287 – Megan Bontrager & The Cave of Cosmic Narcissism
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What is the premise of Megan Bontrager’s debut novel *The Sea Hides Its Dead*?
Hello and welcome to Talking Scared. I'm your host, Neil McRoba, and I hope you've got your head torch. Because we're heading into some very damp, dank caves this week with Meg Bontraeger and her debut novel The Sea Hides Its Dead. A horror story of deep, cavernous histories, cults and monsters, and terrible academic men. The book prompts a conversation about one of my very favourite broad questions: what are the things that we don't know about long, long ago? That leads us to fantastical archaeologies, undersea terrors, and the giant monsters hidden in the Bible. But we also get contemporary, discussing a range of influences from horror movies to creepy video games and the murky shadow of of Howard Phillips' lovecraft.
I hope you enjoy. And if you do, usual drill, please review wherever you listen, Apple or Spotify in particular, it really matters. And for tons of bonus listening, ad free episodes, Discord chat and honest reviews of everything I read. you can become a Patreon subscriber and support the show in the process. It's all at patreon.comslash talking scared pot. But now come with me into this hole in the world and confess your sins to the great serpent. Let's talk scared.
Hi Megan. Big welcome to Talking Scout on this red hot day. How are you?
I'm sweaty. How are you?
I'm very sweaty. You've just been very patient while I run around trying to place fans in in sort of strategic positions to cool this room down. Uh because, considering your accent, people may think that we're thousands of miles in an ocean apart, but that's not the case. You're just over the hill from me, I believe, in Yorkshire.
Are we neighbours? I didn't know that.
Yeah, yeah. W whereabouts in God's Cursed Kingdom are you?
Um, I'm just outside of Hull, so extra cursed.
Oh well that is that is cursed.
No offense to Hull.
No, yeah, that is sorry, like listen I always have to explain for my overseas listeners. I live in Lancashire, Megan lives in Yorkshire, it's kind of like Gondor and and Mordor and I'll let you decide which is which.
So we're in the same sweltering bubble of nonsense.
Very much, yeah. Yeah. But w what what brought you here?
Um, well my husband is in his first year at the NHS. Um and uh I can just take my laptop anywhere. So here we are. Oh yeah, we started in Ireland and he did med school there for four years and then we just kind of hopped on any bandwagon that would take us as far from America as humanly possible. So We love it here though.
So y are you planning to stay?
Hopefully. I mean, um we love York. Um so we've been kinda angling to end up in York eventually. If not, I mean, we're in the process of moving there right now and hopefully we just hunker down and never leave.
Yeah, okay. Yeah. I mean, funnily enough, I've been talking to my wife about wanting to move to the States because I just came back from Colorado a week ago and I just fell madly in love with Colorado. But every time I say to an America about wanting to move to the States, they look at me like I'm crazy. And I get it right now, right? But I I just I I've always fantasised about living in in America. So we c we've kind of, you know, flip reversed.
Yeah, well hopefully um hopefully it becomes a nicer place to be so that you have a good time there.
I think it's still quite a nice place to be when you get away from the beltway, but um I get why I get why you will be enjoying the reprieve in the in the short term at least. So welcome anyway. I'm glad you're enjoying it. Thank you so much. So far your fiction has been set in the US because you have a novella, The Eye of Ouroboros.
Yes.
And now Your debut full length novel that we're going to talk about today, that begins at least off the main coast, though I think you could speculate it takes you to far stranger places. The book's called The Sea Hides Its Dead. Can you tell us what we need to know about it for this conversation?
Yeah, um The Sea Hide It's Dead is an aquatic cosmic horror with a little bit of um dark academia flair. Uh it's about an expedition of academics and miscellaneous adventurers who are led by an eccentric professor into uh a cave system off the coast of Maine after a monolith arises in the bay, um, which is always a good sign.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the premise of Megan Bontrager’s debut novel *The Sea Hides Its Dead*?
0:11–6:52
2
How did Megan’s personal background and move to the UK influence the story?
6:52–17:32
3
What inspired the book’s setting and the myth of the Leviathan cult?
17:32–33:04
4
Which horror movies and video games shaped the novel’s atmosphere?
33:04–50:32
5
How does the novel incorporate Enochian script and ancient mythology?
50:32–1:01:24
6
What role does narcissistic abuse play in Carol’s character arc?
1:01:24–1:09:53
7
How does the story explore platonic love versus romance between Carol and Mallory?
1:09:53–1:15:28
8
What final recommendations and take‑aways does the host give listeners?
1:15:28–1:16:20
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Talking Scared
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