281 – Melissa Albert & The Howling Strangeness
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What is the central premise of Melissa Albert’s novel *The Children*?
Hello and welcome to Talking Scared. I'm your host, Neil McRobert, and if you'll excuse me, they fuck you up, your mum and dad. So wrote the poet Philip Larkin, and so echoes this week's guest, Melissa Albert. After making her name in YA Fantasy, Melissa has now turned her attention to fiction for adults, though the novel in question is called The Children. It's been one of my most anticipated reads of twenty twenty six, for over a year now, ever since I first heard about it, and it absolutely lived up to my hopes, whilst completely confounding my expectations. This is a story about the dark creativity behind bright make-believe. About the pretty lies of childhood and the brutal truths of growing up.
It's about writers and writing and as you'll hear me point out to Melissa, it does for fantasy fiction what Stephen King's misery did for gothic romance. Melissa and I talk about all of that stuff and we also spend some time really getting to grips with the complex, cruel, but in my eyes, quite commendable monster of a mother at the heart of this book. If you enjoy this episode, then here's the usual request: please review wherever you listen, especially if it's Apple or Spotify, because it helps massively. And to support the show and get ad-free episodes and all the bonus stuff you can listen to, including some recent extra chat with Marcus Cleaver about simulation theory and ghosts, sign up at patreon.com slash talking scared podcast.
Pod and those who do will feature very positively in my eventual memoir. But now, come with me to an isolated farm nestled in the green hills of Vermont. There's a woman upstairs pounding on the typewriter, and each word comes at a cost. Let's talk scared.
Hello Melissa. Welcome to Talking Scared. Happy Friday. How are you?
Hi, Neil. Thank you so much for having me. I'm great.
No, well thank you for rearranging this conversation from earlier in the week because stuff came up. Uh but this way, as I said to you offline, I've been able to actually read your novel with the attention it deserves, because it does require and deserve attention. Well I appreciate that. It's a complex confection, this story. I mean, I should reiterate for the listeners. It's called The Children. As listeners to this show may have heard, it's been on my most anticipated reads of the year list. And that was before Stephen King started raving about it. Um how was that by the way? How was the king endorsed?
That was a funny w thing to wake up to. That was uh pretty pretty awesome to to to low key it. Yeah.
Yeah.
I just kinda walked out to a coffee shop and like stared into space, sort of thinking Sort of like running my mind over all the king books I've loved. Taking it in.
Um, I have I have a question about maybe connections to a king book later, but that's for later.
Okay.
To start us off, can you introduce the story a little?
Yeah, okay, so the children is the story of the estranged uh adult children of a famous fantasy novelist who wrote them in as the protagonists of her Beloved Portal Fantasy series before dying under mysterious circumstances, leaving the children orphaned in the book series unfinished. Um, the book kind of goes between the true story of their childhood and their lives twenty years later, when they are adults who have not spoken since the night their parents died. and um the two threads of the story kind of run alongside and then of course crash together at the end. Um And I will not tell you more than that except to say that it's a celebration of all of the genres I love, as are as are all the books I write really.
But this one I had I had so much fun with.
So I started reading this and I I started making notes and I had a weird weekend that involved a lot of quite physical exhaustion. So I can't quite remember why I've made some of the notes that I've made, which is not a great place to start an interview, right? But here's a note I made really early on, and I can't remember what prompted it, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. I've made this note that said This book seems to be inspired by a deep love of books.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central premise of Melissa Albert’s novel *The Children*?
0:11–10:45
2
How does Albert blend childhood fairy‑tale nostalgia with adult darkness?
10:45–19:02
3
Why does Albert compare *The Children* to Stephen King’s *Misery*?
19:02–29:02
4
What role does the “bad‑mother” character Edith play in the story?
29:02–38:31
5
How does the dual‑timeline structure affect the novel’s themes of memory?
38:31–48:32
6
What writing techniques did Albert use to keep the two timelines in sync?
48:32–57:33
7
How does the novel explore the horror of parental failure and identity loss?
57:33–1:06:32
8
Which books does Albert recommend for fans of dark fantasy and metafiction?
1:06:32–1:16:21
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Talking Scared
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