First Oates and I loved the experience! What a great (also, very disturbing!) story.

I took my time reading this one, because I did not want to miss any details. Even though I kind of figured out who killed Fox early on, the story becomes so twisted that I started to feel that any of the characters could've done it.

Highly recommend this one and I can't wait to read more Oates!

𝚃𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞- 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚐𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚑𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛.
𝚃𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎-𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞: 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚐𝚎.

Who is Francis Fox? Certainly not who he pretends to be. Joyce Carol Oates has created a man who is insidiously manipulative, exactly the sort of predator that knows how to groom victims and fool those in charge of protecting them. He cultivates trust with women, even those who have hardened their hearts against him are not immune to his charms, once he has set his sights on winning them over, they become his champions. He uses these good women as a shield, women who would swear he is an upstanding citizen, a caring, passionate teacher, no way would they suspect him of the evil that lives in his mind and the lude acts he commits. He speaks to what women want to hear while his vile thoughts riot inside of his mind. It’s so easy, people want to believe the best of the man they adore. He knows what it takes to be seen as a safe adult, trustworthy, to surround himself with upstanding women, of a certain class. He has a checklist of sorts for who he needs to be, educated, handsome, gallant, and in a relationship, a clever way to hide. But when Mr. Fox’s car is found submerged in a retention pond at the nature reserve with body parts “strewn about the nearby woods”, the very people who love and trust him are shocked to learn he is missing and that he has betrayed their trust. Detective Horace Zwender and his deputy begin to uncover what has happened, probing the people in Mr. Fox’s life and soon discover the prestigious school may have been under the spell of a sick monster.

There is one person who isn’t so fooled by Mr. Fox, the young man with eyes of an “old soul”, Demetrius Healy. A stand-up guy who had to grow up fast by caring for his sick mother and now, his aging father. He is a kind, young man who is the dependable one despite having an older brother, Marcus, who leaves it all on his shoulders. Where Mr. Fox is skilled at understanding girls and women, Demetrius is inexperienced, shy, and kept apart. The two couldn’t be any more different. It is Demetrius who first discovers the grisly accident scene while he and his brother are working, and Marcus who protects his fragile brother from the trauma by reporting it to the police.

The students at the school caught in Mr. Fox’s web are his kittens, prepubescent girls (for nothing disgusts him more than the curves and fleshy bits of a full-grown woman’s body) plucked for their specialness. These prize picks are always attractive, malleable, and fatherless. Certainly nothing like the awkward, plump, Mary Ann, the local scholarship student. If not his passion, she has gained his curiosity by being unimpressed by him, a challenge indeed. He invites her to his office after school for a game he has been playing with others before her, a secret. And what do young girls love better than their secrets? Mary Ann’s relationship with her own father is beginning to suffer, the separation between her parents, the collapse of her emotional state and the accusations placed on her father as Mr. Fox becomes important to her is a clever part of the novel, realistic.

It is a tale that will turn your stomach, and yet leave you needing to know what happened, where is Mr. Fox, what occurred in the past that drove this English teacher to Langhorne Academy. Where evil lurks, take heart, because so can angels.

Brutal and shocking, Joyce Carol Oates pins her characters under a microscope with the skill few authors have. Mr. Fox filled me with rage, for all the victims that exist in real life and the masks such monsters wear. The fact that it is fiction is no comfort, because this could be ripped out of a true crime story.

Published June 17, 2025

Random House

I’ve read several of Joyce Carol Oates short stories and really enjoyed them, so I was excited to check out her latest novel. Wowza, this book was challenging to read! I struggled for multiple reasons, including its length and its content. (NOTE: Definitely check out the trigger warnings if you are a more sensitive reader) There are some sections that could have benefited from a bit more editing and others that could’ve been removed without any effect on the story. I will admit I got tired of the same phrases and information coming at me multiple times. Ultimately though, the writing is strangely compelling, and the characters (for better or worse) will be taking up residence in my head for a while.

This is a book about those things we don’t want to think about, the people who live and hide among us - predator and prey, abusers and victims and witnesses, haves and have nots, and the never-ending circles of devastation that happen when we look the other way. Seeing the actions and their effects, internal and external, from numerous perspectives is what makes this book work, and what causes it to, ever slowly, get under your skin.

Please note: I received a digital copy from NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group - Hogarth in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are strictly my own.

Have you ever wished that Patricia Highsmith wrote Lolita?

Maybe that's a bit flip. After all, Patricia Highsmith wrote just over 20 novels over a span of 40 years; Joyce Carol Oates has written something like triple that number, over a span of 60 years and counting. Oates is a pretty distinctive literary figure in her own right. Perhaps it would be more apt to ask: Have you ever wished that Joyce Carol Oates wrote Lolita?

This book starts off feeling like it's going to be a kind of murder mystery, involving the death of a charismatic middle school English teacher (the titular Mr. Francis Fox) whom the reader rapidly learns was a serial child predator - plenty of plausible reasons for different people to want this guy dead, right? But it becomes clear before too long that Oates is not especially concerned with the procedural "whodunit" of it all, not least because the book spends a gigantic chunk in the middle in a flashback narrative from Fox's perspective, detailing not only how he came to be at this school but the complicated psychological nuts-and-bolts of his particular sexual predilections and predatory history.

Oates never lets the reader fall into the Humbert Humbert trap, where Nabokov makes HH so charismatic and charming as a narrator that the undiscerning reader either glosses over his monstrousness or believes him to be presented approvingly. For one thing, the close-third-person narration keeps a little bit of a buffer between Fox and the reader; for another, Oates keeps the portrayal of Fox a lot rougher-edged, always keeping the unpleasantness of his character near the foreground (hence my Highsmith comparison earlier). This has pros and cons: on the one hand, it avoids the problems of Lolita being misinterpreted as a hero-narrative about child sexual abuse; on the other hand, if you're going to have a problem sitting inside the head of a horrible monster, however skillfully drawn, it's a hard thing to spend that much time with Fox. And it is a LONG time: nearly 700 pages is a hell of a lot for a book like this.

But if you can hang with the unpleasantness, I think it's a rewarding read, and surely could provide a lot of discussion fodder from how it is in clear conversation with Lolita. On two levels, even: Fox has a lot of peculiarly strong opinions about Lolita which he will share almost compulsively, some in a "methinks he doth protest too much" way but some seeming to be genuinely held, if from a cracked point of view, while on a meta-narrative level Oates includes a side character named Clarence Quilty for reasons that never were entirely clear to me but I bet some English grad student will have some theories.

I do think I land on around 3.5 stars, rounding up. It's just a little too long for what it is, and Oates seems mostly unconcerned with the "mystery" part of the murder, floating the narrative around other members of the community and taking a long time to get to the point. In theory this lets her show something about how Fox's crimes and death (and the slow, incomplete revelations of said crimes to certain characters) affect the people around him, which would be admirable if it was used to foreground the victims in particular to counterweight the time spent luxuriating in the head of a pedophile, but it never quite hits that mark and still could have used a sharper editorial scalpel to trim those storylines down too.

Believe it or not, this is my first book I've read from JCO. I know, I know! But now that I've read it, I'm absolutely hooked. Her writing is like music, it's a melody that I can't get out of my head.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review on my Goodreads page. It is out as of last week.

This book marks my first experience reading Joyce Carol Oates, despite her prolific body of work. The novel centers on Francis Fox, a respected teacher at a local academy who is found dead at the story’s outset. What follows is a nearly 700-page slow-burning unraveling of the mystery behind his death—and more hauntingly, the life he lived before it.

Told through shifting perspectives and layered timelines, the novel gradually builds tension and paints complex, often disturbing character portraits. The prose is sharp, and Oates excels at atmosphere and detail, really getting into the mind of her characters. However, while the narrative structure is compelling, I found the ending somewhat predictable.

It’s important to note that this book is not for the faint of heart. The subject matter becomes deeply uncomfortable and graphic, and had I not been reading for review purposes, I likely would have set it aside. Francis Fox is revealed to be far from the admirable figure he appears to be, and the book dives into morally troubling territory. Comparisons have been made to Lolita—a novel I haven't read but know well enough to understand the parallel. Had I known of this connection going in, I probably would have opted out.

While I can’t say I enjoyed the plot or themes, I can’t deny the strength of the writing and the careful development of the characters and the building of the who done it mystery. That craftsmanship is what earns this a 3-star rating from me. However, based on subject matter alone, this was not a book for me.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. I was captivated by the storyline and could not put the novel down. The ending is unforgettable. I love the sacrifice made by one of the minor characters, who was--in every way--the hero.

Fox
by Joyce Carol Oates
Publication day: June 17, 2025
Length: 672 pages

A review of Joyce Carol Oates’ Fox, in the style of Joyce Carol Oates:
“A page turner, far from banal, I devoured it, horrified, sickened the entire way, but on the edge of my seat always.”

