Talking Scared

Send us a textCome get a balloon, bring your slingshot, let’s float…it’s here!!!Yes, finally we’re off to Derry, to do battle with that goddamn clown. But as everyone knows, we can’t fight Pennywise alone. That’s why I’m taking my trusty, loyal, brave band of Losers with me. Nat Cassidy (Mary: An Awakening of Terror) and Ally Malinenko (This Appearing House) are joining me for a tour of the sewers, subtext and sociological horrors at the heart of King’s IT. Halfway through we realised this would to be a two-parter, ‘cos there is just too much to say. The horrors will follow in Part Two, this time we focus mainly on the heart. We talk about the characters, the depictions of childhood… and yes we get into that  scene (with possibly surprising opinions). I so hope you like this episode gang. I want to finally take the chance to explain what this book means to my enduring boyish heart. Enjoy!Read Grady Hendrix's essay HERESupport Talking Scared on PatreonCome 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 textI’ve rarely been more excited about an episode – for you to hear it or, indeed, about its very contents.We’re joined this week by Mike Flanagan. Yes, that Mike Flanagan. The genius loci of modern visual horror, the writer and director behind Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Sleep, The Midnight Club and Oculus. Our most literary horror director and a man who understand that horror is where the heart is. If you think my praise is too gushing then… we’ll just have to disagree.He may be a filmmaker, but he sure does love books. In this conversation we talk about Mike’s deep love for horror stories, how his childhood reading continues to influence his career, and what he’s still loving about the genre. We discuss his upcoming take on Fall of the House of Usher, his next Stephen King adaptation, and a certain tower that looms in the distance.Yes, Mike’s career – like all great things – follows the Beam.    The Fall of the House of Usher is out on Netflix later this year.  Other books mentioned in this episode include: The House with a Clock in its Walls (1973), by John Bellairs It (1986), by Stephen King Gerald’s Game (1992), by Stephen King “The Life of Chuck,” in If it Bleeds (2020), by Stephen King Echo (2022), by Thomas Olde Heuvelt Blackwater (1983), by Michael McDowell If You See Her (2019), by Ania Ahlborn This Appearing House (2022), by Ally Malinenko The Clackity (2022), by Lora Senf  Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome 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 text If horror is indeed a broad church, then our guest this week is preaching from the darkest of pulpits. Paula D. Ashe is the author of We Are Here To Hurt Each Other – a collection of short stories that has accrued infamy and acclaim in equal measure over the last 12 months. Her stories are cruel. They present a depraved world of man (and woman’s) direst excesses, a world that rubs against the numinous and the cosmically amoral. Can you say ‘trigger warnings needed’!We talk at length about the allure of extreme horror, about whether an author can truly consider their readers’ feelings, about horrendous crimes and the difference between the horror of imagery and action. We also give a lot of love to Clive Barker and his influence on Paula’s own mythos-building.This may be the most extreme episode of Talking Scared ever recorded.Enjoy (whatever that means!) We Are Here To Hurt Each Other was published on 21st Feb 2022, by Nictitating Books Other books mentioned in this episode include: Where I End (2022), by Sophie White Stephen (1991), by Elizabeth Massie The Hellbound Heart (1986), by Clive Barker Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome 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 textWhat if the house that shaped you was a broken, haunted place?That’s one of many questions we explore this week, in the company of Sarah Gailey. Their 2022 hit, Just Like Home is out in paperback and … hell … do we get our fingers right into its dusty, cobwebbed corners! We talk about serial-killing fathers and monstrous mothers, the power and pitfalls of descriptive prose. We discuss Freudian metaphors and the profound fears of childhood, offer a fresh take on the thorny question of unlikeable female protagonists, and I present my ‘possession’ theory on the crimes of Ted Bundy (it’s bullsh*t.)This is a lovely conversation about dark things.Enjoy!Just Like Home was published in paperback on May 30th by Tor and Hodder & StoughtonOther books mentioned in this episode include: River of Teeth (2017), by Sarah Gailey The Echo Wife (2021), by Sarah Gailey Maw (2022), by Jude Doyle Monstrilio (2023), by Gerardo Sámano Córdova The Sickness (2023 –), by Jenna Cha and Lonnie Nadler Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome 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 textIn the immortal words of Creed’s Scott Stapp, “can you take me HIIIGHER?”Yes, I can.Our guest this week is Nicholas Binge, author the new buzzy, horror-sci-fi novel, Ascension. It’s about a very weird, very big mountain that appears out of nowhere to lure the unwary upwards. Nothing good occurs, of course. Again…much like a Creed concert.This is where the comparison’s to terrible post-grunge rock ends (thankfully) cos Nick and I have much more fun making comparisons to the likes of Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker and H.P. Lovecraft… to the classic Gothic and Adventure stories that Nick mixes with his oh-so-modern science-fiction themes. Ascension is a treat for fans of both traditions.We also talk about the place of mountains in our literature, the shattering chaos of quantum mechanics, recontextualising neurodiverse characters and the occasional shoggoth!Enjoy!Ascension was published on April 25th by HarperVoyager and Riverhead Books.Other books mentioned in this episode include: Annihilation (2014), by Jeff VanderMeer The Lost World (1912), by Arthur Conan Doyle At the Mountains of Madness (1936), by H.P. Lovecraft House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski Fever Dream (2014), by Samanta Schweblin Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome 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 textWe are paying tribute to the best of us this week. The booksellers. Keepers of the flame, beacons in the night, purveyors of meaning in a cold, dark universe … usually.Alice Slater used to be a member of that celebrated guild, now she’s written about the light and dark side of the trade in her debut smash, Death of a Bookseller. It pulls back the curtain on an industry we all care deeply about, to reveal the obsession, madness and … murder(?) behind the chai lattes and instagram posts.In this conversation we cover a lot of ground… from the problems inherent in True Crime, book-fetishization, and the weird empathy we feel for serial killers’ pets. Plus, I get to talk about my favourite things (see: everything mentioned so far) with someone who genuinely once worked in my local bookshop.This was a blast.Enjoy! Death of a Bookseller was published on April 25th by Hodder and ScarletOther books mentioned in this episode include: Savage Appetites: True Stories of Women, Crime and Obsession (2019), by Rachel Monroe The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper (2019), by Hallie Rubenhold You (2014), by Caroline Kepnes Gone Girl (2012), by Gillian Flynn The Last House on Needless Street (2021), by Catriona Ward The Sluts (2004), by Dennis Cooper Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (2021), by Eric LaRocca Echo (2022), by Thomas Olde Heuvelt  Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome 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 textNo book has ever made me so painfully aware of my nipples as Katrina Monroe’s The Graveyard of Lost Children. And I won’t ever have to breastfeed. Katrina’s novel is a full-treatment of the horrors involved in motherhood. Yes there is love, but there is also social pressure, paranoia, loneliness and chafing! And that’s before we even get to the spectral Black-Haired Woman who haunts the unlucky mothers of Katrina’s second novel. Parenting horror has seen a lot of great titles in recent years, but this may be my favourite.In this episode we talk about changeling lore, about asylums, about the motif and metaphor of wells, and the creepiest mental health condition i’ve ever heard of.And I guarantee this is the only horror lit podcast of the week to feature the phrase “stool sample.”Enjoy!The Graveyard of Lost Children was published on May 9th by Poison Pen PressLink to The Burning of Bridget ClearyOther books mentioned in this episode include:  They Drown our Daughters (2022), by Katrina Monroe If We Were Villains (2017), by M. L. Rio Such a Pretty Smile (2022), by Kristi DeMeester The Good People (2016), by Hannah Kent Last to Leave the Room (forthcoming 2023), by Caitlin Starling Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome 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 textYou will know Justin Cronin as the author of the landmark The Passage. That trilogy set the world of horror and science fiction (and all points in between) alight in the early 2000s and he’s back after eight long years, with The Ferryman. This time he’s swapping vampire plagues for something wholly more subtle … but no less terrifying. I can’t tell you what ‘cos that would ruin it for everyone, but it may shake the very building blocks of your reality.Justin and I discuss all manner of existential worries, from the nature of reality to the malign impact of ‘wellbeing’ lifestyles. We talk about Kazuo Ishiguro, Planet of the Apes and myriad other influences that flow into the wonder, horror and awe of The Ferryman. Don’t worry, we cover The Passage too… And he also explains how telling any story is just like telling a joke really, really well.Enjoy! The Ferryman was published on May 2nd by Ballantine Books and OrionOther books mentioned in this episode include: The Earth Abides (1948), by George Stewart Lonesome Dove (1985), by Larry McMurtry Never Let Me Go (2005), by Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day (1989), by Kazuo Ishiguro Netherland (2008), by Joseph O’Neill Planet of the Apes (1963), by Pierre Boulle Shotgun Lovesongs (2013), by Nickolas Butler Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome 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 textWhat if the world ended, not with a bang, but a slow squelch? That’s sort-of the premise of The Marigold, the brand-new novel from Andrew F. Sullivan. In this book a slow apocalypse is corroding Toronto. Above ground, urban development is driving ecological disaster, whilst in the basements and dark places a new fungal menace is squirming from the shadow. You may never look at your own athlete’s foot the same way.Andrew and I talk about many things, mushrooms and mycology, the weird ‘third life’ of fungus and the cosmic horror to be found in the soil and loam. We also look at how grimy 80s exploitation movies influenced his book, and I discover an awful lot about raccoons.A great conversation about a unique book. Enjoy!The Marigold was published on April 18th by ECW PressOther books mentioned in this episode include: Annihilation (2014), by Jeff VanderMeer What Moves the Dead (2022), by T. Kingfisher The Deluge (2023), by Stephen Markley Follow Me To Ground (2018), by Sue Rainsford Night Terror: Troubled Sleep and the Stories We Tell About It (2023), by Alice Vernon Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome 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 textThis week we’re dissecting spectres and excavating the haunted house in Ai Jiang’s word-of-mouth smash, Linghun.Ai’s novella is a blast. A read-in-one-sitting tale of grief and greed and ghosts and what the word HOME really means. We go deep, talking about different cultural iterations of the supernatural, the impact of location on writing style…and the horrors of the Edinburgh vaults. Enjoy!Linghun was published on April 4th by Dark Matter INKSupport Talking Scared on PatreonCome 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