🥳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!

This is a difficult book to rate because it was a difficult book to read, but I try not to rate a book low just because I have a trigger warning with the content. I don't really have any trigger warnings. But I struggled with this one because of some of the authorial choices in depicting child abuse.

I've long been an admirer of JCO's writing and there's no question that she's a master at unflinching, visceral narratives that will provoke reactions of disgust and alarm. So I was excited to get an ARC for her latest, a literary thriller exploring the many angles of the insidiousness of child abuse and how it affects the community of a small town.

This the story of Francis Fox, an English teacher who teaches at elite private middle schools and is a pedophile, his target of choice 12- and 13- year old girls. He starts innocently enough, crossing boundaries with one of his students who has a crush on him, and his behavior snowballs from there, going so far as to make a website for his "Sleeping Beauties." He's able to escape accountability on charm alone and being a master of disguise.

At his latest school, Langhorne Academy, the abuse deepens and becomes serial, as he manipulates his students like some kind of cult leader and leaves them shells of human beings at the end. This really showed how abusers are able to get away with it for so long, by getting trusted adults on their side who swear that their close friend could never be so evil, going so far as to establish prizes and foundations in his name after his death. I used to work as a courtroom clerk and these were the hardest cases to watch because of that. The wife who grimly accompanied her husband to every court hearing and refused to believe he could have raped a child.

I almost rated this book four stars because it did a very good job of showing the far-reaching nature of abuse in a small society. Reading this made my skin crawl and it made me want to take a cold shower after I finished every section. It certainly wasn't an enjoyable reading experience. But you don't read JCO for comfort.

Where I struggled with it was this - when I was a courtroom clerk the other hardest cases were child pornography cases. The child is victimized once and yet they are traumatized over and over again as these images are disseminated among subscribers. I struggled with the author's decision to show the child's point of view as these rapes were occuring, using terms like Mr. Tongue and Mr. Teddy Bear and done in a way that was intended to arouse and also disgust for the arousal, like a modern day Lolita.

These are the kinds of scenes that people who scoff at readers who need trigger warnings applaud themselves for perservering through. I just found it cringe, uncomfortable and had no literary merit beyond the artifice of performatory shock value. No need to traumatize the reader to make your point. Some things only cops and courts of law should see. Mainly because treating it like a scene from a spicy romance novel normalizes it to a disturbing degree. It dilutes the impact of the abuse and makes it seem like moody teenage drama.

I also found this book overlong (Did it really need to be over 600 pages!), a real drag to read in parts and as a thriller it was not very twisty and was really fairly boring. The most exciting revelations happened in the last 20%.

A cast filled with unlikable characters doing disgusting things. I guess I am meant to be disgusted and examine the depravity of human nature, but I just found this a real rambling drag to push through. I feel relieved that it's over. It will definitely stay with me though, in a way that makes me cringe.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Dark, smart, and absolutely gutting. Fox is part literary thriller, part psychological horror, with a modern-day Lolita thread running through it. It opens with a wrecked car and a body, then peels back layers of a beloved teacher’s legacy at a prep school until the full horror comes into view.

Told through a chorus of voices—students, parents, detectives, even dogs. This is pure Oates: relentless, uncomfortable, and brilliantly written. If you're sensitive to content, please be aware. If you're up for it, it's one of her most disturbing and unforgettable novels yet.

TRIGGER WARNING.

Child molestation. Child pornography. Self-harm. Suicide.

This book is super hard to review. As a blanket statement, it was good. I was interested and engaged. I was fascinated by the way that human nature was portrayed in this book. However, honestly, this book was also creepy and disturbing and it really was hard to ready because the child abuse was so pervasive and climbed into my head. (though, clearly it was well-done because I was so disturbed.)

Fox was compelling. It was interesting and thought provoking. It was well-written to the point of being too much.

Advanced reader copy provided by Hogarth and NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publsihing for the eARC.

Wooof this book is lengthy. I found it hard to get through and struggled to finish it. The concept was so intriguing to me, I really wanted to know everything about Francis Fox but I needed it to be done faster.

I had to take a break from reading Fox, not because it is nearly 700 pages, but because this is PAINFUL to read. Don't get me wrong, it is so well written, Joyce Carol Oates maybe at her best. But oof, this is tough stuff and JCO does not let you look away. This is great summer reading. If there were ever a 700 page book you want try to finish in a day, Fox is that book for many reasons.

The subject matter of this story is disturbing and not in a fiction mystery way, in a gross, hard to get out of my brain way. Unfortunately it was not the story for me. I have never read a book by this author and this was not the one to start with. The opening scenes were confusing, told in a dogs point of view, then got into difficult and disturbing subject matter from there. Also, the lack of understanding as far as police procedural and basic crime laws made this a no go read for me.