Literary icon and National Book Award winner Joyce Carol Oates’ newest novel is set around the suspicious death of a charming and nefarious predatory English teacher in an elite New Jersey prep school. Dark secrets abound and everyone is a suspect in the death of this most vile and loathsome of villains.

Beautiful writing (the sentence structure!) and deep cut literary references to make you chortle (obnoxious if you aren’t in on the joke, but JCO makes sure you know that you are) combine with the most odious acts imaginable to make this novel one that you will surely love and hate. Because if the incredibly upsetting subject matter, I found myself dreading picking this book back up again each day, and then promptly unable to put it down again once I started, so completely riveting was the storytelling.

This book is dark, shocking, disturbing, and startlingly funny, and really tests how much the reader can stomach inside the head of a predator, and possibly going a bit too far. It also covers body issues, aging, misogyny, and animosity along class and educational lines. And there’s a dog!

I don’t know if I would have finished this dark, dark, dark and potentially damaging novel if it weren’t an ARC, but also I loved it, as one must of an adrenaline filled mystery for hardcore lit fic fans. All in all, a confusing experience with a profoundly gifted and controversial author.

Like Dead Poets Society meets Lolita meets The Talented Mr Ripley meets Spotlight meets Sharp Objects meets Pet meets Election.

⚠️ CHECK THE CONTENT WARNINGS ⚠️

Fox is a haunting, psychological tale that showcases Joyce Carol Oates’ mastery of suspense and emotional complexity. With spare yet lyrical prose, Oates explores themes of obsession, trauma, and the blurred line between predator and prey. It’s a chilling, thought-provoking novella that lingers long after the final page.

Published at Open Letter Review - https://openlettersreview.com/posts/fox-by-joyce-carol-oates

A sun-drenched beauty crossing the lawn of a local park would likely garner glances from some of those lounging nearby. A few heads would rotate in the dreamy figure’s direction, perhaps a brave soul would try to spark a conversation. But of those who took notice, a greater number would not. Now, if in the same open green space a hideous figure trudged by, a creature with an open head wound and a severed leg jutting out of a backpack, stares and shrieks would be universal. This is the element of human nature which makes Joyce Carol Oates’ newest novel Fox so effective; it is nearly impossible to look away from the horrific.

A body is discovered early, Fox is a mystery at heart, but a gorgeously composed one that uses every modality to create ominous atmosphere:

"The sky at dawn is clotted with dark tumors of cloud through which a sudden piercing light shines like a scalpel. In the mud-softened service road leading to the landfill, shimmering puddles in long narrow snakelike ruts. A smell of brackish swamp water from the vast marshland beyond and in the near distance black-winged turkey vultures like flattened silhouettes high in the air silently circling, swooping with the look of grisly frolic."

Gray locales reminiscent of the Ozarks frame much of the book. A car is discovered, a scattered corpse found nearby. For much of the novel the reader is unaware if the body is that of the central character, and whether we are dealing with someone else’s murder, suicide or accident. Shreds of plot are revealed through the perspective of parents, children, dogs, janitors, teachers, detectives, and our titular poet-protagonist, Francis Fox. Oates masterfully unravels horrors in metered pieces, pausing her spotlight briefly between characters. Relentless narrative changes leave the reader struggling for footing and little time is spent on in-story introspection.

With a curious effect, details and adjectives are often served in parentheticals. Over pages they act as a devil on our shoulder whispering extra words:

"Here is a question for the (eager, fawning) candidate: he has taught in four schools in nine years, isn’t that most unusual?"

And:

"By the end of the first class period the boys will have detected something conspiratorial, (mildly) rebellious in his manner even as the girls will have detected something so thrilling, so roughly tender, they have not (yet) a vocabulary to express it."

Fox employs an unrelenting, rapid cadence that casts a trance. We are progressively assaulted by the depraved actions of one man which spreads a web of worry across a community. Incredible prose amplifies the suspense and power of the novel.

Joyce Carol Oates is famously skilled at revealing a monster’s psyche with realistic freakishness. Quintin P., the serial killer from Oates’ 1995 award-winning, Dahmer-inspired novel, Zombie, functions with an IQ around 70. Quintin’s first-person reflections on how to perfect an icepick lobotomy with child-like innocence is intensely scary, but details like the helpless baby chicks left squeaking around an abducted child’s bicycle is another level of skin crawling. Here, Francis Fox operates with above-average intelligence, but is every bit as broken and deluded as Lolita’s infamous Humbert Humbert. Much like Nabokov, Oates’ villain is humanized by scenes from his own perspective. The character rationalizes and justifies his perversion, but horror and suspense grow as each contributor adds to the story.

