Evil Eye: Four Novellas of Love Gone Wrong - Softcover

"A dazzling, disturbing, tour de force of Gothic suspense: four odd, compelling, ingeniously narrated tales that gain in power and resonance when read in conjunction with each other."--Boston Globe "These potboilers about murder, obsession and death have a genre funkiness, a greasy pulp seaminess, that is reminiscent of forgotten subscription serials and old "Twilight Zone" installments. . . . For Oates, whose worldview is as flinty as that of any of her male peers, true horror is rooted not in the supernatural--that would be almost reassuring--but in the things that men and women do to each other under the spell of attraction."--Washington Post "These four Gothic tales run the gamut from creepy to mesmerizing. . . . All the while, [Oates] slyly critiques our culture, from parents who don't protect their young daughters from sexual predators to killers hopped up on prescription meds."--Cleveland Plain Dealer "Exquisitely suspenseful. . . . The relationships between the damaged, sometimes monstrous individuals who people these pages will keep the reader riveted."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Love doesn't just go wrong between Oates' characters, it blows up, drips poison, tortures, kills. . . . This is among her better quick-turn efforts. Each of its novellas makes your skin crawl even as it also seems completely believable, like something you heard once, from where, you can't remember."--Star Tribune (Minneapolis) "This is familiar Oates territory, mapped with artistry and care; dark, bloody, and unforgiving."--Barnes & Noble Review "An extraordinarily vivid depiction of lives gone awry. . . . A creepy, macabre thrill from start to finish. . . . Terrific stuff."--Independent (UK) "Oates at her best--spare, swift, beautifully observed and quietly lethal."--Times (UK) "Immediately engaging . . . [the] suspense is palpable."--Shenandoah "With her focus on deviant and twisted characters, Oates continues to be a worthy descendant of the gothic tradition of Edgar Allan Poe."--Kirkus Reviews "A quartet of shrewd and unnerving novellas. . . . Oates has a superbly disconcerting gift for orchestrating slowly coalescing realizations that something is horribly wrong."--Booklist "A stunningly written, disturbing masterpiece. . . . The four worlds that Oates gives us here pull in the reader until she finds herself too fascinated to leave--even when everything gets creepy."--Bustle.com

In Evil Eye, Oates offers four chilling tales about love so powerful that people might die--or kill--for it. In the title story, we meet Mariana, the young fourth wife of a prominent intellectual. When her husband's first wife comes to visit, Mariana learns a terrible secret that threatens her marriage and sanity. In "So Near Any Times Always," shy teenager Lizbeth meets Desmond, a charming older boy who offers the first spark of romance. Yet as their relationship blossoms, Lizbeth realizes that a menacing soul lies beneath Desmond's perfect fa ade. In "The Execution," spoiled college student Bart Hansen has planned the perfect crime to get back at his condescending parents. What he didn't plan on was the resilience of his mother's love, even in the face of death. And in "The Flatbed," childhood trauma has prevented Cecelia from enjoying physical intimacy with a man. But when she meets the love of her life, Cecelia must confront the demon who stole her innocence long ago. With the razor-sharp prose that has made Joyce Carol Oates a living legend, Evil Eye shows love as sporadically magical, mysterious, and murderous.