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In our Halloween episode, we discuss horror fiction, including but not limited to, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Caitlin Starling’s The Luminous Dead, The Witcher series, and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. We also discuss film, video games, art, and yes, drinking too much Jack Daniel’s. All that in under thirty minutes!

Cast

Hosted by Dean Karpowicz, with Ky Richmond.

Content Discussed

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Schwartz

Are you brave enough for Scary Stories?Some boys and girls were at a party one night. There was a graveyard down the street, and they were talking about how scary it was.

“Don’t ever stand on a grave after dark,” one of the boys said. “The person inside will grab you.”

“A grave doesn’t scare me,” said one of the girls. “I’ll do it right now. . . .”

Welcome to the macabre world of Scary Stories, where folklorist Alvin Schwartz offers up the most alarming collection of horror, dark revenge, and supernatural events of all time. Here is a selection of extraordinarily chilling tales along with spine-tingling illustrations by renowned artist Brett Helquist.

The Luminous Dead, Starling

A thrilling, atmospheric debut with the intensive drive of The Martian and Gravity and the creeping dread of Annihilation, in which a caver on a foreign planet finds herself on a terrifying psychological and emotional journey for survival.

The Witcher, Sapkowski

Geralt of Rivia is a witcher. A cunning sorcerer. A merciless assassin.

And a cold-blooded killer.

His sole purpose: to destroy the monsters that plague the world.

But not everything monstrous-looking is evil, and not everything fair is good…and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.

The international hit that inspired the video game The Witcher.

Beloved, Morrison

Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but 18 years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement.

The other material we discussed in the Halloween episode can be found on NPR’s list of the Top 100 Horror Stories.

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