Evil Eye

By Joyce Carol Oates

From Joyce Carol Oates, literary icon and author of BLONDE, now a major motion picture, a collection of four dark and compelling novellas about love gone wrong.

The young fourth wife of a prominent intellectual thinks herself happy until the first wife comes to stay. A shy teenager meets a dazzling kindred spirit. But the first sparks of young love soon take on a darker shade...

A spoiled frat boy decides to murder his parents, only to be floored by the power of his mother's love; and a fragile woman reveals deeply buried secrets to her curious lover with devastating consequences...

All of these stories are about love, just not as we like to think of it.

Reviews for Joyce Carol Oates:

'A writer of extraordinary strengths.' Guardian
'Oates chillingly depicts the darkness lurking within the everyday.' Sunday Express
'Both haunting and sublime.' Literary Review
'Splendidly chilling.' Financial Times
'Visceral, psychologically involving, and socially astute.' Booklist

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Jun 19, 2014
• ISBN: 9781781853634

Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates is the author of more than 70 books, including novels, short story collections, poetry volumes, plays, essays, and criticism, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde. Among her many honors are the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and the National Book Award. Oates is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.

Reviews for Evil Eye

[nikon_11 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I picked this up in a hurry and was oh so glad I did. A small collection of Neat, Tidy and Quirky stories, which I never paused at any time to guess where the stories were going. Now having finished them they urge me on to read more of her other books; all of which seem to be further collections of short stories but hopefully there'll be a novel or two tucked away somewhere.

[bale_5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The individual stories were well written, but "The Execution" was read a little too forcefully (each short story had a different narrator) and spoiled the, otherwise, promising piece. Overall, these were brilliantly composed and read with perfected interpretation.

[stahl2ricco · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent collection of short stories that really pulled on me emotionally! I would give this 5 stars, but I didn't think the first three stories "paid off" for me. I loved how they built in suspense and drama, but the ends left me wanting. The fourth story, "The Flatbed" was wonderful, and I would have behaved exactly as N. did! Interesting to me is that two of these stories have a female character missing an eye - or do they? Read this book!

[brianinbuffalo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've never been a huge fan of short story anthologies, so I approached this work by one of my authors with some hesitation. Oates delivered in a big way. I wouldn't put "Evil Eye" in the same category as "Black Water" or even "Zombie," but this creepy collection of tales that chronicle twisted relationships kept my interest from start to finish. As always, Oates' narratives are riveting and dominated (pun intended) by memorable characters.

[muddyboy · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

After reading Daddy Love and its endless repetition I can not believe that I was stupid enough to read another Oates book. If you enjoy reading the same story four times you might enjoy this group of four novellas. I do not know what men have done to Ms. Oates in her life but in every one of these stories the plot centers around a sick abusive man who damages an innocent naive woman. Daddy Love, of course, is about a pedophile. These are the only two Oates books that I have read but if this is characteristic of her beliefs I feel that a therapist is in order.

[viviennestrauss · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow. Joyce doesn't fail to deliver on these four gems. NOT for the faint at heart, the stories do become progressively harsh, I found myself reading more slowly as the I went from story to story. I repeat - not for the faint at heart, I won't be passing this one along because I don't want to be held responsible.

[hubblegal-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As the sub-title says, these are four novellas of love gone wrong. The first novella, “Evil Eye”, focuses on a nazar, which is a talisman used to ward off the evil eye. Mariana is a shy, timid young woman who is the newly wedded fourth wife of Austin Mohr. Austin is 25 years old than Mariana and his adoration of her seems to be wearing off and his impatience growing. He announces that his first wife, Ines, will be coming to visit. Austin and Ines have a terrible secret that Ines wishes to confide to Mariana. Can their marriage survive this revelation? The second novella, “So Near Anytime Always”, involves another shy young woman, Lizbeth, this one a teenager who falls for a new young man in the area, Desmond. But Desmond has a dark side that Lizbeth isn’t at first aware of. In “The Execution”, college student Bert Hansen has taken too many wrong turns during his life. He blames his father for never being supportive and now his mother also seems to have given up on him. Bert plots his evil revenge on both his hated father and his loving mother. The last novella is “The Flatbed”. Cecilia has never been able to have a normal sexual relationship due to the abuse she sustained as a child. The new man in her life thinks revenge will give the help that Cecilia needs to overcome her issues.Joyce Carol Oates has long been a favorite author of mine. She’s an expert at pulling her readers in right at the start of her stories and then gradually leading them up to the point where you start to realize that something is horribly wrong. She would have been such a wonderful writer for the old TV series, “The Twilight Zone”. I had chills through all four of these tales and highly recommend them.