Authors of Oates’ talent rarely produce such a furious output of acclaimed work. Fox is Joyce Carol Oates’ 58th novel, her first published 62 years ago. At 86 years old, the literary community has discussed the impact of her legacy for some time. Questions which do not plague three or four book phenoms like Donna Tartt or Gilian Flynn haunt Oates. Could she become a victim of her productivity? Where does a new reader begin? Save such inquiries for Stephen King - Oates has never published a dud.

This is an author who persists in challenging us with electrifying books anchored in twisted material. With impressive authenticity, this octogenarian captures the inner workings of very young minds. Oates is effective at enticing before she frightens. This literary mystery offers candy before asking brave readers to step into its windowless panel van.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for a review copy.

This is a disturbing book with dark subject matter (pedophilia), but its psychological insight is impressive.

Francis Fox is a charismatic middle-school English teacher at a prestigious New Jersey private school, Langhorne Academy. His students love him, his colleagues regard him highly, and parents are enchanted as well. When his car is found submerged in a pond in a nature preserve and his body eventually identified, an investigation uncovers the truth behind his facade. Detective Horace Zwender discovers that Mr. Fox was aptly named; he was a fox hunting for kittens, a master manipulator and predator who was able to hide in plain sight, leaving a trail of damaged lives.

The book presents multiple points of view. Besides that of Fox, the reader is given the perspectives of his prepubescent victims, as well as various adults like parents of students, the headmistress of the school, friends, and others who are really secondary victims of Fox’s abuse. There’s even a chapter from the point of view of Princess Di, the dog belonging to the school’s headmistress. The narrative moves back and forth through time, so we learn about Fox before his arrival at Langhorne Academy and we follow the investigation after his death. At the end, the reader sees the long-term effects on Fox’s victims.

The book is a whodunnit, but it is also very much a character study. Fox is a repellent narcissist who has no difficulty justifying his abhorrent behaviour. He knows how to charm people. An interesting example is P. Cady, the headmistress, who is determined not to add a white male to the school’s staff but ends up being totally conned by Fox and becomes one of his staunchest supporters. He gives women false flattery so they will befriend him and provide him cover should his behaviour be scrutinized.

Fox’s victims are prepubescent girls, usually with an absent father. Fox grooms them by making them feel special. Because their thoughts and feelings are included, the reader comes to understand how a vulnerable young girl would fall victim to Fox. What chance does she have when even intelligent adult women are captivated? Zwender comments on the blurred boundaries between predator and prey: “The serial pedophile is like a serial killer: hiding in plain sight. He’s usually a nice guy, everyone likes him. It’s rare that a young girl isn’t in love with her abuser, that’s how the abuse is possible.”

The novel explores the abuses of power – how people like Fox are able to evade responsibility and how institutions are often complicit in enabling abuse by their inattention and passivity. The ripple effects of abuse are examined; it is not just victims who are impacted but their community as well. The book also touches on other topics like how socio-economic barriers can impede people from achieving their potential and how abuse can be facilitated by poor or inadequate parenting.

At almost 650 pages, this is a lengthy book, and there is certainly some repetition. However it is so well-written that my interest did not wane. The author excels at similes and metaphors. Those who accuse him of inappropriate behaviour, Fox thinks of as “Harpies. Shrieking beaks, razor-sharp talons, small beady-glaring eyes of raw jealousy.” Before P. Cady falls for Fox’s flattery, her smile “might be measured in single-digit millimeters.” When he first arrives at Langhorne Academy, Fox makes his way at a gathering of colleagues “like a sea lamprey through a school of oblivious lake trout.” When Fox thinks that he should marry so as to suggest a normal life, he observes one potential mate “with the grim-smiling resolve of a hungry carnivore contemplating a head of cabbage” and another “as if he’s wearing one of those lead-lined vests dental patients are made to wear when enduring X-rays.”

The novel examines the darkness of the human soul and uncomfortable truths so is a difficult and unsettling read. However, its psychological insight and emotional depth make it a worthwhile read. It is not a book a reader will soon forget.

I know that Joyce Carol Oates is a beloved author and famous for her work, but this is the first book of hers that I have read. I had been meaning to check out one of her books so this was my opportunity. This is her first whodunnit type book.

Description:
Who is Francis Fox? A charming English teacher new to the idyllic Langhorne Academy, Fox beguiles many of his students, their parents, and his colleagues at the elite boarding school, while leaving others wondering where he came from and why his biography is so enigmatic. When two brothers discover Fox’s car half-submerged in a pond in a local nature preserve and parts of an unidentified body strewn about the nearby woods, the entire community, including Detective Horace Zwender and his deputy, begins to ask disturbing questions about Francis Fox and who he might really be.

A hypnotic, galloping tale of crime and complicity, revenge and restitution, victim vs. predator, Joyce Carol Oates’s Fox illuminates the darkest corners of the human psyche while asking profound moral questions about justice and the response evil demands. A character as magnetically diabolical as Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley and Vladimir Nabokov’s Humbert Humbert, Francis Fox enchants and manipulates nearly everyone around him, until at last he meets someone he can’t outfox. Written in Oates’s trademark intimate, sweeping style, and interweaving multiple points of view, Fox is a triumph of craftsmanship and artistry, a novel as profound as it is propulsive, as moving as it is full of mystery.

My Thoughts:
Who is Francis Fox? This book takes you on a deep dive into the person and his motivations, his experiences. He gave me the creeps. The Langhorne Academy was well respected and seemed like such a safe place for children. The students loved Mr. Fox and he was a respected teacher. But, he has dark secrets they don't know about. His disappearance and suspected death is a mystery, and his secrets are revealed when the police start investigating. There are many themes in this book, and I won't reveal them as I don't want to influence the reader, but let's just say that many are disturbing. The book is rather long at over 700 pages, but will keep you reading and hold your attention if you can get past the slow first chapter or so. The ending was such a surprise it was shocking. This is a great piece of literary fiction.

Thanks to Random House | Hogarth through Netgalley for an advance copy.

New release TikTok post 6-17-25

A charismatic predatory teacher at an elite middle school goes missing.
This book captured me immediately. Beware, though, it's far more detailed than I was expecting. A charismatic man in his 30s leching on barely-teen girls goes beyond creepy, and some of the young points of view come across as even younger than the stated ages.

Told from multiple points of view and weighing in at more than 600 pages, Fox is a surprisingly fast read. Oates interweaves the lives of multiple local people while keeping continuous lines of tension. The questions of the book go deeper than the initial hooks presented by the discovery of a dismembered body.

I don't think I could stand to read such a heavy close-up of SA by a teacher and its shattering effects from a lesser author.
The mysteries kept my attention, and the variety of characters and psychological elements make for a rich reading experience.
I recommend Fox to seasoned, non-squeamish readers of crime fiction and of literature with squicky content.

Some readers might want to be warned: In addition to CSA scenes, there are uncomfortable, cruel terms and attitudes toward female body image and aging, many references to self-harm and suicide, and class bigotry.

Joyce Carol Oates continues to shock and amaze in her 80s.

My thanks to @Penguin Random House @Hogarth for the eARC via NetGalley.

DNF at 14%. Unfortunately, this book was just not it for me. I don’t mind dark literary fiction at all, but this pushed the boundary in a way that was beyond unsettling to me as a reader. I understand it as a piece of art, but this turned my stomach in ways I truly couldn’t get past (and overall, I think I have a VERY thick skin for themes that typically require content warnings). On top of the pedophilia and sexual abuse, the writing itself just didn’t strike a chord with me. I’m primarily a literary fiction reader, but something about the prose here never grabbed me and made it incredibly difficult to slog through. I’m disappointed - I truly was looking forward to this one!

FOX
BY: JOYCE CAROL OATES

Five Humanity Stars!

