Conversations with the biggest names in horror fiction. A podcast for horror readers who want to know where their favourite stories came from . . . and what fri...
226 – Virginia Feito & A Good Old-Fashioned Bad Girl
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 [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
--------
1:19:14
225 – Lucy Rose & The Cumbrian Chainsaw Massacre
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 [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
--------
1:18:28
Let Us Palaver #1 – The Dark Tower Debrief
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 Patreon
Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
--------
25:41
The Dark Tower Deep Dive #1 – The Gunslinger
“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 [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
--------
2:13:08
Off Book #6 – Dutch Marich & Horror in the High Desert
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 Patreon
Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conversations with the biggest names in horror fiction. A podcast for horror readers who want to know where their favourite stories came from . . . and what frightens the people who wrote them.