Another amazing, disarming short-story collection by Oates!

books:


	• The Collector of Hearts : New Tales of the Grotesque Joyce Carol Oates, 1998 average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Runs deeper than your average horror tale

Oates' stories in "The Collector of Hearts" are billed as grotesque, but the stories are not grotesque in the usual sense. Rather, it is the sense of foreboding, of struggling to conquer childhood hurts and broken relationships, that provide the horror in these tales. These are not stories you read for a good scare, so much as to get a sense of what in our ordinary lives might be horrific. One drawback -- the characters in these stories start to look and sound alike after awhile.

Another amazing, disarming short-story collection by Oates!

Those who have followed my reviews know that I love Joyce Carol Oates's writing. Her books are beautifully written and her stories are poignant and haunting at the same time. There is nothing grotesque about The Collector of Hearts, but the stories within this collection are dark, strange, and sometimes downright disarming. This collection, like many of this author's other works, center on broken families and relationships gone awry, and, just like her other books, these stories are at times disturbing and thought provoking to the core. My favorite stories are "Death Mother," "The Sepulchre," "Demon," "Posthumous," "Scars," "The Dream-Catcher," and "Shadows of the Evening." These are my favorites, but there are more incredible stories in this collection. Joyce Carol Oates is one of the best literary voices of today. I urge everyone to read her books if you haven't done. Her books are not for the faint at heart, but for those who enjoy reading strong, dark literature that touch and haunt you in more ways than one.

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Not quite as haunting as Haunted

Joyce Carol Oates has an interesting approach to horror. The vague view of the plot and characters allows you to fill in their personalities with the traits of those whom you know. Most of the stories center around family relations gone wrong. I found Haunter more frightening and suggest you read that first.

not intended for the faint of heart

joyce carol oates is one of my favorite all-time writers & this is an excellent selection of really morbid or eerie short stories which is bound to strike a nerve with you. with the exception of perhaps one or maybe two stories, oates has taken suspense to a new literary height & she invites you to her ghastly world of tormented souls & creepy happenings. at times, i'm reminded of the classic tales of terror written by shirley jackson or edgar allan poe as joyce has a distinct literary voice not to be confused with any other living writers. one of the most disturbing tales in the collector of hearts is called death mother. if this one doesn't leave feeling a bit uneasy or nervous, then perhaps you no longer have a pulse. the majority of the stories here are taut, sometimes a bit gruesome, & extremely macabre in oates continual exploration & study of evil which lurkes inside us all. joyce knows the dark screts of the human heart all too well & the things which will constrict our throats but this novel is solid evidence that she isn't afraid to reveal her knowledge. as diverse as she is eclectic in her masterful writing style, you simply cannot go wrong with this marvelous collection of short stories. if you enjoy this, you may also like her her book called faithless: tales of transgression or haunted which are also excellent choices. modern day horror writers like koontz or king should be taking notes &/ or attending workshops that this woman may offer. unpleasant reading, my friends. enjoy!

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reviews: page 1, 2

"Shimmering . . . Oates is a master at this genre."--Boston Globe

In these twenty-five gothic horror tales from the master of the short story, Joyce Carol Oates explores the waking nightmares of life with eyes wide-open, facing what the bravest of us fear the most. From the Kafka-esque "Scars" to a balladlike tale of erotic obsession in "The Crossing," to the mother-daughter bond given a fatal twist in "Death Mother," the stories in The Collector of Hearts illuminate the mysteries of the human experience--both intellectual and visceral. It is a stunning and richly diverse anthology of mood and menace--haunting, elegiac, and compulsively readable.

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