Genre: Literary Dark Suspense
Publisher: Random
Pub. Date: June 17, 2025

Joyce Carol Oates infuses her first foray into the murder mystery genre, “Fox,” with her famous literary flair. Francis Fox is an admired English middle school teacher working at an elite boarding school in the fictional town of Weiland, New Jersey, in the 1970s. When he’s found dead in his car in a nature preserve, the questions that arise threaten his respectable and likeable facade. Though it’s a whodunit, the question of why someone would kill Mr. Fox is at the heart of Oates’ latest novel. The answer, in true Oates fashion, is deeply disturbing.

Tasked with investigating Mr. Fox’s death is the world-weary investigator Horace Zwender. As he uncovers stomach-turning accounts of Mr. Fox’s conduct with the female students who adore him, one doesn’t sense the exploitative sensationalism that mars so much writing about sexual abuse. What distinguishes Oates’ work is the unflinching study of the abuser’s pathology. Mr. Fox, we learn, hated “Lolita.” He would never force himself on one of his victims—he believes he is romancing them. Oates paints a painfully convincing picture of how he similarly charms those who might be in the position to stop him, like the school’s standoffish headmistress, P.C.

“Fox” is a long novel, 672 pages. Oates employs a slow-burn approach, allowing the reader to become intimately familiar with the characters and their complex relationships with Mr. Fox. The effect is immersive and unsettling. When Mr. Fox is found dead, some of his female students attempt suicide, leaving their parents stunned and distraught. To keep us guessing, there are many suspects on Detective Zwender’s list. P. C., who is naturally apprehensive, falls apart when it is her turn to be questioned. Much of Weiland seems to be on the verge of falling apart.

At 86 years, Joyce Carol Oates is as sharp as ever. This is her 58th novel, and it ends brilliantly. I wonder how she still does it. Though “Fox” can be a little slow at points, Oates’ trademark prose works in tandem with the novel’s central mystery to keep the reader hooked. With a new genre, Oates has found a new way to illuminate the darkness that keeps drawing us back.

I received this Advance Review Copy (ARC) novel from NetGalley at no cost in exchange for an honest review.

This book about a middle school English teacher at an elite private school in New Jersey who preys on his students was painful to read. Of course, the subject was incredibly disturbing, but there were other things that made this painful. Most importantly, there is no way that a local police department would be solely responsible for an investigation that involves online child pornography. Oates either needs to stop writing or she needs an editor who will edit her overwriting and bad plot points.

While I was not mentally prepared for the graphic and disturbing CSA in this novel, it will undoubtedly be one of my top books this year.

Oftentimes stories of this length can seem overkill - too drawn out, too wordy, too self-indulgent. However, that is not the case with Fox. Joyce Carol Oates is a master of her craft, and the intentionality with which she weaves together this story left me feeling like I needed every single word she provided. This is not a plot-driven novel, but a deeply rich character study into the minds of the most depraved predators in our society, as well as the many different types of victims that exist - whether directly or indirectly related to the perpetrators.

Fox is nothing short of a masterful literary mystery, and my only complaint is that I have no one to discuss it with until it is released on June 17th. This book will be highly recommended by me to my fellow readers.

TRIGGER WARNING: CSA. I wish this book had come with a trigger warning because I'm not sure I would have read it, had I know the extent and depravity and disgusting details of years of Child Sexual Assault that were depicted. It was well written and intriguing but I couldn't get over the ick and just horrible feeling of the CSA. If you can get over that part, it is an excellent book.

Fox comes out next week on June 17, 2025 and you can purchase HERE.

Nostalgia: yearning for something that never was recalled with much maudlin emotion as if it had ever been.

Francis Fox feels not the merest wisp of nostalgia for the childhood of "Frank Farrell," which he can barely remember and which he may have conflated with films and TV of the era of an equal banality and tedium. Long estranged from his thoroughly undistinguished parents, siblings. Descended from thoroughly undistinguished ancestors. Not even a modest fortune in the Farrell family, no estate to inherit even if (a sizable if) he'd have been a probable heir.

Generally, I find JCO hit or miss. For every novel I enjoy, there is one I put down. Add this to the enjoy pile! Outstanding, creepy, provocative, engrossing, disturbing and, above all, brilliantly written. This will not be for everyone as the subject matter is polarizing, but I was riveted.

