This was a solid collection from Joyce Carol Oates, with a couple of standouts for me. My favourites were 'Miss Golden Dreams 1949' and 'Parole Hearing', both of which I thought were excellent. The other stories were all unsettling in some way, but none of them had the same impact for me, although I did think that the title story was really compelling. Overall, a good but not great collection.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and Highbridge Audio for this advance listener copy in exchange for my honest review.

I didn't like this book. Correction, I liked one story in this book until the story ended. I didn't like the ending. I enjoyed the beginning of the first story about the woman who got lost and ended up entrapped. The ending of that story fell flat for me. None of the other stories piqued my interest in any way. I thought I would enjoy the story about the cloned pinup model, but I couldn't even get into it enough to focus on it. I thought I would be listening to something akin to the Twilight Zone or Black Mirror from Netflix, but it wasn't anything like that. The stories were not thrilling or thought provoking to me.

Full disclosure, as I've gotten older I've realized that I don't enjoy short stories or novellas that much. They are too short and there's no room to develop characters. This collection fell right into that category. People who enjoy short stories will likely enjoy this book. The writing is not bad at all. Joyce Carol Oates is a good writer, I just didn't enjoy this book.

The audio was good, however. I enjoyed that the different stories were narrated by different people. It helped me keep the story straight since there didn't seem to be clear breaks between stories. Two stars.

I’m not usually one for short stories but i thought it would be fun to check it out. These were haunting and dark and a fun collection. I did enjoy most of them and it was nice to go through and pause and have a quick story to dive into. Such a great collection.

I have been getting into short stories lately and this one about suspense and thrills was fun and entertaining. Not all the stories were hits but I enjoyed this one

This book was interesting but not what I anticipated. It couldn’t keep my attention and I just want my horrors to grab me more.

4 stars

A striking collection of thought provoking stories, several inspired by real life events and figures. Dark, sad, & eerie. Acerbic & unflinching.

[What I liked:]

•These stories have nuanced and flawed characters. They present themselves a certain way at the start of a story, perhaps, then gradually undermine that view by slips of the tongue, behaviors, or reactions. It gives depth to characters when there’s only a short space in which to develop them.

•Several of these stories have a great build up of dread. You can see the end coming, & it’s going to be awful, & you can’t look away. It’s hard to do in short fiction, but Oates does it so well, particularly in “Intimacy” and “Wanting”.

•There is some timely social commentary on a range of subjects, including racism, sexual objectification of women, mental illness, gun violence, substance abuse, and more.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•The tone of some of the stories is a bit OOT for my tastes, such as in “Miss Golden Dreams 1949”. That story is effective in getting across what it wants to say, but I preferred the more subtle stories.

CW: sexual abuse/assault, physical violence, substance abuse, murder, torture, child sexual abuse, PTSD/mental illness, racism

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

This is the first book I’ve read by Catriona Ward and what intrigued me about this book is that Stephen King endorsed it.....What?!? When your go-to king of horror/suspense recommends a book saying it is a nerve-shredder; you MUST read it!!

It is difficult to discuss too much of the book without spoilers and I wouldn’t want to ruin this book or anybody. I will say that this is an edge-of-your-seat, chilling psychological thriller that has very well constructed characters that you will enjoy, beautifully written descriptions bring the setting to life and layers and layers of twists and turns to keep you guessing until the very end. You will find yourself at times, holding your breath or saying what the hell did I just read!!

Christopher Ragland is a phenomenal narrator and does a remarkable job of voicing many different characters with ease and make my listening experience so very enjoyable!

I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is a Stephen King, Alex North or Joe Hill fan! I think the audiobook really helps create the atmosphere and is a great way to read this one!

Have I outgrown Joyce Carol Oates? She was a favorite of mine during my teen years and early 20s. I've never listened to short stories on audio, so that may be part of the problem. I found the endings of the stories a bit abrupt and the collection overall seemed to lack cohesiveness. It is just as dark as promised and should include trigger warnings for rape, among other things.

