Joyce Carol Oates has created one of the most memorable monsters in literature. Mr Fox is charismatic, devious, exploitative and delusional. He is immensely sinister but somehow convinces women, men and children to admire him.

Essentially a novel about lack of safeguards. Mr Fox continues to work as a teacher, even though he has left schools under a cloud.

Oates handles deftly the social dynamics of a private school in a backwater, Wieland. The pace and tone changes as we hear from the school's custodian (janitor), the principal P. Cady; the two women who adore Fox; the detective Zwender and the school girls and their parents.

It's a long novel with a surprise at the end: not just the unveiling of a protagonist but a decision that prompts us to consider the nature of retribution versus justice.

So this was an experience like nothing else. The premise is relatively straightforward - a teacher at an elite school preys on some his young students. The story, however, is as much about the predator as it is about the psychology of predation affecting the victim and their surroundings, as well as the sociology of the experience and the societal effects of such behaviour and its ramifications. There are too many layers here to cover in a short review, but rest assured - this is a multi-layered and scathing critique of how we, as a society, are pre-disposed to allow such predatory behaviour to flourish, and why, in most cases, it is nigh impossible to stop and root out.

The overall experience is haunting - the writing style bringing to life the minute detail of the psychological underpinnings of the predator (and the prey) penetrate the imagination and are tough to shake off, even a few days after finishing the book. While other reviews criticised the length and the overly detailed scenes (including some almost graphic ones), I found this served the purpose of really getting the reader into the mind of the predator and the effect the predatory activity has on him (and his victims). It's not described from a distance - rather the reader is forced to actually experience it (or at least an approximation of it).

I also found the message in the book powerful and thought-provoking. There are no heroes in this book, and there are no easy solutions. There are just victims, both knowing and unknowing. Everyone is complicit, and the catharsis is anything but cathartic, in this case. It made me consider how vulnerable our children really are, and the extent to which we can't bring ourselves to really believe that the people we outsource their care to can harm them.

I found Fox, as a character, to be entirely believable. It was a terrifying hybrid of Tom Ripley and Humbert Humbert. The scary aspects of Fox are, in my mind, the psychopathy and ability to warp reality around them to fit their needs and understanding of it, a la Ripley. It's a masterpiece of characterisation.

I recommend to anyone, frankly, especially parents with children. There is something here for everyone to consider and reflect on.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Fox
By Joyce Carol Oates

Fox; a beautiful creature, enigmatic yet you can't ever trust one
To fox; to deceive, to outwit
Foxy; she's gorgeous, but beware
Silver fox; he's gorgeous, but might not be what he seems

I had a small flock of hens a few years ago, essentially pets. We evaded the fox for the longest time, until we didn't, and the bastard didn't just grab one. No, he mangled every one. And yet, we always forgive the fox because the narrative goes that he's only feeding his family, he's only acting on his natural instincts.

I have been meaning to read something by Joyce Carol Oates for a few years, so this was a natural choice, seemed like a good place to start. The message about her writing never really reached my brain until I started reading this, and talk about instant engagement. This goes very quickly to dark places, someplace I would never seek out, but believe me when I say that this is written so compellingly that I was fully aware of my emotion response, yet I couldn't look away.

This is a murder mystery and police procedural, but it's unlike almost any I've read before. Deep at the heart is the interrogation of motive as it builds layer upon layer through perception and intuitive reasoning rather than the usual hardball shifting through evidence, examining how narrative is truth viewed through so many prisms.

A deadly tale of manipulation, sleight of hand, betrayal of trust and only believing what you choose to believe.

Brilliant in every way.

Thanks to #Netgalley and #4thestatebooks for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest opinions

Joyce Carol,Oates is one of the greatest living writers, in my view. Her writing is powerful, elegant and often complex. She has amazing insight and in Fix, she tackles a difficult and emotional subject; abuse. This is a long slow burn. Partly because she carefully sets the scene and draws the reader into the complexity and dynamics if the situation. A charismatic teacher, a boarding school and opportunity for dark deeds. She captures it all perfectly and I had quite a sense of unease times as I realised the extent of the manipulative and control. We live in dark times and Oates chronicles the underbelly of society that’s in plain sight. This is thought provoking and totally engaging and delivers everything I hoped for in an Oates story. It’s a literary thriller, very skilfully crafted with multiple pov’s and a masterpiece.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a review copy.

