Evil Eye: Four Novellas of Love Gone Wrong

Oates, Joyce Carol

ISBN 10: 1611749603 ISBN 13: 9781611749601

Publisher: HighBridge Audio, 2013

Synopsis

Readers know that few authors are able to create an atmosphere of unease and terror as well as Oates, a fact confirmed by the four novellas presented here. In the title story, Evil Eye, a young woman has recently become the fourth wife of a highly demanding man. When his first wife comes to stay with them, she warns the new bride that her husband is insane, and that she must find a way to protect herself. In So Near Anytime Always, a fateful meeting in a library leads to a boy's obsessive interest in a teenage girl. In The Execution, spoiled college student Bart Hansen has forgotten to factor in one person in his plan to commit the perfect, brutal crime: his mother. And in The Flatbed, a beautiful young woman struggles with frigidity until a shocking act releases her.All the novellas in this collection revolve around the theme of love gone wrong-horribly, shockingly wrong.

About this title

About the Author

Joyce Carol Oates is the author of such national bestsellers as The Falls, Blonde, and We Were the Mulvaneys. Her other titles for The Mysterious Press include DIS MEM BER and Other Stories of Mystery and Suspense, The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror; and Jack of Spades.

From Booklist

Oates adds to her treasury of diabolical tales (The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares, 2011; Black Dahlia & White Rose, 2012) a quartet of shrewd and unnerving novellas about toxic entanglements. In the stylishly gothic title story, the legendary director of a performing arts institute swoops in and makes a much younger researcher shattered by the deaths of her parents his fourth wife, installing her in his fastidiously appointed showcase house, where her inchoate fears about his soul-freezing temper crystallize upon meeting his disfigured first wife. Oates has a superbly disconcerting gift for orchestrating slowly coalescing realizations that something is horribly wrong, as in 16-year-old Lizbeth’s reluctant recognition that her polite, Polaroid-snapping boyfriend may, in fact, be dangerous. In other subtly sinister, adeptly paced scenarios, a failing frat boy high on Ritalin and video-game fantasies turns murderous, and a frigid young woman identifies her childhood abuser. Oates’ deft tales of vulnerable women with surprisingly deep reservoirs of strength and a capacity for revenge are infused with wry and knowing commentary on the battle between the sexes, the justice system, and the consequences of entitlement. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Readers are always ready for new dark tales by best-selling Oates, and this potent volume will gain added visibility given all the attention surrounding her latest novel, The Accursed. --Donna Seaman

About this edition

• Publisher: HighBridge Audio
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1611749603
• ISBN 13: 9781611749601
• Binding: Audio CD
• Number of pages: 390