92 – Anne Heltzel and a Big Pile of Dead Baby Dolls

Send us a text This week’s episode couldn’t have come at a more pertinent time. As women’s reproductive rights come under assault in the US, as Roe V Wade gets rolled back and fat, sweaty men in suits make rules they will never have to obey – I’m joined by a writer who wrote a book about the cult of having babies. Anne Heltzel is the author of Just Like Mother, a contemporary Gothic techno-thriller about fertility, pressure, choice and cults. Okay, the real-world context may be heavy, but the book is a blast. It’s both a surface-level thriller and a deep indictment of the way that modern life has got us all under pressure and running just to keep up. Anne and I talk about the creepiness of dolls, whether we give too much importance to twists, our shared experiences of feeling off-course in our twenties, and how everything, anything can be a cult if you just tweak it hard enough. Enjoy! Just Like Mother is published on May 17th by Tor Nightfire  Other books mentioned in this episode include:  In the Dream House (2019), by Carmen Maria Machado Rosemary’s Baby (1967), by Ira Levin The Seven Visitation of Sydney Burgess (2021), by Andy Marino It Rides a Pale Horse (2022), by Andy Marino  You can download your free copy of Ash by Dan Soule from Amazon in your region until May 19th.   Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected]  Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices