I gave up on this a few stories in. I got too invested in the first one and another was just too weird for me.

Who, but Joyce Carol Oates can take an ordinary occurrence and turn it in to something creepy and horrifying?!?!? This collection of short stories is, in my opinion, her best collection to date.

I've always enjoy Oates' short stories. She has a gift for creating characters and situations that border on the supernatural. Her stories tend to stay with me long after I've finished reading, and this collection is no exception.

I felt that this book of stories did a great job highlighting the ingenuity and grit that makes this author one of my all time favorite authors. She has a unique voice that resonates so well with the imperfection of the human condition. I found the last story about the Neon lights to be the most compelling story in the book. I felt that it really gave voice to the #me too movement in a very real way that a lot of different people with connect to. I think everyone goes through transformations throughout life that help shape the adult that they become and is often the result of these abuses and manipulations that we all endure. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

I love Joyce Carol Oates. I absolutely believe in her ability to write creepy stories. Where are you Going, Where Have you Been has always been a favorite of mine. Night, Neon didn't disappoint either. These stories remind us that as women, we will always notice themes of female fear and fragility to overpowering men. One woman is likely suffering from dementia, one is part of the Manson family, and there is also a futuristic copy of Marilyn Monroe (or the likes of). Most of the stories start off a little slow and then pick up speed. I think readers should be aware that a lot of these events are dark and traumatic There is also a thread running through all the characters in which you feel yourself sinking with them - giving up against the fight they can’t seem to muster. It’s heavy and unsettling and it’s great writing as always.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

I love this weird, wacky, writer. She never disappoints.
A collection of short stories by the master at her most kooky and macabre- I’d give it six stars if I could

Joyce Carol Oates' Night, Neon showcases her insanely talented ability to write uniquely thought-provoking stories. It's a mix of genres, but someone they all go together perfectly. Haunting, funny, and heavy.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC! This book releases in June.

Some of Joyce Carol Oates’s best works are published with Mysterious Press, a smaller press that publishes her darker mystery/horror stuff and has been doing so for the last couple decades. <i>Jack of Spades</i>, <i>The Pursuit</i>, and <i>Cardiff, by the Sea</i> were all published by this press and all are winners—<i>Night, Neon</i> joins them, and how!

These stories are razor-sharp and thrilling, matching the sleek and dark and dangerous cover (okay seriously, what a gorgeous cover!). I can’t quite decide what my favorite in the collection is, but these stood out:

“Detour”: an aging woman likely suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s can’t get a handle on where she is, or where she belongs. Or is she totally in her right mind? A searing opener to this collection, this particular story quickened my pulse.

“Curious”: a strange and somewhat off-putting story, what elevates this one, for me, is Oates’s spot-on characterization and that banger ending.

“Intimacy”: JCO writes small, anxious situations well, and this terse interaction between a writer professor and an angry student—in the professor’s cramped office, no less—is another that had me nervously turning (digital) pages.

“Night, Neon”: the narrative in the title story, the length of which borders on novella territory, is given room to stretch its legs. In this the reader gets to know the narrator, Juliana, and her experiences in various bars over the years. A mood of rainy melancholy hangs over this one, and it almost borders on noir. As one who’s experienced his share of blurry, hazy drunken nights in various restaurants and bars, I really connected with this one . . . and its portrayal of the way her romantic relationships have grown around her late-night drinking habits.

This collection is even better than I expected, and I’m as big a Joyce Carol Oates fan as they come. Thrilling, suspenseful, (hey, that’s why these are called Tales of Mystery and Suspense!) I didn’t want to finish. Luckily JCO is always writing, always publishing. And we are better for it.

An interesting collection of eerie short stories.. the writing style was easy and kept me interested. The stories didn’t contain a lot of substance but that’s to be expected. Overall a quick read.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc

Having thoroughly enjoyed Joyce Carol Oates’ anthology, Faithless, I was really excited to dive into this. Especially being tagged as short stories of mystery and suspense. However, I was ultimately disappointed. For one, I felt like the collection was wrongly listed as mystery and suspense. The stories are more of a contemporary fiction feel and none of them really have any mystery to them. There were a couple of the stories that did stick out to me though. The first story, ‘Detour’, follows a woman who may not have all her mental faculties. Is she being held hostage? Or is she forgetting something very important? That story and then ‘Parole Hearing’, where we are in the head of one of Manson’s girls as she resides in jail and is one time after another rejected for parole.

For the most part, there is no mystery to any of these stories. I guess some of them have some suspense to them but mostly I just looked at all the stories as examples of how we all see reality differently. Our point of view is our point of view only and isn’t necessarily accurate to what is going on around us.

The collection was ok but definitely not one of JCO’s best.

