Talking Scared

Time to misbehave. 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  Support Talking Scared on Patreon Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch 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

Are you hungry? 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  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

Here is the first Let Us Palaver minisode – in which Nat Cassidy and I kick Chris off the call, and get to grips with the inner workings of The Dark Tower, without spoiling anything for him, or any of you on your first trip through these books.If you still listen after this spoiler warning and the two I give in the first few minutes of the episode… well, you only have yourself to blame.But for seasoned ‘slingers. I hope this is fun. Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the podcaster followed…” Welcome to the start of what is sure to be an epic journey. Step by step, over more than a dozen episodes, Talking Scared will be following the beam all the way to the Dark Tower – that mad edifice at the heart of Stephen King’s opus. Maybe it’s the heart of every story ever told… time will tell. Unlike Roland Deschain, I don’t go alone. I’m joined by author and fellow King-nut, Nat Cassidy (Mary, Nestlings, When the Wolf Comes Home) and absolute newbie, Chris Panatier (The Phlebotomist, The Redemption of Morgan Bright) and in this first ever episode we tussle with the tricky, dusty, thorny opening that is Book One: The Gunslinger. What follows dives deep into the book, but is 100% spoiler free about anything beyond it. So if you’ve only read The Gunslinger, you’re good to go. I hope you enjoy our wanderings. I hope you tinct. I hope you darkle. Other books mentioned:  On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000), by Stephen King It (1986), by Stephen King The Jerusalem Man (1988), by David Gemmell The Book of the New Sun (series, 1980-1987), by Gene Wolfe  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

The latest Off Book episode takes you out to the American desert and leaves you there, cold, alone and confused.We’re speaking with Dutch Marich, the surprisingly lovely mind behind the most terrifying found footage I’ve seen in years – The Horror in the High Desert series.These films are full of a particular kind of fear. Never obscure, but always hidden – leaving you as fascinated as you are scared. It’s the kind of weird, collective storytelling that used to set internet forums alight!In this 100% spoiler-free conversation, Dutch and I talk about withholding answers, we discuss the scary side of Nevada and his fascination with unexplained disappearances. And he even tell us the tenuous connection between his movies and Stephen King’s Desperation.Plus, if you’re a fan of these movies, you’ll find out a little info on what’s coming in the next instalment.Enjoy! Sign Dutch's petition Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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

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

Send us a textHow 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

Send us a textIt’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