A review by jolis79
Cardiff, by the Sea: Four Novellas of Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates

4.0

I have read my share of Joyce Carol Oats. And from book to book, it can sometimes feel like you are engaging with a different facet of her as a writer. This is actually one of the strengths of this collection of novellas. Initially on jumping in, I was waiting for things to edge a bit more on the side of horror, which is somewhere that we never really went. And while some of these stories are quite suspenseful, I personally want to put these in the category of Female Body Gothic. Is that a genre? If not, it should be. Even with the main character of the final story “The Surviving Child” being male, the focus and suspense, like the other three stories is centered around the women and the threats to their bodies. Overt violence or gore isn’t the order of the day here, but the dread, the uncertainty, and the haunting landscapes that Oats creates is. I will say though, in the story “Miao Dao” I actually found myself rooting for a bit more killing and death. So no, I probably wouldn’t recommend this book as the super spooky Halloween read or anything, but I would recommend this book a lot.

Oats writing is, as always, beautiful, descriptive, and enthralling. Even in stories where I felt like I already knew where the story was going, I wanted to stick around to see how Oats got us there.