I have finally finished reading Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque by Joyce Carol Oates. I've been looking forward to reading something by Oates for a while now, so I was very excited when I picked up this collection of short stories one day while perusing my local library. Joyce Carol Oates is one of the most prolific writers of our time. Though very literary, she incorporates many dark elements and horror. Though she's received many prestigious literary awards, most for literary fiction and not genre fiction, I am most impressed by her Bram Stoker lifetime achievement award (because winning that award is my life goal).
I am not used to reading and reviewing short story collections. I'm definitely more of a novel/novella fan because I want to be fully engaged and emerged in what I read, and most short stories just aren't long enough to really accomplish this feeling. However, I did enjoy several parts of this collection. Haunted is a collection of 16 short stories. The first four were my favorites, and then the rest seemed to go downhill. I absolutely loved the stories "The Doll," and "The White Cat," because they both dealt with a more supernatural theme. The tone of these two stories really engaged me and kept me on the edge of my seat.
However, after the first four stories were finished, the remaining twelve left me feeling uneasy. While I love psychological horror, some of these stories, though psychological, were incredibly abstract or did not seem to have a solid point. Some seemed graphic for the sake of being edgy and shocking rather than to express an artistic desire for darkness. Some stories just tended to be too melodramatic for my taste (and I'm usually a fan of melodramatic writing).
Overall, I would suggest this book to you if you are a fan of edgy literary fiction rather than just the horror genre. The prose is clearly meant for a literary audience. While I enjoyed the first four stories, the rest of the collection dragged and was not my cup of tea, but I did enjoy some of her style. I think that in the future I will pick up an actual novel by Oates before I develop a concrete opinion on whether or not I care for her writing.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Darkness Under the Sun
I recently read the novella Darkness Under the Sun by Dean Koontz. I've long been interested in exposing myself to some literature by Koontz because he is constantly being compared to Stephen King. I am a conditional fan of King: some things I love, some things I hate, some things I just don't care about. After reading this novella by Koontz, I do not quite understand the similarity many people see between the two (besides the obvious fact that they are men with last names starting with the letter "K" who write in the same genre).
This novella was very easy to read. It was fast-paced and never ever stalled. This is a huge plus for me because I have a short attention span and I get distracted easily. I purchased this novella for my Kindle, so I read most of it in various hallways, waiting for my university classes to begin. The story, about a serial killer, was not the same tired cliche that surrounds most serial killers, but it wasn't anything astonishing either. Basically, this novella is an introduction into the characters that appear in Koontz's novel What the Night Knows. Most novellas that tie into novels are nothing more than marketing ploys, and that seems to be the case here. The story was much too tidy for my tastes. Things developed too easily. This entire book was a prop to get people to buy the actual book that Koontz spent time writing.
If you want a brief, light read with a bit of suspense and a minimal amount of horror, then maybe this is a good novella for you to read. I'd like to talk about plot, characters, and other such technical things, but there just wasn't much there to analyze. I'm sure if I took the time to actually read What the Night Knows, I would have a much more developed opinion, but alas, this novella did not leave me wanting more. It didn't grasp my emotions with enough intrigue to convince me that I want to continue investing time in this world. I wasn't gripped by any of the characters, especially the serial killer. The topic in general wasn't unique enough for me. However, the writing style was rather nice, so I'll probably try a different Dean Koontz book in the future.
This novella was very easy to read. It was fast-paced and never ever stalled. This is a huge plus for me because I have a short attention span and I get distracted easily. I purchased this novella for my Kindle, so I read most of it in various hallways, waiting for my university classes to begin. The story, about a serial killer, was not the same tired cliche that surrounds most serial killers, but it wasn't anything astonishing either. Basically, this novella is an introduction into the characters that appear in Koontz's novel What the Night Knows. Most novellas that tie into novels are nothing more than marketing ploys, and that seems to be the case here. The story was much too tidy for my tastes. Things developed too easily. This entire book was a prop to get people to buy the actual book that Koontz spent time writing.
If you want a brief, light read with a bit of suspense and a minimal amount of horror, then maybe this is a good novella for you to read. I'd like to talk about plot, characters, and other such technical things, but there just wasn't much there to analyze. I'm sure if I took the time to actually read What the Night Knows, I would have a much more developed opinion, but alas, this novella did not leave me wanting more. It didn't grasp my emotions with enough intrigue to convince me that I want to continue investing time in this world. I wasn't gripped by any of the characters, especially the serial killer. The topic in general wasn't unique enough for me. However, the writing style was rather nice, so I'll probably try a different Dean Koontz book in the future.
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