Big Momma by Joyce Carole Oates (2016)
Tuesday’s Tale of Terror June 14, 2016
Have you met Violet? A thirteen year old who weighs just 90 pounds and is desperate for love and attention. Aren’t all teens? But Violet is especially vulnerable. In the neighborhood where she lives, children are disappearing. Gobbled up by God-knows-who would do such a thing. This frightens Violet’s mom who warns her to be extra careful but leaves her home alone with mac ‘n cheese in the fridge one too many times. One day, when walking home from school, Violet takes a ride from a friend’s dad and he brings her home to meet Big Momma.
Remember the story of Hansel and Gretel? I won’t say another word.
Joyce Carole Oates, a literary powerhouse of an American writer, 5-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, nominated for the Nobel Prize, National Book Award and Pen/Malamud Award winner, and too many more to list here has written over 100 books and over 30 collections of short stories. Few modern authors have her prolific and acclaimed reputation.
Oates believes that “Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.” Yeah, her stories go very deep and into inner worlds that leave a reader haunted.
Big Momma, part of The Doll-Master collection, is a story of evil, a subject that Oates writes about frequently. What does she really think of evil? “Evil is not always repellent but frequently attractive; that it has the power to make of us not simply victims, as nature and accident do, but active accomplices.”
Read the short story at CelestialTimepiece.com.
Other titles by Oates …
Don’t forget to view the INDEX above of more free Tales of Terror. This is a compendium of over 170 short stories by over 100 master storytellers of mystery, supernatural, horror, and ghost stories. Join me in reading one short story every other week!
Comments are welcome.
Other Reading Web Sites to Visit
Slattery’s Art of Horror Magazine
Books & Such Bibliophilica Lovecraft Ezine Parlor of Horror
HorrorAddicts.net Horror Novel Reviews HorrorSociety.com
Monster Librarian HorrorNews.net HorrorTalk.com
Rob Around Books The Story Reading Ape Blog
For Authors/Writers: The Writer Unboxed
Paula Cappa 
Now I have to read this 🙂 Thanks for pointing out all this great literature.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Had no idea she writes these kinds of stories. Like the idea of Hansel & Gretel.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, Hansel & Gretel didn’t occur to me when I read “Big Momma”!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Katherine. The fairy tale element is subtle but I couldn’t help feel the curiosity of a young person lured into another home by food and attention. Oates is such an unusual writer. Thank for your comment.
LikeLiked by 1 person