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Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque
Novelist, poet, dramatist and author of many of the best American short stories of our time, Joyce Carol Oates shows yet another aspect of her unbounded creativity in these tales of the grotesque. Haunted, a collection of sixteen tales that range from classic ghost stories to portrayals of chilling psychological terror, raises the genre to the level of fine literature - complex, multi-layered, and gripping fiction that is very scary indeed.
In the title story, "Haunted, " the pubescent Melissa and her best friend, the sexually precocious Mary Lou, ignore "no trespassing" signs to explore forbidden houses. But the deserted Minton farm is one place where they should not have gone, and years later Melissa is tormented by her memories of its malevolence...and the murder of Mary Lou. In the novella, "The Model, " a sexual threat seems to underlie the interaction between young Sybil Blake and "Mr. Starr, " who asks her to be his model, but the truth about her own identity, and his, shows that the danger is lurking in a different part of the heart. The "Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly, " a macabre reworking of Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw, " resurrects the evil of Miss Jessel and Quint, who are up to their old tricks with the children, Miles and Flora, but with new, perverse, and brilliant revelations.
The tales in this collection plunge the reader into nightmare worlds where violence slips in unexpectedly, where reality turns into a funhouse mirror, and where American culture goes awry in shocking, provocative ways. Joyce Carol Oates is a master storyteller of the dark side. She writes with skillfully controlled prose, tightly woven plots, and deep psychological insight that m her fictional horror worthy to set alongside the stories of Edgar Allan Poe - and far above all the rest.
Haunted --
The doll --
The bingo master --
The white cat --
The model --
Extenuating circumstances --
Don't you trust me --
The guilty party --
The premonition --
Phase change --
Poor Bibi --
Thanksgiving --
Blind --
The radio astronomer --
Accursed inhabitants of the House of Bly --
Martyrdom
In the title story, "Haunted, " the pubescent Melissa and her best friend, the sexually precocious Mary Lou, ignore "no trespassing" signs to explore forbidden houses. But the deserted Minton farm is one place where they should not have gone, and years later Melissa is tormented by her memories of its malevolence...and the murder of Mary Lou. In the novella, "The Model, " a sexual threat seems to underlie the interaction between young Sybil Blake and "Mr. Starr, " who asks her to be his model, but the truth about her own identity, and his, shows that the danger is lurking in a different part of the heart. The "Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly, " a macabre reworking of Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw, " resurrects the evil of Miss Jessel and Quint, who are up to their old tricks with the children, Miles and Flora, but with new, perverse, and brilliant revelations.
The tales in this collection plunge the reader into nightmare worlds where violence slips in unexpectedly, where reality turns into a funhouse mirror, and where American culture goes awry in shocking, provocative ways. Joyce Carol Oates is a master storyteller of the dark side. She writes with skillfully controlled prose, tightly woven plots, and deep psychological insight that m her fictional horror worthy to set alongside the stories of Edgar Allan Poe - and far above all the rest.
Haunted --
The doll --
The bingo master --
The white cat --
The model --
Extenuating circumstances --
Don't you trust me --
The guilty party --
The premonition --
Phase change --
Poor Bibi --
Thanksgiving --
Blind --
The radio astronomer --
Accursed inhabitants of the House of Bly --
Martyrdom
320 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1994
54 people are currently reading
3350 people want to read
About the author
Joyce Carol Oates
853 books9,623 followersJoyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel Them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).
Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters. She now teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Oates was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016.
Pseudonyms: Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.
Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters. She now teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Oates was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016.
Pseudonyms: Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 157 reviews
November 10, 2020
This collection of, yes, haunting and grotesque tales finds the author in a dark, ironic, frequently unkind mood. Which is just another Tuesday for Joyce Carol Oates.
As always, her mastery of the art is on full display. I always find it a treat when a writer decides to match their prose to their protagonist's state of mind. And so Haunted features often mannered writing styles that are repressed and introspective ("Haunted"), desperately chatty ("The Bingo Master"), or that feel like a vindictive chant ("Blind"). The most stylized story of all - the hypnotic, horribly bleak "Extenuating Circumstances" - starts each of its sentences with the word Because. Other stories provokingly upend various traditions in narrative structure and story resolution.
But Oates is not only an experimentalist; she also has a sure hand when it comes to more formal, classic prose, as deployed in perhaps the three most easily digestible stories: "The Model" and "The White Cat" and "Premonition".
No matter the style she adopts, the concerns and themes that shape the author's stories remain consistent: strong, vital but also frustrated and often cornered women who may not know exactly what they want but they know they need something different; men as unknowable ogres or men as professors, often living life in a higher realm of thought, of stars - or at least in the higher realms of their heads; faculty life in general, and as microcosm to and analogy for middle to upper class life; and perhaps above all in this collection, aging and losing innocence and what growing old means.
☠
"Haunted": Backwoods girls. Exploring abandoned houses. A severe punishment. A murder. An old woman, haunted.
"The Doll": Dollhouse, realhouse. Panic attack. Private self, public self. She is a living doll.
"The Bingo Master": Her life lived like a story she tells. On the prowl, at the bingo house. The poor spinster virgin.
"The White Cat": A dignified older man. A kind but less than loving younger wife. A smug cat that refuses to be killed.
"The Model": "Where have we come from, and where are we going?"
"Extenuating Circumstances": Why did the child have to die? BECAUSE BECAUSE BECAUSE
"Don't You Trust me?": An abortion. A lack of trust.
"The Guilty Party": The 2-year-old has named himself Jocko. He is the bullying new man in his mother's life. He has orders for her: daddy must die.
"The Premonition": The family makes Xmas gifts with dad.
"Phase Change": Groundhog Day or Sliding Doors or maybe Inception, plus rape.
"Poor Bibbi": Poor Bibbi must be put down, the poor old thing. But what is Poor Bibbi?
"Thanksgiving": We must help Mom. But the supermarket is trashed, its food spoiled and decayed. Nevertheless, the shopping must be done.
"Blind": It was a dark and stormy night. It was a bitter and spiteful old woman. It was a lonely and loveless marriage. It was a terrible and welcome blindness.
"The Radio Astronomer": Senescence, alas.
"Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly": Pity the loving Jessel; pity the virile Quint. Love is not fleeting, it shall return and it shall claim what it owns. A new ghost comes to life.
"Martyrdom": Rats are born. A human is born, and enslaved. Rat boy meets human girl. Fear, pain, blood, torture.
☠
These stories were all technically admirable but many left me cold. Worst of all, the execrable "Martyrdom" which tries to instruct its readers on how life lived as animal or human prey feels, but only succeeds in being the written equivalent of child/animal torture porn. This is the most repulsive short story I've read in the past decade or two. UGH!
But there were a number of stories that I enjoyed. "The Model" is about a young lady with a mysterious but tragic background taking up a wealthy gentleman on his offer to pay her for some modeling in the park. It is a marvel of unnerving ambiguity and slowly increasing tension. "Extenuating Circumstances" left me rather breathless as its abandoned, mentally ill narrator counts off the ways despair and wrath led to her murdering her child. The demented "Guilty Party" is wonderfully surreal and viciously funny. Never trust a 2-year-old to give you good advice, really. The bizarre rape fantasia of "Phase Change" has its gentle, bougie wife being raped by various fantasy figures: a swarthy cop, a group of black men, her gynecologist. Very uncomfortable but also darkly amusing. Not sure whose side Oates was on in that story. Not even sure what it all meant!
My favorites were "Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly", which retells "Turn of the Screw" from the perspective of the mournful, vengeful ghosts, and above all the tense and satisfying "The Premonition". This tale has a younger brother feeling a distinct sense of foreboding and so visiting his older brother - a wealthy, abusive alcoholic - only to find his dreadful brother missing and his sister-in-law and her daughters surprisingly merry as they
Don't reveal that spoiler if you plan on reading the story!
As always, her mastery of the art is on full display. I always find it a treat when a writer decides to match their prose to their protagonist's state of mind. And so Haunted features often mannered writing styles that are repressed and introspective ("Haunted"), desperately chatty ("The Bingo Master"), or that feel like a vindictive chant ("Blind"). The most stylized story of all - the hypnotic, horribly bleak "Extenuating Circumstances" - starts each of its sentences with the word Because. Other stories provokingly upend various traditions in narrative structure and story resolution.
But Oates is not only an experimentalist; she also has a sure hand when it comes to more formal, classic prose, as deployed in perhaps the three most easily digestible stories: "The Model" and "The White Cat" and "Premonition".
No matter the style she adopts, the concerns and themes that shape the author's stories remain consistent: strong, vital but also frustrated and often cornered women who may not know exactly what they want but they know they need something different; men as unknowable ogres or men as professors, often living life in a higher realm of thought, of stars - or at least in the higher realms of their heads; faculty life in general, and as microcosm to and analogy for middle to upper class life; and perhaps above all in this collection, aging and losing innocence and what growing old means.
☠
"Haunted": Backwoods girls. Exploring abandoned houses. A severe punishment. A murder. An old woman, haunted.
"The Doll": Dollhouse, realhouse. Panic attack. Private self, public self. She is a living doll.
"The Bingo Master": Her life lived like a story she tells. On the prowl, at the bingo house. The poor spinster virgin.
"The White Cat": A dignified older man. A kind but less than loving younger wife. A smug cat that refuses to be killed.
"The Model": "Where have we come from, and where are we going?"
"Extenuating Circumstances": Why did the child have to die? BECAUSE BECAUSE BECAUSE
"Don't You Trust me?": An abortion. A lack of trust.
"The Guilty Party": The 2-year-old has named himself Jocko. He is the bullying new man in his mother's life. He has orders for her: daddy must die.
"The Premonition": The family makes Xmas gifts with dad.
"Phase Change": Groundhog Day or Sliding Doors or maybe Inception, plus rape.
"Poor Bibbi": Poor Bibbi must be put down, the poor old thing. But what is Poor Bibbi?
"Thanksgiving": We must help Mom. But the supermarket is trashed, its food spoiled and decayed. Nevertheless, the shopping must be done.
"Blind": It was a dark and stormy night. It was a bitter and spiteful old woman. It was a lonely and loveless marriage. It was a terrible and welcome blindness.
"The Radio Astronomer": Senescence, alas.
"Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly": Pity the loving Jessel; pity the virile Quint. Love is not fleeting, it shall return and it shall claim what it owns. A new ghost comes to life.
"Martyrdom": Rats are born. A human is born, and enslaved. Rat boy meets human girl. Fear, pain, blood, torture.
☠
These stories were all technically admirable but many left me cold. Worst of all, the execrable "Martyrdom" which tries to instruct its readers on how life lived as animal or human prey feels, but only succeeds in being the written equivalent of child/animal torture porn. This is the most repulsive short story I've read in the past decade or two. UGH!
But there were a number of stories that I enjoyed. "The Model" is about a young lady with a mysterious but tragic background taking up a wealthy gentleman on his offer to pay her for some modeling in the park. It is a marvel of unnerving ambiguity and slowly increasing tension. "Extenuating Circumstances" left me rather breathless as its abandoned, mentally ill narrator counts off the ways despair and wrath led to her murdering her child. The demented "Guilty Party" is wonderfully surreal and viciously funny. Never trust a 2-year-old to give you good advice, really. The bizarre rape fantasia of "Phase Change" has its gentle, bougie wife being raped by various fantasy figures: a swarthy cop, a group of black men, her gynecologist. Very uncomfortable but also darkly amusing. Not sure whose side Oates was on in that story. Not even sure what it all meant!
My favorites were "Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly", which retells "Turn of the Screw" from the perspective of the mournful, vengeful ghosts, and above all the tense and satisfying "The Premonition". This tale has a younger brother feeling a distinct sense of foreboding and so visiting his older brother - a wealthy, abusive alcoholic - only to find his dreadful brother missing and his sister-in-law and her daughters surprisingly merry as they
Don't reveal that spoiler if you plan on reading the story!
March 15, 2021
Okay, yeah, me loving a Joyce Carol Oates collection is nothing new at this point, but Haunted is officially my favorite (so far), beating out Give Me Your Heart. Every story is a banger, a slam dunk. Of course some hit me harder than others, some will stick with me longer, some I feel are perhaps a bit more technically proficient (though JCO is certainly a master wordsmith), some I suspect will linger in my subconscious. But all are well worth reading, experiencing.
Written and published over a period of 13 years, these stories are remarkably consistent in tone and quality: all are, well, haunting and macabre though Oates’s brand of horror and terror isn’t the most obvious or in-your-face and I think maybe that’s where some mainstream horror readers struggle. Aside from collection finale “Martyrdom” (written for and published in the Dennis Etchison-edited antho Metahorror) there isn’t much here in the way of blood and guts and physical horror, but instead implication upon implication: is that house you’ve driven by really a replica of a childhood dollhouse, or is your imagination running away? did a ghost or merely vagrants murder your best friend? how can a stranger know so much about you—is he just good at reading people?
If I had to pick favorites here, my mind immediately goes to “Phase Change”—I’m not much for dreams in horror literature, but JCO uses the merging of nightmare and reality expertly, successfully pushing the reader off-balance again and again and again—“The Doll”, “The Bingo Master” (originally published in horror genre classic Dark Forces), “Don’t You Trust Me?” . . . the latter of which made this reader squirm, what horrors JCO can conjure simply with a few words and implications.
It’s rare I read a collection that hits with each entry—I think the last one was Silver Scream, not even a single-author antho—but this one does just does that. Horror friends: looking to try my favorite writer? Start here.
Written and published over a period of 13 years, these stories are remarkably consistent in tone and quality: all are, well, haunting and macabre though Oates’s brand of horror and terror isn’t the most obvious or in-your-face and I think maybe that’s where some mainstream horror readers struggle. Aside from collection finale “Martyrdom” (written for and published in the Dennis Etchison-edited antho Metahorror) there isn’t much here in the way of blood and guts and physical horror, but instead implication upon implication: is that house you’ve driven by really a replica of a childhood dollhouse, or is your imagination running away? did a ghost or merely vagrants murder your best friend? how can a stranger know so much about you—is he just good at reading people?
If I had to pick favorites here, my mind immediately goes to “Phase Change”—I’m not much for dreams in horror literature, but JCO uses the merging of nightmare and reality expertly, successfully pushing the reader off-balance again and again and again—“The Doll”, “The Bingo Master” (originally published in horror genre classic Dark Forces), “Don’t You Trust Me?” . . . the latter of which made this reader squirm, what horrors JCO can conjure simply with a few words and implications.
It’s rare I read a collection that hits with each entry—I think the last one was Silver Scream, not even a single-author antho—but this one does just does that. Horror friends: looking to try my favorite writer? Start here.
April 3, 2013
As a fan of The Melvins, I've long since gotten used to their penchant for suddenly ending songs just when they sound like they're really getting underway. And, I was quickly reminded of this aspect of their music while reading Joyce Carol Oates' stories of murder and bloodshed, which often share that truncated quality. However, when The Melvins cut a song off, they simply proceed onto the next one without any demand on listeners to understand what they have just heard. This is not quite the case with short stories, though. When Oates' tales abruptly end, they can leave readers feeling like they have missed half the story or have not yet been given enough information to piece together what's actually going on.
Since Oates does create some very memorable and realistic characters, perhaps she wanted to turn the focus from the outcomes of the story to the decision making processes the characters go through. This may work somewhat for certain stories—the story "Phase Change" about a woman who begins having violent nightmares comes to mind—but more often than not, it leads to frustration. "The Model," a more standard thriller about a girl asked to pose for an eccentric man in the park, and "The Guilty Party," a Barker-esque dark comedy involving a revenge-bent toddler, are both entertaining stories that suffer from having their endings hacked off. As interesting and character driven as what's there may be, these are stories that required resolutions and never received them.
Aside from the endings and vague aspects, some of the stories are just too bland and expected. Even with fantastic descriptions, "The White Cat," a response to Edgar Allan Poe's original tale "The Black Cat," ends exactly the way most readers would expect it to. Similarly, "Poor Bibi" and "Blind" both give away their secrets far too easily without adding anything new.
But, for as many stories as I disliked or felt let down by, there were as many that I found gripping and genuinely upsetting, much the way I imagine Oates would want. The creepiest story of the bunch is "Haunted," which tells the tale of two girls who, against parental advice, continually trek through abandoned houses and barns around their small hometown. While it begins as more of a tale of bitter childhood friendship, it quickly turns more sinister, ending in the death of one of the girls and lingering hints of child abuse.
Perhaps the most famous story here, "Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly" retells Henry James' ghost novella Turn of the Screw from the point of view of the two alleged ghosts, Miss Jessel and Peter Quint. The flipping of the narrative turns the governess from a woman slowly losing her sanity to one who is correct about the ghosts but seemingly cruel in her ignorance about their motivations. The writing is superb; readers can feel the bleary and dissipating existence of the two ghosts as they helplessly watch their old world disappear.
"The Premonition" is one of the few examples of a perfect amount of ambiguity. It recounts Whitney's visit to his brother Quinn's house due to a bad feeling and Quinn's history of belligerence. Not finding Quinn at home, Quinn's wife and two young daughters tell Whitney he has gone on vacation while they carry on with innocuous yet discreetly ominous activities. Without showing anything bloody, Oates intimates enough clues to paint a deadly picture of what happened to the supposedly vacationing Quinn.
The best story, however, is "Extenuating Circumstances." It is pieced together in scraps of thought from a mother who is increasingly distraught and mentally unstable. While at first the scrambled thoughts seem to be nothing more than an incoherent jumble, they soon eke out just enough information for readers to understand the terrible and irrational action she has taken.
Overall, Oates is clearly a talented writer, but too often she provides vague information and creates vivid worlds that disappear too curtly. I realize at times it's good to get in and out quickly and leave readers wanting more, but some of these stories feel more like passing thoughts than full tales.
Since Oates does create some very memorable and realistic characters, perhaps she wanted to turn the focus from the outcomes of the story to the decision making processes the characters go through. This may work somewhat for certain stories—the story "Phase Change" about a woman who begins having violent nightmares comes to mind—but more often than not, it leads to frustration. "The Model," a more standard thriller about a girl asked to pose for an eccentric man in the park, and "The Guilty Party," a Barker-esque dark comedy involving a revenge-bent toddler, are both entertaining stories that suffer from having their endings hacked off. As interesting and character driven as what's there may be, these are stories that required resolutions and never received them.
Aside from the endings and vague aspects, some of the stories are just too bland and expected. Even with fantastic descriptions, "The White Cat," a response to Edgar Allan Poe's original tale "The Black Cat," ends exactly the way most readers would expect it to. Similarly, "Poor Bibi" and "Blind" both give away their secrets far too easily without adding anything new.
But, for as many stories as I disliked or felt let down by, there were as many that I found gripping and genuinely upsetting, much the way I imagine Oates would want. The creepiest story of the bunch is "Haunted," which tells the tale of two girls who, against parental advice, continually trek through abandoned houses and barns around their small hometown. While it begins as more of a tale of bitter childhood friendship, it quickly turns more sinister, ending in the death of one of the girls and lingering hints of child abuse.
Perhaps the most famous story here, "Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly" retells Henry James' ghost novella Turn of the Screw from the point of view of the two alleged ghosts, Miss Jessel and Peter Quint. The flipping of the narrative turns the governess from a woman slowly losing her sanity to one who is correct about the ghosts but seemingly cruel in her ignorance about their motivations. The writing is superb; readers can feel the bleary and dissipating existence of the two ghosts as they helplessly watch their old world disappear.
"The Premonition" is one of the few examples of a perfect amount of ambiguity. It recounts Whitney's visit to his brother Quinn's house due to a bad feeling and Quinn's history of belligerence. Not finding Quinn at home, Quinn's wife and two young daughters tell Whitney he has gone on vacation while they carry on with innocuous yet discreetly ominous activities. Without showing anything bloody, Oates intimates enough clues to paint a deadly picture of what happened to the supposedly vacationing Quinn.
The best story, however, is "Extenuating Circumstances." It is pieced together in scraps of thought from a mother who is increasingly distraught and mentally unstable. While at first the scrambled thoughts seem to be nothing more than an incoherent jumble, they soon eke out just enough information for readers to understand the terrible and irrational action she has taken.
Overall, Oates is clearly a talented writer, but too often she provides vague information and creates vivid worlds that disappear too curtly. I realize at times it's good to get in and out quickly and leave readers wanting more, but some of these stories feel more like passing thoughts than full tales.
May 12, 2012
Joyce Carol Oates' Haunted is an excellent collection of stories that, for the lack of a better word, are "scary". However, these are not "scary" in the sense that Edgar Allan Poe or H.P Lovecraft are. These tales are much more like the plot of an episode of Twilight Zone with a twist at the end. As other reviewers have stated, her stories range from traditional scary stories that could to told on Halloween, to creepy tales with psychological implications, to horrific passages of violence.
The majority of the tales center around the relationship between a woman/girl and an abusive man. In most of the stories, the man and woman are related to each other though sometimes it takes a while to figure out their relationship. Though when reading these stories for the first time, the plots and characters may seem harmless. The terrifying elements lay just below the surface. Unlike in other scary story collections, Oates rarely shows the reader what is exactly to be feared. Instead, she describes and fear and panic surrounding the event and lets the reader infer. This technique makes the tales even more grotesque and horrific because there is no defined conclusion and it is up to the reader's imagination.
Oates also uses a variety of techniques that have become familiar to her readers. In one story, she begins each sentence with the word "because" which makes the tale almost seem like a free verse poem. Another story is segmented with each passage numbered as if the entire story is a list of some sort.
Though descriptions of the tales may sound interesting, the majority of the stories are incredibly upsetting. Instead of murderous hitchhikers or clawed murderers, these are stories that burrow deep into the reader's psyche and wreck havoc. These are not for readings around a campfire or for someone who wants chills on Halloween. The kinds of chills that these stories give are far deeper and are not easily ignored.
www.iamliteraryaddicted.blogspot.com
The majority of the tales center around the relationship between a woman/girl and an abusive man. In most of the stories, the man and woman are related to each other though sometimes it takes a while to figure out their relationship. Though when reading these stories for the first time, the plots and characters may seem harmless. The terrifying elements lay just below the surface. Unlike in other scary story collections, Oates rarely shows the reader what is exactly to be feared. Instead, she describes and fear and panic surrounding the event and lets the reader infer. This technique makes the tales even more grotesque and horrific because there is no defined conclusion and it is up to the reader's imagination.
Oates also uses a variety of techniques that have become familiar to her readers. In one story, she begins each sentence with the word "because" which makes the tale almost seem like a free verse poem. Another story is segmented with each passage numbered as if the entire story is a list of some sort.
Though descriptions of the tales may sound interesting, the majority of the stories are incredibly upsetting. Instead of murderous hitchhikers or clawed murderers, these are stories that burrow deep into the reader's psyche and wreck havoc. These are not for readings around a campfire or for someone who wants chills on Halloween. The kinds of chills that these stories give are far deeper and are not easily ignored.
www.iamliteraryaddicted.blogspot.com
January 13, 2023
Joyce Carol Oates'un her kitabına bayılmıyorum. Bazıları inanılmaz mest ediyor beni, bazıları da bir o kadar şoke ediyor. Grotesk öykülerden oluşan 'Lanetliler'i okul yıllarımda babamın bir arkadaşının kütüphanesinde görmüştüm. Daha o zaman ne benim bir kitaplığım vardı ne de Oates hakkında en ufak bir fikrim. Groteskin ne anlama geldiğini bile bilmiyordum. Şu anda 'Lanetliler'in bir baskısı yok bildiğim kadarıyla. Oysa buradaki öyküler birer gizli hazine. Her sayfada şaşırdığımı, affedersiniz şoklardan şoka vesile olduğumu filan hatırlıyorum. Muazzam heyecan vericiydi her biri. Şu anda okusam aynı keyfi alır mıyım, bence alırım. Ben de kitapların bizi çağırdıklarına inananlardanım. Ve bu kitabı elimle adeta cımbızla çeker gibi seçmeseydim asla şu anki ben olamazdım. Bana çok iyi geldi. Umarım yeni bir baskısını tekrar görebiliriz yakın zamanda.
April 17, 2024
Joyce Carol Oates is so mysterious to anyone born after 1990 because she’s published sixty books and fifty short story collections, all of varying genres, and everyone’s read two or three but not the SAME two or three so she doesn’t have any obvious most popular book to start with. I heard this collection was a super safe bet if you like horror, though, which: I didn’t even realize she wrote horror!! I was half-expecting novels about Aging With Grace while solo hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. I owe you an apology, JCO! I wasn’t really familiar with your game!!!!
It turns out Joyce Carol Oates is kind of like Lana Del Rey as Edgar Allen Poe. Like if at the top of National Anthem, Lana read The Cask of Amontillado out loud in a slow dreamy voice, and then screamed for a while. A lot of these stories are basically about a sexually sinister man of indeterminate age tying Betty Boop to some railroad tracks, and Betty Boop is thinking “maybe if I’m a Good Girl…maybe if I’m Good for him…he’ll let me go……!” And then just as she’s about to get run over Betty Boop wakes up because it was all a dream.
Occasionally a bit antiquated, but I had a lot of fun reading this, especially since you can just IMAGINE the 9-12th grade English class discussion questions a teacher might ask. Why is the woman in the first story’s appearance so frightening? What do Miranda the cat and Alissa the human have in common? What are the physical traits Oates uses to describe Bibi? When is race emphasized, and for what purpose? Do you think the dreams really happened? Why, or why not?
Side note: I haven’t read The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, so I didn’t get a lot out of Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly, but whenever someone writes a “response” story to another author’s work, I like to imagine like, Joyce Carol Oates watching Rise of Skywalker and immediately writing Reylo fix-it fic. Kylo Ren and Rey are raising baby yoda together but at the end Rey attacks baby yoda with hammers (ambiguously, and with feminine rage)
It turns out Joyce Carol Oates is kind of like Lana Del Rey as Edgar Allen Poe. Like if at the top of National Anthem, Lana read The Cask of Amontillado out loud in a slow dreamy voice, and then screamed for a while. A lot of these stories are basically about a sexually sinister man of indeterminate age tying Betty Boop to some railroad tracks, and Betty Boop is thinking “maybe if I’m a Good Girl…maybe if I’m Good for him…he’ll let me go……!” And then just as she’s about to get run over Betty Boop wakes up because it was all a dream.
Occasionally a bit antiquated, but I had a lot of fun reading this, especially since you can just IMAGINE the 9-12th grade English class discussion questions a teacher might ask. Why is the woman in the first story’s appearance so frightening? What do Miranda the cat and Alissa the human have in common? What are the physical traits Oates uses to describe Bibi? When is race emphasized, and for what purpose? Do you think the dreams really happened? Why, or why not?
Side note: I haven’t read The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, so I didn’t get a lot out of Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly, but whenever someone writes a “response” story to another author’s work, I like to imagine like, Joyce Carol Oates watching Rise of Skywalker and immediately writing Reylo fix-it fic. Kylo Ren and Rey are raising baby yoda together but at the end Rey attacks baby yoda with hammers (ambiguously, and with feminine rage)
May 9, 2022
HAUNTED: Tales of the Grotesque
• Haunted ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• The Doll ⭐⭐⭐
• The Bingo Master ⭐⭐
• The White Cat ⭐⭐⭐
• The Model ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Extenuating Circumstances ⭐⭐
• Don't You Trust Me? ⭐⭐
• The Guilty Party ⭐⭐
• The Premonition ⭐⭐⭐
• Phase Change ⭐⭐
• Poor Bibi ⭐⭐
• Thanksgiving ⭐⭐⭐
• Blind ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• The Radio Astronomer ⭐⭐
• Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Martyrdom ⭐⭐⭐
Afterword: 'On the Grotesque'
• Haunted ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• The Doll ⭐⭐⭐
• The Bingo Master ⭐⭐
• The White Cat ⭐⭐⭐
• The Model ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Extenuating Circumstances ⭐⭐
• Don't You Trust Me? ⭐⭐
• The Guilty Party ⭐⭐
• The Premonition ⭐⭐⭐
• Phase Change ⭐⭐
• Poor Bibi ⭐⭐
• Thanksgiving ⭐⭐⭐
• Blind ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• The Radio Astronomer ⭐⭐
• Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Martyrdom ⭐⭐⭐
Afterword: 'On the Grotesque'
March 2, 2019
Somehow, in some indescribable way, Joyce’s words and stories in Haunted changed me, soaked into my DNA and made me something different than I was before. And I like it.
November 7, 2008
I was interested in reading something in the spirit of the season (Halloween) so I picked up this book of short stories, which ranged from creepy to downright disgusting. As an author, Joyce Carol Oates shows an uncanny ability to come up with strikingly different situations within which she weaves remarkable tales. With Oates, you never know what you're going to get because each story is completely different than the one before.
However, what is the same about each of the stories in this book is the underlying mood of confusion and panic. Whether it was the story about a successful university president surprised to find the exact replica of her childhood dollhouse on a street in Lancaster County or the one about the dead governess and valet haunting the children they loved and cared for in life, the reader never feels completely sure of the circumstances or clear about the story that is unfolding. The teacher in me couldn't help but think, as I was reading the book, that it would be a great one with which to teach the skill of making inferences (although it is most certainly not appropriate for kids of any age).
A few of my favorite stories were The White Cat and The Model. In The White Cat a man in his fifties develops an intense hatred for his (much younger) wife's white Persian cat. He makes multiple attempts to kill the cat yet somehow the cat continues to "haunt" him. In The Model a 17-year-old runner is approached by an artist in the park. He offers her a great deal of money to pose as his model for a picture. During these modeling sessions, the girl becomes convinced that this stranger is actually the father whom she has long believed to be dead. But, as the reader, you're never quite convinced that this is true...
There are sixteen stories in this book, but many of them were too distressing for me to consider enjoyable. While I admire Oates' writing abilities and these stories were definitely creepy, I found more of them upsetting than entertaining. In the end the final story, especially, turned my stomach enough to turn me off completely.
However, what is the same about each of the stories in this book is the underlying mood of confusion and panic. Whether it was the story about a successful university president surprised to find the exact replica of her childhood dollhouse on a street in Lancaster County or the one about the dead governess and valet haunting the children they loved and cared for in life, the reader never feels completely sure of the circumstances or clear about the story that is unfolding. The teacher in me couldn't help but think, as I was reading the book, that it would be a great one with which to teach the skill of making inferences (although it is most certainly not appropriate for kids of any age).
A few of my favorite stories were The White Cat and The Model. In The White Cat a man in his fifties develops an intense hatred for his (much younger) wife's white Persian cat. He makes multiple attempts to kill the cat yet somehow the cat continues to "haunt" him. In The Model a 17-year-old runner is approached by an artist in the park. He offers her a great deal of money to pose as his model for a picture. During these modeling sessions, the girl becomes convinced that this stranger is actually the father whom she has long believed to be dead. But, as the reader, you're never quite convinced that this is true...
There are sixteen stories in this book, but many of them were too distressing for me to consider enjoyable. While I admire Oates' writing abilities and these stories were definitely creepy, I found more of them upsetting than entertaining. In the end the final story, especially, turned my stomach enough to turn me off completely.
August 23, 2016
Mostly good or great, all unsettling, a few wonderfully horrifying.
The Doll was probably my favorite of the bunch. The terror is slow and before you know it, it has surrounded you and drifted over your head from which there is no way out. Mega heebie-jeebies.
The Bingo Master, Thanksgiving and The White Cat were fantastic as well.
The Doll was probably my favorite of the bunch. The terror is slow and before you know it, it has surrounded you and drifted over your head from which there is no way out. Mega heebie-jeebies.
The Bingo Master, Thanksgiving and The White Cat were fantastic as well.
August 2, 2012
Heard nothing but glittering reviews for anything and everything by Oates. Perhaps I set the bar too high because I was mildly disappointed. I liked the writing style well enough but I was honestly bored and kept falling asleep while reading, halfway through I just kept hoping the next story would be the one that would validate the book for me. I wasn't expecting scary, but I just wanted the stories to go a little farther, a little something more.
I am intrigued enough and plan on reading more works by her; perhaps a set of short stories isn't the best introduction. I loved the idea of each story, loved that most of the stories dealt with fears that each of us hold but seldom acknowledge. They were stories for the most part rooted in reality (which I like), but were just too ambiguous for me in many spots.
Good book but not what I was expecting.
I am intrigued enough and plan on reading more works by her; perhaps a set of short stories isn't the best introduction. I loved the idea of each story, loved that most of the stories dealt with fears that each of us hold but seldom acknowledge. They were stories for the most part rooted in reality (which I like), but were just too ambiguous for me in many spots.
Good book but not what I was expecting.
March 17, 2021
This is my second time through this collection, and it was even more amazing the second time around. I first encounter Joyce Carol Oates when I read her story - her gruesome story, both emotionally and physically - "Martyrdom" in the collection METAHORROR, edited by Dennis Etchison. It knocked me out, big time, so when I happened upon HAUNTED, I snapped it right up.
Excellent stories. Some with a twist of the supernatural, some with a twist of the knife, and some just bizarre. All of them about frail and fractured humans trying to find their way, however, which makes for the best kinds of horror. I have several other of her short story collections on my shelf, and I need to those, post-haste.
Excellent stories. Some with a twist of the supernatural, some with a twist of the knife, and some just bizarre. All of them about frail and fractured humans trying to find their way, however, which makes for the best kinds of horror. I have several other of her short story collections on my shelf, and I need to those, post-haste.
May 13, 2008
The first two stories were really good, particularly "The Doll," but it was all downhill from there with the exception of "The White Cat" (a re-imagining of Poe's The Black Cat.) If it weren't for the first two, I would have given this book only one star. Her endings are often weak and the stories just didn't do anything for me - in fact they often pissed me off because they were so ridiculous. After getting half way through the second to the last story (a re-imagining of A Turn of the Screw) I gave up. In that story she had this annoying habit of telling rather than showing, and I was anxious to move on to something worth my time.
March 21, 2024
Trying to write this while my head is still spinning. As far as horror collections go, Oates' diversity of form and tone makes this feel very rewardingly experimental - the eclectic list of artists, movements, and phenomena she references in the book's afterword reflect the output of the book in some really astonishing and chameleonic ways. That first three run of stories had me absolutely hooked, but the ones that stuck with me most by the end were Thanksgiving (jee-zus) and Martyrdom (JEE-zus)...Very excited to see if she's written any other books. One or two, maybe? I'm going to take a large sip of water while I look up her bibliography.
December 19, 2013
Very gripping stuff. Some of the stories are so twisted that I winced in reading them...but I kept reading.
May 16, 2017
Violence Against Women: The Book! Now with more rape, torture, and dead babies for your $$!
July 2, 2019
This collection of short stories is uneven, but its best stories are quite strong. Oates is exploring horror here, but she mostly avoids standard genre thrills, instead aiming for psychological horror and unease instead of physical danger or supernatural threats (though those do make appearances as well).
One repeated theme is repressed (often sexual) needs or truths breaking through the persona a protagonist has constructed for themselves. This is strongly handled in "Haunted" - where traumatic childhood memory of a possibly supernatural encounter skirts the line between reality and dream (in the same way Kelly Link can induce a vertiginous uneasiness along that line) and intertwines this with the harsh angles of a competitive teenage friendship - and the shattering "Bingo Master". The same theme is a little too obviously approached in the "The Doll" and way overplayed in "Phase Change."
Another standout is "The Model" where a teenage girl draws the attention of a itinerant painter who may or may not be her estranged dad trying to reconnect after she hasn't seen him as a young child. Sinister and sharp, it plays deftly with identity, trust and power.
Most of the other stories are good to ok, with a few duds like the ridiculously overwrought (this might be on purpose, riffing on a literary reference or author I'm ignorant of) "Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly", which I couldn't even finish. But I do recommend the book if the strong stories mentioned above sound interesting to you.
One repeated theme is repressed (often sexual) needs or truths breaking through the persona a protagonist has constructed for themselves. This is strongly handled in "Haunted" - where traumatic childhood memory of a possibly supernatural encounter skirts the line between reality and dream (in the same way Kelly Link can induce a vertiginous uneasiness along that line) and intertwines this with the harsh angles of a competitive teenage friendship - and the shattering "Bingo Master". The same theme is a little too obviously approached in the "The Doll" and way overplayed in "Phase Change."
Another standout is "The Model" where a teenage girl draws the attention of a itinerant painter who may or may not be her estranged dad trying to reconnect after she hasn't seen him as a young child. Sinister and sharp, it plays deftly with identity, trust and power.
Most of the other stories are good to ok, with a few duds like the ridiculously overwrought (this might be on purpose, riffing on a literary reference or author I'm ignorant of) "Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly", which I couldn't even finish. But I do recommend the book if the strong stories mentioned above sound interesting to you.
October 18, 2018
Obviously I am in the minority with my rating, and I'm ok with that. Very few times in my life has a book pissed me off so much that I wanted to burn it on the spot. This book will forever live on my DNF shelf, and I will likely never read anything by JCO again. Granted, I only made it through two of the stories in this collection, but it was enough to know I just don't care for the author, or more specifically her writing style.
May 10, 2019
I rather enjoyed this collection. I felt that there were a few stories that lagged on a bit, but overall I found the stories to be either slightly or extremely disturbing. Looking forward to reading more Oates in the future!
May 20, 2022
3.5 stars.
Ça faisait longtemps que je n'avais pas lu la Queen Oates.
Collection d'histoires courtes sur le grotesque.
Pas une mauvaise collection, mais pas la meilleure non plus, mais cela reste Madame Oates, donc elle a été appréciée en grande majorité.
Ça faisait longtemps que je n'avais pas lu la Queen Oates.
Collection d'histoires courtes sur le grotesque.
Pas une mauvaise collection, mais pas la meilleure non plus, mais cela reste Madame Oates, donc elle a été appréciée en grande majorité.
October 22, 2025
Joyce Carol Oates you do no wrong. Best creepy story collection ever. The Cursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly and Martyrdom were the last two and my fav two
Except for The Bingo Master skip that one
Except for The Bingo Master skip that one
July 11, 2023
This collection of short stories could be considered literary horror. As in any short story collection, some left me cold and some were wonderfully horrifying.
The best were the title story Haunted, The Model, the truly horrifying Extenuating Circumstances, the Premonition, wonderfully ambiguous and maybe my favorite, and Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly (a retelling of The Turn of the Screw from the point of view of the ghosts). The White Cat left me with a so-what feeling. Martyrdom was disgusting. The remaining stories ranged from good to really good.
It is hard to rate a short story collection, but I guess the average would be 3.75, which I suppose I should round up to 4.
The best were the title story Haunted, The Model, the truly horrifying Extenuating Circumstances, the Premonition, wonderfully ambiguous and maybe my favorite, and Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly (a retelling of The Turn of the Screw from the point of view of the ghosts). The White Cat left me with a so-what feeling. Martyrdom was disgusting. The remaining stories ranged from good to really good.
It is hard to rate a short story collection, but I guess the average would be 3.75, which I suppose I should round up to 4.
June 21, 2023
Unangenehme depressive Stimmung. Nach zwei Geschichten abgebrochen . Einfach nur : "Blöd und bah!!
December 12, 2013
Classic Oates: uneasy stories, unlikable characters, indeterminate endings. Amusingly, one story is essentially fanfic (though I guess with an author of Oates' stature one has to call it an homage or a riff or something): Henry James' Turn of the Screw retold from Jessel and Quint's perspective.
Best part was Oates' afterword, where she says this:
Best part was Oates' afterword, where she says this:
One criterion for horror fiction is that we are compelled to read it swiftly, with a rising sense of dread, and so total a suspension of ordinary skepticism, we inhabit the material without question and virtually as its protagonist; we can see no way out except to go forward. Like fairy tales, the art of the grotesque and horror renders us children again, evoking something primal in the soul. The outward aspects of horror are variable, multiple, infinite--the innter, inaccessible. What the vision is we might guess, but, inhabiting a brightly populated, sociable, intensely engaging outer world, in whch we are defined to one another as social beings with names, professions, roles, public identities, and in which, most of the time, we believe ourselves at home--isn't it wisest not to?
December 10, 2015
Weird... I skimmed over my JCO "to read" list and wondered why I hadn't not marked this collection as read. I will never forget reading the last story, "Martyrdom", during my lunch at work. Warning: do not read this wrenching story while eating. The vivid, lurid descriptions made me nauseous... needless to say I didn't want to finish my meal. Trust JCO to make me almost cry over a rat's fate.
The post-apocalyptic tale "Thanksgiving" is also one not to read while eating. Come to think of it, with some of these stories JCO has hit upon a great diet aid: make the reader sick to the stomach.
There's also lighter albeit still malevolent fare like "The White Cat". Never underestimate the power of the feline majesty.
A solid, disturbing collection that truly touches on the grotesque side of nature. These stories may be horrible in places, but they aren't "horrifying", if that makes any sense. They will frighten you because they make the reader doubt the humanity of the human species, not due to a spooky factor.
The post-apocalyptic tale "Thanksgiving" is also one not to read while eating. Come to think of it, with some of these stories JCO has hit upon a great diet aid: make the reader sick to the stomach.
There's also lighter albeit still malevolent fare like "The White Cat". Never underestimate the power of the feline majesty.
A solid, disturbing collection that truly touches on the grotesque side of nature. These stories may be horrible in places, but they aren't "horrifying", if that makes any sense. They will frighten you because they make the reader doubt the humanity of the human species, not due to a spooky factor.
Read
November 25, 2013Habe diesen Story-Band in den letzten 15 Jahren mehrfach angefangen und bin nie richtig eingestiegen. Immer mal eine Geschichte in der Badewanne oder sonst zwischendurch, aber jedesmal gespaltene Eindrücke, die sich bald verwischten und schnell in Vergessenheit gerieten. Jüngst habe ich nun die erste, titelgebende Geschichte wieder einmal gelesen und bin dieses Mal begeistert! Da sieht man einmal mehr, was Gestimmtheit ausmacht.
Ein Musterbeispiel für eine Groteske; im Nachwort geht JCO auch darauf ein, was sie unter diesem Gattungsbegriff versteht. Bislang habe ich den Begriff hauptsächlich mit Poe verbunden, mir aber keine tiefergehenden Gedanken dazu gemacht.
Der Text ist beim nächsten Lesekreis gesetzt, mal sehen, ob ich danach den ganzen Band lesen werde.
Ein Musterbeispiel für eine Groteske; im Nachwort geht JCO auch darauf ein, was sie unter diesem Gattungsbegriff versteht. Bislang habe ich den Begriff hauptsächlich mit Poe verbunden, mir aber keine tiefergehenden Gedanken dazu gemacht.
Der Text ist beim nächsten Lesekreis gesetzt, mal sehen, ob ich danach den ganzen Band lesen werde.
February 13, 2012
I was really into horror books growing up. When I was in eighth grade, my mom checked this one out from the library, read it, and passed it on to me. I remember being totally engrossed by these stories. However, when I think back on what they were about, I can hardly see what my mom thought was appropriate about this book for a 13 year-old! Ah well, the fact that she didn't censor, or dumb things down for me is probably a major reason that we got along growing up. Still...
Be prepared for grotesque-ry (both emotional and sexual) galore!
Be prepared for grotesque-ry (both emotional and sexual) galore!
January 4, 2014
Wow... My husband and I decided to read this collection of macabre tales together, and after wading through story after story, I have to say that Ms. Oates truly knows how to terrify people.
My favorite stories in the book were those that were ambiguous and subtle, ending up like a Rorschach test for people who interpret the story differently. My favorite such tale was the first, a story about a deadly haunting (or perhaps not a haunting at all?). Some of the more gruesome tales involve rape or child abuse, so readers be warned!
My favorite stories in the book were those that were ambiguous and subtle, ending up like a Rorschach test for people who interpret the story differently. My favorite such tale was the first, a story about a deadly haunting (or perhaps not a haunting at all?). Some of the more gruesome tales involve rape or child abuse, so readers be warned!
August 13, 2013
Goodreads should adjust the star system. Rather than stars meaning 'really liked it' they should be geared to judge the quality of the writing. These tales really were grotesque. 'Really liked it' isn't exactly the way I would phrase my feelings towards it.
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November 6, 2020
As someone who reads a lot of horror, I had reached the point where I thought nothing could shock me. Then I read Phase Change. One of the most disturbing stories I've ever read. Haunted, The Doll, The Premonition, Thanksgiving, and Martyrdom are also particularly effective.
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