the practical issues with making your own golem, and whether America is really overrun with phantom kangaroos! We also manage to sneak in some ‘serious’ conversation about how the genre works, and why she finds classic tales such an inspiration. This one will put a smile on your face as October draws to an end. Some of the books discussed in this episode include: “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 Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week Emily Danforth takes us back to school. Her new novel, Plain Bad Heroines has a lot to say about the history of queer women, the price of fame, and whether found footage horror is any good. Plain Bad Heroines features heavily on all the best-of lists for the season, and it’s an early reputation that’s well deserved. This tricksy, twisty novel spans centuries to tell the tale of a very peculiar school and the horror film made about it two hundred years later. If you have any interest in experimental fiction, queer writing or American Gothic then, somehow, this book covers all those bases. Emily also tells one hell of a story about why she’s frightened of home invasion. Come, gather round the teacher’s desk and listen . . . Books mentioned in this episode include: The Fingersmith (2002), by Sarah Waters The Little Stranger (2009), by Sarah Waters Ghost Story (1979), by Peter Straub Haunting of Hill House (1959), by Shirley Jackson House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski The Return (2020), by Rachel Harrison “The Talent of the Room”, by Michael Ventura Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Kate Summerscale is our first guest working in the realms of non-fiction. Her back-catalogue proves that the real world is every bit as dark and terrifying as the inside of Stephen King’s head. She’s covered murder in the famous The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (2008) and now she’s back with a more spiritual crisis in The Haunting of Alma Fielding. The book examines a very odd case of poltergeist activity in the London suburbs between the wars. Famous ghost hunters get involved, much crockery is thrown, jewellery is stolen (all by ghosts honestly!) and terrapins are manifested out of thin air. If all that sounds truly bizarre to you, then trust me, it’s the tip of a very spooky iceberg. Kate is definitely the one to take us through the story. Her research is meticulous, and her historical contextualisation paints a compelling portrait of a nation, a household, and a woman under threat of attack. Books mentioned in this episode include: “Chemical”, in Shocks, by Algernon Blackwood (1935) Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, by Colin Dickey (2017) The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and our Obsession with the Unexplained, by Colin Dickey (2020) The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson (1959) Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Ahoy mateys! My guest this week is the locked-room-murder-maestro himself, Stuart Turton. In 2018 Stu burst onto the scene with his genre-splicing triumph, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. It won awards and melted some brains with its maddening twists and turns. Stu’s follow-up is equally intricate but this time it’s also seaworthy. The Devil and the Dark Water is a murder mystery set on a 16th Century trading ship, but in true Turton-esque (is that a thing yet) style, it’s also about a dozen other genres too. There is horror aplenty, as the titular demon begins to reveal himself in the shadowy corners of the ship. We discuss all sorts this week, from the depravity of sailing vessels, to the agony of first novels, and we seriously question whether Sherlock Holmes is a d**k? Yep, this week there is swearing! Enjoy. Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week we get visceral – with the extreme body horror of Robert Jeremy Johnson and his new novel THE LOOP. Jeremy speaks to us from Portland, Oregon, where he’s busy watching the forest fires and working on ways to weaponise his words for good. THE LOOP is a novel all about conspiracy theory, medical mishap, and a class war raging through a small town. Think your favourite 80s teen comedy (with its guts spilling out) mixed with a little bit of 50s pulp Americana and smeared with 2020s political frenzy. That’s THE LOOP and man, it’s a trip!! Oh, and we hear some VERY alarming claims about the octopus! The books we discuss in this episode include: The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton (1967) Survivor Song, by Paul Tremblay (2020) IT, by Stephen King (1986) Boy’s Life, by Robert McCammon (1991) Summer of Night, by Dan Simmons (1991) A Collapse of Horses, by Brian Evenson (2016) Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks To Terry Smith Audio for sound editing. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week’s guest is up-and-coming horror extraordinaire, Jo Kaplan. Jo’s new haunted house novel, It Will Just Be Us is a tour-de-force of chills, thrills and things that kill. It’s got everything you could possibly want: creepy old house – check, mysterious locked room – CHECK, a witch who lurks in a swamp – CHECK!!!! It’s also got some of the best female relationships I’ve read in horror for a while, enough to pass the Bechdel test with flying colours. Jo and I talk about Freud’s uncanny and the infamous Winchester House, how to research her locations (or not), and how to make a ghost feel like something new. This chat feels like getting in at the ground floor of what will be a skyscraper career. Listen now, and you can say you were there at the start! The books we discussed this episode include: The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson (1959) “Jordan’s End”, by Ellen Glasgow, in The Shadowy Third (1923) The Gone World, by Tom Sweterlitsch (2018) House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski (2000) Don’t Turn Out the Lights: A Tribute to Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, edited by Jonathan Mayberry (2020) The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones (2020) Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno Garcia (2020) Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks To Terry Smith Audio for sound editing. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week we’re in conversation with Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the author of Mexican Gothic - 2020's twisted publishing phenomenon. We discuss the novel's roots in British soil, and whether a book can be considered 'too' Mexican or not Mexican enough. Along the way we also consider the classic Mexican horror cinema of Enrique Taboada, why not everything has to be magic realism, and why all aspiring writers should learn to keep their receipts. Silvia has fiery words for those who think every damn book that comes from Mexico needs to feature the day of the dead. It's an intense conversation - challenging and thought-provoking. Just don't dare call Mexican Gothic a romance! Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or reach out direct to [email protected]. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text In the second episode i'm in conversation with John Langan, contemporary literary horror superstar and all round scholar of the genre. John is the author of the Bram Stoker Award-Winning classic The Fisherman and his latest collection is Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies. We talk about great influences and literary ventriloquism, what makes a great horror title, and what it's like to be part of the coolest club in the horror community. There are few writers out there with a better understanding of their own genre than John, and this interview is a primer in horror writing for newbies and aficionados alike. Books mentioned in our conversation include: Robert E. Howard - Wolfshead, and Other Stories Stephen King's Christine, Cujo and Skeleton Crew Laird Barron - "More Dark" in The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All Laird Barron - The Isiah Coleridge series (Blood Standard, Black Mountain, Worse Angels) Clive Barker - Books of Blood, Volumes 1-6 Stephen Graham Jones - "Raphael" in The Ones That Got Away Henry James · What Maisie Knew Peter Straub - Ghost Story Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or reach out direct to [email protected]. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text In the first ever episode of Talking Scared we speak to horror megastar Paul Tremblay, author of the modern classic, A Head Full of Ghosts and this year's virus-shocker Survivor Song. There are musings on pandemics real and imaginary, the terror of sharks, and the terrible truth at the heart of horror fiction.Books mentioned in our conversation include: The Stand – Stephen King Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus – Bill Wasik & Monica Murphy Things We Lost in the Fire – Mariana Enriquez 2666 – Roberto Bolano “The Colonel’s Son” – in The Secret of Evil by Robert Bolano Come talk books with us on Twitter @TalkScaredPod Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices