Looking For a Good Book

I don’t know that I’ve ever read anything by Joyce Carol Oates, though the name is very familiar. But I also don’t think I knew that Ms Oates  wrote such dark, psychological pulp fiction. This book collects two complete novels and two short stories written by Oates years ago and originally published under the name Rosamond Smith.

The first novel here, STARR BRIGHT WILL BE WITH YOU SOON, is a hard look at a female serial killer, Starr Bright – aka Sharon, and her twin sister, Lily. Our killer finds it easy to justify her actions killing the ‘pigs’ who’ve made her life miserable. Looking to get as far away from the murders as she can, she shows up at her sister’s home. Sharon hasn’t seen her sister since she left home to be a successful model in the city. Lily, now married and with a daughter, isn’t sure why her sister has shown up after being gone so long, but, being her twin, can’t just turn the sister away. But will her family be safe?

I thought that Oates did a remarkable job getting into the mind of a functioning psychotic. Following our killer’s train of thought and recognition that she could be in trouble for it, felt frighteningly real.

Female murderers are not common and probably even less so in fiction. Having this story told by a woman author definitely added to the genuineness in the character. There are phrases our character thinks or says that I just can’t imagine a male author, no matter how skilled, coming up with. (While I highlighted a number of phrases in my book, writing them here simply won’t have the impact they do within the story and attached to the character.)

As someone who enjoys pulp fiction of a darker nature, I quite enjoyed this.

The second novel is SOUL/MATE. This one was slightly unusual in that our central character is a progressive young woman, Dorothea Deverell (a widow now dating a married man), but the character with an obsession and willing to kill for it is not our central figure but someone trying to impress the female – Colin Asch. Although it manifests itself a little differently, Colin’s psychological issues are very similar to Sharon’s in the first novel – a lack of remorse and a feeling that it needed to be done (the killing).

A fair amount of time is used to set up the characters and, now that I’ve finished the book, I can’t help but think we learn more about Dorothea than we really need.  It doesn’t really lead us to understanding Colin’s behavior, but it does have us wondering where the story is going.

While I liked the writing, the story itself bored me a bit and I was pretty unsatisfied once it was done.

The short stories here are “The Murderess” and “An Unsolved Crime.” I really like the idea of including a ‘related’ short story with a novel – I wish it was done more often. Oates’ short stories are very similar to her novels – great character studies – they just lack the depth and breadth found in the longer works, which is not surprising.

I’m definitely interested in reading more by Oates. Although this has two complete novels and two short stories and runs nearly 600 pages, this never felt tedious (despite my being a bit bored with SOUL/MATE).

Looking for a good book? Double Trouble collects two previously published psychological thriller novels by Joyce Carol Oates along with two, previously uncollected short stories. Although pulp fiction, the writing shows why Oates is a six-time Pulitzer Prize finalist.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Double Trouble

author: Joyce Carol Oates (writing as Rosamond Smith)

publisher: Hard Case Crime 

ISBN: 9781835417218

hardcover, 576 pages