Fox by Joyce Carol Oates

I’ve never read a book by this author so I don’t know how it compares to other works. While a little too wordy for me, I did appreciate the beauty in the command of language. I did find it repetitive and slow for the majority of the time. This might have been the case of it being the wrong time to read it. I imagine this one as more of a winter read for some reason - when the world is slow and I can sink into a dark tale.

Told from multiple perspectives, the story did feel very explored from all angles. It was nuanced, provocative and graphic, bringing a modern spin to Lolita, so do your research for trigger warnings before picking it up.

Readers who enjoy true literary fiction, detailed and flowery prose, and books that push boundaries will find much to enjoy here.

I wanted to love this, Joyce Carol Oates has always been brilliant, but admittedly, not all her books are for me, and Fox fell into that category. The fragmented prose made for choppy reading, and the subject matter was too far over my personal line. Grooming of a minor by a teacher, SA, just icky, disturbing stuff. Not sure why that’s the one thing I can’t handle but it is.

I recognize the talent and effort put into this, and JCO has earned her long and successful career, but Fox made me feel like I was at the waning end of her journey.

Joyce Carol Oates’s Fox is not simply a novel—it’s a slow burn psychological excavation. From the opening revelation of Mr. Fox’s death, the narrative unfurls with deliberate unease, inviting the reader not into a mystery to be solved, but into a portrait to be disassembled. The question is never just who killed Mr. Fox, but who was he—and why was he allowed to be that way for so long?

Oates employs her signature gothic realism to unsettling effect. Her prose is cold and precise, almost forensic, as she peels back the social veneers that shield male privilege and silence female suffering. The novel’s length is no accident—it mirrors the exhausting, relentless nature of trauma itself. Just as survivors are forced to revisit the same stories, the text loops and lingers, making the reader sit with its discomfort rather than offering easy resolution.

Themes of predation are central. Girls are not merely characters in Fox—they are symbols, echoes, victims, witnesses. Oates refuses to sensationalize their pain; instead, she illuminates the subtle mechanics of grooming, complicity, and denial with chilling accuracy. Mr. Fox is not a monster in the woods—he’s far more dangerous: the monster in the house, at the school, among the respected.

While the novel does risk alienating some readers with its repetitious and meandering structure, that very structure becomes part of the experience. The narrative’s slowness mirrors the cultural resistance to hearing, believing, and confronting the stories of girls. It may test your patience, but that tension is the point.

Ultimately, Fox is a disturbing, immersive meditation on complicity and silence. It’s not a comfortable read—but it’s an essential one, delivered with Oates’s trademark literary precision and psychological depth. It lingers, like all truths too long ignored.

I've read and enjoyed many novels by Oates, but this one was too dark for me. Maybe it's the times, the memories it evoked, the way so much of contemporary media is focusing on defining predators, sexual traffickers, and grooming, that I felt more weary with each page than curious.

No one writes a behemoth of a book with characters that stay with you quite like Joyce Carol Oates. Taking on a new style of story, Fox is about a charismatic teacher at an elite prep school. When his body is discovered, the truth about who he was is slowly revealed. Despite the very dark content of the book, it was compulsively readable and I found that I couldn't stop reading it once I had started. An impressive reinvention from a writer we have all known and loved for a very long time, Fox is perfect for readers of My Dark Vanessa and I Have Some Questions For You.

Thank you Netgalley & Hogarth for an eARC ♥️♥️♥️♥️

I picked up *Fox* thinking it would be another dark academia novel to casually enjoy with my morning coffee. Big mistake. Three hours later, I was still on my couch, coffee cold, completely consumed by this psychological labyrinth.
Francis Fox is the kind of character who walks into a room and suddenly the air feels heavier. He's that teacher students whisper about in the halls - the one who makes literature feel dangerous and exciting. Oates crafts him with such precision that you'll catch yourself almost liking him, right before she reminds you exactly why that's terrifying.
The discovery of the car in the pond is just the beginning of this unsettling journey. What follows is a masterclass in suspense that had me:
📌 Checking my locks at 11pm
📌Side-eyeing my own English degree
📌Texting friends "BUT WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?" in all caps
What makes this book special isn't just the mystery (though that's compelling enough), but how Oates uses it to explore power dynamics, privilege, and the stories we tell ourselves to sleep at night. The boarding school setting becomes a pressure cooker for all these tensions, and watching them explode is equally horrifying and mesmerizing.
Perfect for readers who want:
✓ A character study that doubles as a psychological thriller
✓ Prose that cuts like a scalpel
✓ That "I need to discuss this with someone immediately" feeling
Fair warning: You'll finish the last page and immediately want to flip back to the beginning to see what you missed. And you probably missed a lot - Oates plays fair but she plays smart. 🤌🏽