The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares

The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares
Author Joyce Carol Oates
Country USA
Language English
Publisher Mysterious Press
Publication date
November 1, 2011
Media type Print (Hardback & e-book) and Audiobook
Pages 264 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN ISBN 0802126022 (first edition, hardback)

The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares is a collection of short stories and novellas by Joyce Carol Oates. It was published in 2011 by Mysterious Press and contains several works that Oates had worked on over a period of fifteen years.[1]

Synopsis

The book contains the stories The Corn Maiden, Beersheba, Nobody Knows My Name, Fossil-Figures, Death-Cup, Helping Hands, and A Hole in the Head. The story contents range from a group of children planning to sacrifice one of their classmates in The Corn Maiden to a widow interacting with a second-hand store employee in Helping Hands.

Reception

Critical reception for The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares has been positive, with Kirkus Reviews calling the book "nightmarish".[2] Publishers Weekly praised the book, calling Oates "a master of psychological dread" but wrote that the audio book's narrator Christine Williams "lacks the emotional punch and range displayed" by the book's other narrator.[3][4] The Star Tribune and Bookreporter all praised the book, with Bookreporter praising the book's palpable anxiety.[5][6]

References