Talking Scared

Latest Episodes:

224 – Susan Barker & The Denial of Death Jan 21, 2025

Show notes

Tyranny is the key this week on Talking Scared this week. How fitting.

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

Support Talking Scared on Patreon

Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

223 – Kate van der Borgh & A Different Class of Magic Jan 14, 2025

Show notes

It’s a collegial week on Talking Scared. ‘Cos I’m talking dark, occult academia with someone very local to me.

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

Support Talking Scared on Patreon

Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

222 – Clay McLeod Chapman & Oh My God, What Have I Done? Jan 07, 2025

Show notes

Welcome back and Happy New Year. 2025 looms ahead. Frightening. Uncertain. Crazy!!

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

Support Talking Scared on Patreon

Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

221 – The Best Scary Books of 2024 Dec 31, 2024

Show notes

Send us a text

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!

Support Talking Scared on Patreon

Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com

Support the show

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

220 – Grief and Monsters: The From a Buick 8 Deep Dive Dec 23, 2024

Show notes

Send us a text

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

Support Talking Scared on Patreon

Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com

Support the show

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

219 – State of the Horror Nation 2024, with Emily Hughes, Stephanie Gagnon & Anna Dupre Dec 17, 2024

Show notes

Send us a text

… 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

Support Talking Scared on Patreon

Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com

Support the show

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[From the Vault] Catriona Ward & The All-Consuming Spoiler Warning Dec 10, 2024

Show notes

Send us a text

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

Support Talking Scared on Patreon

Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com

Support the show

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[From the Vault] Zakiya Dalila Harris & The Fear of Not Being Black Enough Dec 03, 2024

Show notes

Send us a text

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

Support Talking Scared on Patreon

Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com

Support the show

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[From the Vault] Laura Purcell & The Art of Darkness Nov 26, 2024

Show notes

Send us a text

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

Support Talking Scared on Patreon

Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com

Support the show

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[From the Vault] Gemma Amor & The Start of a Horrific Friendship AKA The Mental Health in Horror Episode Nov 19, 2024

Show notes

Send us a text

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!

Support Talking Scared on Patreon

Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com

Support the show

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected