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Morbid

Morbid Book Club: Victorian Psycho By Virginia Feito

26 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?

8.401 - 28.482 Ash Kelley

Hey, weirdos. This episode is brought to you by Ashley. Your home should show off who you are. As the largest furniture store brand in North America, Ashley can help you create a comfortable, functional, and stylish home that you can feel proud of and in a price range that works for you. With Ashley's lifestyle-driven designs, you don't have to choose between practical and being stylish.

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29.062 - 44.302 Ash Kelley

Visit your local Ashley store or head to ashley.com to find your style. All right, brothers, we're going to get into the actual intro, but first, Big Red has something to tell you.

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44.602 - 51.673 Alaina Urquhart

I do have something to tell you. Today, we have somebody very special on the pod, in the pod lab, the second pod lab.

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51.794 - 63.26 Ash Kelley

Ashkel's pod lab. Ashkel's pod lab. Welcome to the pod lab. It's still a little bit under construction, but we're working on it. It's pretty great. We have... Whoa! Thanks, Mikey. That was badass.

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63.32 - 87.396 Alaina Urquhart

We have Paul Tremblay on the pod today. Paul is the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Head Full of Ghosts, The Paul Bearers Club, Cabin at the End of the World. And actually, that one has already been adapted to a film. It's Knock at the Cabin, I believe it's called. So go check that out. And Head Full of Ghosts is going to be adapted to a movie.

87.376 - 87.997 Ash Kelley

So cool.

88.157 - 108.967 Alaina Urquhart

Wait for that. His newest release right here, Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep, which is an amazing title. It's coming out June 30th. That's wherever you can find books. We have actually already recorded with Paul and had a fucking fantastic time. He was so nice. He's phenomenal. His books are phenomenal. And I urge you to go check them out.

109.067 - 111.831 Alaina Urquhart

And we're really excited for you to see our conversation with him.

111.811 - 133.154 Ash Kelley

Woo! Before we get into the episode, we do just have to thank our sponsor one more time. Ashley is such an icon. I'm not talking about myself. I'm talking about this gorgeous furniture that we are sitting on and our feet are upon and our drink are upon. We got, this is the Revion Lake sofa that we're sitting on. It's comfy. It's really comfy. It's chic.

Chapter 2: Who is Paul Tremblay and what are his notable works?

192.108 - 192.688 Ash Kelley

I'm Elena.

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193.269 - 195.412 Paul Tremblay

And I'm Grady Hendrix. No, wait. I'm Paul.

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196.033 - 199.798 Ash Kelley

We said, Paul, you can be whoever you want to be today. And he chose Grady Hendrix.

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199.818 - 200.399 Alaina Urquhart

Oh, yes.

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200.74 - 202.382 Ash Kelley

This is morbid.

216.487 - 234.227 Alaina Urquhart

This is a very special Morbid. We have an amazing, we already introduced him, but I'm going to introduce him again. This is Paul Tremblay. If you don't know him, go figure it out because there's a body of work that you need to get into right now. He's an amazing writer and you're missing out if you haven't read his books. So get to it.

234.347 - 238.292 Alaina Urquhart

And also there's several adaptations that have been happening lately.

238.272 - 257.081 Paul Tremblay

Yeah. Thank you so much. You're welcome. The most recent would be Head Full of Ghosts wrapped filming in the Dublin area, which is where actually Victorian Psycho was filmed in Ireland as well. Oh, that's cool. Virginia and I talked a little bit about. But anyway, yeah, wrapped and probably out in a year from now. Yeah, super excited.

257.201 - 262.509 Alaina Urquhart

I'm really excited for that. That's actually one of my favorite of your books. Thank you so much. I'm very excited about that.

Chapter 3: What themes are explored in Victorian Psycho?

691.811 - 693.815 Paul Tremblay

Inexplicable. Like, why would I try writing a story?

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693.975 - 705.788 Alaina Urquhart

I love that though. That's so cool. That's how I felt too. When I first started writing my first book, I was like, I don't know how to write a story. I was like, I can't write a whole book. What am I doing?

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706.048 - 708.872 Ash Kelley

I'll just imagine everybody feels that way when they first write something.

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708.892 - 715.4 Alaina Urquhart

I feel like everyone has to feel that way in the beginning, being like, I'm not going to get to the end of this. This isn't going to be something someone reads.

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715.781 - 728.018 Paul Tremblay

Right. I'm terrible at writing advice, so I don't give it. The only thing I tell, especially to younger people, it's like, hey, hopefully you come to this realization a lot earlier than I did, but hopefully... You know, you come to the realization that it's okay to like things.

728.379 - 742.804 Paul Tremblay

It's getting harder and harder to do that with, you know, obviously with just, you know, social media life and everyone hates everything. You know, it's okay to like things. That means it's okay to be passionate about it and maybe want to try it yourself. And I mean, that's such an important, it has to be your first step.

742.784 - 763.318 Alaina Urquhart

Yes. I'm so glad you said that because I'm constantly trying to tell my kids that. I'm like, I want to tell you now when you're young, like you can be passionately excited about things and not feel weird about it. Like don't make people feel like make you feel like you can't be all in on something. And want to do it or want to experience it or want to learn everything you can about it.

763.358 - 772.957 Alaina Urquhart

Like, I feel like we have got to a place now where, like, especially social media. Everybody wants to be the same. And everything's cringe. And it's like, that's so cringey that you're into it. It's like, stop.

772.977 - 781.093 Paul Tremblay

I hate that. Unless they like Grady Henrik's books. Then we should really stop. Then that's cringe. I love Grady Henrik. Grady? Grady's a friend. I just like making fun of him.

Chapter 4: How does the conversation reflect on the writing process?

786.299 - 800.634 Alaina Urquhart

He's so funny. He was really fun with the Would You Rather. So get ready for that. And actually like this kind of leads into what I wanted to talk about next. So speaking of like a love of writing and getting passionate about things, AI.

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801.576 - 817.839 Alaina Urquhart

I have to rant with you about it because I think we feel the exact same way. Oh yeah. I, it's upsetting me so much that because like books like this, like Victorian psycho aren't going to happen with AI and it's making me crazy that it's become a thing.

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817.859 - 833.102 Alaina Urquhart

And I feel like you need to go through the whole, like being inspired to write something, coming up with the idea, like working through it at some point, like reading your own writing and being like, Oh my God, I'm a genius. And then the next day reading it and being like, I'm a hack and I should never do this.

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833.082 - 847.689 Alaina Urquhart

And then fighting through that feeling and coming out on the other side, like you need to have that full experience. And I feel like all of a sudden we're going to get these books that don't have that behind it. And I feel like you need that injected into the book for it to be what it needs to be.

847.709 - 864.836 Paul Tremblay

Yeah, I have no interest in reading it. I mean, the whole idea to me is reading something or watching a movie or any other piece of art What the connection is, oh, this person felt like I did. Yeah. It feels like I do too. Right. And there will never be any of that. No. You know, with AI, nevermind that they steal our books. Exactly.

865.136 - 885.469 Paul Tremblay

You know, and I was a part of the first lawsuit suing OpenAI on behalf of writers. I love that. For two years. It's myself, other horror leading the way. Christopher Golden, another horror writer. Yeah. in Richard Cadre and also weirdly, well, not weirdly, but like not our writer, but Sarah Silverman, we were the first four and spent two years as a part of it.

886.712 - 905.358 Paul Tremblay

They can, there's so many lawsuits that consolidated all to one. So then like, I didn't continue because they also chose different lawyers. It was weird, but yeah, no, I mean, Yeah, I'm sorry if it makes people uncomfortable, but, like, you're not a writer or a visual artist if you're using it. You're a scab to use, like, we don't have a union, but I'm going to use union terms. You're a scab.

905.378 - 905.918 Alaina Urquhart

Exactly.

Chapter 5: What unique aspects of Victorian high society are explored in the novel?

2636.604 - 2643.756 Alaina Urquhart

In and of itself. And I think it's, like, kind of flipped on its ear here because a lot of people think of Victorian high society as, like, you know...

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2643.736 - 2668.579 Alaina Urquhart

fancy and like gilded and like everything was so like you know like they're elite they're this but she portrays them as disgusting filthy disgusting like the victorian elite are just foul yeah and i loved that it was like little things like when she's going upstairs and looking in all of their rooms and she mentions the earwax on the pillow at some point i was like oh like what

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2668.559 - 2673.773 Alaina Urquhart

And, like, just little things, like lard was in one of their hair to keep their hair back.

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2673.893 - 2675.297 Ash Kelley

The scene where they're all eating.

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2675.678 - 2675.779 Alaina Urquhart

Yeah.

2676.32 - 2684.863 Ash Kelley

That, I think, Mikey had warned you beforehand because Elena has misophonia. So, like, hearing things, I swear you could hear it as you were reading. It was...

2684.843 - 2698.218 Paul Tremblay

That was almost like a nice counterbalance to the crow meal. Like that meal was just as disgusting, even though these were things that were specially prepared. Yeah. Yeah. And how they were eating it. Oh, I know. They're just like.

