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The Frenzy: Stories
A gripping collection of propulsive, psychologically suspenseful stories by the legendary Joyce Carol Oates “who is surely on any shortlist of America’s greatest living writers” (The New York Times Magazine)
“A genius in the truest sense of the word.”—Rebecca Makkai
“One of the greatest writers among us today.”—Gillian Flynn
“Haunting . . . masterfully orchestrated . . . Oates’s best work is simmering and remorseless.”—Vogue
“Astounding . . . Oates imbues this entire book with psychological suspense and high stakes.”—Harper's Bazaar
“Already one of our most accomplished and, yes, prolific living writers, Oates is on a thrilling winning streak with her third stellar work of literary fiction in two years. Call it the JCOaissance. Or maybe don’t. But definitely pick up this collection.”—Publishers Weekly (Pick of the Week)
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE Vogue, Haper’s Bazaar, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Lit Hub, AARP
Frenzy (noun): a temporary madness; a violent mental or emotional agitation; intense usually wild and often disorderly compulsive or agitated activity
Joyce Carol Oates is a master of the short story and one of the legends of the form. Her collections of short fiction have twice been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and have won numerous awards, including the O. Henry Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Art of the Short Story. In The Stories, Oates plunges us into the lives of her characters at moments of crisis and confusion, when much of what they understand about themselves and those they love comes undone.
A young woman on a supposedly romantic weekend trip to Cape May, New Jersey, turns the tables on her older, married lover. A freak bicycle accident on a bridge haunts one family for decades. A girl jealous of her popular cousin discovers she is the lucky one. A widow waits at her riverside house for her dead husband's return. A young man hiking in the woods comes upon a couple in a heated, possibly violent argument—should he intervene?
Suspenseful and psychologically astute, Oates's short stories enthrall and captivate as they dissect her character's deepest fears—revealing our own in turn. "Literature is a texture of words," says Oates of her short fiction, "evoking life in the most vivid ways—psychologically, physically." These new stories blazingly evoke life at its most vivid and perilous, when fate and free will intersect, and one ominous encounter or bad choice can be the difference between an ordinary day and the point of no return.
“A genius in the truest sense of the word.”—Rebecca Makkai
“One of the greatest writers among us today.”—Gillian Flynn
“Haunting . . . masterfully orchestrated . . . Oates’s best work is simmering and remorseless.”—Vogue
“Astounding . . . Oates imbues this entire book with psychological suspense and high stakes.”—Harper's Bazaar
“Already one of our most accomplished and, yes, prolific living writers, Oates is on a thrilling winning streak with her third stellar work of literary fiction in two years. Call it the JCOaissance. Or maybe don’t. But definitely pick up this collection.”—Publishers Weekly (Pick of the Week)
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE Vogue, Haper’s Bazaar, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Lit Hub, AARP
Frenzy (noun): a temporary madness; a violent mental or emotional agitation; intense usually wild and often disorderly compulsive or agitated activity
Joyce Carol Oates is a master of the short story and one of the legends of the form. Her collections of short fiction have twice been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and have won numerous awards, including the O. Henry Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Art of the Short Story. In The Stories, Oates plunges us into the lives of her characters at moments of crisis and confusion, when much of what they understand about themselves and those they love comes undone.
A young woman on a supposedly romantic weekend trip to Cape May, New Jersey, turns the tables on her older, married lover. A freak bicycle accident on a bridge haunts one family for decades. A girl jealous of her popular cousin discovers she is the lucky one. A widow waits at her riverside house for her dead husband's return. A young man hiking in the woods comes upon a couple in a heated, possibly violent argument—should he intervene?
Suspenseful and psychologically astute, Oates's short stories enthrall and captivate as they dissect her character's deepest fears—revealing our own in turn. "Literature is a texture of words," says Oates of her short fiction, "evoking life in the most vivid ways—psychologically, physically." These new stories blazingly evoke life at its most vivid and perilous, when fate and free will intersect, and one ominous encounter or bad choice can be the difference between an ordinary day and the point of no return.
Audible Audio
First published June 16, 2026
About the author
Joyce Carol Oates
857 books10k 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 90 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
⭐️ 3.25 ⭐️ Frenzy: temporary madness, a violent mental or emotional agitation, a compulsive or agitated activity. JCO stepped into the human psyche and gave us stories that felt like they stemmed from our freakish parts of our subconscious in the moments of crisis. While most of them were interesting, they were just ok for me. I felt that her stories were all very wordy and descriptive but in a way that I didn't enjoy the writing/storytelling. I struggled to find anything compelling about them and none of them provided a deeper look into the frenzy as the title promised.
The frenzy:
Cassidy is an older man in his late 40's who feels trapped in his marriage. He's having an affair with a much younger girl--his daughter's classmate, who is 19/20 years old, careless, free spirited and high on all meds possible. They are driving to Cape May, make a stop there and something happens. Later on they settle into their hotel room but the next morning, tables turn and the girl leaves the older man.
The Fear:
Juliet and Janette two cousins, same age, few months apart. One gets cancer, the other has a better life. They grow apart, the story shows a life trajectory of two people complicated by jealousy.
The bicycle accident:
Explores mother daughter relationship with the aftermath of a brutal bike accident that almost ended Evie’s life. It hints at inappropriate behavior/sexual abuse that went unnoted by the mother and the cost it had on her years down the line. (My favorite story)
The call:
A woman gets a call in the middle of the night and is informed her father passed away. Confused, she states her father passed away 6 years ago and this must be a mistake. The hospital staff assures her there is no mistake. She goes to her mother, for she has all the answers.
The return:
A woman returns to New York to visit her friend whom she hasn’t been in contact with for a few years. While visiting, the friend goes off on a tangent about her dead husband but speaks of him as if he was alive. (This one was sort of creepy)
Redwood:
A man is on a hike and sees another couple arguing, which appears to be more of an abusive sort of relationship. He is imminently taken by the striking woman ‘Lise’ and has been secretly in love with her…even when death came for him. The story shows a mans desire to be alone but hints/alludes to the point when one approaches death there is a yearning for companionship.
Small Veins:
An oncology patient goes to a clinic to have her labs drawn and realizes no one really sees you there. You are seen as a disease. Your time is running out and you can’t help but wonder if death is painless and merciful. (As a healthcare worker, I enjoyed this one a lot)
Refuge:
Lorene is looking for her estranged husband. Marcus was an eccentric individual who always sought refuge elsewhere. He liked to leave Lorene for days and weeks and then get in contact with her, then sound irritated and gaslight her. Lorene then rescued her mentally abuse husband only to find out how things have changed. (I did not enjoy this one at all)
Night Fishing at Antibes:
Two women form an unlikely friendship while they try to navigate through the recent deaths of their husbands.
JCO writes in a very sophisticated, mature way that examines grief, loss, human connections and conditions. Her stories explore life and death situations and the in-betweens that people sometimes find themselves in. None of the stories have resolutions and are kind of open-ended. I didn't particularly enjoy the short stories and some were very hard to get into. I found her verbiage difficult to process and hard to understand the point she was trying to make.
Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House/Hogarth and the author, Joyce Carol Oates for an early copy.
Publication date: June 16, 2026
The frenzy:
Cassidy is an older man in his late 40's who feels trapped in his marriage. He's having an affair with a much younger girl--his daughter's classmate, who is 19/20 years old, careless, free spirited and high on all meds possible. They are driving to Cape May, make a stop there and something happens. Later on they settle into their hotel room but the next morning, tables turn and the girl leaves the older man.
The Fear:
Juliet and Janette two cousins, same age, few months apart. One gets cancer, the other has a better life. They grow apart, the story shows a life trajectory of two people complicated by jealousy.
The bicycle accident:
Explores mother daughter relationship with the aftermath of a brutal bike accident that almost ended Evie’s life. It hints at inappropriate behavior/sexual abuse that went unnoted by the mother and the cost it had on her years down the line. (My favorite story)
The call:
A woman gets a call in the middle of the night and is informed her father passed away. Confused, she states her father passed away 6 years ago and this must be a mistake. The hospital staff assures her there is no mistake. She goes to her mother, for she has all the answers.
The return:
A woman returns to New York to visit her friend whom she hasn’t been in contact with for a few years. While visiting, the friend goes off on a tangent about her dead husband but speaks of him as if he was alive. (This one was sort of creepy)
Redwood:
A man is on a hike and sees another couple arguing, which appears to be more of an abusive sort of relationship. He is imminently taken by the striking woman ‘Lise’ and has been secretly in love with her…even when death came for him. The story shows a mans desire to be alone but hints/alludes to the point when one approaches death there is a yearning for companionship.
Small Veins:
An oncology patient goes to a clinic to have her labs drawn and realizes no one really sees you there. You are seen as a disease. Your time is running out and you can’t help but wonder if death is painless and merciful. (As a healthcare worker, I enjoyed this one a lot)
Refuge:
Lorene is looking for her estranged husband. Marcus was an eccentric individual who always sought refuge elsewhere. He liked to leave Lorene for days and weeks and then get in contact with her, then sound irritated and gaslight her. Lorene then rescued her mentally abuse husband only to find out how things have changed. (I did not enjoy this one at all)
Night Fishing at Antibes:
Two women form an unlikely friendship while they try to navigate through the recent deaths of their husbands.
JCO writes in a very sophisticated, mature way that examines grief, loss, human connections and conditions. Her stories explore life and death situations and the in-betweens that people sometimes find themselves in. None of the stories have resolutions and are kind of open-ended. I didn't particularly enjoy the short stories and some were very hard to get into. I found her verbiage difficult to process and hard to understand the point she was trying to make.
Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House/Hogarth and the author, Joyce Carol Oates for an early copy.
Publication date: June 16, 2026
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Janette understood that adults do not like you so much when you behave in a way they don’t expect even if it is a way truthful to you." p40
In Short: The form of this book, three clusters of three related short stories, really appeals to me. as I expect of Oates, she experiments with punctuation and formatting to convey tone, meaning, even character detail. Her stories tend to have interesting timelines; I often feel timelines converging, story past and story moment all connecting in one sentence with an addicting shape. She writes evil so beautifully-- you can touch it, taste it, see its shape reflected under the curtains of your own interior world. Sometimes, descriptions become poetic: "On the kitchen wall calendar June 23 was circled in red marker pen like an exploding nebula." p58. Sometimes, effects become experimental; for example, the fascinating treatment of first person perspective in "The Redwoods".
Preread: I love Joyce Carol Oates and I though her recent novel, FOX, was one of her best. Couldn't pass up the chance to read these short stories!
The Stories:
1. "The Frenzy" - "At the time she’d called he had (in fact) been lying in bed. Beside his (sleeping, oblivious) wife . Lying in bed and thinking of her, the girl, the teenaged mistress, what he would do with this girl or to this girl if they were alone together in some neutral space, an impersonal and unnamed space, a very private place, high-ceilinged luxury hotel room without windows or even a door; a floating kind of place, an off-shore kind of place, soundproof." p14 This story uses some interesting formatting choices and other elements to get inside the head of a philandering grown man who sexualizes and preys upon teenagers. Notice how the parentheses make you stop and measure.
2. "The Fear" - A clever, frightening inversion of a sibling rivalry story that excavates a beautiful example of childhood disability (facial differences).
3. "The Bicycle Accident" - I often find Oates's character treatment to subtlety unearth unexpected insights about human nature. I love how this story, written in third person, so smoothly transmits the experience of both a child and her mother in the story moment. (I find the story troubling in the way it sees disability.)
4. "The Call" - A moving piece that experiments with story timelines to increase the surreal feeling time takes on in grief.
5. "The Return" - "So, I’d been avoiding Audra . Even the thought of Audra. Some subjects are just too sad." p108 A piece about time and care and empathy and how challenging it can be to line up those two instincts toward a similar goal at the same moment.
6. "The Redwood" - One of my favorite things from Oates's skill box is the way she uses setting as character. "Like stepping into another world contiguous with the human world yet totally different from it. For nothing in the great forest except the (spare) trail markers, and the minimal trail itself, suggested a human presence, still less a human designation—“ state park.”" p127
7. "Small Veins" - "See that woman? She is not afraid, she has not fainted from having her blood drained from her, smiling to herself for all is well." p157 A story about the relational invisibility sick and disabled people experience, especially in medical settings during the pandemic.
8. "Refuge" - "Can you love, if love is not returned? Not returned equally? The most profound of questions because it is a question about how to live one’s life. For it is rare that love is fully reciprocal. Lorene can love Marcus more than Marcus can love her, she will impress Marcus with the depth of her love. Sunflower lover, rawly open, vulnerable. Take me, I am yours." p171 This one has such a dark ending! TW: ableism, uncharitable depictions of mental illness.
9. "Night Fishing at Antibes" - The stories in this section (stories 7, 8, & 9) seem to center codependent relationships, which can be fascinating if not written in a stigmatizing way. But I'm not sure Oates achieves that here.
Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the arc!📚
"Content Warnings:"
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Large age gap in sexual relationships, violence against women, coercion, physical abuse, gr*pe (suggested), cancer (childhood), ableism, grievous injury, bicycle accident, blood, animal cruelty, spousal SA, missing person, DV, woods at night, codependency, emotional instability,
"Janette understood that adults do not like you so much when you behave in a way they don’t expect even if it is a way truthful to you." p40
In Short: The form of this book, three clusters of three related short stories, really appeals to me. as I expect of Oates, she experiments with punctuation and formatting to convey tone, meaning, even character detail. Her stories tend to have interesting timelines; I often feel timelines converging, story past and story moment all connecting in one sentence with an addicting shape. She writes evil so beautifully-- you can touch it, taste it, see its shape reflected under the curtains of your own interior world. Sometimes, descriptions become poetic: "On the kitchen wall calendar June 23 was circled in red marker pen like an exploding nebula." p58. Sometimes, effects become experimental; for example, the fascinating treatment of first person perspective in "The Redwoods".
Preread: I love Joyce Carol Oates and I though her recent novel, FOX, was one of her best. Couldn't pass up the chance to read these short stories!
The Stories:
1. "The Frenzy" - "At the time she’d called he had (in fact) been lying in bed. Beside his (sleeping, oblivious) wife . Lying in bed and thinking of her, the girl, the teenaged mistress, what he would do with this girl or to this girl if they were alone together in some neutral space, an impersonal and unnamed space, a very private place, high-ceilinged luxury hotel room without windows or even a door; a floating kind of place, an off-shore kind of place, soundproof." p14 This story uses some interesting formatting choices and other elements to get inside the head of a philandering grown man who sexualizes and preys upon teenagers. Notice how the parentheses make you stop and measure.
2. "The Fear" - A clever, frightening inversion of a sibling rivalry story that excavates a beautiful example of childhood disability (facial differences).
3. "The Bicycle Accident" - I often find Oates's character treatment to subtlety unearth unexpected insights about human nature. I love how this story, written in third person, so smoothly transmits the experience of both a child and her mother in the story moment. (I find the story troubling in the way it sees disability.)
4. "The Call" - A moving piece that experiments with story timelines to increase the surreal feeling time takes on in grief.
5. "The Return" - "So, I’d been avoiding Audra . Even the thought of Audra. Some subjects are just too sad." p108 A piece about time and care and empathy and how challenging it can be to line up those two instincts toward a similar goal at the same moment.
6. "The Redwood" - One of my favorite things from Oates's skill box is the way she uses setting as character. "Like stepping into another world contiguous with the human world yet totally different from it. For nothing in the great forest except the (spare) trail markers, and the minimal trail itself, suggested a human presence, still less a human designation—“ state park.”" p127
7. "Small Veins" - "See that woman? She is not afraid, she has not fainted from having her blood drained from her, smiling to herself for all is well." p157 A story about the relational invisibility sick and disabled people experience, especially in medical settings during the pandemic.
8. "Refuge" - "Can you love, if love is not returned? Not returned equally? The most profound of questions because it is a question about how to live one’s life. For it is rare that love is fully reciprocal. Lorene can love Marcus more than Marcus can love her, she will impress Marcus with the depth of her love. Sunflower lover, rawly open, vulnerable. Take me, I am yours." p171 This one has such a dark ending! TW: ableism, uncharitable depictions of mental illness.
9. "Night Fishing at Antibes" - The stories in this section (stories 7, 8, & 9) seem to center codependent relationships, which can be fascinating if not written in a stigmatizing way. But I'm not sure Oates achieves that here.
Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the arc!📚
"Content Warnings:"
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Large age gap in sexual relationships, violence against women, coercion, physical abuse, gr*pe (suggested), cancer (childhood), ableism, grievous injury, bicycle accident, blood, animal cruelty, spousal SA, missing person, DV, woods at night, codependency, emotional instability,
June 22, 2026
4⭐️ A great collection of short stories! Joyce Carol Oats’ writing is so rich and characters so real these stories pull you in over just a few pages! She takes the ordinary, a weekend getaway, a glimpsed argument in a redwood forest, jealousy, and grief, and journeys into life altering scenarios.
Two of these were 5⭐️ for me. The first story, The Frenzy, and the last one, Night Fishing at Antibes, my favorites of the collection. Both of these had great characters and stories that left me wanting more! I need a book about Meagan and Zahira, the widows in Night Fishing!
4⭐️ The Fear, The Bicycle Accident, The Redwoods and the creepy The Call.
3⭐️ The Return, Small Veins, and Refuge
Really enjoyed them all!
Thanks to NetGalley and Hogarth Publishers for the eARC in exchange for my honest review
Two of these were 5⭐️ for me. The first story, The Frenzy, and the last one, Night Fishing at Antibes, my favorites of the collection. Both of these had great characters and stories that left me wanting more! I need a book about Meagan and Zahira, the widows in Night Fishing!
4⭐️ The Fear, The Bicycle Accident, The Redwoods and the creepy The Call.
3⭐️ The Return, Small Veins, and Refuge
Really enjoyed them all!
Thanks to NetGalley and Hogarth Publishers for the eARC in exchange for my honest review
March 5, 2026
Oates is a pretty new-to-me author but Fox was one of my favorite books last year so i knew i wanted to dive into more of her stuff. This was a really solid story collection manly focused on dark, psychological character studies - as with any, i liked some more than others. The Bicycle Accident, Night Fishing at Antibes, & the title story were the standouts for me.
June 23, 2026
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy of the latest collection of short stories from my favorite author, Joyce Carol Oates. It’s always an honor to be offered a JCO arc.
Comprised of 9 stories, The Frenzy sees Oates doing what she does best: probing at the darkest edges of the human psyche, exploring the worst case scenario, realizing what happens when the very worst goes wrong. As well: JCO’s trademark writing style is on full display, and that style doesn’t work for every reader. But it works for this one.
This is another very good collection of stories from a legend. What more can be said? A couple of the stories didn’t quite hit for me, but hey. That’s the nature of story collections. And I love ‘em.
Comprised of 9 stories, The Frenzy sees Oates doing what she does best: probing at the darkest edges of the human psyche, exploring the worst case scenario, realizing what happens when the very worst goes wrong. As well: JCO’s trademark writing style is on full display, and that style doesn’t work for every reader. But it works for this one.
This is another very good collection of stories from a legend. What more can be said? A couple of the stories didn’t quite hit for me, but hey. That’s the nature of story collections. And I love ‘em.
June 15, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and Hogarth for an advanced reader copy of The Frenzy by Joyce Carol Oats in exchange for my honest review. The collection of short stories are the first I’ve read by this author who has been honored as a “master of the thriller and noir literary genre”. The stories, blurbed as “propulsive, psychologically suspenseful”, really start off with a bang. The writing style overall is vivid and also deeply unsettling at times.
Every time I pick up a collection of short stories I’m reminded why I enjoy them so well. Reading these unique short stories, broken into three parts, gave me a much better grasp of the author's style. The first part, which resonated with me the most, features a reoccurring theme of men behaving badly and women getting the last word. The plot twists and violence frequently surprised me, but the resolutions were almost always satisfying. Not every story in the collection grabbed me, but I still found it to be a well written, thought provoking, and engaging read 3.75/5⭐️
Every time I pick up a collection of short stories I’m reminded why I enjoy them so well. Reading these unique short stories, broken into three parts, gave me a much better grasp of the author's style. The first part, which resonated with me the most, features a reoccurring theme of men behaving badly and women getting the last word. The plot twists and violence frequently surprised me, but the resolutions were almost always satisfying. Not every story in the collection grabbed me, but I still found it to be a well written, thought provoking, and engaging read 3.75/5⭐️
March 15, 2026
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5
JCO just keeps pumping out the hits. In The Frenzy, the legend once again proves why she remains one of the most enduring voices in contemporary literature. This short story collection feels remarkably cohesive, with each piece building on a shared sense of unease, obsession, and psychological intensity that runs throughout the book.
Oates has a way of finding the unsettling edges of ordinary life, and every story here carries that signature tension she is known for. Even across different characters and situations, the collection feels intentional and unified rather than scattered, a true testament to her skill as both a storyteller and a craftsman of the short form.
A fantastic, haunting collection from a true literary legend.
JCO just keeps pumping out the hits. In The Frenzy, the legend once again proves why she remains one of the most enduring voices in contemporary literature. This short story collection feels remarkably cohesive, with each piece building on a shared sense of unease, obsession, and psychological intensity that runs throughout the book.
Oates has a way of finding the unsettling edges of ordinary life, and every story here carries that signature tension she is known for. Even across different characters and situations, the collection feels intentional and unified rather than scattered, a true testament to her skill as both a storyteller and a craftsman of the short form.
A fantastic, haunting collection from a true literary legend.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Several shorter stories, definitely different than anything I've read. They were intriguing and interesting and weird but good. Not something I would usually read but glad I did.
Thanks to the author the publisher and Netgalley for a early release of this book
Thanks to the author the publisher and Netgalley for a early release of this book
June 17, 2026
A frenzy is a state of heightened, wild, and uncontrollable emotion, often marked by a loss of reason. It’s a feeling of emotional angst and instability that often manifests in violent, chaotic behavior that usually leaves some kind of destruction, whether it is emotional wreckage, reputational harm, or even physical injuries. Joyce Carol Oates’ latest collection of stories not only uses The Frenzy as a title, but many of the characters experience a kind of frenzied state as a result of their relationships and interactions. I am grateful to Random House and NetGalley for sharing an advanced copy of this harrowing and haunting collection of stories. I’ve only read a few of the well-known, anthologized stories from Oates, so I wasn’t completely prepared for how unsettling some of these stories were; however, while this is a dark collection of stories, it is rewarding for those readers who enjoy being knocked or rocked off of our sense of security by both sudden events or the slow and gradual release of more information that eventually leads to a kind of peripeteia where characters experience a reverse of fortune due their prior acts, whether these are acts of omission, ignorance, or relational violence. Although these stories have that tragic structure in place, there’s almost no catharsis in these stories since many of the characters are unlikeable. Rather they sometimes experience a sense of cosmic irony, where the character seems to get what they deserve (“The Frenzy” and “The Bicycle Accident”). Other stories feature characters who struggle with changes and accepting their fates (“The Redwoods”, “Refuge”, and “Night Fishing at Antibes”). Yet, all of these characters either experience their own sense of frenzy or are forced to navigate a kind of frenzy from a loved one that eventually brings about a revelation to their relationships. The Frenzy is a collection of domestic horror stories—stories that are not supernatural, but feature horrific and monstrous people who engage in troubling and destructive behavior. I wasn’t expecting this kind of reaction to this book, but Joyce Carol Oates clearly struck a nerve in me with these stories.
The stories are generally longer short stories, which allows for some development of characters and in some cases considerable time to pass. I loved this aspect of the book, as the extended character development allows for a deeper sense of irony when these characters experience their peripeteia, or reversal of fortune. “The Frenzy”, which is the first story in the collection, starts the collection off strong and features a husband and father who absconds to Cape May, NJ with his much younger “mistress”, who was a few years older than his daughter. Although the shore town is somewhat deserted during the winter, Cassidy keeps thinking about an experience he had on a boat in Rhode Island, watching a feeding frenzy, where plankton attract smaller fish, which attract larger fish, and eventually apex predators. It’s a scene that’s revisited later in the story and serves as an effective metaphor and foreshadowing event for Cassidy’s relationship with the younger Brianna. I was shocked by the ending, and this story engaged me for the rest of the book.
“The Fear” is another interesting story that spends time charting the relationship between two cousins, Juliet and Janette, who are close in age and grow up together and celebrate birthdays and holidays together until Juliet is mysteriously absent from Janette’s sixth birthday. Oates effectively captures the uncertainty and ignorance of childhood as the adults shield Janette from Juliet’s cancer diagnosis, which wreaks havoc on Juliet’s social life in school and her appearance, due to reconstructive surgeries. This was one of the more harrowing stories, not only because it deals with childhood illness, but also because of how Janette struggles with her own feelings and needs for attention and emotional assurance. As Juliet’s illness, surgeries, and recovery demands more caregiving from her family, Janette experiences a kind of withdrawal of emotions and struggles with her own feelings. As someone who has served as a loved one’s caregiver during cancer, I can appreciate the conflicted feelings Janette experienced as she navigates the dissonance between her concern and care for Juliet and her own feelings of resentment and the desire for attention that all kids experience.
“The Bicycle Accident” was another harrowing read focusing on how a bicycle accident during a family reception completely changes the trajectory a family’s life. However, the bicycle accident is more of a response to Evie’s parents’ (Arlette and Kevin’s) hamartia, their fatal flaws in judgement and awareness of a family friend, that leads Evie to gradually disconnect from their family. While most of the events take place before and after Evie’s accident, tracing her recovery and her pushing the boundaries of adolescent independence, the story skips ahead into Evie’s adulthood and Arlette’s eventual move into an assisted living home. This story also has a reversal of fortunes and roles where caregiving and receiving are ironically transposed.
The second group of stories, “The Call”, “The Return”, and “The Redwoods” all have to do with death and relationships. “The Call” is one of the shorter stories in this collection, and S., the main character who is a daughter, wife and mother, is informed that her father has died in a hospital, yet she is sure that her father has been dead for years. S. tries to make sense of this call and the events of her life, including caring for her elderly parents. “The Return” is about a writer who visits her friend, a recent widow for the second time, after the pandemic restrictions have eased. As she visits the house, she realizes how the house has fallen into disrepair since the death of her friend’s husband, Thad, a well-known professor and writer. This issue of disrepair and an inability to keep up physical property is another theme throughout the book, as characters seem to lack the ability to maintain their surroundings and in some cases themselves after experiencing loss or tragedy. Like the character of Janette in “The Fear”, this narrator is also struggling to come to terms with her friend’s loss; however, while Janette is young, the narrator and her friend are both older, facing the same kind of existential questions that Thad experienced before he died, and this leads the narrator to some revelations as she notices some unsettling evidence around the home. “The Redwoods” stands out as a kind of ghost story, but it’s also about a man (Jake) who is haunted by a chance encounter during a hike in his early 20s. Jake seems to be unable to let go of the regret in not talking more to a woman he encountered with a partner on a hike, and this chance encounter has seemingly haunted him until his early death in his 50s. He is able to return to his family, but is unable to communicate with them, just as he was largely unable to communicate with them while he was alive, always regretting his inaction on the trail. Again, we see a character whose hamartia both haunts and punishes him not only for his lifetime, but his afterlife as well. We also see how this fatal flaw of Jake’s punishes his family as well.
The third and final section of stories all see to deal with marriages, but these themes of illness, regret, and frenzied reactions to stress and traumatic events carry across all of the stories. “Small Veins” is another brief story that details a woman receiving a blood test after her husband has died. She seems to anticipate a disease or illness, but it might just be her own mental malaise that causes her distress and angst. “Refuge” was another disturbing story about a woman whose husband has disappeared for nearly two months, until she receives a frantic call from him that leaves some clues to his whereabouts. Prior to the call, we learn more about their marriage and the kinds of accommodations she makes to feel love for her husband, while he fails to reciprocate. Her quest to find him, mirrored by her questions surrounding the puppy that they adopted who also has gone missing, also allow us to learn more about the tensions and inequities in their relationship. While Marcus, the husband, has sought refuge in a Buddhist monastery, he doesn’t seem to have found the kind of zen enlightenment we most associate with Buddhism. The book ends with “Night Fishing at Antibes”, which deals with a widow’s adaptation to life without her husband. Zahira struggles to find a sense of rhythm and purpose without her husband, Herman, who was a scientist at an institute for advanced study. Another recent widow, Meghan, attempts to pull Zahira out of her drudgery, but Zahira misses her marriage and struggles to adapt to this new kind of relationship. Zahira is surrounded by either widows who struggle to maintain their homes or seemingly happy families and marriages, where spouses care for one another. Zahira thinks back to a fleeting encounter she had with one of her husband’s colleagues, Illya, who showed interest in her despite Zahira not reciprocating. While Illya is a renowned scientist, he is much older than Zahira. Eventually Zahira and her new friend, Meghan, visit Illya and his wife, Hester, for lunch as Illya is recovering from several surgeries. Zahira attends the luncheon after years prior rejecting Illya’s lunch date, with the hope that Illya may still show some affection for Zahira. However, the lunch devolves into a manic and frantic episode for both Hester and Illya, possibly showing Zahira that maybe she’s better off without a husband, or at least a husband like Illya.
These stories are disturbing and unsettling, but the are also incredible and instructive. I could see using some of these stories in an intro to lit class, although many of the stories are dark and unsettling. Maybe there’s another kind of modern gothic or domestic horror lit class that these stories would fit. As I was reading them, I can see how Oates’ work resonates with writers like Stephen King, who has moved from supernatural horrors to the kinds of horrors that represent the banality of evil, that we may experience in our everyday lives. Furthermore, Oates’ stories all touch on topics that we can never escape: health, relationships, aging and time. In fact, the last story uses Picasso’s painting “Night Fishing at Antibes” as a kind of metaphor for staving off the ravages of time and maintaining a sense of integrity while aging. Illya, the aging scientist near death, reminds his visitors of Einstein’s contradictions when he says “Einstein certainly knew that in fact there is only time: the hourglass that runs in one direction only.” It’s a reminder to recognize that change and adaptation are natural parts of life. I also loved that many of the stories in this book take place in Central Jersey, Bucks County, PA and other areas around the Delaware River, areas I am familiar with. I highly recommend this collection, but it is a collection of stories that will challenge readers’ thinking and comfort, confronting us with some of the monstrous and horrid eventualities of life, rather than running towards the warm embrace of delusions and ignorance. Many thanks to Random House and NetGalley for sharing this advanced copy.
The stories are generally longer short stories, which allows for some development of characters and in some cases considerable time to pass. I loved this aspect of the book, as the extended character development allows for a deeper sense of irony when these characters experience their peripeteia, or reversal of fortune. “The Frenzy”, which is the first story in the collection, starts the collection off strong and features a husband and father who absconds to Cape May, NJ with his much younger “mistress”, who was a few years older than his daughter. Although the shore town is somewhat deserted during the winter, Cassidy keeps thinking about an experience he had on a boat in Rhode Island, watching a feeding frenzy, where plankton attract smaller fish, which attract larger fish, and eventually apex predators. It’s a scene that’s revisited later in the story and serves as an effective metaphor and foreshadowing event for Cassidy’s relationship with the younger Brianna. I was shocked by the ending, and this story engaged me for the rest of the book.
“The Fear” is another interesting story that spends time charting the relationship between two cousins, Juliet and Janette, who are close in age and grow up together and celebrate birthdays and holidays together until Juliet is mysteriously absent from Janette’s sixth birthday. Oates effectively captures the uncertainty and ignorance of childhood as the adults shield Janette from Juliet’s cancer diagnosis, which wreaks havoc on Juliet’s social life in school and her appearance, due to reconstructive surgeries. This was one of the more harrowing stories, not only because it deals with childhood illness, but also because of how Janette struggles with her own feelings and needs for attention and emotional assurance. As Juliet’s illness, surgeries, and recovery demands more caregiving from her family, Janette experiences a kind of withdrawal of emotions and struggles with her own feelings. As someone who has served as a loved one’s caregiver during cancer, I can appreciate the conflicted feelings Janette experienced as she navigates the dissonance between her concern and care for Juliet and her own feelings of resentment and the desire for attention that all kids experience.
“The Bicycle Accident” was another harrowing read focusing on how a bicycle accident during a family reception completely changes the trajectory a family’s life. However, the bicycle accident is more of a response to Evie’s parents’ (Arlette and Kevin’s) hamartia, their fatal flaws in judgement and awareness of a family friend, that leads Evie to gradually disconnect from their family. While most of the events take place before and after Evie’s accident, tracing her recovery and her pushing the boundaries of adolescent independence, the story skips ahead into Evie’s adulthood and Arlette’s eventual move into an assisted living home. This story also has a reversal of fortunes and roles where caregiving and receiving are ironically transposed.
The second group of stories, “The Call”, “The Return”, and “The Redwoods” all have to do with death and relationships. “The Call” is one of the shorter stories in this collection, and S., the main character who is a daughter, wife and mother, is informed that her father has died in a hospital, yet she is sure that her father has been dead for years. S. tries to make sense of this call and the events of her life, including caring for her elderly parents. “The Return” is about a writer who visits her friend, a recent widow for the second time, after the pandemic restrictions have eased. As she visits the house, she realizes how the house has fallen into disrepair since the death of her friend’s husband, Thad, a well-known professor and writer. This issue of disrepair and an inability to keep up physical property is another theme throughout the book, as characters seem to lack the ability to maintain their surroundings and in some cases themselves after experiencing loss or tragedy. Like the character of Janette in “The Fear”, this narrator is also struggling to come to terms with her friend’s loss; however, while Janette is young, the narrator and her friend are both older, facing the same kind of existential questions that Thad experienced before he died, and this leads the narrator to some revelations as she notices some unsettling evidence around the home. “The Redwoods” stands out as a kind of ghost story, but it’s also about a man (Jake) who is haunted by a chance encounter during a hike in his early 20s. Jake seems to be unable to let go of the regret in not talking more to a woman he encountered with a partner on a hike, and this chance encounter has seemingly haunted him until his early death in his 50s. He is able to return to his family, but is unable to communicate with them, just as he was largely unable to communicate with them while he was alive, always regretting his inaction on the trail. Again, we see a character whose hamartia both haunts and punishes him not only for his lifetime, but his afterlife as well. We also see how this fatal flaw of Jake’s punishes his family as well.
The third and final section of stories all see to deal with marriages, but these themes of illness, regret, and frenzied reactions to stress and traumatic events carry across all of the stories. “Small Veins” is another brief story that details a woman receiving a blood test after her husband has died. She seems to anticipate a disease or illness, but it might just be her own mental malaise that causes her distress and angst. “Refuge” was another disturbing story about a woman whose husband has disappeared for nearly two months, until she receives a frantic call from him that leaves some clues to his whereabouts. Prior to the call, we learn more about their marriage and the kinds of accommodations she makes to feel love for her husband, while he fails to reciprocate. Her quest to find him, mirrored by her questions surrounding the puppy that they adopted who also has gone missing, also allow us to learn more about the tensions and inequities in their relationship. While Marcus, the husband, has sought refuge in a Buddhist monastery, he doesn’t seem to have found the kind of zen enlightenment we most associate with Buddhism. The book ends with “Night Fishing at Antibes”, which deals with a widow’s adaptation to life without her husband. Zahira struggles to find a sense of rhythm and purpose without her husband, Herman, who was a scientist at an institute for advanced study. Another recent widow, Meghan, attempts to pull Zahira out of her drudgery, but Zahira misses her marriage and struggles to adapt to this new kind of relationship. Zahira is surrounded by either widows who struggle to maintain their homes or seemingly happy families and marriages, where spouses care for one another. Zahira thinks back to a fleeting encounter she had with one of her husband’s colleagues, Illya, who showed interest in her despite Zahira not reciprocating. While Illya is a renowned scientist, he is much older than Zahira. Eventually Zahira and her new friend, Meghan, visit Illya and his wife, Hester, for lunch as Illya is recovering from several surgeries. Zahira attends the luncheon after years prior rejecting Illya’s lunch date, with the hope that Illya may still show some affection for Zahira. However, the lunch devolves into a manic and frantic episode for both Hester and Illya, possibly showing Zahira that maybe she’s better off without a husband, or at least a husband like Illya.
These stories are disturbing and unsettling, but the are also incredible and instructive. I could see using some of these stories in an intro to lit class, although many of the stories are dark and unsettling. Maybe there’s another kind of modern gothic or domestic horror lit class that these stories would fit. As I was reading them, I can see how Oates’ work resonates with writers like Stephen King, who has moved from supernatural horrors to the kinds of horrors that represent the banality of evil, that we may experience in our everyday lives. Furthermore, Oates’ stories all touch on topics that we can never escape: health, relationships, aging and time. In fact, the last story uses Picasso’s painting “Night Fishing at Antibes” as a kind of metaphor for staving off the ravages of time and maintaining a sense of integrity while aging. Illya, the aging scientist near death, reminds his visitors of Einstein’s contradictions when he says “Einstein certainly knew that in fact there is only time: the hourglass that runs in one direction only.” It’s a reminder to recognize that change and adaptation are natural parts of life. I also loved that many of the stories in this book take place in Central Jersey, Bucks County, PA and other areas around the Delaware River, areas I am familiar with. I highly recommend this collection, but it is a collection of stories that will challenge readers’ thinking and comfort, confronting us with some of the monstrous and horrid eventualities of life, rather than running towards the warm embrace of delusions and ignorance. Many thanks to Random House and NetGalley for sharing this advanced copy.
June 22, 2026
Cuentos atmosféricos y trágicos sobre la viudedad, las relaciones abusivas, las enfermedades, los fantasmas (en primera persona en 'The redwoods', en tercera en 'The return') y, como siempre en JCO, la vida suburbial americana. Por orden de mi preferencia:
9- 'The call': uno de sus cuentos estilísticos y confusos, sobre una mujer a la que llaman en mitad de la noche para informar de que su padre (muerto hace unos años), acaba de morir.
8- 'The return': cuento gótico sobre una visita a una amiga que acaba de quedarse viuda y que está siendo acosada por el fantasma de su marido.
7- 'Small Veins': cuento médico sobre una mujer sometida a quimioterapia.
6- 'Night fishing at Antibes': amistad entre dos viudas de un barrio residencial con un obstáculo pendiente por resolver para disfrutar de su soledad.
5- 'The frenzy': cuento simple sobre una infidelidad abusiva y una venganza.
4- 'The fear': historia que abarca un par de décadas sobre dos primas unidas en la infancia y separadas por la enfermedad grave de una de ellas.
3- 'Refuge': una mujer busca a su marido abusivo (y especialmente terrorífico) que la ha abandonado supuestamente para ingresar en un retiro budista.
2- 'The redwoods': historia en dos partes, la primera sobre un hombre solitario que se enamora de una mujer de la que solo sabe que está siendo abusada por su pareja. La segunda parte sobre ese hombre muerto reflexionando sobre su vida y sobre si debió actuar o no en el pasado.
1- 'The bicycle Accident': cuento largo que se siente novela de JCO, sobre un gran trauma que afecta a la hija de un matrimonio y cómo impacta en sus vidas a lo largo de varias décadas.
9- 'The call': uno de sus cuentos estilísticos y confusos, sobre una mujer a la que llaman en mitad de la noche para informar de que su padre (muerto hace unos años), acaba de morir.
8- 'The return': cuento gótico sobre una visita a una amiga que acaba de quedarse viuda y que está siendo acosada por el fantasma de su marido.
7- 'Small Veins': cuento médico sobre una mujer sometida a quimioterapia.
6- 'Night fishing at Antibes': amistad entre dos viudas de un barrio residencial con un obstáculo pendiente por resolver para disfrutar de su soledad.
5- 'The frenzy': cuento simple sobre una infidelidad abusiva y una venganza.
4- 'The fear': historia que abarca un par de décadas sobre dos primas unidas en la infancia y separadas por la enfermedad grave de una de ellas.
3- 'Refuge': una mujer busca a su marido abusivo (y especialmente terrorífico) que la ha abandonado supuestamente para ingresar en un retiro budista.
2- 'The redwoods': historia en dos partes, la primera sobre un hombre solitario que se enamora de una mujer de la que solo sabe que está siendo abusada por su pareja. La segunda parte sobre ese hombre muerto reflexionando sobre su vida y sobre si debió actuar o no en el pasado.
1- 'The bicycle Accident': cuento largo que se siente novela de JCO, sobre un gran trauma que afecta a la hija de un matrimonio y cómo impacta en sus vidas a lo largo de varias décadas.
June 17, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.
A collection of short stories that explore all the ways your entire life can be changed in an instant. And how your perception of your life can be proved to be all wrong, in retrospect. A middle aged man off for a clandestine weekend with his teenage lover is cruelly tricked. A moment's lack of awareness can result in lifetime trauma for an entire family. Is someone you love ever truly gone, or do they come back? A chance encounter on a hiking trail can disrupt a young man's life - should he have gotten involved? Does a perfect childhood, or an imperfect one, really make a difference?
Each of these give you pause and make you look at your life in a slightly different way.
A slow read, because it takes time to digest, and sometimes uncomfortable, as you put yourself into the story, but a good read.
A collection of short stories that explore all the ways your entire life can be changed in an instant. And how your perception of your life can be proved to be all wrong, in retrospect. A middle aged man off for a clandestine weekend with his teenage lover is cruelly tricked. A moment's lack of awareness can result in lifetime trauma for an entire family. Is someone you love ever truly gone, or do they come back? A chance encounter on a hiking trail can disrupt a young man's life - should he have gotten involved? Does a perfect childhood, or an imperfect one, really make a difference?
Each of these give you pause and make you look at your life in a slightly different way.
A slow read, because it takes time to digest, and sometimes uncomfortable, as you put yourself into the story, but a good read.
June 21, 2026
Really two and a half stars. These stories are psychological character studies that are mostly skimpy on plot, not psychological suspense like the book flap says. Although well written, many of the stories just didn't pull me in. My favorite story was The Return, but the others did not seem all that special.
Did Not Finish
June 22, 2026This author loves a comma. 🙄 not for me
June 21, 2026
Joyce Carol Oates is a prolific, popular and well known author, but one that was new to me when I first started her new short story collection, The Frenzy: Stories. Unintentionally ignorant towards her writing and her works, I expected something scary, but instead received a good collection of well written tales about various topics, from infidelity and abuse, to grief, loss, envy, illness and suffering. The topics, themselves, create horror within the average person, and even more so those who experience them, but the stories themselves are not scary in a normal sense.
This collection is separated into three parts, which group its nine short stories into similar topics, meaning that each part contains three tales. It works well, but I must admit that the final trio is the weakest, and isn’t as strong as what comes before it.
I’ll try to provide short reviews of each story, without spoiling anything.
The Frenzy: A married, middle-aged man, is driving along the coast of New Jersey. His intention is to take his teenaged mistress, who happens to be the daughter of not so close family friends, to an out of season holiday town in order to be intimate. However, things don’t go as planned. As the title story, it starts the collection off strong, but I expected the ending to be more than it was. Still, I enjoyed this one and found it good.
The Fear: Told from the perspective of a young girl named Janette, it chronicles her early years as the younger of two similar looking cousins who are confused as being twins by those who don’t know. They’re always together, but the older cousin is the more beautiful one, making the younger one jealous. Then something happens to the older one, and they begin to lose touch. This is a story about jealousy and envy, and it touches into other subjects too. Overall, it’s quite good.
The Bicycle Accident: As a thirty-something mom works overtime and stresses about putting on a party for her deceased sister’s recently engaged daughter, her own inattentive ways lead to disaster. Her thirteen year-old daughter, Evie, goes out for pop and ice with a rich male friend of the family, then runs away on her bike when she gets home and is asked to shower. Her fearless bicycling leads her to have a serious accident on the local bridge, throwing her family into turmoil and changing their lives forever. This is a really good story, but it ends in a strange way that I didn’t really like. Still, it’s one of the best in this collection, and hints at hidden trauma that can tear people apart.
The Call: A lady named S is awakened in the middle of the night, to a call saying that her previously deceased father has just passed away. She’s told that she needs to get home, because her mother needs her. This good story explores grief, caregiving and lost time.
The Return: A novelist starts to feel bad about not calling or visiting her widowed friend just before, during or after the pandemic. They were once close, but she worries that it’ll now seem like she’s been avoiding said friend. As such, she calls her and they make plans to meet at the friend’s rural property. However, things take a turn when said friend talks about visions of her deceased loved one, and how he was behind closed doors. This is another strong story.
The Redwoods: One of the better stories in this collection, The Redwoods begins as a young man goes for a long hike in a California forest filled with massive trees, the likes of which you cannot see the tops of. While there, he hopes to clear his head and make his mind up about his future. However, he ends up coming across a young woman with braided hair who’s being mistreated by the man she’s with, and becomes obsessed with her. The story chronicles his life, his continued obsession and what he may or may not have done. It deals with what ifs, grief, loss, despair, attachment, obsession, love, marriage and the like.
Small Veins: A lady goes to the local cancer centre where, like me, she is told that she has small veins. The phlebotomists are unsure if they’ll be able to access them in order to take her blood, which is also familiar to me. She needs it done, though, and is worried that she’ll faint before, during or after. The same is true of when she goes to see her doctor afterwards, regarding a slow moving form of leukaemia. Alone, scared and widowed, she questions her life and what’s next over the course of what is a solid story.
Refuse: By far the weakest of all of the shorts found within this book, Refuse, is about a young woman who’s married a strange older man who has a very high opinion of himself. That husband has gone missing for thirty-seven days, though, and —unused to living alone, and unsure of where he is — she sets off to rural Pennsylvania from her home in New Jersey. Why? A strange, muffled and unclear phone call she’s received, which makes her think that her husband is staying at the Buddhist temple he used to spend a lot of time meditating at. She’s not used to driving, though, and is afraid of bridges, not to mention scared. I didn’t like this one much, and was happy when it was over after an hour or so.
Night Fishing at Antibes: Two recently widowed women, who weren’t close before but had husbands who worked at the same nearby intellectual institution, form an unlikely bond after their passing. Together, the two start to blend into each other, and share personalities. Furthermore, they’re almost inseparable, and will rush to see one another if a call or text isn’t answered. It’s a decent story of love, loss, connection and more.
Each of the above stories ranges from about twenty minutes in length to just over an hour, but that’s with my slower reading speed. Still, it only took me several days to finish this one. I read a lot of it one night, but then slowed down some.
All of them feature important, difficult and very human themes and issues, and all are very well written. In fact, the writing is some of the best I’ve experienced in a long time. However, the quality does vary some, in terms of story strength, and The Frenzy: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates doesn’t end as strongly as it starts. That’s ok, though.
Almost all of this release is set in the New Jersey area, it seems, which must be where the author lives. I wish there had been a bit more variety, but that’s ok.
Going in, I wasn’t sure of what to expect from this one, but it had caught my attention and was something that I’d wanted to read. I’m glad that it did, too, because — overall — The Frenzy: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates is a really strong and well crafted collection of tales.
This review is based on a copy of the book which we were provided with.
This collection is separated into three parts, which group its nine short stories into similar topics, meaning that each part contains three tales. It works well, but I must admit that the final trio is the weakest, and isn’t as strong as what comes before it.
I’ll try to provide short reviews of each story, without spoiling anything.
The Frenzy: A married, middle-aged man, is driving along the coast of New Jersey. His intention is to take his teenaged mistress, who happens to be the daughter of not so close family friends, to an out of season holiday town in order to be intimate. However, things don’t go as planned. As the title story, it starts the collection off strong, but I expected the ending to be more than it was. Still, I enjoyed this one and found it good.
The Fear: Told from the perspective of a young girl named Janette, it chronicles her early years as the younger of two similar looking cousins who are confused as being twins by those who don’t know. They’re always together, but the older cousin is the more beautiful one, making the younger one jealous. Then something happens to the older one, and they begin to lose touch. This is a story about jealousy and envy, and it touches into other subjects too. Overall, it’s quite good.
The Bicycle Accident: As a thirty-something mom works overtime and stresses about putting on a party for her deceased sister’s recently engaged daughter, her own inattentive ways lead to disaster. Her thirteen year-old daughter, Evie, goes out for pop and ice with a rich male friend of the family, then runs away on her bike when she gets home and is asked to shower. Her fearless bicycling leads her to have a serious accident on the local bridge, throwing her family into turmoil and changing their lives forever. This is a really good story, but it ends in a strange way that I didn’t really like. Still, it’s one of the best in this collection, and hints at hidden trauma that can tear people apart.
The Call: A lady named S is awakened in the middle of the night, to a call saying that her previously deceased father has just passed away. She’s told that she needs to get home, because her mother needs her. This good story explores grief, caregiving and lost time.
The Return: A novelist starts to feel bad about not calling or visiting her widowed friend just before, during or after the pandemic. They were once close, but she worries that it’ll now seem like she’s been avoiding said friend. As such, she calls her and they make plans to meet at the friend’s rural property. However, things take a turn when said friend talks about visions of her deceased loved one, and how he was behind closed doors. This is another strong story.
The Redwoods: One of the better stories in this collection, The Redwoods begins as a young man goes for a long hike in a California forest filled with massive trees, the likes of which you cannot see the tops of. While there, he hopes to clear his head and make his mind up about his future. However, he ends up coming across a young woman with braided hair who’s being mistreated by the man she’s with, and becomes obsessed with her. The story chronicles his life, his continued obsession and what he may or may not have done. It deals with what ifs, grief, loss, despair, attachment, obsession, love, marriage and the like.
Small Veins: A lady goes to the local cancer centre where, like me, she is told that she has small veins. The phlebotomists are unsure if they’ll be able to access them in order to take her blood, which is also familiar to me. She needs it done, though, and is worried that she’ll faint before, during or after. The same is true of when she goes to see her doctor afterwards, regarding a slow moving form of leukaemia. Alone, scared and widowed, she questions her life and what’s next over the course of what is a solid story.
Refuse: By far the weakest of all of the shorts found within this book, Refuse, is about a young woman who’s married a strange older man who has a very high opinion of himself. That husband has gone missing for thirty-seven days, though, and —unused to living alone, and unsure of where he is — she sets off to rural Pennsylvania from her home in New Jersey. Why? A strange, muffled and unclear phone call she’s received, which makes her think that her husband is staying at the Buddhist temple he used to spend a lot of time meditating at. She’s not used to driving, though, and is afraid of bridges, not to mention scared. I didn’t like this one much, and was happy when it was over after an hour or so.
Night Fishing at Antibes: Two recently widowed women, who weren’t close before but had husbands who worked at the same nearby intellectual institution, form an unlikely bond after their passing. Together, the two start to blend into each other, and share personalities. Furthermore, they’re almost inseparable, and will rush to see one another if a call or text isn’t answered. It’s a decent story of love, loss, connection and more.
Each of the above stories ranges from about twenty minutes in length to just over an hour, but that’s with my slower reading speed. Still, it only took me several days to finish this one. I read a lot of it one night, but then slowed down some.
All of them feature important, difficult and very human themes and issues, and all are very well written. In fact, the writing is some of the best I’ve experienced in a long time. However, the quality does vary some, in terms of story strength, and The Frenzy: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates doesn’t end as strongly as it starts. That’s ok, though.
Almost all of this release is set in the New Jersey area, it seems, which must be where the author lives. I wish there had been a bit more variety, but that’s ok.
Going in, I wasn’t sure of what to expect from this one, but it had caught my attention and was something that I’d wanted to read. I’m glad that it did, too, because — overall — The Frenzy: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates is a really strong and well crafted collection of tales.
This review is based on a copy of the book which we were provided with.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
JOYCE CAROL OATES DELIVERS A FLAWLESS, FIVE-STAR FICTION MASTERPIECE. "A deeply atmospheric, wildly unsettling short story collection that introduces humanity at its most unsavory, calculating, and addictive."
In THE FRENZY: STORIES, legendary and prolific author Joyce Carol Oates delivers a deeply atmospheric collection of interconnected domestic and psychological thrillers. In Oates' signature style, the stories hinge on ordinary people pushed to their breaking points when fate, free will, and hazardous choices intersect. Fractured psyches vs. the point of no return.
"A masterful collection of propulsive short fiction where ordinary lives fracture under the weight of crisis and dangerous compulsions."
Elevator Pitch
A gripping anthology of suspenseful short fiction that plunges readers into the exact moments a collection of ordinary lives unravel—ranging from an erotic contest of wills during a tense weekend getaway to a generational trauma sparked by a freak bridge accident.
A young woman on a romantic getaway in Cape May takes control of her relationship with her older, married partner. A bicycle accident on a bridge haunts a family for years. A girl jealous of her popular cousin realizes she is the fortunate one. A widow waits by the river for her deceased husband’s return. A young man hiking encounters a couple in a heated dispute—should he intervene?
Nine moving short stories
Section One
~The Frenzy
~The Fear
~The Bicycle Accident
Section Two
~The Call
~The Return
~The Redwoods
Section Three
~Small Veins
~Refuse
~Night Fishing at Antibes
Setting
The stories are primarily set across atmospheric, tension-choked landscapes of the American Northeast, transitioning from a windy drive along the Garden State Parkway to the deceptively peaceful coastal retreats of Cape May, New Jersey.
Vibe
Tense, unsettling, sinister, and blazingly vivid. It pairs the propulsive, stream-of-consciousness dread of high-stakes domestic psychological thrillers with the profound literary depth of a master storyteller.
Genre
Psychological Suspense / Short Story Anthology / Literary Noir / Literary Fiction
Themes
~Generational Conflict & Trauma:
~Erotic Contests of Will
~The Illusion of Ordinary Security
~Revenge & Turning Tables
Standout Characters
~Cassidy: The title story’s older, married antagonist whose internal rationalizations and manipulative tendencies blind him to his own undoing.
~Brianna: The young, deceptively vulnerable companion who expertly turns the tables on her abuser during a tense weekend trip.
Author Writing Standout
Joyce Carol Oates’s extraordinary talent for capturing the essence of life in its most raw and psychologically intricate forms radiates throughout her fluid and richly textured prose. She skillfully navigates the complexities of human existence, crafting her narratives with a depth that transcends mere plot. Instead of allowing her characters to become mere instruments of suspense, Oates intricately layers their profound fears, inner thoughts, and the subtle intricacies of daily life, imbuing them with a striking sense of realism that engages the senses and evokes vivid imagery. Each moment feels palpable, drawing readers into the characters’ experiences as if they were living them firsthand.
Takeaway
Human stability is a fragile illusion; one ominous encounter or impulsive action is often the only difference between an ordinary life and a total psychological freefall.
Title Significance
The Frenzy serves as both a literal clinical definition and a recurring behavioral pattern throughout the anthology. It represents a temporary madness or violent mental agitation, highlighting the intense, disorderly compulsions that take over ordinary people when their regular world comes completely undone.
Metaphor
The freak bicycle accident on a bridge in the anchor story serves as the central metaphor of the collection. It represents the unpredictable trajectory of trauma—a sudden structural break that permanently alters the course of multiple lives while leaving a community haunted for generations.
Why You Should Read
Read this if you are a fan of the dark and of dark, astute psychological thrillers like those by Gillian Flynn or Rebecca Makkai, or if you want a propulsive collection of bite-sized, high-stakes narratives that blazingly explore the perilous intersection of human desire and fate.
Audiobook
I am looking forward to listening to the audiobook come alive, narrated by an all-star cast: Cassandra Campbell, Linda Jones, January LaVoy, Ann Marie Lee, Kelli Tager, Jeremy Carlisle Parker, Matt Godfrey, Amy Jensen, Max Meyers.
My Thoughts
A huge fan of the author, the collection is a gripping, razor-sharp psychological noir masterclass.
The FRENZY succeeds beautifully in building immediate psychological tension with a fitting title encompassing the tone, mood, and vibe. The shifting perspectives are perfectly captured—not just through dark aesthetics, but through an immersive stream-of-consciousness style that makes the characters' inner panic feel incredibly grounded. The title story is an unforgettable standout; its sharp pacing and shocking climax deliver an immense, satisfying blow. A masterfully executed, high-stakes narrative experience.
Verdict: 5 / 5 Stars
"A gripping, masterfully executed collection of short fiction that pairs razor-sharp psychological suspense with an unforgettable look at human crisis."
Recs
~Fox by Joyce Carol Oates (for more of the author's signature, five-star mystery-psychological suspense roots). My top books & audio of 2025.
~Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (for a similarly rich, atmospheric exploration of generational trauma and deep psychological decay)
Special thanks to Random House/Hogarth Press and NetGalley for an advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars
Pub Date: June 16, 2026
June Newsletter
June 2026 Must-Read Books
In THE FRENZY: STORIES, legendary and prolific author Joyce Carol Oates delivers a deeply atmospheric collection of interconnected domestic and psychological thrillers. In Oates' signature style, the stories hinge on ordinary people pushed to their breaking points when fate, free will, and hazardous choices intersect. Fractured psyches vs. the point of no return.
"A masterful collection of propulsive short fiction where ordinary lives fracture under the weight of crisis and dangerous compulsions."
Elevator Pitch
A gripping anthology of suspenseful short fiction that plunges readers into the exact moments a collection of ordinary lives unravel—ranging from an erotic contest of wills during a tense weekend getaway to a generational trauma sparked by a freak bridge accident.
A young woman on a romantic getaway in Cape May takes control of her relationship with her older, married partner. A bicycle accident on a bridge haunts a family for years. A girl jealous of her popular cousin realizes she is the fortunate one. A widow waits by the river for her deceased husband’s return. A young man hiking encounters a couple in a heated dispute—should he intervene?
Nine moving short stories
Section One
~The Frenzy
~The Fear
~The Bicycle Accident
Section Two
~The Call
~The Return
~The Redwoods
Section Three
~Small Veins
~Refuse
~Night Fishing at Antibes
Setting
The stories are primarily set across atmospheric, tension-choked landscapes of the American Northeast, transitioning from a windy drive along the Garden State Parkway to the deceptively peaceful coastal retreats of Cape May, New Jersey.
Vibe
Tense, unsettling, sinister, and blazingly vivid. It pairs the propulsive, stream-of-consciousness dread of high-stakes domestic psychological thrillers with the profound literary depth of a master storyteller.
Genre
Psychological Suspense / Short Story Anthology / Literary Noir / Literary Fiction
Themes
~Generational Conflict & Trauma:
~Erotic Contests of Will
~The Illusion of Ordinary Security
~Revenge & Turning Tables
Standout Characters
~Cassidy: The title story’s older, married antagonist whose internal rationalizations and manipulative tendencies blind him to his own undoing.
~Brianna: The young, deceptively vulnerable companion who expertly turns the tables on her abuser during a tense weekend trip.
Author Writing Standout
Joyce Carol Oates’s extraordinary talent for capturing the essence of life in its most raw and psychologically intricate forms radiates throughout her fluid and richly textured prose. She skillfully navigates the complexities of human existence, crafting her narratives with a depth that transcends mere plot. Instead of allowing her characters to become mere instruments of suspense, Oates intricately layers their profound fears, inner thoughts, and the subtle intricacies of daily life, imbuing them with a striking sense of realism that engages the senses and evokes vivid imagery. Each moment feels palpable, drawing readers into the characters’ experiences as if they were living them firsthand.
Takeaway
Human stability is a fragile illusion; one ominous encounter or impulsive action is often the only difference between an ordinary life and a total psychological freefall.
Title Significance
The Frenzy serves as both a literal clinical definition and a recurring behavioral pattern throughout the anthology. It represents a temporary madness or violent mental agitation, highlighting the intense, disorderly compulsions that take over ordinary people when their regular world comes completely undone.
Metaphor
The freak bicycle accident on a bridge in the anchor story serves as the central metaphor of the collection. It represents the unpredictable trajectory of trauma—a sudden structural break that permanently alters the course of multiple lives while leaving a community haunted for generations.
Why You Should Read
Read this if you are a fan of the dark and of dark, astute psychological thrillers like those by Gillian Flynn or Rebecca Makkai, or if you want a propulsive collection of bite-sized, high-stakes narratives that blazingly explore the perilous intersection of human desire and fate.
Audiobook
I am looking forward to listening to the audiobook come alive, narrated by an all-star cast: Cassandra Campbell, Linda Jones, January LaVoy, Ann Marie Lee, Kelli Tager, Jeremy Carlisle Parker, Matt Godfrey, Amy Jensen, Max Meyers.
My Thoughts
A huge fan of the author, the collection is a gripping, razor-sharp psychological noir masterclass.
The FRENZY succeeds beautifully in building immediate psychological tension with a fitting title encompassing the tone, mood, and vibe. The shifting perspectives are perfectly captured—not just through dark aesthetics, but through an immersive stream-of-consciousness style that makes the characters' inner panic feel incredibly grounded. The title story is an unforgettable standout; its sharp pacing and shocking climax deliver an immense, satisfying blow. A masterfully executed, high-stakes narrative experience.
Verdict: 5 / 5 Stars
"A gripping, masterfully executed collection of short fiction that pairs razor-sharp psychological suspense with an unforgettable look at human crisis."
Recs
~Fox by Joyce Carol Oates (for more of the author's signature, five-star mystery-psychological suspense roots). My top books & audio of 2025.
~Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (for a similarly rich, atmospheric exploration of generational trauma and deep psychological decay)
Special thanks to Random House/Hogarth Press and NetGalley for an advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars
Pub Date: June 16, 2026
June Newsletter
June 2026 Must-Read Books
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This was my first book by JCO, and I'm mad at myself for not diving into her works earlier. This collection of short stories is really great. Themes throughout of loss, grief, and various interpersonal relationships, with rich character development. Each story surprised me in some way, and most were darker than I expected, but feel very real and true to life. I particularly liked the first three stories, and the last story, and loved how it ended.
June 25, 2026
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒚. 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒃𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒊𝒇 𝑱𝒖𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒕 (𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆’𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆) 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓, 𝑱𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆 (𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒐𝒏𝒆’𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆) 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒐, 𝑱𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅. 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒆.
I say it often, no one writes like Oates. Why do people do the things they do? What pushes them to make choices, be it submission, violence, kindness, love, cruelty, willful ignorance- she has the gift of peeling back the mind and exposing what is lurking beneath. People do make a lot of excuses though, for their behavior. As in the title story The Frenzy (a perfect description for what is going on within him), a middle-aged married man is high on his affair with his nineteen-year-old mistress. As we get to know him, we see the imposter he feels he has been in his own life. He expects something permanent from this fresh, young love, one that makes him feel alive because she is all that matters now. He knows how to control a girl like her, he knows not to push for too much too soon. How does she feel? My favorite story is The Fear, cousins Juliet and Janette once looked like twins but poor Janette, months younger, always falls behind. Janette is made to feel like the flawed reflection, less pretty, less accomplished, a little dumber and dimmer. Envy is a monster growing within her, it is all so unfair until something bad happens and then fear, resentment, shame. The emotional struggle within Janette is written with such clarity in the way children think that sometimes it reminded me of how confusing the adult world once was. In youth she doesn’t measure up, then she has it too good and should feel ashamed for all her cousin has lost. The Bicycle Accident proves mother doesn’t always know best. When Arlette’s daughter Evie wrecks on her bicycle, her plain daughter’s behavior darkens until she is a stranger. It is a story of betrayal, of failing to see what is right beneath your nose. It is disturbing and sad. People see what the want to, and are charmed by darkness. The Call is a bit of a bad dream, a life forced upon young S. No life at all. The Return, Maude decides to finally visit her good friend who is twice widowed, shamed that she waited so long, and unnerved by the state of things. It is a quiet madness.
The Redwoods is about missed moments, cowardice, and phantom longings. Jacob “Van” Vanbrugh, Jr. has always been somewhere else. Even when he marries, has a child, he is not fully present. As his widow speaks to herself, to him, he is captive of the truth in their marriage, the longing for something outside his grasp, and his inability to have taken initiative in life long after an incident hiking in the redwoods when he was twenty-three. Small Veins: A lonely widow is getting her blood drawn and then having a consultation with her doctor, he tells her sad news that may return her will to live. Refuge is Lorene’s story, her estranged husband is missing, maybe intentionally. As she looks for him, we see this isn’t quite a solid loving marriage. Marcus often loses patience with Lorene, and she wants so badly, tries hard to be the sort of wife he wants. She shrinks, is submissive, believes she is as silly as her husband sees her. A woman swallowed up by her husband. How will this end? Night Fishing at Antibes Meghan and Zahira become tight friends after the death of their husbands, though they were barely acquaintances before. This sisterhood offers surprising support and humor when Zahira visits an older, former colleague of her husband; a man who paid much more attention to Zahira than her own beloved Herman ever did. You get a bit lost in their minds as the walls close in, and feel relief when things turn. You don’t ever have to love the characters, you can outright feel disgusted by them but the life she gives them, the turn of their minds, makes them come alive. Hell of a read!
Published June 16, 2026
Random House
Hogarth
𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒚. 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒃𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒊𝒇 𝑱𝒖𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒕 (𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆’𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆) 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓, 𝑱𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆 (𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒐𝒏𝒆’𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆) 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒐, 𝑱𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅. 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒆.
I say it often, no one writes like Oates. Why do people do the things they do? What pushes them to make choices, be it submission, violence, kindness, love, cruelty, willful ignorance- she has the gift of peeling back the mind and exposing what is lurking beneath. People do make a lot of excuses though, for their behavior. As in the title story The Frenzy (a perfect description for what is going on within him), a middle-aged married man is high on his affair with his nineteen-year-old mistress. As we get to know him, we see the imposter he feels he has been in his own life. He expects something permanent from this fresh, young love, one that makes him feel alive because she is all that matters now. He knows how to control a girl like her, he knows not to push for too much too soon. How does she feel? My favorite story is The Fear, cousins Juliet and Janette once looked like twins but poor Janette, months younger, always falls behind. Janette is made to feel like the flawed reflection, less pretty, less accomplished, a little dumber and dimmer. Envy is a monster growing within her, it is all so unfair until something bad happens and then fear, resentment, shame. The emotional struggle within Janette is written with such clarity in the way children think that sometimes it reminded me of how confusing the adult world once was. In youth she doesn’t measure up, then she has it too good and should feel ashamed for all her cousin has lost. The Bicycle Accident proves mother doesn’t always know best. When Arlette’s daughter Evie wrecks on her bicycle, her plain daughter’s behavior darkens until she is a stranger. It is a story of betrayal, of failing to see what is right beneath your nose. It is disturbing and sad. People see what the want to, and are charmed by darkness. The Call is a bit of a bad dream, a life forced upon young S. No life at all. The Return, Maude decides to finally visit her good friend who is twice widowed, shamed that she waited so long, and unnerved by the state of things. It is a quiet madness.
The Redwoods is about missed moments, cowardice, and phantom longings. Jacob “Van” Vanbrugh, Jr. has always been somewhere else. Even when he marries, has a child, he is not fully present. As his widow speaks to herself, to him, he is captive of the truth in their marriage, the longing for something outside his grasp, and his inability to have taken initiative in life long after an incident hiking in the redwoods when he was twenty-three. Small Veins: A lonely widow is getting her blood drawn and then having a consultation with her doctor, he tells her sad news that may return her will to live. Refuge is Lorene’s story, her estranged husband is missing, maybe intentionally. As she looks for him, we see this isn’t quite a solid loving marriage. Marcus often loses patience with Lorene, and she wants so badly, tries hard to be the sort of wife he wants. She shrinks, is submissive, believes she is as silly as her husband sees her. A woman swallowed up by her husband. How will this end? Night Fishing at Antibes Meghan and Zahira become tight friends after the death of their husbands, though they were barely acquaintances before. This sisterhood offers surprising support and humor when Zahira visits an older, former colleague of her husband; a man who paid much more attention to Zahira than her own beloved Herman ever did. You get a bit lost in their minds as the walls close in, and feel relief when things turn. You don’t ever have to love the characters, you can outright feel disgusted by them but the life she gives them, the turn of their minds, makes them come alive. Hell of a read!
Published June 16, 2026
Random House
Hogarth
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
4/5
I've never read Joyce Carol Oates and The Frenzy was a great introduction to her beautiful writing. Most of the stories in it feel dreamlike, like the kind of dream you aren't exactly enjoying, but not nightmare-quality.
My favorite story was The Bicycle Accident, which I found myself thinking about long after I finished. The subtlety of the storytelling mixed with the sad, evolving relationship between mother and daughter made me feel a variety of emotions, from dislike for the main character to pity for her, and eventually just sadness for the mother. While I have my suspicions about what happened on that trip to go get ice, nothing is ever explicitly SAID and I like it that way because it kind of puts you in the same state of wonder and confusion that her parents would have been in.
My other favorite story was The Return which ended up taking on some horror qualities and kind of creeped me out by the end. At first I was like, "oh he's back, that's great!" but pretty quickly, you're like, "oh this guy sucks." And then eventually it becomes even worse than that. You really feel for the widow and the state of fear she must be in.
I also really liked The Fear, even though it wasn't necessarily ENJOYABLE. I highly disliked the selfishness of the main character, but it felt like a compilation of thoughts one might have that they never admit to having. I felt so bad for the cousin and it's really just a tragic tale.
The Redwoods had one of my favorite quotes in the book: "But I deserve to be treated this way and the proof is, I am treated this way." That one hit me really hard because I think so many of us live our lives that way. And the girl in the story reminded me of myself at very timid, abused points in my life. That story was another one that felt very dreamlike. Another quote I liked from that one was: "When he was with others, he'd yearned to be alone as he'd been in the redwood forest on that happiest day of his life, but when he's alone, as he is now, he yearns for companionship." I like that one because WOW DO I RELATE!
Small Veins was a short one that really left me reeling. At first I was like, "did that mean what I thought it meant??" but after more reflection, it simply must have and it's another deeply emotional story.
The Call kind of confused me, but I felt like it was supposed to. It felt like just an examination of two different ways life could turn out, pulled together by a narrative.
The Frenzy was an interesting opening to the set of stories and at first I wasn't sure I got it, but then I realized Oates isn't pretentious in the sense that everything has TOO MUCH meaning. Things are what they are and this is a set of stories that is just made to make you feel weird.
Refuge had me MADDDDD. That guy SUCKED! The ending had me almost pounding my fist in support with the main character and I'm so glad it turned out the way it did.
Night Fishing at Antibes was a ride. I didn't know if I was hoping for it to become some kind of forbidden love story or if I just wanted the widows to be happy, but the ending was SO not what I was expecting, which I really enjoyed about it.
Overall the themes in this book are timeless and relatable, with so many of them regarding aging and regrets. The more I think about the writing, the more profound it proves itself to be and I really enjoyed this collection of stories. This has definitely drawn me into the writing of Joyce Carol Oates!
I've never read Joyce Carol Oates and The Frenzy was a great introduction to her beautiful writing. Most of the stories in it feel dreamlike, like the kind of dream you aren't exactly enjoying, but not nightmare-quality.
My favorite story was The Bicycle Accident, which I found myself thinking about long after I finished. The subtlety of the storytelling mixed with the sad, evolving relationship between mother and daughter made me feel a variety of emotions, from dislike for the main character to pity for her, and eventually just sadness for the mother. While I have my suspicions about what happened on that trip to go get ice, nothing is ever explicitly SAID and I like it that way because it kind of puts you in the same state of wonder and confusion that her parents would have been in.
My other favorite story was The Return which ended up taking on some horror qualities and kind of creeped me out by the end. At first I was like, "oh he's back, that's great!" but pretty quickly, you're like, "oh this guy sucks." And then eventually it becomes even worse than that. You really feel for the widow and the state of fear she must be in.
I also really liked The Fear, even though it wasn't necessarily ENJOYABLE. I highly disliked the selfishness of the main character, but it felt like a compilation of thoughts one might have that they never admit to having. I felt so bad for the cousin and it's really just a tragic tale.
The Redwoods had one of my favorite quotes in the book: "But I deserve to be treated this way and the proof is, I am treated this way." That one hit me really hard because I think so many of us live our lives that way. And the girl in the story reminded me of myself at very timid, abused points in my life. That story was another one that felt very dreamlike. Another quote I liked from that one was: "When he was with others, he'd yearned to be alone as he'd been in the redwood forest on that happiest day of his life, but when he's alone, as he is now, he yearns for companionship." I like that one because WOW DO I RELATE!
Small Veins was a short one that really left me reeling. At first I was like, "did that mean what I thought it meant??" but after more reflection, it simply must have and it's another deeply emotional story.
The Call kind of confused me, but I felt like it was supposed to. It felt like just an examination of two different ways life could turn out, pulled together by a narrative.
The Frenzy was an interesting opening to the set of stories and at first I wasn't sure I got it, but then I realized Oates isn't pretentious in the sense that everything has TOO MUCH meaning. Things are what they are and this is a set of stories that is just made to make you feel weird.
Refuge had me MADDDDD. That guy SUCKED! The ending had me almost pounding my fist in support with the main character and I'm so glad it turned out the way it did.
Night Fishing at Antibes was a ride. I didn't know if I was hoping for it to become some kind of forbidden love story or if I just wanted the widows to be happy, but the ending was SO not what I was expecting, which I really enjoyed about it.
Overall the themes in this book are timeless and relatable, with so many of them regarding aging and regrets. The more I think about the writing, the more profound it proves itself to be and I really enjoyed this collection of stories. This has definitely drawn me into the writing of Joyce Carol Oates!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The Frenzy: Stories is Joyce Carol Oates’ forty-ninth short story collection. It’s a generous collection, with nine stories. My experience with short story collections by a single author is that they usually include perhaps three or four good to excellent stories, with the remainder serving as fillers. But not so for Oates’ The Frenzy: each story here grabs and engages the reader. The stories share a commonality of a clear-eyed perspective on the sadness and unfairness of life and on those who perpetrate that unfairness. Caveat lector: The Frenzy isn’t for you if you’re looking for cheery hours with feel-good short stories.
It’s difficult to choose two or three stand-out stories: each story is a stand-out, and each story distinguishes itself from its neighbors. In The Frenzy, Oates is at her formidable best when she when she animates the emotions and reasoning of narcissistic, manipulative men exercising their power over women. In the eponymous story, Oates gives us Cassidy, an adult man with a teenage daughter, who takes Brianna Rinzler, her daughter’s two years older schoolmate at the Fair Hills School, as his mistress. Although Brianna’s moody and impetuous, Cassidy happily tells himself that he “is fully in control now. The headstrong girl has become docile, unresisting. She has seen what Cassidy did with her iPhone, she has felt the strong impress of his hands on her, her resistance has melted away like a tissue dropped in water.”
In The Bicycle Accident, Evie’s mother divides her life into “before the accident, and after.” Teen age Evie escapes from her “momster” at fifteen, with her mother explaining to neighbors that Evie left for a prestigious college. Evie flees from her intrusive, dim-witted mother and her failure to acknowledge that Rob Nash, a beloved family friend, had assaulted her early teen daughter.
In Night Fishing at Antibes, two widows of renowned academics, one a “perennial candidatefor the Nobel Prize,” become seemingly ill-matched friends. They’re invited to lunch at the home of an aging and ill actual Nobel Prize winner, and witness his intellectual and emotional decline.
Oates’ stories typically end with revelatory surprises. In The Frenzy, Brianna leaves Cassidy without his clothes, wallet, and car in a beach town hotel. In The Bicycle Accident, Evie returns to visit her mother in a nursing home after many years, and leaves with her mother’s dentures. In Night Fishing at Antibes, the Nobel Prize winner tells his guests that “he’d prepared the salad with special care, mixing into the dressing several Gastropoda, infected with the parasite Angiostrongylus, whipped in the blender—‘A fatal parasite. No cure.’”
Joyce Carol Oates is a great author of short story. She’s no less great after having written almost fifty collections.
Five stars.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Hogarth for access to the advanced readers’ copy.
It’s difficult to choose two or three stand-out stories: each story is a stand-out, and each story distinguishes itself from its neighbors. In The Frenzy, Oates is at her formidable best when she when she animates the emotions and reasoning of narcissistic, manipulative men exercising their power over women. In the eponymous story, Oates gives us Cassidy, an adult man with a teenage daughter, who takes Brianna Rinzler, her daughter’s two years older schoolmate at the Fair Hills School, as his mistress. Although Brianna’s moody and impetuous, Cassidy happily tells himself that he “is fully in control now. The headstrong girl has become docile, unresisting. She has seen what Cassidy did with her iPhone, she has felt the strong impress of his hands on her, her resistance has melted away like a tissue dropped in water.”
In The Bicycle Accident, Evie’s mother divides her life into “before the accident, and after.” Teen age Evie escapes from her “momster” at fifteen, with her mother explaining to neighbors that Evie left for a prestigious college. Evie flees from her intrusive, dim-witted mother and her failure to acknowledge that Rob Nash, a beloved family friend, had assaulted her early teen daughter.
In Night Fishing at Antibes, two widows of renowned academics, one a “perennial candidatefor the Nobel Prize,” become seemingly ill-matched friends. They’re invited to lunch at the home of an aging and ill actual Nobel Prize winner, and witness his intellectual and emotional decline.
Oates’ stories typically end with revelatory surprises. In The Frenzy, Brianna leaves Cassidy without his clothes, wallet, and car in a beach town hotel. In The Bicycle Accident, Evie returns to visit her mother in a nursing home after many years, and leaves with her mother’s dentures. In Night Fishing at Antibes, the Nobel Prize winner tells his guests that “he’d prepared the salad with special care, mixing into the dressing several Gastropoda, infected with the parasite Angiostrongylus, whipped in the blender—‘A fatal parasite. No cure.’”
Joyce Carol Oates is a great author of short story. She’s no less great after having written almost fifty collections.
Five stars.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Hogarth for access to the advanced readers’ copy.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Joyce Carol Oates does it again with her newest collection of short stories, The Frenzy: Stories. I am big JCO fan and was thrilled to be offered an advanced reader copy of The Frenzy. This collection most definitely did not disappoint. I was hooked from the first page, and sad when the book came to an end. I sometimes struggle in reading collections of short stories. I usually need time to sink into a story and that’s why I tend to limit my short story reading. Likewise, I will often find one or two stories in a collection that intrigue me, but the others don’t grab my attention. For this reason, I tend to lean into longer works of fiction. But not to worry when it comes to the writing of Joyce Carol Oates. Just like her novels, no matter the length of her story, she brings the reader right in, without hesitation. While these stories are literary fiction, and not of a particular genre such as thriller or horror, they are all propulsive, with elements scattered throughout that are horrifying, thrilling, chilling, and sometimes we even get to witness Oates’ unique, dark humor.
Readers should be aware that these stories have ambiguous endings, so if you are someone who doesn’t enjoy that in your reading, this might not be the collection for you. I am of the opinion that an ambiguous ending done intentionally and thoughtfully can make the reading experience even richer, and I feel that is what Joyce Carol Oates does with this collection.
In The Frenzy, you will find stories that deal with themes of infidelity, jealousy and obsession, aging, loss and grief, motherhood, childhood trauma, and female friendship. If I had to choose a favorite from this collection it would be, the title story, The Frenzy, because Oates takes an age-old trope of middle-aged man/younger mistress, but turns it inside-out, upside-down, and then completely flips it on its head. The ending is chef’s kiss. However, I loved all of these stories, which is why this collection will earn an easy 5-star rating from me.
If you are a Joyce Carol Oates fan, do yourself a favor and add The Frenzy to your immediate TBR. If you have never read this author and are a fan of dark literary fiction, this collection would be a great place to start.
Thank you NetGalley and Hogarth Books for the ARC which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily share my thoughts.
Readers should be aware that these stories have ambiguous endings, so if you are someone who doesn’t enjoy that in your reading, this might not be the collection for you. I am of the opinion that an ambiguous ending done intentionally and thoughtfully can make the reading experience even richer, and I feel that is what Joyce Carol Oates does with this collection.
In The Frenzy, you will find stories that deal with themes of infidelity, jealousy and obsession, aging, loss and grief, motherhood, childhood trauma, and female friendship. If I had to choose a favorite from this collection it would be, the title story, The Frenzy, because Oates takes an age-old trope of middle-aged man/younger mistress, but turns it inside-out, upside-down, and then completely flips it on its head. The ending is chef’s kiss. However, I loved all of these stories, which is why this collection will earn an easy 5-star rating from me.
If you are a Joyce Carol Oates fan, do yourself a favor and add The Frenzy to your immediate TBR. If you have never read this author and are a fan of dark literary fiction, this collection would be a great place to start.
Thank you NetGalley and Hogarth Books for the ARC which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily share my thoughts.
June 16, 2026
⭐⭐⭐✨☆ (3.5/5 stars)
The Frenzy by Joyce Carol Oates was a dark, unsettling short story collection that definitely left me thinking, even if not every story worked equally well for me.
This collection focuses on people in moments of crisis, grief, fear, obsession, illness, and emotional unraveling. Each story looks at ordinary people pushed into strange or uncomfortable situations, and the title really fits the overall feeling of the book. There is a sense of unease running through the collection, like everything is just slightly off or about to tip into something darker.
Joyce Carol Oates has a very distinctive writing style. Her prose is thoughtful, detailed, and psychological, and she really knows how to get inside a character’s mind. The stories often feel dreamlike, sometimes disturbing, and sometimes a little confusing in a way that seems intentional. I appreciated the way she explored grief, aging, trauma, illness, complicated relationships, and the darker corners of human behavior.
Some stories stood out more than others for me. The Bicycle Accident was probably one of the strongest because of the way it explored the aftermath of trauma and the complicated relationship between a mother and daughter. Small Veins also stayed with me, especially in the way it captured the loneliness and invisibility that can come with illness and medical care. The Return had a creepy, unsettling quality that worked really well too.
That being said, this collection was not always easy for me to get into. Some of the stories felt a little too wordy or slow, and a few were more difficult to connect with. I also usually like a bit more resolution, and many of these stories are open-ended, leaving the reader to sit with the discomfort rather than tying things up neatly.
Overall, The Frenzy was a well-written and emotionally unsettling collection. It was not a perfect fit for me across the board, but I appreciated the writing, the psychological depth, and the way several stories lingered after I finished them. I think readers who enjoy literary short stories with darker themes, complicated characters, and open-ended endings will get the most out of this one.
A big thank you to NetGalley and Random House | Hogarth for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
The Frenzy by Joyce Carol Oates was a dark, unsettling short story collection that definitely left me thinking, even if not every story worked equally well for me.
This collection focuses on people in moments of crisis, grief, fear, obsession, illness, and emotional unraveling. Each story looks at ordinary people pushed into strange or uncomfortable situations, and the title really fits the overall feeling of the book. There is a sense of unease running through the collection, like everything is just slightly off or about to tip into something darker.
Joyce Carol Oates has a very distinctive writing style. Her prose is thoughtful, detailed, and psychological, and she really knows how to get inside a character’s mind. The stories often feel dreamlike, sometimes disturbing, and sometimes a little confusing in a way that seems intentional. I appreciated the way she explored grief, aging, trauma, illness, complicated relationships, and the darker corners of human behavior.
Some stories stood out more than others for me. The Bicycle Accident was probably one of the strongest because of the way it explored the aftermath of trauma and the complicated relationship between a mother and daughter. Small Veins also stayed with me, especially in the way it captured the loneliness and invisibility that can come with illness and medical care. The Return had a creepy, unsettling quality that worked really well too.
That being said, this collection was not always easy for me to get into. Some of the stories felt a little too wordy or slow, and a few were more difficult to connect with. I also usually like a bit more resolution, and many of these stories are open-ended, leaving the reader to sit with the discomfort rather than tying things up neatly.
Overall, The Frenzy was a well-written and emotionally unsettling collection. It was not a perfect fit for me across the board, but I appreciated the writing, the psychological depth, and the way several stories lingered after I finished them. I think readers who enjoy literary short stories with darker themes, complicated characters, and open-ended endings will get the most out of this one.
A big thank you to NetGalley and Random House | Hogarth for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Short Stories + Literary Fiction
The Freny by Joyce Carol Oates is a collection of short stories that focuses on the haunting exploration of the boundaries between reality, memory, and grief. The book is divided into three sections, with each section having three stories.
With these stories, Oates shows off her unique ability to transform domestic anxieties into something profound—more like on the gothic side; at least this is how the stories were vividly imagined in my mind as I was reading.
The first section has the title story with a middle-aged man who is in an affair with a much younger mistress. This one turns for him into a nightmare of abandonment and vulnerability. I see middle-aged women laughing at him and enjoying what happens to him. “The Fear” is more about living in the shadow of another person and the result of such a thing. This one felt very relevant on many fronts.
In the second section, “The Call” was my favorite, in which a woman receives a call to find out that her entire adult life was just a dream, masking a reality she could never escape from. The final section must have been my least favorite in the book. The stories were more about our contemporary era. If I had to choose one of them, then it would be the last one due to its absurdity on the surface, yet depth from within.
The good thing about the author’s narrative style is how she utilizes the interior monologues of these characters, which draws the reader directly into their vulnerabilities and experiences. What I noticed was that several stories in this collection were focusing on widowhood and domestic abuse themes. Yes, this can feel repetitive at times, but I believe Oates handled them very well, with much care, and the different shades of darkness of the stories helped in shaping the stories’ uniqueness.
If you appreciate psychological fiction that isn’t afraid to take you on a trip into the abyss, then this collection would work very well. Each story ends with characters reaching a point of hysterical release—making this collection live up to its title.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC of this book.
https://constantinebooks.blogspot.com...
Genre: Short Stories + Literary Fiction
The Freny by Joyce Carol Oates is a collection of short stories that focuses on the haunting exploration of the boundaries between reality, memory, and grief. The book is divided into three sections, with each section having three stories.
With these stories, Oates shows off her unique ability to transform domestic anxieties into something profound—more like on the gothic side; at least this is how the stories were vividly imagined in my mind as I was reading.
The first section has the title story with a middle-aged man who is in an affair with a much younger mistress. This one turns for him into a nightmare of abandonment and vulnerability. I see middle-aged women laughing at him and enjoying what happens to him. “The Fear” is more about living in the shadow of another person and the result of such a thing. This one felt very relevant on many fronts.
In the second section, “The Call” was my favorite, in which a woman receives a call to find out that her entire adult life was just a dream, masking a reality she could never escape from. The final section must have been my least favorite in the book. The stories were more about our contemporary era. If I had to choose one of them, then it would be the last one due to its absurdity on the surface, yet depth from within.
The good thing about the author’s narrative style is how she utilizes the interior monologues of these characters, which draws the reader directly into their vulnerabilities and experiences. What I noticed was that several stories in this collection were focusing on widowhood and domestic abuse themes. Yes, this can feel repetitive at times, but I believe Oates handled them very well, with much care, and the different shades of darkness of the stories helped in shaping the stories’ uniqueness.
If you appreciate psychological fiction that isn’t afraid to take you on a trip into the abyss, then this collection would work very well. Each story ends with characters reaching a point of hysterical release—making this collection live up to its title.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC of this book.
https://constantinebooks.blogspot.com...
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I am somewhat embarrassed to admit I had never read Joyce Carol Oates before. It’s the reason I jumped at the opportunity to read this collection, curious to see why she is considered one of America's most acclaimed literary writers. The Frenzy provided an intriguing introduction to her work through a collection of stories that explore moments when ordinary lives take unexpected and unsettling turns.
While the stories vary in subject matter and tone, many share what I came to think of as a frenetic moment—a point where emotions, circumstances, or relationships suddenly shift. Sometimes those moments are dramatic, sometimes subtle, but they create a thematic thread that connects the collection. The story that stayed with me most was the opening one. Without giving anything away, it contains an image that lingered in my mind long after I finished reading. It also captures the sense of unease and unpredictability that runs through many of the stories in the collection.
I admire the craftsmanship of Oates's writing. She creates atmosphere with remarkable skill and demonstrates a sharp understanding of human behavior, particularly the darker, more complicated corners of it. I appreciated the intelligence and precision of the stories, even when they left me feeling slightly unsettled.
That said, while I found the collection consistently well written, only a handful of the stories remained vivid after I finished the book. I enjoyed reading them, but many faded from memory more quickly than I expected. For me, this was a collection I admired more than one I emotionally connected with.
All in all, I found The Frenzy to be a solid introduction to Joyce Carol Oates's work. Readers who enjoy literary short fiction, psychological tension, and stories that examine the fragility of ordinary life will likely find much to appreciate here.
My thanks to Random House and Hogarth for providing an advance reading copy through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
While the stories vary in subject matter and tone, many share what I came to think of as a frenetic moment—a point where emotions, circumstances, or relationships suddenly shift. Sometimes those moments are dramatic, sometimes subtle, but they create a thematic thread that connects the collection. The story that stayed with me most was the opening one. Without giving anything away, it contains an image that lingered in my mind long after I finished reading. It also captures the sense of unease and unpredictability that runs through many of the stories in the collection.
I admire the craftsmanship of Oates's writing. She creates atmosphere with remarkable skill and demonstrates a sharp understanding of human behavior, particularly the darker, more complicated corners of it. I appreciated the intelligence and precision of the stories, even when they left me feeling slightly unsettled.
That said, while I found the collection consistently well written, only a handful of the stories remained vivid after I finished the book. I enjoyed reading them, but many faded from memory more quickly than I expected. For me, this was a collection I admired more than one I emotionally connected with.
All in all, I found The Frenzy to be a solid introduction to Joyce Carol Oates's work. Readers who enjoy literary short fiction, psychological tension, and stories that examine the fragility of ordinary life will likely find much to appreciate here.
My thanks to Random House and Hogarth for providing an advance reading copy through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Book Review: The Frenzy: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates explores ordinary people pushed to the edge, showing how quickly their sense of control and identity can fracture after a destabilizing event.
The title story follows a middle-aged adulterer who takes his much younger lover on a winter trip, imagining himself rejuvenated and dominant, only to be abruptly abandoned and exposed. Other stories include a family permanently altered by a freak bicycle accident, a girl whose envy of her cousin gives way to a harsher understanding of both their lives, a widow who cannot relinquish the belief that her dead husband might return, and a hiker who hesitates when confronted with a possibly dangerous couple in the woods.
Across the collection, Oates focuses less on external action than on psychological rupture: the moment when a character’s narrative about themselves fails. Obsession curdles into humiliation, jealousy into misrecognition, grief into denial, and moral self-image into paralysis. Power dynamics often reverse quietly, revealing that perceived authority or desirability was illusory.
The stories end without conventional resolution, stopping instead at the point of recognition, when characters are forced to see themselves or their circumstances without the sustaining fictions they relied on. The effect is clinical and unsentimental, emphasizing how easily identity can be destabilized by chance events, desire, or loss.
Overall, The Frenzy is unified by its interest in the fragility of self-understanding and the thin line between control and self-deception. I’m giving it four stars because, while the collection can feel unsettling and occasionally uneven, Oates’s insight into human psychology and the quiet power of her character-driven stories is consistently impressive.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest and voluntary review.
Joyce Carol Oates explores ordinary people pushed to the edge, showing how quickly their sense of control and identity can fracture after a destabilizing event.
The title story follows a middle-aged adulterer who takes his much younger lover on a winter trip, imagining himself rejuvenated and dominant, only to be abruptly abandoned and exposed. Other stories include a family permanently altered by a freak bicycle accident, a girl whose envy of her cousin gives way to a harsher understanding of both their lives, a widow who cannot relinquish the belief that her dead husband might return, and a hiker who hesitates when confronted with a possibly dangerous couple in the woods.
Across the collection, Oates focuses less on external action than on psychological rupture: the moment when a character’s narrative about themselves fails. Obsession curdles into humiliation, jealousy into misrecognition, grief into denial, and moral self-image into paralysis. Power dynamics often reverse quietly, revealing that perceived authority or desirability was illusory.
The stories end without conventional resolution, stopping instead at the point of recognition, when characters are forced to see themselves or their circumstances without the sustaining fictions they relied on. The effect is clinical and unsentimental, emphasizing how easily identity can be destabilized by chance events, desire, or loss.
Overall, The Frenzy is unified by its interest in the fragility of self-understanding and the thin line between control and self-deception. I’m giving it four stars because, while the collection can feel unsettling and occasionally uneven, Oates’s insight into human psychology and the quiet power of her character-driven stories is consistently impressive.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest and voluntary review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
ARC
I'd like to thank Random House, Hogarth, and NetGalley for the chance to give "The Frenzy: Stories" an early read in return for an honest review.
Joyce Carol Oates has been an author that has been on my radar for ages now, so I was excited to finally get into her world through this set of stories. Having never experienced anything she's written before, I wasn't sure what I was in store for, and I don't know if that necessarily was the best way to experience this set of stories.
It's clear that Oates has a knack for crafting compelling, dark stories. Each story featured within this collection focus on shocking events happening in people's lives, whether it be infidelity, loss, or the hauntings of past events. I found myself drawn into the stories, but I was taken out by the prose. As this is my first experience with Oates, I'm not sure if this collection is indicative of her writing style, but I found it to be a bit stilted and jumpy. The stories weren't hard to read by any means, but the syntax and choice of prose made them feel as if you had to put more work into reading them, rather than having a smooth reading experience. I wanted to fully immerse myself into the stories, but found it difficult to really connect when I was having to put more work into actually reading them.
That being said, this is a strong, cohesive set of stories, not feeling haphazardly chosen in the slightest. I may have had a harder time connecting to these stories, but I know that many others will not have the same difficulty I had, and will be in for a treat, as they really are a strong set of stories. I'd love to be able to revisit these once I get a few of Oates' novels under my belt and really get an understanding of who she is as an author. I'd highly recommend checking these out, even if I had a more difficult time getting through them.
Be sure to give "The Frenzy: Stories" a read when it is published on June 16, 2026!
I'd like to thank Random House, Hogarth, and NetGalley for the chance to give "The Frenzy: Stories" an early read in return for an honest review.
Joyce Carol Oates has been an author that has been on my radar for ages now, so I was excited to finally get into her world through this set of stories. Having never experienced anything she's written before, I wasn't sure what I was in store for, and I don't know if that necessarily was the best way to experience this set of stories.
It's clear that Oates has a knack for crafting compelling, dark stories. Each story featured within this collection focus on shocking events happening in people's lives, whether it be infidelity, loss, or the hauntings of past events. I found myself drawn into the stories, but I was taken out by the prose. As this is my first experience with Oates, I'm not sure if this collection is indicative of her writing style, but I found it to be a bit stilted and jumpy. The stories weren't hard to read by any means, but the syntax and choice of prose made them feel as if you had to put more work into reading them, rather than having a smooth reading experience. I wanted to fully immerse myself into the stories, but found it difficult to really connect when I was having to put more work into actually reading them.
That being said, this is a strong, cohesive set of stories, not feeling haphazardly chosen in the slightest. I may have had a harder time connecting to these stories, but I know that many others will not have the same difficulty I had, and will be in for a treat, as they really are a strong set of stories. I'd love to be able to revisit these once I get a few of Oates' novels under my belt and really get an understanding of who she is as an author. I'd highly recommend checking these out, even if I had a more difficult time getting through them.
Be sure to give "The Frenzy: Stories" a read when it is published on June 16, 2026!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
4 ⭐️
These contemporary short stories by prolific author Joyce Carol Oates have a sense of foreboding, and most of them involve loss and the after-effects. With many short story collections, a few rise to the surface, a few sink and most float along. With THIS collection, I found it solid all-around. That said, I wondered if I was missing something because a few (or more than a few?) short stories involved bridges and redwoods, but I couldn’t connect the stories other than that.
The Frenzy - The title story, if I had to pick, would be my favorite. Cassidy is having an affair with young Brianna, and they go to New Jersey for a getaway and she gives him a surprise.
The Fear - Two close-in-age girl cousins - one was always considered “better” until she is the one who gets cancer.
The Bicycle Accident - There is implied abuse between young Evie and her “uncle” Rob that had lifelong effects on Evie and her relationships with her family.
The Call - Main character S. looks back when she lost her dad in a factory accident.
The Return - Maude visits her old friend Audra, who describes that her deceased husband is back. The gravel driveway might be a minor character.
The Redwoods - A man recalls meeting a young woman in the Redwoods named Lise and can’t ever get her out of his mind, even after his death.
Small Veins - Leukemia patient gets her blood drawn and meets with her oncologist.
Refuge - Lorene’s husband has been missing over a month, and she goes to a monastery to find him.
Night Fishing at Antibes - Two women who were married to professors connect after their deaths.
Thank you to NetGalley and Hogarth for an Advance Reader Copy. My review is completely my own.
It publishes June 16, 2026.
These contemporary short stories by prolific author Joyce Carol Oates have a sense of foreboding, and most of them involve loss and the after-effects. With many short story collections, a few rise to the surface, a few sink and most float along. With THIS collection, I found it solid all-around. That said, I wondered if I was missing something because a few (or more than a few?) short stories involved bridges and redwoods, but I couldn’t connect the stories other than that.
The Frenzy - The title story, if I had to pick, would be my favorite. Cassidy is having an affair with young Brianna, and they go to New Jersey for a getaway and she gives him a surprise.
The Fear - Two close-in-age girl cousins - one was always considered “better” until she is the one who gets cancer.
The Bicycle Accident - There is implied abuse between young Evie and her “uncle” Rob that had lifelong effects on Evie and her relationships with her family.
The Call - Main character S. looks back when she lost her dad in a factory accident.
The Return - Maude visits her old friend Audra, who describes that her deceased husband is back. The gravel driveway might be a minor character.
The Redwoods - A man recalls meeting a young woman in the Redwoods named Lise and can’t ever get her out of his mind, even after his death.
Small Veins - Leukemia patient gets her blood drawn and meets with her oncologist.
Refuge - Lorene’s husband has been missing over a month, and she goes to a monastery to find him.
Night Fishing at Antibes - Two women who were married to professors connect after their deaths.
Thank you to NetGalley and Hogarth for an Advance Reader Copy. My review is completely my own.
It publishes June 16, 2026.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
And this reminder, which she has nearly forgotten: When you are married, your life is determined by another. He holds your heart in his hand, a raw beating heart entrusted to the fingers of another.
In this collection of short stories, Oates sticks to the things she does best, these stories lean into a sense of unease, that something bad is going to happen. In these stories, timid women are treated badly by the men in their lives, and in several the women are widows, unsettled by loss. And because this is Oates, and she's never predictable, not all the timid women are helpless in the face of an angry husband or a displeased lover. A few of the stories revolve around disability, and how that affects one's sense of self and how others perceive you.
In The Frenzy, a middle-aged man takes his very young lover to Cape May, where he envisions a cocktail at the bar followed by a night in the expensive hotel he'd booked, but as she insists on walking on the beach, he becomes increasingly angry at how little attention she's paying to him, and thinks about how he will repay her later in the hotel room. In The Bicycle Accident, a timid girl changes dramatically over the course of a single day, something that mystifies her mother. In The Return, a woman pays a long overdue visit to a woman who was once a close friend. They lost touch when the woman's husband died, and she's not sure if their relationship is salvageable. In Refuge, a young wife sets out to pick up her older husband from a Buddhist retreat that her husband didn't tell her he was going to, leaving her to wonder where he'd gone for several weeks.
In each story, there is discomfort and unease, and while the themes do reoccur, Oates is doing something different with each story. This is a solid collection from an author who is still writing at the top of her game.
In this collection of short stories, Oates sticks to the things she does best, these stories lean into a sense of unease, that something bad is going to happen. In these stories, timid women are treated badly by the men in their lives, and in several the women are widows, unsettled by loss. And because this is Oates, and she's never predictable, not all the timid women are helpless in the face of an angry husband or a displeased lover. A few of the stories revolve around disability, and how that affects one's sense of self and how others perceive you.
In The Frenzy, a middle-aged man takes his very young lover to Cape May, where he envisions a cocktail at the bar followed by a night in the expensive hotel he'd booked, but as she insists on walking on the beach, he becomes increasingly angry at how little attention she's paying to him, and thinks about how he will repay her later in the hotel room. In The Bicycle Accident, a timid girl changes dramatically over the course of a single day, something that mystifies her mother. In The Return, a woman pays a long overdue visit to a woman who was once a close friend. They lost touch when the woman's husband died, and she's not sure if their relationship is salvageable. In Refuge, a young wife sets out to pick up her older husband from a Buddhist retreat that her husband didn't tell her he was going to, leaving her to wonder where he'd gone for several weeks.
In each story, there is discomfort and unease, and while the themes do reoccur, Oates is doing something different with each story. This is a solid collection from an author who is still writing at the top of her game.
June 23, 2026
4.5 stars! I had a really great time listening to all of the different narrators tell Joyce's short stories! I loved listening to how dark and crazy her mind can get. She leaves the endings on a satisfying note, while not descriptively explaining them through, but you can gather the sense of how each story ends, so I appreciated that! The story about the Buddhist husband and the wife who was trying to escape, was very unsettling and I'm happy with how it ended! Also, I'm a huge fan of Joyce's writing and the stories felt like I was being spoken to directly so that was a pleasant reading experience! Oh and the young girl basically dying and then recovering after falling off her bicycle after who knows what happened with the sicko uncle/neighbor and then the family not being put in his will, and the girl saying it was all for nothing, that was a wild ride. I felt bad for the mother suffering the loss of her daughter, both who she was before the accident and then after she physically ran away and then losing her husband, and her daughter not coming back to care for her. Then in true JCO fashion, like in The Fox, she had to include a creepy dad and undaged neighbor's daughter- relationship which ended very well with the young woman (19/20) leaving him in the hotel to sulk in being left behind. Also the short story collection having the theme of frenzy was very fun to read as they all touched on families and loved ones at the brink of insanity! Like the woman who lost her husband and had a shot gun at the ready to "protect herself" when she really could turn at any moment and take out any visitors or friends that stop by. I would love to explore more short story collections in the future!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Frenzy by Joyce Carol Oates is one of those collections that sticks with you long after you finish it. These stories don’t just tell you what happens, they show how a single moment or relationship can quietly shape an entire life.
What really stands out is how Oates writes about relationships. Not just romantic ones, but family ties, brief encounters, and even the way people relate to their own past. A small decision, a misunderstanding, or a loss can completely shift someone’s path. You see characters realizing, sometimes too late, how much that one moment mattered.
There is also a strong thread of life and death running through the collection. It is not always literal death. Sometimes it is the end of a relationship, a loss of identity, or the moment when someone realizes things will never go back to how they were. Those endings don’t feel clean or simple. They linger and reshape everything that comes after.
What makes these stories hit so hard is how focused they are on those turning points. Nothing feels overly dramatic or forced. Instead, Oates zooms in on the exact second when something changes and a person cannot go back. It feels real in a way that is a little unsettling.
The writing itself is sharp and immersive. Oates gets deep into her characters’ thoughts and emotions, showing their fears, contradictions, and vulnerabilities. Even when the stories are dark, they feel honest and human.
This is not a light or easy read, but it is a powerful one. It really drives home the idea that relationships and small moments can echo through a lifetime. Frenzy is thoughtful, intense, and absolutely worth reading.
What really stands out is how Oates writes about relationships. Not just romantic ones, but family ties, brief encounters, and even the way people relate to their own past. A small decision, a misunderstanding, or a loss can completely shift someone’s path. You see characters realizing, sometimes too late, how much that one moment mattered.
There is also a strong thread of life and death running through the collection. It is not always literal death. Sometimes it is the end of a relationship, a loss of identity, or the moment when someone realizes things will never go back to how they were. Those endings don’t feel clean or simple. They linger and reshape everything that comes after.
What makes these stories hit so hard is how focused they are on those turning points. Nothing feels overly dramatic or forced. Instead, Oates zooms in on the exact second when something changes and a person cannot go back. It feels real in a way that is a little unsettling.
The writing itself is sharp and immersive. Oates gets deep into her characters’ thoughts and emotions, showing their fears, contradictions, and vulnerabilities. Even when the stories are dark, they feel honest and human.
This is not a light or easy read, but it is a powerful one. It really drives home the idea that relationships and small moments can echo through a lifetime. Frenzy is thoughtful, intense, and absolutely worth reading.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
A strong collection of short stories with Oates trademark suspense and sense of dread. These stories are not as violent or horror adjacent as her at previous collections but they still cause the reader to feel a sense of dread and feelings of hopelessness in the characters. The characters in this collection feel grief, and loss of self as well as regret and fear. The first story "The Frenzy" is about an older, married man who realizes he has no power in his relationship with a young woman he takes on a trip. Other stories deal with women who have lost their husbands and are not prepared for how to navigate life as a widow.
Oates is a more mature writer now and these stories reflect that point of view. Characters face health problems or the health problems of a loved one, women who have tied their identities to their husbands find themselves struggling when their husband dies. One of the stories deals with a personality change a teenage girl seemed to have after a bicycle accident, but was there more to it than the accident? Another story finds a man haunted by his failure to protect a young woman who may have been abused at a hiking trail in a National Park. These stories make you think and wonder how you would fare if you were in the same circumstance as the characters. The stories aren't written in a sentimental way and the resolutions aren't always happy but the stories still satisfy in what they are trying to portray. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book for review.
Oates is a more mature writer now and these stories reflect that point of view. Characters face health problems or the health problems of a loved one, women who have tied their identities to their husbands find themselves struggling when their husband dies. One of the stories deals with a personality change a teenage girl seemed to have after a bicycle accident, but was there more to it than the accident? Another story finds a man haunted by his failure to protect a young woman who may have been abused at a hiking trail in a National Park. These stories make you think and wonder how you would fare if you were in the same circumstance as the characters. The stories aren't written in a sentimental way and the resolutions aren't always happy but the stories still satisfy in what they are trying to portray. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book for review.
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