Ah the madhouse. The loony bin. The ASYLUM!!

A classic horror location. One of my favourites, but problematic as hell in the wrong hands.

Thankfully, I have the right author for the topic. Christ Panatier has the talent and the sensitivity to ensure that his novel, The Redemption of Morgan Bright can engage with the tropes without perpetuating them. He brings something as old-as-time but very new to asylum horror, and the results are dizzying, terrifying, awful.

We talk about the perils of research for an empathetic horror writer, we discuss some hideous medical practices from the past, and we look hard at the desecration of rights that we all grew up assuming were here to stay.

Plus, the way to make friends in the horror community...

Enjoy!

The Redemption of Morgan Bright was published on April 23rd by Angry Robot Books

Other books mentioned:

• The Phlebotomist (2020), by Chris Panatier
• Stringer (2022), by Chris Panatier
• Annihilation (2014), by Jeff VanderMeer
• The Haunting of Hill House (1959), by Shirley Jackson
• Never Let Me Go (2005), by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Mad Wives: Schizophrenic Women in the 1950s (1988), by Carol A. B. Warren
• Full Immersion (2022), by Gemma Amor
• The Grip of It (2017), by Jac Jemc
• The House at the End of Lacelean Street (2024), by Catherine McCarthy
• The Spite House (2023), by Johnny Compton
• The Day of the Door (2024), by Laurel Hightower

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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 Warren
• The Grief Hole (2016), by Kaaron Warren
• Any Human Heart (2002), by William Boyd
• The Measure of Sorrow (2023), by J. Ashley-Smith

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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 Morrison
• 60 Black Women in Horror Fiction (2014), by Sumiko Saulson
• Of One Blood (1903), by Pauline Hopkins
• Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror (2023), ed, by Jordan Peele and John Joseph Adams
• The Vampire Huntress Legends Series (2003-2009), by L.A. Banks

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