Talking Scared

Latest Episodes:

244 – Rose Keating & Rotting As We Go Jul 01, 2025

Show notes

I’m coming to you from the heatwave from hell – and I’ve never been more burdened by my body.

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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243 – S.A. Cosby & The Gospel of the Dispossessed Jun 24, 2025

Show notes

Time to talk righteous violence!

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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242 – Caroline Fraser & Masculinity Most Toxic Jun 17, 2025

Show notes

Sometimes monsters are real!

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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241 – V.E. Schwab & Women Just Taste Better Jun 10, 2025

Show notes

Vampirism is time travel.

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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Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com

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Let Us Palaver #3 – The Waste Lands Debrief Jun 06, 2025

Show notes

The third Let Us Palaver minisode (though this one is not so mini) – in which Nat and I reflect on The Waste Lands in full spoiler mode…and say REALLY mean things about Chris and his hurtful opinions.

If you’ve been to the Tower before, I hope you dig this. Unless you agree with Chris about [redacted], in which case you’re dead to us.

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The Dark Tower Deep Dive #3 – The Waste Lands Jun 03, 2025

Show notes

We’re finally on the path of The Beam.

The Dark Tower Readalong reaches the land of wonder and ruination, in Book 3, The Waste Lands. Accompanied by Nat and Chris, we battle the great bear, get dirty in the speaking ring, and brave the streets of Lud.

But we also have the first quake in our Ka-tet, when Chris offers the most egregiously wrong opinion that anyone could offer on these books. You may agree with him… but if you do, we have a problem.

I have never cursed or yelled so much on this show before!!

Nonetheless, we have fun, we push on, and we’re still friends (just about).

Enjoy!

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240 – John Connolly & Detective Gothic: The Charlie Parker Deep Dive May 27, 2025

Show notes

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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Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com

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239 – Sarah Pinborough & What Are Ghosts But Lies Persevering? May 20, 2025

Show notes

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

Support Talking Scared on Patreon

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Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com

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238 – The Frozen Frontier: Ally Wilkes and Michelle Paver, Live at the Oxford Literary Festival May 13, 2025

Show notes

Talking Scared goes live!

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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Off Book #9 – Eli Craig & Clown in a Cornfield May 09, 2025

Show notes

Send in the clowns!

In this Off Book episode I talk to Eli Craig, director of cult-classic Tucker and Dale vs Evil, and the man who put Clown in a Cornfield up on the big screen.

After crowbarring my way into his press day, I asked him what drew him to the project, what else there is to ‘do’ with scary clowns and slashers in cinema, and what this movie has to say about Middle America right now.

We go deeper than you’d expect for a movie about clowns chasing kids with chainsaws.

Enjoy

Clown in a Cornfield is in cinemas from May 9th.

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