Review by asims723 - Fox | The StoryGraph

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asims723 's review for:

Fox by Joyce Carol Oates

4.25

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Wow this is a weird book. Mr. Fox's POV chapters are vomit-inducing. There are zero good guys here, so don't expect a hero to walk out of this. The writing is very character-driven, so much so that I stopped caring about the plot about 60% of the way through. I didn't need an answer to the whodunnit though I felt that was fairly obvious. I do wish for more clarity and closure for Mary Ann.

I've read Joyce Carol Oates before. Her short story "Where are you going, where have you been?" is iconic, terrifying. I also read Black Water, which has a unique victim perspective, giving voice to a real person who otherwise would eternally have had none. In this novel, the voice of a child abuser is heard loudest as his grotesque POV infiltrates and infects every other character in the story. There is so much wrong with the outcome of this very long novel. I felt the length like physical pain, not wanting to approach it, wanting it to be over as quickly as possible while the clear, illustrative language dragged in excruciating detail for nearly 700 pages. This is a portrait of a monster, surrounded by monsters, and yet I still have questions. This story will haunt me.

I recommend it if you think you can stomach it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hogarth for this ARC!

Content Warnings