Up until the final story, I really enjoyed this collection and it was actually one of the best I have read recently. Every story was the perfect length. None were too short, leaving out important details, yet none, except for the last one I felt, were too long. The final story is the only one out of the collection that seemed to drag a bit and almost did not make as much of a point or statement as the other stories.

"Night Neon" was overall a wonderful, but a hard, read. The stories are for sure dark and sometimes even cringeworthy, reminding me even of the very little noir books I’ve read in some cases. At the same time, the stories were rich with suspenseful prose and structure as well as exploration of thought. This series of short stories explores really difficult themes (please check content warnings beforehand if you can - I did not and I wish I did) so I had to pace out my listening of the audiobook and it took me longer than usual to finish the audiobook.

I chose to request this title because I enjoy mysteries, but I felt as though most of the stories were in the realm of suspense or psychological thrillers for my personal definition of the genres (possibly because of the inconclusive nature of some of the stories). I guess what I just described is still a mystery, but not the "mystery" I frequently read. One of the things I really enjoy about any collection of short stories is that some stories will stand out above the rest. Oftentimes with audiobooks of short story compilations, I find that it can be very easy for me to lose focus with what I am listening to if a specific story does not quite capture my attention - early. For myself, the stand outs that captured my attention quickly from beginning to end were: “Detour,” “Vaping: A User’s Manual,” and “Miss Golden Dreams 1949.”

Thank you to HighBridge Audio and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to and review the audiobook version of this title.

Thank you to @netgalley @highbridgeaudio for the ALC in return for my honest review.
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My thoughts…
Disturbingly good! It’s been a long time since I’ve read a JCO’s book. So, I thought a short story collection would be a way to get back into her books. So, I did not expect what I heard in this audiobook. The audiobook was good enough but the stories themselves were bizarre, dark, and bleak. You’ll be glad these were only short stories, because they could mess with your mind and painted the worst in people. Each of the stories were internal monologues that delved into the human psyche - the dark side - like the cloned Marilyn Monroe or the 70 year old woman who was once a Manson follower. If you like dark and twisted stories, you might like this one.

I’m a fan of Joyce Carol Oates' writing and “tales of mystery and suspense” sounded like the perfect way to ease myself into fall reading so I was intrigued by this collection of short stories.

First word of warning, these are not tales of mystery and suspense in the ways those terms are usually applied to fiction. They’re more tales of unease that force you to think about the most horrifying parts of humanity like aging, mass violence, men, and self destructive tendencies.

Like any collection of stories, not all of them worked for me, but the ones that did - namely :Miss Golden Dreams 1949,” “Parole Hearing…” and the titular story “Night, Neon” really, really worked.

Joyce Carol Oates is an old friend; or at least feels that way, because I have reached for her books frequently throughout my adulthood. NIGHT, NEON is my first JCO on audio, and this collection of short stories is perfectly suited for this format. The stories themselves are overall thought-provoking. They cover the universe of "suspense," not overtly scary or shocking, but eerie, like a slow-moving unknown hand reaching toward you in the dark. DETOUR, WANTING, and PAROLE HEARING speak to the inner thoughts of women seeking something, grasping for it, but dangers insert themselves as interruption. VAPING was almost too real; cringe worthy, but will stick in my mind for awhile. As with most short story collections, some were stronger than others, but as that is to be expected, I would give this 3.5 to 4 stars. Thank you to HighBridge Audio and NetGalley for this audio for review! #netgalley #audioreview #NIGHTNEON

Thank you NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for this advanced audio book!

Night, Neon was a fun, quick listen. I received the audio book and I personally thought it was great.
The narrator was crisp and easy to listen to.
The character depth was amazing! I loved how strong these characters were.
This was one of those books that sucked me in from the beginning and didn’t let go until I finished! I thought it was well written, with absolutely flawlessly done characters, and absolutely unputdownable. It had so many fun twists & turns. The storyline was brilliant and fascinating you won't want to miss this novel!

Thank you again for the opportunity to read and review this novel!

I received this book in Audio format. It is basically multiple different stories into one book, all completely different plot lines & characters.