Releases June 15, 2021

Received from Penzler Publishers via Netgalley

I usually don't like short stories, but these were quite good and I enjoyed this book. I would recommend it to others that enjoy short stories

Thank you to NetGalley and Penzler Publishers as well as Joyce Carol Oates for the copy in exchange for my honest review. Unfortunately, Night, Neon just wasn't for me. There were times I would get into what Joyce Carol Oates was writing about and then out of nowhere it abruptly stops or goes in a completely different course. This is probably the writing style of Joyce Carol Oates as this was my first reading by her. I respect her writing as I would any author, because it's a unique, creative skillset that I do not have, but I just didn't vibe with these stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penzler Publishers as well as Joyce Carol Oates for the copy in exchange for my honest review. I appreciate it.
This is a collection of bleak and sometimes humorous short stories. This volume seemed to have a theme of gender roles and how they relate to each other.
Ms. Oates has a very distinctive writing style. I immediately felt at home. Her grim works are, oddly, comforting. Each story had something great about it. Each story also dealt with heavy subject matter, such as dementia, abuse and other types of trauma. For the most part, I loved them. Short stories are usually not my thing. J.C. Oates’ stories are often the exception, along with Stephen King. I loved how dark and horrific the stories were. I love how dark this author is willing to get. It reminds me of why I love horror. These stories are a safe place to explore our worst fears.
The stories tended to start off slowly and could, occasionally, be difficult to get into. Maybe condensing some of them would be a good idea.
Thank you to the author!!

I really enjoy JCO writing, and this was no exception. Emotional, unique, sometimes creepy, other times depressing. Really good thought provoking stories. I can't wait to recommend her to my members!

Another trip into the bleak imagination of Oates. By now I’m used to it, having read a number of her books, especially short story collections. They don’t have an easy or immediate appeal and thus are somewhat difficult to recommend, but for me there’s something attractive about them.
The bleakness is some of the appeal, definitely, Oates is gifted enough of a stylist to make it look good. She understands the degrees with which it should be gradually unveiled. She uses all the fifty shades of dark and unleashes a sort of quiet devastation and brutality upon her characters that only a master sadist would. And like a master sadist she seems to be an expert at knowing just where and how to twist the knife to the maximum effect. Most of this is owning to her profound psychological grasp of the psyche and the nature of relationship dynamics. Specifically male/female dynamics which are the theme of this collection.
So by now you should have gathered this isn’t a fun and happy read and it isn’t going to have any love stories or any stories for this matter than don’t end in tragedy. But even if you might guess at their terrible destinations, these journeys into the darkness still make for an interesting read.
The thing is, though, this collection being ever so timely, it’s very much from the recent bandwagon of a very specific kind of feminism, the strikingly dividing kind that essentially categorizes all men as brutes and violators and all women as some type of their victims. Oates is smarter and subtler than most of these writers so her takes are less polarizingly drum beating, but it’s still there, very potent, very pervasive and, frankly, much too one noted of an approach from such a talented author. And it does get tiresome.
There are some excellent deviations from the look at all the ways this woman gets screwed over by men, which is a theme most perfectly epitomized in the final and longest of the stories here.
Not sure of the titles, since the advance reading version the publisher provided tended to omit the, but #2 and 3 were great, the Marilyn auction one was excellent. Might be more I’m not thinking of.
All in all, if you’re a fan of Oates’ writing as I am, you’ll probably enjoy this book. Or if you’re looking for that kind of male/female dichotomy in fiction it would work too. For me, it doesn’t so much, too simple, too reductive, too black and white. But if I must read about it, it should be Oates or someone of her caliber. Plus no one does bleak like she can. It’s her signature color. Thanks Netgalley.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Night, Neon by Joyce Carol Oates.

Obviously Oates is a prolific writer, and from her GR reviews she tends to be very hit and miss. I LOVED Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. But I've noticed from her reviews that she is very hit and miss, and I get that because she's not afraid to be dark. For me, this was a HIT! Short essays are my jam, and this felt very reminiscent of a Stephen King, who also excels at short stories. They are dark, twisted, and each was as captivating as the next.

This is unique, and emotion- and thought-provoking collection of short stories. The reader is treated to the insightful perceptions of a woman who is likely suffering from dementia, one of the Charles Manson’s followers, and a futuristic copy of Marilyn Monroe (or the likes of). Most of the stories start off slow, and then an unexpected event happens about 2/3 in that captures the reader’s attention. I think readers should be aware that a lot of these events are dark and traumatic (including themes of abuse, homicide, and alcoholism), and could potentially be jarring for the reader. I don’t think the description of “mystery and suspense” fits these stories much at all. I appreciated the parts that I could!


Thank you very much to NetGalley and Penzler Publishers for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC.

With that in mind, I want to be clear that I did DNF this book at just under 1/3 of the way in. I wasn't enjoying the stories, and there was one piece of narration that really jarred me and made me not want to pick it back up again. Because I did not finish, I will only be posting this review here on NetGalley, and no other platforms.

That being said, the writing style was very good, and I would recommend this for someone who likes short story collections with some mystery and flow-of-consciousness narration.

Originally appearing in publications as disparate as Harper’s, Vice, and Conjunctions, the stories comprising Night, Neon showcase Oates’ mastery of the suspense story—and her relentless use of the form to conduct unapologetically honest explorations of American identity. This sentence is important so reread it. This a collection of short stories....some shorter than others but all classic Joyce Carol Oates style. Sometimes funny, sometimes really scary, this book brings together an amazing collection of stories that sometimes feel more like stream of consciousness reading than fiction. She is one of my favorite writers of all time so I was really looking forward to this and absolutely delighted in the entire book. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced readers for review.

This collection started strong but quickly fizzled out. Most of these stories read more like writing exercises than fully realized short stories; I found myself skimming in order to wade through the reams of unnecessary prose. Disappointing.

[I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Co in exchange for an unbiased review.]