This was my first encounter with the writing of Joyce Carol Oates. It has an esoteric feeling to it. Sentences sometimes appeared almost like run-ons, but they flowed as easily as one's thoughts. It did not take long for me to get very comfortable with this unique style. It smacks of gothic fiction with a contemporary essence. Her style is to leave the reader guessing, gathering their own conclusions from the given information. This provided me with a mixed-bag of responses like disconcertment, sometimes dissatisfaction, and always eeriness.

I was pulled into each of these stories, but was particularly taken by the first one, The Doll-Master. I am terrified of dolls, so naturally this one appealed to me the most. A young man has assistance from his Friend, only seen by him, with discovering 'found dolls' for his collection. Unfortunately, young girls are also going missing as Robbie ages into a young adult.

I was on edge for the whole story. The conclusion crept towards me with an unavoidable sense of impending doom.

Gun Accident was haunting in a more realistic way. A young girl has grown into a woman and mother. She accompanies her children on a drive past a house with which she associates terrible memories. We get to learn the story of what happened to her as a young girl within those walls and how it changed her life forever.

I felt sad, angry, and waves of empathy from this story. It did not feel like fiction to me.

Equatorial was incredible too! It follows a wife and her husband on a trip to the Galapagos. The wife is having a terrible time, suffering from altitude sickness and steadily darkening thoughts about her marriage, while her clearly volatile husband with a wandering eye continues on as usual on his planned vacation. She wrote, "But the wife had to obey the husband for his will had to be obeyed in all things small and large."

I loved how Oates wrote them as "the wife" and "the husband" and only later do the names sneakily fade into the text, like it doesn't really matter, like it could be any couple. It was memorable and fascinating.

Big Momma made me squirm. A girl makes friends with a large family who have a terrifying occupant in their home. The girl is dissatisfied with the love her mother shows her and seeks solace in her new friends, maybe even especially because of their secret.

I was weirded out and entertained by this story. I got defeatist vibes from it.

Mystery, Inc. read like a Sherlock Holmes story to me. It had mental illness, intrigue, and poison. I loved the discussions about the old collectible books Aaron Neuhaus had in his store, their values and contents. It was really quite cool. This served to move the story along behind my back while I imagined such lovely books, as I'm sure the main character Charles also found to be his error. The ending snuck right up on me and I was pulled under and left for dead.

I highly recommend this collection of stories. I will absolutely seek out more works by Joyce Carol Oates based on this initial impression.

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Written by Samantha

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