Talking Scared

We're Southbound for monster-loving this week on Talking
Scared.

 Georgia writer, Yah Yah Schofield comes to discuss her Southern Gothic debut, On Sundays She Picked Flowers – a story of monsters, spirits, swamps, and generational trauma. There’s a very bad mama and a very haunted house.

 

Yah Yah and I talk about mother-daughter relationships, the difference between ghosts and haints, the influence of elders, and why the rules are different for Black ‘weird girls.’

 

Plus, in Yah Yah’s own words – we discuss tongue-kissing monsters.

 

Enjoy!

 

Other books mentioned:


The Haunting of Hill House (1959), by Shirley Jackson


Haints: American Ghosts, Millennial Passions and Contemporary Gothic Fictions (2011), by Arthur Redding


The Colour Purple (1982), by Alice Walker


Beloved (1987), by Toni Morrison


Sula (1978), by Toni Morrison


In the Dream House: A Memoir (2019), by Carmen Maria Machado


The Lamb (2025), by Lucy Rose


We Are Here to Hurt Each Other (2022), by Paula D. Ashe


Between Two Fires (2012), by Christopher Buehlman

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Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]

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Imagine you’re back in high school – but worse! The shuffling idiots actually want to EAT you!

 

That’s the premise of Courtney Summers’ This is Not a Test, her 2012 zombie novel of teen despair amongst the undead, now reissued in a fresh ‘definitive’ version for 2026. When better than a time in which the mindless, greedy and brutal are running amok in the real world.

 

Courtney and I talk about zombies in 2012 and now, we discuss optimism versus despair, we track the challenges of writing a survival thriller with a suicidal protagonist, and she offers advice on rapid character building and writing teen dialogue.

 

It’s a good one.

 

Enjoy!

 

Other books mentioned:


The Project (2021), by Courtney Summers


Room To Dream (2018), by David Lynch and Kristine McKenna


The Stand (1990), by Stephen King

 

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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The year may have started with more real-world horrors from old white dudes, but here on Talking Scared they get their comeuppance – in the form of Kristi DeMeester’s Dark Sisters.

 

Kristi returns to the show for the first time since 2022, to talk about her novel of religious hypocrisy, patriarchal control and feminine revenge. It’s a three-timeline story of curses through the century and the dark magic that underpins everything.

 

She tells us about her own childhood in the fundamentalist church, we look back at the cruelty culture of the mid-noughties, and we revel in the wrath of witches with nothing to lose.

 

Enjoy!

 

Other books mentioned:


Such a Pretty Smile (2022), by Kristi DeMeester


Itch (2025), by Gemma Amor


Gather the Daughters (2017), by Jennie Melamed


Grey Dog (2024), by Elliot Gish

 

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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No need for a big intro this week. You know what this is about.

 

The year is over, and it’s time to offer my thoughts on the best books that made it bearable. Here’s my top-10 favourite horror novels of 2025.

 

I invite comment and debate. The polite kind. Don’t make me set Ted on you.

 

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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In our sixth Let Us Palaver, Nat and I try to clean things up a bit after the dirty deep dive into Wizard & Glass.

 

We get spoilery, so this is for Tower Junkie’s only. It will make no sense to anyone else anyway – as we get deep into the metatextual elements
of what is to come, who WE think put those red shoes in the road, and we begin to question which books we should read next.

 

Not a dirty joke in sight.

 

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]
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