Book Review: The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares by Joyce Carol Oates

Title: The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares
Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic Inc
Release Date: 0802126022
ISBN: 0802126022







I'll admit outright that I'm not overly a fan of Oates' writing style, but dangit... she knows how to write. Even as I asked myself why I'm reading the stories since I wasn't really digging them, I couldn't help but admire how well she managed to keep me turning the pages despite that.

"The Corn Maiden" is the gut-wrenching story of Marissa, a beautiful and sweet, but somewhat slow, eleven-year-old girl with hair the color of corn silk. Her single mother comes home one night to find her missing and panics, frantically knocking on the doors of her neighbors. She finally calls the police, who want to know why she left her young daughter alone until 8:00 o’clock.

Suspicion falls on a computer teacher at her school with no alibi for the time of the abduction. Obvious clues—perhaps too obvious—point directly to him. Unsuspected is Judah (born Judith), an older girl from the same school who has told two friends in her thrall of the Indian legend of the Corn Maiden, a girl sacrificed to ensure a good crop.

The trusting Marissa happily went to a secluded basement with the older girls, pleased to be included, and is convinced that the world has ended and that they are the last survivors. Remaining an unaware hostage for days, she grows weaker on a sparse diet as Judah prepares her for sacrifice.

The seemingly inevitable fate of Marissa becomes ever more terrifying as Judah relishes her power, leading to unbearable tension with a shocking conclusion.

“Helping Hands,” published here for the first time, begins with an apparently optimistic line: “He came into her life when it had seemed to her that her life was finished.”

A lonely woman meets a man in the unlikely clutter of a dingy charity shop and extends friendliness, which soon turns to quiet and unacknowledged desire. With the mind-set of a victim, struggling to overcome her shyness and fears, she has no idea what kinds of doors she may be opening.

The powerful stories in this extraordinary collection further enhance Joyce Carol Oates’s standing as one of the world’s greatest writers of suspense.

First off, I just have to repeat the statement that Joyce Carol Oates knows how to keep someone reading. I really didn't like the writing style that the first story was written in but I just had to keep reading purely because I had to, no needed to know how it all ended. The titular story (Corn Maiden) is just one of many stories in this book, all of which delivered that same "gotta know how it ends" tension and suspense.

Out of all of the stories, I have to say that Helping Hands grabbed me the most. Some of the stories, such as Beersheba, piqued my curiousity and kept me thinking, but it was Helping Hands that really made me keep reading. All of the stories here deal with a very human and realistic evil, but HH was the far more realistic of all of them, which I liked. The "evil" in this story was all the more heartbreaking for the situations all of the characters were in.

While I do have to give JCO props for drawing me in, some of the stories seemed a little too much at times. Either they were drawn out a little longer than they should have been or they just didn't grab me like their counterparts did. I know that there are some here that I'll want to re-read but there's just as many that I don't really care to pick up again.

This was a good Halloween read and one that JCO's fans will want to grab as soon as the books hit the shelves, but for the rest of us I recommend it as a library read. This is one of the books I would recommend reading regardless of your personal tastes, but it might be a good idea to check it out at the library instead. In the end it's JCO's ability to keep me reading that makes me give it as many stars as I have.

4 out of 5 stars

(ARC provided by Netgalley)

Book Review: The Restorer by Amanda Stevens

Title: The Restorer (The Graveyard Queen #1)
Author: Amanda Stevens
Publisher: Mira
Release Date: 05/01/2011
ISBN: 077832981X







I've read some of Stevens' other works, so when I saw this book on NetGalley I have to admit that I was intrigued. If I were to describe the plot of some of her works to someone they'd say that her books are incredibly similar to other works out in the literary world. (Not a bad thing- all books are similar at one point or another.) Yet what makes Stevens' books so different is that she doesn't try to make them fit into the mold that so many other suspense or thriller books fill. They're wonderfully & beautifully different, which is what makes her books so much fun to read.

My name is Amelia Gray. I’m a cemetery restorer who sees ghosts. In order to protect myself from the parasitic nature of the dead, I’ve always held fast to the rules passed down from my father. But now a haunted police detective has entered my world and everything is changing, including the rules that have always kept me safe.

It started with the discovery of a young woman’s brutalized body in an old Charleston graveyard I’ve been hired to restore. The clues to the killer—and to his other victims— lie in the headstone symbolism that only I can interpret. Devlin needs my help, but his ghosts shadow his every move, feeding off his warmth, sustaining their presence with his energy. To warn him would be to invite them into my life. I’ve vowed to keep my distance, but the pull of his magnetism grows ever stronger even as the symbols lead me closer to the killer and to the gossamer veil that separates this world from the next.

I have to admit that although this book started off a little on the slow side, once the excitement started I was pretty hooked. I loved Amelia's attention to detail & her curiosity over everything despite her father's rules. The intense draw between her & Devlin is pretty tangible, yet understated at the same time. Stevens takes her time with this pairing, which works well considering all of the elements & story details divulged throughout the story. (No spoilers!)

The only drawback is that at times the story seemed to be a little overly slow, so some readers might get a little frustrated at the slow buildup. Stick with it because the payoff at the end of this novel is pretty fulfilling, although I'll give you a warning. This is the first in a series so not all of the questions will be answered in this book.

Then again, after the creepy imagery at the end of the book, most readers won't really care. They'll be too busy shivering & demanding more.

(ARC provided by NetGalley)

Book Review: The Cypress House by Michael Kortya

Title: The Cypress House
Author: Michael Koryta
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Release Date: 01/24/2011
ISBN: 0316053724







After my first foray into Koryta's work via So Cold the River, I was somewhat curious to see what his next book would be like. My experience with SCTR was mostly a good one, although I felt the end was a little anti-climatic. Would this book be better? Would the ending have more zing? Yes it is and yes, it did.

Arlen Wagner has seen it in men before--a trace of smoke in their eyes that promises imminent death. He is never wrong.

When Arlen awakens on a train one hot Florida night and sees death's telltale sign in the eyes of his fellow passengers, he tries to warn them. Only 19-year-old Paul Brickhill believes him, and the two abandon the train, hoping to escape certain death. They continue south, but soon are stranded at the Cypress House--an isolated Gulf Coast boarding house run by the beautiful Rebecca Cady--directly in the path of an approaching hurricane.

The storm isn't the only approaching danger, though. A much deadlier force controls the county and everyone living in it, and Arlen wants out--fast. But Paul refuses to abandon Rebecca to face the threats alone, even though Arlen's eerie gift warns that if they stay too long they may never leave.

If you loved the first book, you're going to really enjoy Kortya's next offering. The spookiness and supernatural is dialed back a few notches in order to showcase humanity's ability for cruelty & evil, but it'll still keep you thumbing through the pages way past midnight. These characters aren't perfect, but you'll find yourself wondering what exactly will happen to them.

The only problem with this book is that for broad stretches, nothing happens. We see Arlen & Paul working on the house or talking to Rebecca about ominous things that might happen. At times this works wonderfully to heighten the tension, but at times I couldn't help but wish that the plot would have moved just a teensy bit faster.

This is still well worth reading, but if you aren't into the books that build suspense up slowly you'll probably be disappointed with this read. To the rest I heartily endorse this read- at times Koryta reminds me a little of Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House.

(ARC provided by NetGalley)

Sara Shepard's The Lying Game is becoming a tv show!

I just discovered that Sara Shepard's Lying Game has been picked up for a tv pilot, which means that there's a chance for it to become a tv show at some point in time. With Pretty Little Liars on the air, it makes a lot of sense for ABC to try to bring out as many similar things as possible- especially since PLL has decent ratings & won the Teen Choice Awards.

This makes me want to read the book even more- after all, if it's getting picked up for a pilot without it being released yet then the book must be pretty good!