I'm very torn about the prodigious JOYCE CAROL OATES, her latest very disturbing novel called, "FOX," because I thought all of it deserves the full five stars of my rating. I want to make it very clear that I've read much longer novels by her, that contained at the very least another 200 plus pages, or more, so I don't have a problem at all with reading longer novels, whatsoever. In fact, I read one of her's with 400 more pages and gave her the full five stars because her writing is so spellbinding. I had thought that this one received a lot of its lower ratings citing that this was too long, by which I think there are some readers who avoid longer novels, but I took off half a star, and then I amended it, since while I'm writing this review, I am also still processing it. I tend to think with more clarity with reflection because I only just finished it last night, and I was overwhelmed with sadness since this felt so incredibly real to me. That speaks to the Author's very gifted acumen with infusing every single character to be realistically alive, and affected by this trusted Middle School English teacher, named, Francis Harlan Fox, whose charismatic, and charming, but deeply calculating abuse towards his students was so upsetting, for he had fooled everyone. Keep in mind that as difficult as this content is to read that if you look deeper, it is a reality that happens. It's Literary Fiction, and that tends to be character driven written by one of the greatest American writers who I believe she has pure intentions towards making anybody who reads this more vigilant within our communities. We tend to trust most people because that's human nature to think the best of those who inhabit our lives. Especially those who present themselves as affable, likable, and make a good impression. People who are in contact with children, or authority figures are automatically now not beyond my old default belief system that didn't need my discernment. After reading this difficult, but informative novel I will never be too trusting, I hope I learned that I was not as careful as I should have been, to not think everyone is honest by my naivety again. I hope that I gained a great deal of a healthy, but painful jolt of a wake up call that taught me that I was too trusting operating with the mindset that because I am honest, believing everyone else is, unless their were glaring red flags.. I will never be as grateful for the good fortune that while my children were growing up, that they safely made it to young adults without dealing with anything like what these innocent children were exposed to in this novel. Yet, I am aware that they deserve the credit for their level headed choices for I was way too trusting, and if I had to do it over again, that I would be much stricter after reading this. I know that I allowed my youngest son to spend the night at his best friend's home which I knew the mother quite well, but if I had it to do over I would not allow how frequent he spent nights away from home for various reasons which I'm not going to get into other than I regret it, but not for anything that has to do with the content of this book. We had complete confidence in his best friends parents, and we grew close to the parents ourselves, and he is very well adjusted. I did have a great deal of mixed feelings that do not pertain to this content that I by chance caught onto that for other reasons saw red flags that I considered as potential threats, and this was with a different friend of his that my instincts I now realize were right. I realize I was angry that two parents could be so irresponsible that I didn't allow the friendship, but wouldn't stand my ground because it felt wrong to tell him he couldn't be friends with this boy. I think I'm sharing this to say how lucky we are that nothing bad happened, but now I would not be so foolish. . Very seldom was I to worry about the kind of thing that takes place in this novel, and I never thought their teachers were a potential threat which we were fortunate were great mentors. In fact, I thought this type of thing happened with strangers, but if this novel shows anything is how many people were fooled by this Middle School teacher who abused that trust. I always felt school was safe, and I think the spirit in which this was written was to be helpful, and informative which I thought was done as tasteful as possible. It's not an easy read, but if you read it with an idea of it being meant to make us all more aware, then as hard as it is you will realize that it has insight. How does it occur? I don't know anybody that has experienced it? It's very upsetting to think about, and I was sure this book broke my heart at how real it feels throughout the novel, but I hope that now that I might be more aware of how to spot how it transpires because it has been enough of an eye opener that I choose to not revisit. I felt some also called this repetitive which it was but not in a significant way since for most of this was justified by her impeccable character development. The repetitiveness was present, but in a positive way which I thought she definitely achieved her five stars or more like one-hundred stars for her very erudite style of justification of making the numerous characters so intimately nuanced that I felt like she truly made each one so real, which sounds banal or trite. Which leads me to clarify that this was superbly written, and as disturbing as it is, it's educational, to the point that I couldn't wait to pick this up again every time I had to reluctantly stop reading. I happen to think that it technically was repetitive but that was her intent, and used to her brilliant advantage, since there were parts that truly got under my skin. I felt for the most part which considering the subject matter she presented it in a way where she had intoxicated me like the puppet master who she attributes to Francis Harlan Fox to not alienate me, or most readers who enjoy literary, character driven prose, until the exact moment she purposely shifted my emotions to feel how horrified I felt. I can't emphasize enough how I knew that precise point that she had purposefully had not only total command over the language, but had that same spellbinding jolt where I was horrified by the realization how much irreversibly life traumatizing damage these poor young twelve, and thirteen year old's would be suffering for the rest of their lives. I felt so many overwhelming, powerful, negative emotions that I thought that I would never recover. I had felt that I was so depressed that I knew was attributed to the profound impact of Joyce Carol Oates, whose prose shifted exactly when her hypnotic spell intended it to horrify me the most, and I knew it was done on purpose when it happened. This sounds irrational, but she meant for me to know that she knew I would realize she knew precisely how much she could overpower me with words. I knew I was in for the most horrific challenge that took all my strength to continue. I was so affected I just thought I wouldn't recover. I have to admit that she's highly intelligent enough to earn nothing less than the full five stars rounded up from my 4.5 star rating. That's the reason for the page count which I defend her reasons for it being longer and her repetition was precise to have outfoxed me into such discomfort that I felt like I couldn't wait to be done with this novel. I felt at the time that I wished that I never read it. I did guess who was the murderer which was why I initially went to rate this at 4.5 stars, and that was my opinion. I was so upset that I was as now I reiterate that I felt sorry I read this, and it took all my energy to know that I had to endure so much emotional heaviness. It felt like I shouldn't have read this, and said never again will I put myself through so much darkness. I finished it finally so relieved, but it sent me to feel so disturbed that seriously I needed to eat an early dinner and cut my night short. I honestly knew that an early night to which I felt I couldn't wait to finish it fast enough since it affected me for other reasons, but I did recover and am happy that I read it slowly. I felt it was too long of a reading experience to feel so horrible, but I have gained an understanding that those affected would be deeply altered forever. I wrote a very different review than what I had planned since I still remember how surreal and hopelessly it would be as I felt that if not for the intense writing I would feel how extremely insidious this inhabited my being to my soul. I woke up the next day with a different outlook to not want a reread, but I asked myself to remember the positive takeaways since I knew that for me to be so disturbed, that was because of the repetition to the point of how well sketched the depth of characters were. It's not gratuitous, or sensationalized, but left for each reader's imagination. I know that can be worse for some readers. I owe it to stellar writing. I think that Joyce Carol Oates is every bit deserving of her stature with her talent that distinguishes her award winning position as one of the best writers which this novel was life changing for me. This latest novel, "FOX," only has reinforced in me that she has earned not enough prestige for her spectacular achievements which this newest novel is a reflection of her BRILLIANCE, and WIDE RANGING SCOPE that has left me with an increased amount of empathy for all victims who have been representative of her characters depicted in this admirable achievement. That said, I wish to leave those to be aware that this was as tastefully written as possible, but can be a very disturbing reading experience for those with children, especially those with young children. I believe that JOYCE CAROL OATES has the purest intentions towards the Humanity of those who read this that displays how far reaching those who charm us with charisma, can fit in, and how to take care by awareness that I believe the mission is how wide ranging this crime ripples throughout communities.