This is a much longer book than Joyce Carol Oates usually writes. It deals with sexual abuse by a teacher. For me, it took a lot of patience and concentration to read this novel. I felt it was overally verbose which for me, diluted the narrative. Like a lot of large tome books in current vogue I felt it could have done with a stringent edit. However, I'm sure others with more free time and mental concentration than me will relish the prose. Once again Joyce Carol Oates shows us how the world is a harsh and terrible place for girls.

This is a long, slow burn of a novel and the writing is the very definition of literary which is why I devoured it but if you prefer short, sharp reads be aware this one takes commitment.

Once you do commit you'll very quickly find yourself drawn into this tale, that of a monster, who like many do, hides in plain sight.

The dynamic of characters circling this man are many and varied, a community suddenly faced full on by the horror that had been living amongst them, from victim.to investigator, from everyday community members, they all shine a dark spotlight onto the issues and it is an emotional, oft difficult but utterly compelling read.

The author pulls no punches and refuses to let the reader shy away from the trauma, like the characters you'll meet within the pages, she insists you look it right in the eye.

You'll feel a bit broken afterwards but it's worth it, because if we, as a society, continue to ignore and enable, more will be lost. A fictional tale that is as real as they come.

Highly Recommended.

Joyce Carol Oates’ new novel Fox dives deep into the unsettling world of secrets and abuse hidden behind a respected teacher’s polished façade. When Francis Fox’s car is found submerged at an elite New Jersey boarding school — and gruesome evidence surfaces — Detective Horace Zwender must untangle a web of lies, manipulation, and buried truths.

I found Fox haunting and hard to shake off. Oates peels back each layer with her trademark psychological insight, making you question every character’s motive. It’s not an easy read — the subject matter is disturbing — but it’s masterfully done and leaves you pondering complicity and morality long after you finish.

This is a long book but Joyce Carol Oates has never disappointed me so I had to read it. I love how she focuses on women and girls, and the threats they face every day, no matter how many people in power don't want to believe they're at greater risk to harm than men. I enjoyed this book and took my time to savor it. Really glad I read it and I look forward to her next offering.

Sadly DNF @ 100 pages

Sadly because I think this is objectively a very well written book. This is a true case of 'it's not you, it's me.' Fox reminds me a lot, in style, of the well received and highly acclaimed God of the Woods by Liz Moore. Both are books I wish I enjoyed because I recognise the skill of their respective authors but the writing just isn't for me. I don't have the attention span for such verbose, sprawling epics no matter how compelling the subject matter.

This was my first novel by Joyce Carol Oates and boy was it intense (in a good way),

Not only was the novel length (600+ pages) but Oates writes in such a way that you need to read it slowly to take in every ounce of detail. Even thought this took me a while to get through, it was worth every second.

In many ways, this reads to me like JCO's riposte to Nabokov's [book:Lolita|7604], a book name-checked in the text but which Mr Fox rejects. The implication is that he can't bear the mirror it holds up to his own predatory, exploitative nature as a 'charismatic' middle school teacher. But one of the things about <i>Lolita</i> is that we're in the head of Humbert Humbert and so we have to see Lo through his skin-crawlingly sexual gaze - a place I couldn't bear to be when I tried re-reading the book in the last few years. JCO takes her time but she eventually overturns that power structure of who owns the narrative. Without giving away spoilers, this extends the story we know and turns it into a different direction. But, being JCO, there's no easy 'happy' ending.

Despite - eventually - seeing what this book does, it feels overlong with the prose being more slap-dash than JCO's usual controlled precision. This feels like it needs another focused edit and has been published too early. That said, I loved the section written from the point of view of someone's dog joyously defying her human! And the denouement is structurally interesting. But JCO has spent her career writing about how harsh the world is for girls and women; in writing about power differentials and how they exploit the vulnerable - other books of hers have made the same points as this one more forcefully and elegantly, and in fewer pages. Still, we can't have too many books alerting us to the predators who operate below the radar and the systems that they exploit for cover. JCO's renewed focus on the victims and a sense of agency, however perverted, make this worth a read despite the flaws.