190 episodes
Talking Scared Neil McRobert
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4.9 • 192 Ratings
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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.
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190 – Kaaron Warren & The Un-Cosy House
We all love a good spooky house. And most of us enjoy a terrifying home-invasion ordeal (or at least, I know I do).
What happens when you put them together? Kaaron Warren’s The Underhistory is the answer, but it’s nothing at all like what you’d expect.
This new novel by the award-winning Australian writer is a story of memory, of rooms and architecture, of violence and misogyny, and of a very unusual old lady. We talk about all of that and more. It’s a great conversation, one in which we go hunting for the secrets of her book together.
Enjoy!
The Underhistory was published on April 11th by Viper
Other books mentioned:
Slights (2009), by Kaaron WarrenThe Grief Hole (2016), by Kaaron WarrenAny Human Heart (2002), by William BoydThe Measure of Sorrow (2023), by J. Ashley-Smith
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189 – The Black Girl Survives in This One, with Saraciea J. Fennell, Desiree S. Evans, Monica Brashears & Eden Royce
I bite off a lot this week, in a five-way conversation with editors and contributors to the ever-so-of-the-moment anthology The Black Girl Survives in This One. That’s a promise right there on the title page, but as you will find out, survival is not always the same thing as living happily ever after.
Saraciea J. Fennell, Desiree S. Evans, Monica Brashears & Eden Royce talk to me about the vision (and necessity) of the project and where their stories came from? We discuss the role of urban and family legend, authentic dialogue, writing for younger readers and how horror’s treatment of Black writers and characters has changed.
Enjoy!
The Black Girl Survives in This One was published on April 2nd by Flatiron Books
Other books mentioned:
Beloved (1987), by Toni Morrison60 Black Women in Horror Fiction (2014), by Sumiko SaulsonOf One Blood (1903), by Pauline HopkinsOut There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror (2023), ed, by Jordan Peele and John Joseph AdamsThe Vampire Huntress Legends Series (2003-2009), by L.A. Banks
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Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com
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188 – Scarlett Thomas & Hot Gothic
I’m in literary hero territory again … at least this time it’s sunny!
My guest is Scarlett Thomas, the groundbreaking writer of PopCo, Oligarchy, The Seed Collectors and the (post)modern speculative classic, The End of Mr Y. She’s one of my favourite writers, who has never seen five or six separate genres she can’t mash together.
This time around we are talking “Hot Gothic” in The Sleepwalkers, a darkly playful tale of a vacation–and a marriage–gone horribly wrong.
We cover accidentally arriving at a structure, the many ways to build characters from scratch, the dark consequences of sex and desire taken too far – and we agree on how hotels are just inherently creepy.
Great book. Great guest.
Enjoy!
The Sleepwalkers was published on April 9th by Simon and Schuster
Other books mentioned:
The End of Mr Y (2006), by Scarlett ThomasThe Seed Collectors (2015), by Scarlett ThomasOligarchy (2019), by Scarlett ThomasOpen: An Autobiography (2009), by Andre AgassiThe Woman in White (1860), by Wilkie CollinsThe Moonstone (1868), by Wilkie CollinsGone Girl (2012), by Gillian FlynnThe Talented Mr Ripley (1955), by Patricia HighsmithHangsaman (1951), by Shirley Jackson
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187 – The Carrie 50th Anniversary Deep Dive, with Nat Cassidy & Ally Malinenko
Carrie White turns 50 years old today!
April 5th, 1974 – the day King’s debut came out, and the world of horror we know live in changed forever.
To celebrate such an auspicious anniversary, there are only two people I could invite to this party. Step up Nat Cassidy and Ally Malinenko – writers who understand King and that bitter, brutal world between childhood and adulthood.
We talk about empathy and monsters, about the horror of high school, the abject and the menstruation taboo and about how we are all living in Margaret White’s America now…
Raise a glass to the prom queen of horror. She can light her own candles.
Enjoy!
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186 – Stephen Graham Jones & The Last Stand of the Final Girls
Alas, we come to the end!