Publication Date: June 17, 2025! AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE NOW! AN UNFORGETTABLE FLAWLESSLY WRITTEN NOVEL THAT I'M HOPING WILL BE REACH AS WIDE OF AN AUDIENCE THAT IT DESERVES! A GREAT BOOK CLUB CHOICE!

Thank you to Net Galley, Joyce Carol Oates, and Random House Publishing Group-Random House-Hogarth for generously providing me with my ARC, in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own, as always.

#Fox #JoyceCarolOates #RandomHousePublishingGroupRandomHouseHogarth #NetGalley

Quite a deep dive into the psyche of a pedophile that reveals the ugly reasoning behind his actions. But not just the perpetrator is targeted by JCO’s insightful prose, the young victims, the school staff, the town’s residents, and even the investigating detectives have their beliefs and reactions probed in a search for truth.

As I’ve come to expect from JCO, the writing is flawless in its descriptions and pacing holds the reader’s attention. Since the second half of this novel concerns the investigation into the murder, it is very interesting to note the myriad reactions that people have to talking to the police and to the crime itself. Also this has the most unique ending I’ve ever seen!

Thanks to NetGalley and Hogarth Press for the ARC to read and review.

Fox by Joyce Carol Oates is another amazing suspenseful story.
I was pulled by the cover and interesting description.
A well written suspense filled with twists that kept me hooked from the very beginning.
An intriguing story with characters who draw you in and keeps you flipping the pages.

🥳Happy Pub Day 🥳

This book is just wow ... A real mindf#¢k . 🤯
Very dark but also very REAL .
I mean I'm having trouble putting into words a review. I hated it .. I loved it ... It disgusted me . There were times I had to put this book down because it was just too real .. too descriptive.. too sad.. too uncomfortable. BUT a book that makes u feel all of these feelings & gets you thinking must be doing something right . Isn't that what a great book is supposed to do ?