2698.238 - 2701.822 Ash Kelley

Oh, it's horrifying. Like gouging it into their faces. It's so gross.

Chapter 6: How does the setting contribute to the story's atmosphere?

2702.102 - 2712.994 Alaina Urquhart

And I think it's, I love that they presented it that way, that like these people look like may have all this money and they're, they have all the power. They are just as disgusting, if not more disgusting.

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2712.974 - 2713.555 Ash Kelley

Than all of us.

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2713.575 - 2715.918 Alaina Urquhart

Than everybody else. Yeah. Like, I loved that. I know.

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2715.998 - 2722.807 Ash Kelley

It was almost like the servants in the house were, like, higher society than the high society people. They had it more together, I feel like.

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2723.748 - 2732.72 Paul Tremblay

And the high society parents of other baby you never even notice. That blew my mind. Like, attuned to, like, their own kid.

2733.061 - 2739.91 Ash Kelley

Yeah. And the fact, too, that Winifred knew that that wouldn't be an issue. She's like, yeah, I feel like she had done that before.

2740.801 - 2747.093 Alaina Urquhart

You know? And I was wondering, too, when she brought new baby in, I was like, what's going to happen here?

Chapter 7: What themes of motherhood and neglect are addressed in the narrative?

2747.253 - 2747.514 Paul Tremblay

Yeah, right.

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2747.534 - 2749.338 Alaina Urquhart

Because in my head, I'm like, of course she's going to know.

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2749.358 - 2752.464 Paul Tremblay

That seemed like a corner impossible to write out of. It did.

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2752.564 - 2753.145 Alaina Urquhart

It really did.

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2753.165 - 2756.852 Paul Tremblay

She really was just like, eh, you're not going to notice. I love it. Like, oh, yeah.

2756.832 - 2774.916 Alaina Urquhart

And it was part of the whole, like, look how disgusting these people are. She doesn't even know her own child. Right. And it wasn't like, oh, I picked a baby that's, like, the same size. She was like, this doesn't look like this baby at all. And not only that, it's like, it's not as big as this baby. It doesn't look like this baby. It has a mole that that baby doesn't have.

2774.936 - 2775.737 Paul Tremblay

Oh, and she scrapes it off.

2775.777 - 2785.59 Alaina Urquhart

She just scrapes it off. I'm also like, is the baby bleeding when you return it? Like, what? Like, that outfit it was wearing was, like, covered in blood. But she's like, ah, I don't know. Like, babies, they grow up.

2785.57 - 2789.838 Ash Kelley

Like when she said, she's like, I've learned through experience that like mess looks like blood.

Chapter 8: What are the characters' thoughts on the ambiguity of the story's events?

2859.066 - 2860.388 Alaina Urquhart

Very much that. Yeah.

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2860.468 - 2860.728 Ash Kelley

Yeah.

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2861.129 - 2876.737 Alaina Urquhart

And we were reading more like they were, you know, They were talking, like, when she's dressing Drusilla and getting her ready and, like, all these, like, features that they find to be desirable are all, like, features of, like, tuberculosis. Like, that's – and that was considered desirable back then.

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2876.797 - 2886.013 Alaina Urquhart

It was, like, being super pale and, like, super frail and, you know, the flush in the cheeks and – Like, literally looking sick. Looking consumptive. Yeah.

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2885.993 - 2910.381 Alaina Urquhart

was the cool thing and I love that she put it in there yeah because it was all very real like again the green dress like that's a thing I think she mentions the belladonna eye drops that was a thing to like dilate their pupils and they would just go blind after a while but they'd be gorgeous they'd be gorgeous you know big eyes like what but one thing I really liked about this was

2910.361 - 2931.927 Alaina Urquhart

in the end when Drusilla joins in and is doing all the things for days. The 12 days of Christmas. The 12 days of Christmas. And when they set them all up at the table and feed them food, they're just having a whole feast with them. I was like, this is the most fucked up thing I've ever read, and I love it.

2932.487 - 2938.815 Alaina Urquhart

But do you think that Drusilla actually was taking part in that, or do you think she was chained up the whole time?

2939.487 - 2959.392 Paul Tremblay

Yeah, it's a great question. I loved this. I was going to ask what you thought about Drusilla at the end too. Yeah. To go back to like, you know, how much is this, how much more of this is ambiguous than maybe we think. There's a line early on the book where I think, you know, Winnie is confessing stuff. You know, she says, I fear I am succumbing to elaborate flights of fancy.

2960.313 - 2963.537 Paul Tremblay

You know, this shan't be like other times or something, you know.

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