Who Would Like This Book:
If you love dark, unsettling tales and masterful storytelling, this collection should go straight to your TBR pile! Joyce Carol Oates crafts deeply atmospheric stories that dig into human darkness, with women sometimes cast as avengers, sometimes as victims, but always drawn with complexity. Oates fans and lovers of literary short fiction will revel in her vivid style and her knack for surprising, sometimes shocking twists. New writers could learn a ton from her crisp character work and evocative settings.
Who May Not Like This Book:
If you’re sensitive to graphic themes or find ambiguous, open-ended stories frustrating, this collection might not be your cup of tea. Some stories are slow-burns rather than fast-paced, and the unflinching look into disturbing subject matter can be uncomfortable. Spelling and editing mistakes - especially in the ebook - were a turn-off for some readers used to higher polish from Oates’s work.
About:
Extenuating Circumstances is a short story collection by Joyce Carol Oates that dives deep into themes of violence, revenge, and unsettling human experiences. The collection features a wide range of tales, some end with quiet devastation while others are shocking, keeping readers on their toes. Oates's storytelling is captivating and unpredictable, with each story offering a different perspective and emotional impact.
The writing style of Oates is described as vivid and masterful, with the ability to create strong character and physical portraits using only a few strokes. She explores dark and disturbing truths, often leaving readers with more questions than answers about the characters and their actions. Despite some complaints about proofreading issues, the collection showcases Oates's growth over decades and her unique ability to capture the complexities of humanity, making it a compelling read for both newcomers and long-time fans.
Genres:
Tropes/Plot Devices:
Topics:
Notes:
Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
The collection contains high content warnings for themes of violence, murder, and psychological distress.
From The Publisher:
Twenty-two disturbing tales of crime and suspense from "America's preeminent fiction writer" (New Yorker)
Two hitmen in a depressed rust belt town struggle with a job gone wrong. A girl witnesses a horrifying accident and carries it with her for the rest of her life. Medical students bring a severed foot to a college party. Five-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Joyce Carol Oates has made a career of exploring the forbidden corners of human experience, and the stories collected here, spanning her first three decades as a writer, are among her most unsettling and unforgettable works to date.
Originally published in long out-of-print volumes, these tales have not appeared in any form this century-until now; formally fresh and endlessly experimental, they show a writer boldly engaging with disturbing truths and terrifying possibilities, and deconstructing the tropes and expectations of traditional prose writing as she does so. But beyond their stylistic ingenuity, these are creepy, suspenseful stories that cut straight to the bone; their darkness will linger long after the final page is turned.
A must-read for long-time fans of Joyce Carol Oates and an excellent introduction for the uninitiated, the twenty-two tales included in Extenuating Circumstances exemplify the author's idiosyncratic spookiness, "visceral, psychologically involving, and socially astute" (Booklist).
Reader Stats (1):
Want To Read (1) |
What can you read after
Extenuating Circumstances?
When you click the Amazon link and make a purchase, we may receive a small commision, at no cost to you.
