Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque Paperback – February 1, 1995

Most of Joyce Carol Oates’s short story collections have been brilliant. This collection starts out slow and somewhat ambiguous, requiring the reader to use his or her noggin to contemplate what’s being presented, and determine his or her own interpretation. I admit it’s uncomfortable for me when I reflect on a story and recognize myself on the tormented pages.The stories build into a crescendo of horror and absolute grotesque-ness that made me want to gag. I’m thinking reviewers complaining about the lack of grossness gave up too soon. JCO is unlike traditional horror genre writers. She doesn’t throw blood and guts in your face, (although sometimes she absolutely has) or insult her readers with tedious “jump scares,” which are annoying, not scary. JCO is different.I particularly enjoyed, “Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly,” a clever re-imagining of Henry James’s “Turn of the Screw,” told from the tormented ghosts’ point of view. (I pictured Deborah Kerr as the governess from the movie, “The Innocents,” in which she plants a kiss on the little boy Miles that was the creepiest part of the movie. Anyway.)JCO is an absolute master of re-imaginings. In short stories I’ve read her interpretation of personalities as diverse as Robert Frost, HP Lovecraft, and Andrea Yates. Her novel, “Blonde” re-imagines Norma Jean Baker’s life that will utterly break your heart. I can’t imagine the amount of research and organization required for that monumental book. If you love the actress called Marilyn Monroe, or are just curious, I recommend it.As for the lack of the blatantly grotesque in this book some reviewers have lamented…I suggest you pick your book back up and read, “Martyrdom.” If a detailed description of(SPOILER)a cat vomiting bits and pieces of a whole undigested rat it just consumed into wedding cake batter, subsequently eaten by the bride and groom isn’t gross enough for you, I don’t know what the heck would be. And it only gets worse from there.Now go back and read that story and tell me I’m wrong. I’m queasy just remembering it.Highly recommended!

Somehow, in some indescribable way, Joyce’s words and stories in Haunted changed me, soaked into my DNA and made me something different than I was before. And I like it.

This is one of the best anthologies in the genre. It led me to read more from her, but so far, this one is the best as far as each story having an edge and none being repetitious in any way. The mood is well-sustained. If you like creepy, haunting, disturbing, or thought-provoking fiction, you will enjoy.

Good book, but theb I really like her writing! Glad I purchased it.

Shipped quickly, exactly as advertised! Loving the book - it's very dark but understated and leaves plenty of room for imagination.

Good book, poor delivery.

My main complaint with Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque was that the Afterword was not placed in the Foreword position. Had I known beforehand what the author's definition of grotesque was, I would have done much less grumbling while reading. But what I was expecting (raised as I was on the Sherlock Holmes stories, and the works of Poe and Hawthorne) was work that was more suspenseful and hair-raising and less merely bizarre.During the majority of the time spent reading Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque I found myself wondering whether the author had written these stories as a way to study a genre, as an exercise. While this may be a useful way to develop one's writing skills, in Oates' case it resulted in work that was far too self-conscious. The only time I found myself getting lost in her imagined world was while reading the story Extenuating Circumstances. Perhaps it was precisely because of the limitations (beginning each sentence with "because") that I found it so engrossing, or perhaps it was the unusual use of the second person to tell the story in accusatory fragments. In either case, that story alone held me in thrall.Mostly, Tales of the Grotesque left me feeling set-up by the title, which didn't live up to its promise in the modern sense of the word grotesque. In her own words, Oates says, "One criterion for horror fiction is that we are compelled to read it swiftly, with a rising sense of dread, and so total a suspension of ordinary skepticism, we inhabit the material without question and virtually as its protagonist." I agree wholeheartedly with this observation, yet save for the aforementioned Extenuating Circumstances, I neither felt that rising sense of dread, nor any suspension of skepticism. My main sensations were disbelief, doubting that the events she describes could happen, and surprise, that an author of Oates' renown and stature would publish such passive, mediocre work under the guise of "horror."Perhaps in the early seventies, before Stephen King swept the genre clean, this book may have held more sway. I would submit, however, that modern readers are beyond being shocked by such themes as: a parentless child who longs for truth and justice, a lightless world, a disembodied voice, an abandoned house, sexual deviance, childhood dreams revisited, or dolls come to life. At the very least, most readers will surely find themselves above being shocked by such themes as rendered in Oates' particular writing style.Or perhaps enjoyment of such stories is based on mere stylistic differences, as inherent in and unique to human nature as the things that give us joy. For instance, Oates quotes a scene in Alice in Wonderland that for her remains "the earliest and most horrific image of my childhood." I found it merely laughable. As in the reading of her stories, the quickening just didn't happen, and the most shocking aspect of Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque for me remains the attached blurb that extols it as "...one of the finest collections of short fiction in a long time."

'Grotesque' by itself would have been a more accurate title for this compilation of short stories. I very much admire Ms. Oates's writing and I got this volume because it contains a riff on one of my favourite ghostly tales, Henry James's 'The Turn of the Screw'. I read that first and was mildly disappointed, in that it took me no further into the tale of Quint, Jessel, Miles, Flora et al than James did. It's the most traditional of the horror stories contained here, all of which have a sexual undertow visceral enough to pull the reader along regardless of squeamishness, which I have to say I felt in spades. For a feel of the various contents, there's a house with a sexually sadistic ghost; a doll who gets revenge on its former owner; a devil who tempts and rejects a virgin at bingo (I wasn't quite sure what's supposed to have happened in this one at all); a woman who seems to inhabit her cat; a murderer wanting to reclaim his lost girl; the intertwined destinies of a rat and a trophy wife....Overall, certainly unsettling, but I only read a volume of short stories every year or two and each time I remember why I pick up so few, because they rarely satisfy. This just left me feeling nauseous and my copy now resides in Oxfam rather than on my shelves. I hadn't realised just how prolific Ms. Oates is in this genre, since she has had published several volumes of stories in a similar vein. It's perhaps a positive reflection on her capabilities as an author to say that I don't feel I've the stomach to explore them further.