Talking Scared

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

Listen at your own peril this week.

 

I spoke with Ian Tuason and Nina Kiri, the director and star of Undertone – billed as “the scariest movie you’ll ever hear!”

 

It’s the story of an isolated podcaster, who makes the terrible mistake of listening to some very unnerving audio files…which then start to bleed into her own life. You can imagine the number it did on me!

 

Ian and Nina talk about the movie’s roots in Ian’s own experience of late-life care for his parents, and the responsibility of portraying that on screen. We discuss how the film weaponises sound, how the internet is a scary, fascinating place, and even a little exclusive heads up about more to come in this universe.

 

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]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Corporate culture is a nightmare, but getting out of the office brings its own problems in Carter Keane’s debut novella – Morsel.

 

It’s a story about monsters and eldritch beings, about killer cults and evil law-enforcement, about wellbeing scams and a boss from hell – but it’s also a springboard for a whole conversation about the cons (many) and pros (debatable) of capitalism. Carter indulges my devil’s advocacy, before we get back to the matter of strange forest disappearances and horrible shit that happens with bears.

 

It’s a whole range of ways to feel scared of the world.

 

Enjoy!

 

Other books mentioned:


The Ritual (2011), by Adam Nevill


Last Days (2012), by Adam Nevill


All the Fiends of Hell (2024), by Adam Nevill


The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion (2017), by Margaret Killjoy


Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1989), by Frederic Jameson       


Debt: The First 500 Years (2011), by David Graeber


Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist (2017), by Kate Raworth


The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North America’s Wildlands (2020), by Jon Billman


Rust Belt Femme (2020), by Rachael Anne Jolie


Night of the Grizzlies (1969), by Jack Olsen

 

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

Nat and I stick around in the shadowed recesses of Black House for another half hour, to discuss all the things that Chris got right and wrong – and to make some entirely unfounded claims of our own.

 

It’s overflowing with spoilers for the whole Dark Tower series, so don’t listen if you’re a newbie. We start to ask who is the Crimson King? Would Roland and Jack have gotten along? And we get very grumpy about certain wolves in a certain town further down the road.

 

Enjoy.

 

Support Talking Scared on Patreon

 

Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch

 

Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social
 on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices