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Novelist, poet, dramatist and author of many of the best American short stories of our time, Joyce Carol Oates shows yet another aspect of her unbounded creativity in these tales of the grotesque. Haunted, a collection of sixteen tales that range from classic ghost stories to portrayals of chilling psychological terror, raises the genre to the level of fine literature - complex, multi-layered, and gripping fiction that is very scary indeed. In the title story, "Haunted," the pubescent Melissa and her best friend, the sexually precocious Mary Lou, ignore "no trespassing" signs to explore forbidden houses. But the deserted Minton farm is one place where they should not have gone, and years later Melissa is tormented by her memories of its malevolence ... and the murder of Mary Lou. In the novella, "The Model," a sexual threat seems to underlie the interaction between young Sybil Blake and "Mr. Starr," who asks her to be his model, but the truth about her own identity, and his, shows that the danger is lurking in a different part of the heart. The "Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly," a macabre reworking of Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw," resurrects the evil of Miss Jessel and Quint, who are up to their old tricks with the children, Miles and Flora, but with new, perverse, and brilliant revelations. The tales in this collection plunge the reader into nightmare worlds where violence slips in unexpectedly, where reality turns into a funhouse mirror, and where American culture goes awry in shocking, provocative ways. Joyce Carol Oates is a master storyteller of the dark side. She writes with skillfully controlled prose, tightly woven plots, and deep psychological insight that make her fictional horror worthy to set alongside the stories of Edgar Allan Poe - and far above all the rest.… (more)
User reviews
However, what is the same about each of the stories in this book is the underlying mood of confusion and panic. Whether it was the story about a successful university president surprised to find the exact replica of her childhood dollhouse on a street in Lancaster County or the one about the dead governess and valet haunting the children they loved and cared for in life, the reader never feels completely sure of the circumstances or clear about the story that is unfolding. The teacher in me couldn't help but think, as I was reading the book, that it would be a great one with which to teach the skill of making inferences (although it is most certainly not appropriate for kids of any age).
A few of my favorite stories were The White Cat and The Model. In The White Cat a man in his fifties develops an intense hatred for his (much younger) wife's white Persian cat. He makes multiple attempts to kill the cat yet somehow the cat continues to "haunt" him. In The Model a 17-year-old runner is approached by an artist in the park. He offers her a great deal of money to pose as his model for a picture. During these modeling sessions, the girl becomes convinced that this stranger is actually the father whom she has long believed to be dead. But, as the reader, you're never quite convinced that this is true...
There are sixteen stories in this book, but many of them were too distressing for me to consider enjoyable. While I admire Oates' writing abilities and these stories were definitely creepy, I found more of them upsetting than entertaining. In the end the final story, especially, turned my stomach enough to turn me off completely.
The majority of the tales center around the relationship between a woman/girl and an abusive man. In most of the stories, the man and woman are related to each other though sometimes it takes a while to figure out their relationship. Though when reading these stories for the first time, the plots and characters may seem harmless. The terrifying elements lay just below the surface. Unlike in other scary story collections, Oates rarely shows the reader what is exactly to be feared. Instead, she describes and fear and panic surrounding the event and lets the reader infer. This technique makes the tales even more grotesque and horrific because there is no defined conclusion and it is up to the reader's imagination.
Oates also uses a variety of techniques that have become familiar to her readers. In one story, she begins each sentence with the word "because" which makes the tale almost seem like a free verse poem. Another story is segmented with each passage numbered as if the entire story is a list of some sort.
Though descriptions of the tales may sound interesting, the majority of the stories are incredibly upsetting. Instead of murderous hitchhikers or clawed murderers, these are stories that burrow deep into the reader's psyche and wreck havoc. These are not for readings around a campfire or for someone who wants chills on Halloween. The kinds of chills that these stories give are far deeper and are not easily ignored.
If the first stories don't seem to be very scary, stick with them. They get worse (or better depending on how you look at it).