Morbid Book Club: Victorian Psycho By Virginia Feito

Episode of Morbid · June 26, 2026 · 1 h 25 min

Morbid hosts Ash Kelley and Alaina Urquhart talk with horror author Paul Tremblay about his career, AI, and Virginia Feito's novel Victorian Psycho.

Summary

In this Morbid Book Club bonus episode, hosts Ash Kelley and Alaina Urquhart welcomed horror novelist Paul Tremblay, who had recently left a 30-year career as a high school math teacher to write full time. Tremblay discussed the horror boom, noting reports of rising publisher acquisitions of horror, crediting Get Out with changing mainstream attitudes and welcoming more diverse voices in the genre. He recounted how a college English class and Stephen King's The Stand drew him to writing, and explained his use of ambiguous endings in A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World.

Tremblay and Urquhart both criticized generative AI in fiction; Tremblay said he was part of the first authors' lawsuit against OpenAI and described writers who use AI as scabs. He also described his forthcoming novel Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep, about a man in a vegetative state whose AI-implanted body is remote-controlled by a tech company.

The main discussion covered Victorian Psycho, which Tremblay had chosen. The three praised Winifred's darkly comic narration, the portrayal of Victorian high society as filthy, and details such as arsenic-laced green dresses and mummy-unwrapping parties. They debated whether Drusilla truly joined the final massacre; Kelley argued she was likely chained up, while Tremblay leaned toward a realistic reading refracted through an unreliable narrator. The episode closed with a would-you-rather game touching on ghosts, the Bridgewater Triangle and Stephen King, plus the hosts' accounts of paranormal events in their childhood home.

Chapters

3:09
Introduction and Paul Tremblay's adaptations
The hosts introduce Tremblay, who updates listeners on the film adaptation of A Head Full of Ghosts shot near Dublin.
5:39
Becoming a full-time writer
Tremblay discusses leaving his long career teaching math at a Catholic boys' school and the safety net it provided.
7:15
The horror renaissance
Tremblay reflects on horror's growth in publishing and film, own-voices authors, Gen X influence and Get Out.
9:55
How Tremblay came to horror
Tremblay recounts discovering fiction through Joyce Carol Oates and Stephen King and offers advice that it is okay to like things.
13:12
AI and creative work
Urquhart and Tremblay criticize AI-generated writing, and Tremblay describes his role in the first authors' lawsuit against OpenAI.
15:44
Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep
Tremblay pitches his upcoming dual-perspective novel about a remote-controlled man with an AI-implanted brain.
18:44
Fears, nightmares and inspiration
Tremblay talks about fears he avoids, childhood movie nightmares including Jaws, and where his book ideas come from.
26:44
Endings and ambiguity
Tremblay explains his approach to endings and why he leaves some stories deliberately ambiguous.
31:56
Victorian Psycho: Winifred's voice
The group discusses the novel's dark humor, shocking lines and why readers root for its murderous governess.
43:01
Victorian society and period details
They examine the novel's grotesque portrayal of the elite, arsenic dresses, mummy unwrapping and consumptive beauty standards.
48:09
Drusilla and the ending
The three debate whether Drusilla participated in the massacre and the reveal of Mr. Pounds as Winifred's father.
57:53
Horror comedy
Urquhart and Tremblay compare the novel's balance of horror and humor to the series Widow's Bay.
1:00:39
Would you rather: slasher edition
Tremblay answers rapid-fire questions about Winifred, ghosts, reviewers, writing and New England lore.
1:10:19
Haunted childhood home
The hosts describe unexplained events in their family's old farmhouse, and Tremblay discusses his skepticism.
1:16:43
Final questions and plugs
The game concludes with Stephen King and Grady Hendrix questions, and Tremblay plugs his book and a Strand event.

Key points

What was said, by whom, with the exact words. Timestamps jump to the moment.

Paul Tremblay Prediction · due Jun 2027
Tremblay said the A Head Full of Ghosts film had wrapped filming and would probably be released within about a year.
“But anyway, yeah, wrapped and probably out in a year from now”
Listen from 4:13 · A Head Full of Ghosts
Paul Tremblay
Tremblay cited Publishers Weekly reports that horror acquisitions have risen sharply year over year, and worried it could be a bubble.
“the publisher acquisition of horror novels is up 25% from last year, which is up 25% from the year before”
Listen from 8:14 · Horror fiction
Paul Tremblay
Tremblay said the growth of own-voices authors is among the most exciting developments in horror film and publishing.
“we're getting to see way more own voices. And, you know, to me, that's like one of the most exciting parts about what we're seeing”
Listen from 8:42 · Horror fiction
Linked moment · 9:55Skip to 9:55 using a listen link in the info box.
Paul Tremblay
Tremblay argued that Get Out played a major role in getting mainstream culture to take horror seriously.
“So I think honestly, Get Out has a lot to do with it. Like when that came out, like that was the first time”
Listen from 9:36 · Get Out
Paul Tremblay
Tremblay's main advice to young writers is to accept that it is okay to like and be passionate about things.
“you come to the realization that it's okay to like things”
Listen from 12:05 · Horror fiction
Alaina Urquhart
Urquhart argued that books like Victorian Psycho could not be produced by AI because they require the human struggle of writing.
“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”
Listen from 13:27 · Artificial intelligence
Paul Tremblay
Tremblay said he was one of the original plaintiffs in the first writers' lawsuit against OpenAI.
“I was a part of the first lawsuit suing OpenAI on behalf of writers”
Listen from 14:25 · Authors' copyright lawsuits against OpenAI
Paul Tremblay
Tremblay argued that people who use generative AI are not real writers or artists and likened them to scabs.
“you're not a writer or a visual artist if you're using it. You're a scab to use”
Listen from 14:55 · Artificial intelligence
Paul Tremblay
Tremblay recounted that seeing Jaws at age ten gave him a decade of recurring shark nightmares.
“I had 10 years of shark nightmares after that movie”
Listen from 23:38 · Jaws (1975 film)
Paul Tremblay
Tremblay said he deliberately avoided deciding a true ending for A Head Full of Ghosts so that uncertainty would drive its horror.
“Like I want A Head Full of Ghosts, if it was scary at all, to be scary precisely because we didn't know”
Listen from 27:50 · A Head Full of Ghosts
Paul Tremblay
Tremblay said he underestimated how upset readers would be by not learning whether the world was ending in The Cabin at the End of the World.
“The cabinet at the end of the world, I way underestimated how many people were going to be upset not knowing if the world was ending or not”
Listen from 28:11 · The Cabin at the End of the World
Paul Tremblay
Tremblay argued that readers misremember Victorian Psycho as a story in which Winifred kills only bad people, when she kills indiscriminately.
“have, like, false memories of this book because they want to root for her and they assume, oh, no, she's only killing bad people”
Listen from 35:46 · Victorian Psycho
Paul Tremblay
Tremblay said that on a second reading he noticed the green dress given to Winifred was likely poisonous and could be affecting her mind.
“And the green dress she gave her that was probably poison. I missed that on the first read somehow”
Listen from 39:43 · Victorian Psycho
Alaina Urquhart
Urquhart explained that wealthy Victorians bought mummies in Egypt and unwrapped them at parties, a real custom depicted in the novel.
“wealthy Victorian families – would go to Egypt, they would buy an entire mummy as a souvenir, bring it home, have a party”
Listen from 46:48 · Victorian era customs
Ash Kelley
Kelley argued that Drusilla did not participate in the final massacre and was probably chained up, with Winifred inventing her complicity.
“I think she was chained up for the whole thing. And I think Winnie just didn't want to be in it alone, maybe”
Listen from 50:15 · Victorian Psycho
Paul Tremblay
Tremblay leaned toward a realistic reading of the ending in which events largely happened but are distorted by Winifred's narration.
“You know, most of the stuff happened, but it's being refracted through Winnie and go towards more realistic interpretation”
Listen from 52:11 · Victorian Psycho
Paul Tremblay
Tremblay said horror comedies that are genuinely both scary and funny are rare, but Victorian Psycho and Widow's Bay achieve it.
“It's really hard to find, in my mind, horror comedies that are both scary and funny. Yeah. Especially in terms of film. And I agree, this book does it”
Listen from 59:39 · Widow's Bay
Paul Tremblay
Tremblay described himself as mostly a skeptic and atheist who nonetheless gets frightened at night.
“98% of my day I'm a card-carrying skeptic atheist, don't believe in anything”
Listen from 1:04:12 · Ghost sightings and hauntings
Alaina Urquhart
Urquhart recounted an unexplained incident in which something violently struck a closed door from inside an empty room in her childhood home.
“The door was shut and something from behind the door hit the door from inside so hard that I jumped across the hall”
Listen from 1:11:41 · Ghost sightings and hauntings

People

In the conversation

Ash KelleyCo-host of the true crime podcast Morbid
Alaina UrquhartCo-host of Morbid, autopsy technician and author of the Butcher novels
Paul TremblayAmerican horror novelist, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World

Discussed

Virginia FeitoSpanish author of Victorian Psycho
Grady HendrixAmerican horror novelist and friend of Tremblay
Stephen KingAmerican horror novelist and Chizmar's collaborator on the Gwendy books
Stephen Graham JonesAmerican horror writer and friend of Tremblay
Christopher GoldenHorror writer and fellow plaintiff in the first authors' lawsuit against OpenAI
Sarah SilvermanComedian and fellow plaintiff in the first authors' lawsuit against OpenAI
Joyce Carol OatesAmerican author whose story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? inspired Tremblay
John DarnielleWriter and musician whose discussion of Texas Chainsaw Massacre inspired Tremblay's novel Horror Movie

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From the publisher

Spoilers Ahead!!! For this month's BONUS EPISODE it's Book Club time, weirdos! This time we're joined by bestselling horror author Paul Tremblay for a conversation about one of our favorite recent reads: Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito! We dive into everything that makes this deliciously deranged novel so unforgettable, from its razor-sharp dark humor and gloriously unhinged protagonist to the gothic atmosphere and jaw-dropping moments that had us audibly gasping. So grab your beverage of choice, settle in, and join us for a delightfully creepy conversation with one of horror's finest. And if you haven't read Victorian Psycho yet... consider this your sign, and join the bookclub discussion once you've devoured it!

Summary, chapters and key points were generated from the episode transcript on September 29, 2026. Quotes are checked word for word against the transcript.

Categories: Books·TV & Film