Episodes

  • 222 – Clay McLeod Chapman & Oh My God, What Have I Done?

    222 – Clay McLeod Chapman & Oh My God, What Have I Done?
    Jan 7 2025
    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
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    1 hr and 22 mins
  • 221 – The Best Scary Books of 2024

    221 – The Best Scary Books of 2024
    Dec 31 2024
    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
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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • 220 – Grief and Monsters: The From a Buick 8 Deep Dive

    220 – Grief and Monsters: The From a Buick 8 Deep Dive
    Dec 23 2024
    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
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    2 hrs and 3 mins
  • 219 – State of the Horror Nation 2024, with Emily Hughes, Stephanie Gagnon & Anna Dupre

    219 – State of the Horror Nation 2024, with Emily Hughes, Stephanie Gagnon & Anna Dupre
    Dec 17 2024
    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 MartinezHorror 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
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    2 hrs and 22 mins
  • [From the Vault] Catriona Ward & The All-Consuming Spoiler Warning

    [From the Vault] Catriona Ward & The All-Consuming Spoiler Warning
    Dec 10 2024
    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
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    54 mins
  • [From the Vault] Zakiya Dalila Harris & The Fear of Not Being Black Enough

    [From the Vault] Zakiya Dalila Harris & The Fear of Not Being Black Enough
    Dec 3 2024
    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
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    58 mins
  • [From the Vault] Laura Purcell & The Art of Darkness

    [From the Vault] Laura Purcell & The Art of Darkness
    Nov 26 2024
    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
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    50 mins
  • [From the Vault] Gemma Amor & The Start of a Horrific Friendship AKA The Mental Health in Horror Episode

    [From the Vault] Gemma Amor & The Start of a Horrific Friendship AKA The Mental Health in Horror Episode
    Nov 19 2024
    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
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    1 hr and 53 mins