Idk that this will be one of my favorite books this year but it will definitely stand out & I won't forget it .
I do think this book was too long at 672 pages & very wordy but the way Joyce Carol Oates weaves this story & links all the characters is incredible. 👏

This is my first read by this author but now I want to read EVERYTHING she has written. This lady has a true talent for writing . 🖤

Thank you #NetGalley for another on point eArc

The prolific Joyce Carol Oates returns with the tale of a charismatic eighth grade English teacher at the tony Langhorne Academy who has beguiled his students, their parents, and the faculty, and has acquired a loyal coterie of adult women friends, several of whom naively envision a future as Mrs. Fox. The Langhorne Academy is a selective prep school whose graduates are accepted into the Ivy League and other high profile universities. But, from the opening paragraphs, we know that things are not so idyllic in South Jersey where the Langhorne Academy is located.

On October 30, 2013, Paige Cady is treking through the Wieland wetlands at dawn with her high energy rescue hound, Princess Di, when the dog ignores the commands of her human and presents Cady (whom we later learn is the Headmistress at Langhorne) with what a squeamish Cady concludes is a deer tongue. The following day, Martin Pfenning, recently separated from his wife, is walking with his thirteen-year-old daughter Eunice, a nervous, sensitive student at Langhorne with health issues, who is frightened by objects tangled in the rushes near Wieland Pond. Her father dutifully investigates but finds only trash, a styrofoam food container and a doll’s head. That same day, the Healy brothers, Marcus and Demetrius, whose father is the custodian at Langhorne, are dumping debris at the local landfill, when Demetrius shows Marcus a high end white car upended into the shallow water of a ravine adjacent to Wieland Pond and a badly mangled human arm, a naked male torso, and a human head. The car is registered to Francis Fox, but the body is too damaged for a speedy identification.

Oates has set up a scintillating mystery, but she has also penned a chilling tale about a pedophile. Fox, under his former name of Frank Farrell, had been accused of statutory rape and sexual assault of a minor, a seventh grader who committed suicide. Fox is able to continue to abuse his students — a seventh grader hospitalized after cutting her arms severely, an eighth grader who disappeared and is assumed to have runaway — through the victim-blaming tactics of his shrewd attorney who insures that Fox receives his full salary, a nondisclosure agreement forbidding the school that terminated him from speaking of him in any way detrimental to his reputation, and letters of recommendation that Fox can pre-approve.

After being dismissed from four schools in nine years, Fox’s reputation in the small world of prestige private schools is faltering, and he recognizes that although the Langhorne Academy is a place of exile, he will need to call it home. But he cannot escape his desire for prepubescent girls, preferably those without fathers and those who are day students. As the story begins, Mr. Fox is sexually assaulting Langhorne student, Genevieve, whom he refers to as “Little Kitten,” and has given her a lemon meringue tart laced with Ativan to make her more compliant. Complaint Little Kitten sends Mr. Fox “secret” pictures of her naked body, and is distressed when he fails to show up at school.

This story might be dismissed as merely shocking, but Oates’ capable command of the language and tactics of a pedophile, coupled with the astonishing naïveté of those around Fox, keeps the chilling mystery propulsive. Oates even throws in some references to the best known pedophile in literature — Humbert Humbert. Fox declares to his librarian girlfriend that “Lolita” is pornography. “A man of, is it forty, forcing sex in a girl of eleven, disgusting!” His agitation is so disturbing that the chaste librarian assumes that Fox may have been a victim of sexual abuse himself, a conclusion that he reinforces to explain their chaste relationship. This is Oates at her best. Thank you Hogarth and Net Galley for an advance copy of this dark, but addictive, mystery.

I try to read everything Joyce Carol Oates writes. She is a current day literary treasure, IMO. I absolutely couldn't put this book down. However, as many readers have noted, it guts you to the core. You have to steel yourself against what's happening much of the book. Yet, I loved the story, they way JCO built suspense and mystery, and even had some likable characters mixed in with the naive, confused, uneducated, and wishful thinking characters that littered the story. I loved the 700 page length as you can really sink your teeth into it. The book may not be for everyone, but it certainly was for me.

Others have told about the plot, but it took place at a private boarding school in the NE and the sparsely populated region added to the mystery of it all. Mr. Fox is a new teacher who let's say has some REALLY BAD HABITS that affect some of his students in an extreme way. Yet his charisma has people just wanting to be in his presence and makes it hard to believe that he would do anything wrong

Thanks to Netbooks and Random House Publishing Group for this ARC!