Tanith Lee's "Louisa the Poisoner"

Kelly Link’s “Stone Animals” begins with an unspoken question, immediately throwing readers into an ambiguous but nightmarish journey as a family moves into a new home, where nothing is as it should be. Rabbits are taking over the yard. The children are eating grass and complaining of haunted items. And the husband never wants to come home. But is it really a haunted home? Or has this family made it that way by moving their own baggage into this contested domestic space?

Recommended in this ep: Carissa Orlando’s The September House;  The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste

UP NEXT: C.L. Moore’s “Shambleau”

Buy Toil and Trouble here!

What Moves the Dead is T. Kingfisher’s retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” More than that though, it’s the tale of Alex Easton, a retired soldier, who visits their dying friend, Madeline, at her family manor. Something very sinister is going on, and it’s up to Alex, along with their newfound friends, a mycologist and a doctor, to figure it out before it’s too late. 

Recommended in this episode: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno Garcia

UP NEXT: Kelly Link’s “Stone Animals”

Buy Toil and Trouble here!

Louisa was raised in isolation in a cottage deep in the woods by a mysterious witch. It sounds like the start of a fairy tale, but this story takes twists and turns as Louisa leaves her home for the outside world. She’s no princess…and this is no fairy tale. This is a Gothic tale with plenty of intrigue, led by a rather unusual heroine. Join us as we discuss Tanith Lee’s “Louisa the Poisoner.”

Recommended in this episode: Deanna Raybourn’s Veronica Speedwell series

UP NEXT: What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

Tanith Lee tribute anthology:  https://tanithleestoryteller.com/

Buy Toil and Trouble here!

We made it to 100 episodes!  

Join us as we look back at the writing of the book and as we look to the future of the podcast!

UP NEXT: Tanith Lee’s “Louisa the Poisoner”

Buy Toil and Trouble here!

We are on hiatus for the December holidays. Please enjoy this classic episode from our archives. 

We will be back in 2024 with a brand new season and a special celebration of our 100th episode. 

Have a happy holiday season, from Lisa and Mel. 

Please enjoy this classic episode from our archives. 

Enjoy your holiday season, and we will be back in 2024 with a brand new season and a special celebration of our 100th episode. 

A young doctor is called into the home of a wealthy man, but rather than seeing the sick patient he is expecting, he is greeted with a seemingly healthy man, who offers him a thousand pounds to attend a death bed. The doctor, who isn’t a rich man himself, reluctantly accepts the strange request. Of course, this is a ghost story, so the doctor doesn’t know exactly what he is in for…Join us as we discuss Ada Buisson’s “The Ghost’s Summons.”

Story originally published in Belgravia (January 1868); Collected in The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories: Volume One (edited by Tara Moore, 2016)

Recommended in this episode: Candy Cain Kills by Brian McAuley and the holiday episodes of Doctor Who

UP NEXT:  Our next episode is our 100th episode. We want to celebrate this milestone, but since it is the holiday season, we will be taking a hiatus to be with family. We will rerun some of our favorite past holiday episodes, but we will be back in January, to kick off Season 5 and celebrate 100 episodes of Monster, She Wrote. We hope you will join us.

Have a happy holiday season, from Lisa and Mel!

Buy Toil and Trouble here!

Exactly two years after she disappeared, Julie mysteriously comes back, with no memory of where she’s been. To celebrate her return, Julie’s friends get together for a girls’ weekend away at a remote hotel. Things, however, are not all wonderful–Julie doesn’t seem like herself at all. Something else, something more sinister and dangerous, is hiding beneath the surface, and it all comes out over the course of the trip.

Recommended in this episode: Elizabeth Hand's A Haunting on the Hill and Patrick Stewart's autobiography Making It So

UP NEXT: Ada Buisson's "The Ghost's Summons" in The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories: Volume One

Buy Toil and Trouble here!

Sarah Clayborne is a widow, living alone in an old and stately manor house called Whitegates. One Halloween, Sarah takes a walk and slips on a frozen puddle, injuring her ankle. She takes to bed in her old and lonely home. Her painful broken foot is the least of her troubles, however, as she finds herself in the center of a good old fashioned ghost story. 

Recommended in this episode: Netflix's The Fall of the House of Usher

UP NEXT: Rachel Harrison's The Return 

We will be back in two weeks when we discuss Rachel Harrison’s The Return.

Buy Toil and Trouble here!

Happy Halloween from the Monster, She Wrote podcast!

UP NEXT: "All Souls" by Edith Wharton

Buy Toil and Trouble here!