Well, I got through 3 different stories & thought to myself “why am I wasting my time with this?”. The stories are uneventful, a bit odd, and offer no satisfying conclusion.

The first story, was probably the most tolerable one I listened to. It had the capability to be SO GOOD. It started out eerie and addicting. However, when the story it ended it left you feeling “ok? So? What happened?”. Sometimes, unsatisfying endings are ok and it works. This is not one of those times.

The second story was absolutely pointless and boring. Again, a conclusion that was unsatisfying and left you feeling like… ok??

The third was just flat out weird and actually caused me to no longer want to continue to waste my time listening. Maybe the following stories get better after the third, but I chose to move on as they are not my cup of tea.

The 2 stars are for the potential the first story had. I would maybe recommend this book to pass time, but not for entertainment purposes.

CW: sexual assault, rape, and general violence. Quite a bit of the first two.

This is an odd novel of short stories but one that I think is on par for the other Joyce Carol Oates collections I've read. JCO has an uncanny ability to get in people's heads and creative narratives that I'm not expecting and never know where they are going. This is again true for Night, Neon. The stories I enjoyed I thought were phenomenal. But there were a few that were misses for me and brought my rating down a little. I'll cover the ones I enjoyed.

-Detour: This is my favorite of the collection, probably one of my favorite JCO stories of all time. It is very akin to "The Yellow Wallpaper" but updated for a new time. Spectacular.

-Miss Golden Dreams 1949: Another JCO story on Marilyn Monroe, but this one is much different than Blonde. At an indeterminate time in the future (or...maybe now? who knows that rich people are spending their money on), an uncannily lifelike robot of Norma Jean Baker has been created and to be auctioned off to the highest bitter. The text erotic and dark, narrated by the robot herself. It is a stark deviation from the rest of the stories but by far (in my opinion) the most successful. Again, just superb.

-Parole Hearing, California Institution for Women, Chino, CA: Easy to follow even if you're not very familiar with the Manson family. It started at one place and just kept getting darker. Great insight into a dark mind.

I enjoyed the other six in varying degrees. I don't think there's a bad story here, some of them just weren't my cup of tea. It is unsurprising that my three favorites center around female narratives. Those are what I feel JCO does best. The audiobook narrators also did a wonderful job. I think this is a strong addition to Joyce Carol Oates' bibliography.

**I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher!

This book of short stories just wasn't for me. This is my first experience with this author, and I'm wondering if I may be missing something here. I'm not the biggest fan of short stories, so I don't want to go too negative on my review. I did enjoy a few of the stories, but i can't say they will be memorable for me. The author is extremely descriptive of the appearances of her characters, and I found that to be a bit overdone. I would recommend this book to fans of short stories and fans of this author.

If you’ve read Oates before you may think you know what to expect but what she’s done in these short stories is remind us to be wary, on guard, and never look at the world as it’s presented to us. With simple but subtle premises, each story is a dark reminder of what lurks in the in-between spaces of decisions we make, places we go, things we think. Oates’ style is on display here, her writing is always lovely but the way she is able to use just the exact words or phrases shine in her short stories. I loved the ideas and though often bleak, I would recommend this collection, especially the audio. Just don’t read them before going to bed.

Detour- 4/5
Curious-4/5
Miss Golden Dreams 1949- 3/5
Wanting- 3/5
Parole Hearing- 4/5
Intimacy- 3.5/5
The Flagellant- 3/5
Vaping: A User's Manual- 3/5
Night, Neon- 3.5/5

Overall Rating: 3.5
All the stories were well-written, but I didn't care for all of the plots.

Joyce Carol Oats has such a style. Sometimes they are that slow, Gothic and require time and investment. In these short stories she doesn't have that luxury, but the stories not only flow within themselves but between themselves. The first story was a strong start with a character you don't want to identify with, but I found I occasionally did so. What does that say of me? So many things. Nothing. "The Parole Hearing" hit a little close, too, having visited that prison as a college psychology major. I could feel how those walls felt. I had a weird fascination with "Vaping". These stories had suspense and they just seemed to run parallel to reality rather than in it.