62 – Catherynne M. Valente and the Homeowners Association from Hell
Talking Scared26 Okt 2021

62 – Catherynne M. Valente and the Homeowners Association from Hell

Send us a text Perfect places breed hideous crimes – that’s my understanding at least. If you like The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, or Twin Peaks (or anything by David Lynch) then you’ll get a kick out of Catherynne M. Valente’s Comfort Me with Apples. Despite being a novella of less than 130 pages, it crams in everything from the whole rotten tradition of awful things – from the book of Genesis, via fairytales and the Gothic, all the way up to the most cutting-edge dystopian sci-fi. This tiny tale of a perfect small town and a perfect marriage, all undercut with the sour tang of wrongness. Catherynne talks in detail about the various strands that she has knotted together into this story. We cover religion and the potential for evil within, Disney towns and cartoon police, and we discuss why Bluebeard and his locked cellar door is such a key and recurrent trope in domestic horror. And, as ever, I take the chance to go off on a frothing political rant. Enjoy! Comfort Me with Apples is published by Tor on November 9th Check out Mark Kermode’s rant about the movie Entourage – to prepare for the Hallowe’en special. Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episoder(323)

Off Book #18 – Hokum, with Damian McCarthy

Off Book #18 – Hokum, with Damian McCarthy

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277 – Marcus Kliewer & Rules Help Control the Fun

277 – Marcus Kliewer & Rules Help Control the Fun

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28 Apr 1h 19min

276 – Kylie Lee Baker & Swords Make Everything Worse

276 – Kylie Lee Baker & Swords Make Everything Worse

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275 – Caroline Bicks & The Stuff Too Dark for Even Stephen King

275 – Caroline Bicks & The Stuff Too Dark for Even Stephen King

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 th...

14 Apr 1h 34min

Off Book #17 – Undertone, with Ian Tuason and Nina Kiri

Off Book #17 – Undertone, with Ian Tuason and Nina Kiri

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...

10 Apr 51min

274 – Carter Keane & Working Ourselves to Death!!

274 – Carter Keane & Working Ourselves to Death!!

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 cul...

7 Apr 1h 22min

Let Us Palaver #8 – The Black House Debrief

Let Us Palaver #8 – The Black House Debrief

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. ...

3 Apr 33min

The Dark Tower Deep Dive #8 – Black House

The Dark Tower Deep Dive #8 – Black House

Time to whet our appetites for the Dark Tower again – this time with an extra serving of ass cheek! After three months away, we’re picking up with travellin’ Jack Sawyer after we left him in The Tali...

31 Mar 2h 29min

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