Evil Eye — Joyce Carol Oates

Few authors are able to create an atmosphere of unease and terror as well as Oates, and the four novellas in this collection prove the point. In the title story, “Evil Eye,” a young woman has recently become the fourth wife of a man who is demanding. When his first wife comes to stay with them, she warns her that he is insane, and that she must protect herself.

A fateful meeting in a library leads to a boy's obsessive interest in a teenage girl in “So Near Any Time Always,” which originally appeared in the renowned mystery journal Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. In “The Flat-Bed,” which was written specifically for this volume and is in print for the first time, a beautiful young woman, for reasons she cannot comprehend or explain, struggles with frigidity. The act that finally releases her will shock readers.

All the novellas in this collection feature love that is somewhat askew, just off center and, ultimately, horrifying.