The Female of the Species
Tales of Mystery and Suspense
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · January 15, 2007
A young wife is home alone when the phone rings in “So Help Me God.” Is the strange voice flirting with her from the other end of the line her jealous husband laying a trap, or a stranger who knows entirely too much about her?
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- Who it’s for
- These suspenseful tales find menace in familiar lives—and in the darkness women discover within themselves.
- Themes
- Women confronting evil, Hidden danger, Inner darkness
- Genres
- Short Stories (Single Author), Horror, Mystery Anthologies
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For younger readers: The Corpse Queen, Dead Girls Don't Dream, Through the Woods
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A young wife is home alone when the phone rings in “So Help Me God.” Is the strange voice flirting with her from the other end of the line her jealous husband laying a trap, or a stranger who knows entirely too much about her? In “Madison at Guignol” an unhappy fashionista discovers a secret door inside her favorite clothing store and insists the staff let her enter. But even her fevered imagination cannot anticipate the horror they have been hiding from her.
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In these and other gripping and disturbing tales, women are confronted by the evil around them and surprised by the evil they find within themselves. With wicked insight, Joyce Carol Oates demonstrates why the females of the species—be they six-year-old girls, seemingly devoted wives, or aging mothers—are by nature more deadly than the males.
Unease Close to Home
These suspenseful tales find menace in familiar lives—and in the darkness women discover within themselves.
Come here for
- Phone-line paranoia and a secret door in a clothing store
- Mystery shaped by jealousy, hidden knowledge, and fevered imagination
Expect
- Gripping, disturbing tales rather than one continuous plot
- Evil both around women and unexpectedly within them
Where it sits
| Short Stories (Single Author) | 77% |
|---|---|
| Horror | 31% |
| Mystery Anthologies | 27% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Literary Fiction
- Police Procedurals
- Women Detectives
- Mystery Anthologies
Show all 7 publisher categories
- Amateur Sleuths
- Cozy Paranormal Mysteries
- Short Stories (Single Author)
- Authors
- Joyce Carol Oates
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- January 15, 2007
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Women confronting evil · Hidden danger · Inner darkness
- Reading lane
- Literary Fiction