The Monster She Wrote Podcast

TW: This novel includes depictions of death by suicide and harm/death to an animal. We mention it in this episode but do not discuss in depth. Be advised. What happens when a horror author moves into the suburbs? Murder, of course. In Lindy Ryan's novel Dollface , new resident Jill finds herself at the heart of a slasher plot, straight out of one of her novels. Recommended in this episode:  the Ve...

In This House Will Feed by Maria Tureaud , Maggie, a young woman trying to survive the Great Hunger in Ireland, is rescued from a workhouse by the enigmatic Lady Catherine, who brings Maggie back to her estate home. She promises Maggie a roof over her head, food to eat, and, eventually, a shockingly ample plot of land to call her own–with one catch. Maggie must pretend to be Lady Catherine's daugh...

Join us as we interview author Maria Tureaud on her Irish Gothic This House Will Feed.    Maria Tureaud is an editor and acclaimed author of middle grade and adult fiction. Born and raised in County Clare on the west coast of Ireland, she now lives with her husband and son in New Jersey and can be found online at AuthorMariaTureaud.com .   Recommended in this episode: The Eyes Are the Best Part an...

In "Perdita" by Hildegarde Hawthorne , Silvia and Jack settle into their newlywed lives on Alfalfa Ranch, owned by Silvia's Aunt Agnes. Things would be perfect, except for the little ghost child who can't quite leave them alone.  More on Hildegarde here.    Recommended in this episode: The Macabre by Kosoko Jackson NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–a...

In Anne Rivers Siddons's The House Next Door, Colquitt and Walter Kennedy are living their dream life. They have flourishing careers, a thriving social life, and a home they love in an affluent Southern suburb. But when an architect builds a house on the lot next door, immediately Colquitt worries that their quiet life will be disrupted. Unfortunately, the house has something much worse in store f...

In Liz Moore's The God of the Woods , the idyllic setting of the Adirondack mountains conceals something sinister. One child going missing is a tragedy–but two children–and from the same family is a disturbing pattern. A young investigator is pretty sure that the wealthy Van Laar family is concealing something, if only she can get close enough to the family to find out what they are hiding.   Reco...

Heads up, listeners. The ghosts of Hill House invaded this recording, so you might hear some audio glitches.    In Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House , Eleanor Vance has just buried her ailing elderly mother when she is invited to be part of a psychic investigation at a notoriously haunted house. The plan is to rent the home out for the summer and see what evidence of ghosts they can col...

In Mo Moshaty's short story "Dandelion Wine" in her collection Clairviolence , a long married couple have a fight over a plum cake won in a bingo game that just might be the end for the two of them.    Recommended in this episode: Lindy Ryan's Dollface , Gwendolyn Kiste's In These Gilded Ghostly Hearts (preorder) , and Jane Harper's The Survivors    NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all...

In Play Nice by Rachel Harrison , carefree Clio Barnes's life is interrupted when her estranged mother dies, and she and her sisters inherit their childhood home. Her plans to renovate the old place and sell it quickly fall apart when the demons from her past refuse to be ignored.  Recommended in this episode: Good Boy , streaming on Shudder NEWS: We have a  Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our...

In Sarah Orne Jewett's short story "The Landscape Chamber," a woman travelling alone, in search of adventure, finds herself off the beaten path. When her horse is injured, she seeks help at an old manor tucked away in the country, seemingly forgotten by time. There, she meets an old man and his lonely daughter. While they welcome her in, it seems that something in the home does not want her there....

In Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Gothic horror The Bewitching , three different women across three timelines are interconnected by mysterious disappearances, murder, and dark magic. In 1998, graduate student Minerva researches the real events that inspired Beatrice Tremblay's most famous novel. In 1932, Beatrice Tremblay is caught up in the disappearance of her friend and roommate. And in 1908, Minerva's...

In Melanie Tem's Prodigal, eleven-year-old Lucy is grappling with the mysterious death of her older brother–a suspected drug overdose–when her older sister Rae mysteriously disappears. The losses alone are too much for her family, but now Lucy is visited by the ghost of her brother, leading her into a dangerous supernatural world.  Recommended in this episode:  I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacque...

