Jeff is joined by Scottish writer Jane Flett, whose debut novel Freakslaw is out from Doubleday (UK) and Zando (US), with a forthcoming novel Welcome to the Chaoskampf (May 14).

Flett describes how horror and joy connect through different ways people enjoy fear—adrenaline junkies, “white knucklers,” and “dark copers”—placing herself in the first group.

They discuss haunted houses as horror rooted in inescapable, corrupted “safe” spaces, including hotels and the idea of buildings persisting on longer timescales.

Turning to Freakslaw, set in a late-1990s Scottish mining town disrupted by a traveling funfair, Flett explores small-town conservatism, class, suffering, and joy as disruption, including queer community and Derek’s coming-of-age.

She previews Welcome to the Chaos Camp as a New Orleans story involving climate weirdness, filmmakers, arson, and cult-like non-hierarchical organizing, and recommends Feast While You Can, Carrion Crow, and the film Saint Maud.

https://janeflett.com/