Stephen Graham Jones’s The Angel of Indian Lake brings the most important horror trilogy of the century to its conclusion. For one last time we return to Proofrock, Idaho – to watch Jade Daniels do battle with monsters in the wood and the demons in her head.
SGJ also comes back to Talking Scared to finish our adjacent trilogy of conversations about these books. We talk about slashers and final girls for sure, but as ever with Stephen, these are windows onto something more profound – and he gives us his insight into how horror, justice, violence and luck operate in fiction.
This all sounds very profound. It is. But in the coolest way possible. The man is a rock star….
… but I STILL manage to freak him out with a ghost story.
Enjoy – it’s been a ride!
The Angel of Indian Lake was published on March 26thth by Saga Press and Titan Books
Other books mentioned:
Where the Red Fern Grows (1961), by Wilson RawlsMarvel Superheroes Secret Wars #10 (1984), by Jim ShooterIn Cold Blood (1965), by Truman CapoteMorphology of the Folktale (1928), by Vladimir ProppThe Red Badge of Courage (1895), by Stephen CraneThe Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1991), by Jean BaudrillardThe Name of the Rose (1980), by Umberto EcoThe Hollow Kind (2022), by Andy DavidsonPiranesi (2021), by Susannah ClarkeA Tale of Two Cities (1859), by Charles DickensThe Art of the Ridiculous Sublime: On David Lynch’s ‘Lost Highway’ (2000), by Slavoj ŽižekThe Warm Hands of Ghosts (2024), by Katherine ArdenThe Bear and the Nightingale (2017), by Katherine ArdenThe Others of Edenwell (2023), by Verity Holloway“A Fish Story” (2002), by Gene Wolfe
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Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com
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185 – Cynthia Pelayo & A Mermaid in the Windy City
Chi-Town!!
We’re heading to the midwestern metropolis this week, for a conversation with Cina Pelayo – all about murder, mystery, history and strange things in the water.
Her new novel, Forgotten Sisters is a heady, dreamlike concoction of Chicago lore and much older horrors. It features a pair of very wyrd sisters and a house by a river that holds nothing good.
As well as all of that, we talk about Cina’s personal journey with the paranormal, mermaid sightings, writing law enforcement, and wrestling with weird voices in fiction.
Oh, and the abject horror of social media!!
Enjoy!
Forgotten Sisters was published on March 19th by Thomas & Mercer
Other books mentioned:
Children of Chicago (2021), by Cynthia PelayoThe Shoemaker’s Magician (2023), by Cynthia PelayoLoteria (2023), by Cynthia PelayoInto the Forest and All the Way Through (2020), by Cynthia PelayoThe Reformatory (2023), by Tananarive Due
Support Talking Scared on Patreon
Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com
Support the show
Customer Reviews
A Treasure for Readers of Horror Fiction
Host Neil McRobert leads an in-depth and wide ranging discussion with some of the biggest and/or most interesting authors on the horror and dark fiction scene. Neil, while having some questionable opinions about film, has an infectious enthusiasm and deep knowledge of the genre and has created an excellent podcast for other horror fiction enthusiasts to either learn about authors and/or novels that they might not have been immediately familiar or to get greater insight into novels they have already read and enjoyed. I’m slowly but steadily making my way through the back catalogue but I highly recommend it.
Great show
So many great authors and stories I would otherwise never have heard of plus the great ones I do know. Great insight and perspectives. Highly recommend.
Smart Conversations about Horror Novels
It’s a grey, rainy day in Georgia—perfect for curling up with a podcast about horror novels. You can’t do better than Talking Scared with Neil McRobert. Smart, erudite, incisive questions and lively chat . If you like wide-ranging conversations with horror writers you need to check it out. Margaret Atwood, Catriona Ward, Stephen Graham-Homes, Tananarive Due, Victor Lavalle, and Stephen King are only some of the famous names, Neil talks with debut novelists and masters of the craft. Great stuff.
Watch out—your book budget is going to explode.