Marjorie Bowen's short story "The Crown Derby Plate" opens as "three elderly, cheerful women" sit around a fire for a cozy Christmas. They talk of a nearby estate that is rumored to be haunted when one of the women remembers that they had beautiful Crown Derby china that she wants for her antique shop. So, she makes the journey to the house, only to discover a little more than she bargained for. ...

In E. Nesbit's story "The Shadow," a vibrant Christmas party has gone late into the night, and everyone stays over at the manor house, given the late hour. Three women are sitting up around the fire with cocoa in hand, gossiping about boys and telling spooky stories. One woman, though, has an especially frightening tale to tell.  Read "The Shadow" here .    Recommended in this episode: Sally Thorn...

SPOILERS ABOUND as we discuss Mariko Koike's The Graveyard Apartment . Be forewarned!   A young married couple has found the perfect apartment for their growing family. It's beautiful and spacious. It's close to shopping, the train, and their daughter's school. The only problem? It is surrounded by a cemetery. A bit weird, yes, but not a problem–until strange and troubling events begin forcing out...

In Mary Wilkins Freeman's short story "Luella Miller," a tale is told about a woman named Luella, who is prone to hysterics and drains the energy from everyone around her. Is she just a woman in need of help? Or something much, much more sinister?   Read Freeman's story on the Library of America "Story of the Week" site or listen to it via the Podcastle podcast, here: ​​ https://podcasts.apple.com...

Last episode, we welcomed author Jen Julian on podcast. And this episode, Mel and Lisa discuss her book Red Rabbit Ghost in more detail.  College Freshman Jesse Calloway returns to his hometown of Blacknot in North Carolina after receiving mysterious anonymous texts in a college social media app with clues about his mother's unresolved death. She died when he was an infant, so he doesn't remember...

Today, we welcome writer Jen Julian to discuss her book Red Rabbit Ghost . Jen Julian is a writer from Eastern North Carolina. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and an MFA in Fiction from UNC Greensboro.  Her short story collection, Earthly Delights and Other Apocalypses , was the winner of the Press 53 Fiction Prize and was published in 2018, and her debut nove...

In Elizabeth Hand's A Haunting on the Hill , Holly Sherwin is living every writer's dream. She has grant money to finish her new play, which she uses to rent a mansion in the woods so that she can work in peace. The only problem? The mansion is Hill House, a living, breathing bad place that promises to turn Holly's dream into a nightmare.   Recommended in this episode: Laura Purcell's The Silent C...

"She looks through water, / She looks through air,  She leaps at the moon / And she looks in. Give her silver, Give her gold,  / And bind her eyes  With a brick and a pin." "Where All Things Perish" by Tanith Lee was first published in Weird Tales #325 (Fall 2001). It's available in full on Weird Fiction Review's website , which also links to an interview with Lee by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer.   Rec...

We are on a summer hiatus, but we will be returning with brand-new episodes soon! Please enjoy this classic episode on "The Summer People" by Shirley Jackson.   Shirley Jackson once again proves that she is the queen of creepy short stories, this time with her story "The Summer People." The story starts idyllic, like many of Jackson's stories. The Allisons are a wealthy older couple who summer in...

We are on summer hiatus! So please enjoy this MSW Classic episode on Tanarive Due's "Ghost Summer"  Tananarive Due's "Summer" (from her story collection Ghost Summer ) is set in her fictional town of Gracetown, Florida, where the humid and murky swamps hide bodies and demon leeches. It's not a place to raise a baby–or maybe it is.

Author of WORDS MADE OF FLESH , the eco-horror YOU WILL SPEAK FOR THE DEAD, and the Stoker-nominated story "Ten Thousand Crawling Children," R.A. Busby spends her spare time running in the desert with her dog and thinking about weird things to write about.    Recommended in this episode: "Ten Thousand Crawling Children" and WORDS MADE OF FLESH by R. A. Busby   NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now...

Every year, two children from one of twelve districts in Panem are chosen to participate in the Hunger Games, where they will fight each other to the death for the entertainment of the Capitol–and the chance to bring undreamt of wealth back to their poor families. When young Primrose is chosen as one of the tributes, her older sister Katniss sacrifices herself to go in her place. But now, 16-year-...

Please enjoy this re-run of a classic Monster, She Wrote episode.  Author of the novella Corporate Body and the Shirley Jackson Award-winning story "Not the Man I Married," R.A. Busby spends her spare time running in the desert with her dog and finding weird things to write about.