Talking Scared

This week is full of muck and murk and mushrooms. We flit amongst the trees, we bed on moss, we howl at the moon.

Daisy Pearce is entering her bog witch era!

The author takes us to her native Cornwall, for a story of haunting and imprisonment, small town baggage and creepy houses in the woods. We
talk about the oppressive landscape and the mythical texture of the place. We ask whether anyone in a small town can ever really leave high school behind… and we really look at the fine art of trepanation AKA – having a hole drilled in your head (and what it would feel like!)

 

Enjoy!

 

Other books mentioned:


Something in the Walls (2025), by Daisy Pearce


Water Shall Refuse Them (2019), by Lucy McKnight Hardy


A Head Full of Ghosts (2015), by Paul Tremblay


Itch (2025), by Gemma Amor


The Man From the Train : The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery (2017), by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James


A Simple Plan (1993), by Scott Smith


From Hell (1999), by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell

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Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]
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This week we host one of the most exciting horror filmmakers of the decade – Damian McCarthy, the twisted mind behind Caveat, Oddity and
now, Hokum.

 

It’s the biggest film in Damian’s career so far, with his biggest star, Adam Scott playing Ohm, a deeply flawed American writer who travels to Ireland, to spread his parent’s ashes. Whilst staying in a creaky old hotel, he stumbled across dark human conspiracy and witchy haunting.

 

Damian is so much nicer than Ohm, and this is a cheery conversation about the cheeriest scary film I’ve seen in a while!

 

Enjoy

 

Support Talking Scared on Patreon

 

Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch

 

Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]
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Cognitohazards abound this week, as Marcus Kliewer joins me for a conversation about the reality-shredding We Used to Live Here and his new novel of obsessional rules, The Caretaker.

 

In both books, there are things that should not be known, and certainly not questioned. Yet questioning is my job – so we get into the expansive and weird universe Marcus is building, and the process of playing games
and leaving clues for the reader. We talk about how his own terrors and neurodivergence informs his fiction, and I pass on a lecture from my wife that these books should come with an OCD trigger warning.

 

Plus – you get not one but TWO recommendations for true existential
horror reads.

 

Enjoy!

 

Other books mentioned:


We Used to Live Here (2025), by Marcus Kliewer


House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski


The Denial of Death (1973), by Ernest Becker


A Short Stay in Hell (2009), by Steven L. Peck


The Divine Farce (2009), by Michael Graziano


Japanese Gothic (2026), by Kylie Lee Baker

 

Support Talking Scared on Patreon

 

Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch

 

Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A conversation about codes of honour and the rules of haunting in this week’s episode – as I’m joined by Kylie Lee Baker, author of 2025’s incredible Bat Eater, and the brand-new Japanese Gothic.

 

It’s the story of a very particular haunted house, a brutal samurai family, and a murderer who can’t remember his crime. It’s exhilaratingly weird and Kylie leads me through its many strange rooms.

 

We talk about her own dual heritage, it’s role in the story, and links to the very real historical Samurai. We discuss the meanings of Gothic in her work, the art of writing puzzling fiction, and Timothy Chalamet's role in inspiring the novel.

 

Enjoy!

 

Other books mentioned:


Bat Eater (2025), by Kylie Anne Baker


Mexican Gothic (2020), by Silvia Moreno-Garcia


So Thirsty (2024), by Rachel Harrison


Rekt (2025), by Alex Rodriguez


Man of Wind and Moss (2026), by Alex Rodriguez

Support Talking Scared on Patreon

 

Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch

 

Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Stephen King tells you to have a guest on your podcast – you listen!

 

That’s how I came to meet Caroline Bicks, the inaugural Stephen E. King Chair at the University of Maine, and author of the Monsters in the Archive – the first full-length study of the King literary collection.

 

It’s part memoir, part literary biography, part granular exploration of King’s editorial process – but ALL fun. I’m a nerd on this subject, and I found out plenty that I didn’t know.

 

As well as discussing our own relationship with King’s early work, we also talk about the stuff that never made it to print. The exploding vampire babies, the Kaiju-sized Carrie and the original ending of The Shining that is so much darker than you could bear.

 

Enjoy!

 

Other books mentioned:


Carrie (1974), by Stephen King


‘Salem’s Lot (1975), by Stephen King


The Shining (1977), by Stephen King


Night Shift (1978), by Stephen King


Pet Semetary (1983), by Stephen King


On Writing (2000), by Stephen King


North Woods (2023), by Daniel Mason


Ulverton (1992), by Adam Thorpe

 

Support Talking Scared on Patreon

 

Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch

 

Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices