Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Narrator: Laura Hicks; Robert Fass
Unabridged: 7 hr 44 min
Format: Digital Audiobook
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Published: 08/01/2007
Joyce Carol Oates explores with bloodcurdling insight the ties that bind-or worse.In "The Man Who Fought Roland LaStarza" a woman's world is upended when she learns the brutal truth about a family friend's death-and what her father is capable of. Meanwhile, a businessman desperate to find his missing two-year-old grandson in "Suicide Watch" must determine whether the horrifying tale his junkie son tells him about the boy's whereabouts is a confession or a sick test. In "Valentine, July Heat Wave" a man prepares a gruesome surprise for the wife determined to leave him. And the children of a BTK-style serial killer struggle to decode the patterns behind their father's seemingly random bad acts, as well as their own, in "Bad Habits." Other stories explore family relationships and emotions with gruesome and sometimes horrifying results.
This is a chilling collection of gems. The only story that didn't interest me was a long boxing novella. All of the rest of them were quite horrifying, especially the title story. The narration was very well done. Anyone who enjoyes that prickling feeling one gets from an unusual and creepy story will like this little collection.