About the Author

Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Book Award and the PEN / Malamud Award, and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Her books include We Were the Mulvaneys, Blonde, Carthage, A Book of American Martyrs and Hazards of Time Travel. She is Professor of Humanities at Princeton University.

Reviews

An Amazon Best Book of the Month "The painful honesty of this book will crack open your heart. Joyce Carol Oates takes us from the howling pain of lonely adolescence to the comfort and healing brought about by a friendship strong enough to transcend death." -- Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak and Chains"[A] riveting and poignant story of three teenage girls in crisis. [Oates] is a master at portraying the complex, emotional inner lives of these teens, and their contemporary adolescent voices and perceptions (and misperceptions) ring true. Intense, keenly insightful, nuanced and affecting." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"[An] excellent novel filled with haunting details." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)"A fast pastiche that is as much a triptych of pain as a reminder of resilience." -- ALA BooklistFor Big Mouth & Ugly Girl: "Oates scores with a gripping story." -- Washington Post"A thought-provoking, character-driven drama." -- Booklist (starred review)"Believable, full-blooded characters propel Oates's first YA novel. The relationship . . . grows, credibly and compellingly, against a convincing high school backdrop." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)For Freaky Green Eyes: "Oates builds the mounting tension masterfully, crafting a fast-paced narrative that will haunt readers long after the final page." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)"A gripping, beautifully written, impecabbly paced psychological thriller." -- Kirkus ReviewsFor Sexy: "Palpable and compelling." -- The Horn Book"Touching and believable. An unusually sensitive and sympathetic assessment." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's BooksFor After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away: "Oates gets the contemporary teen voice just right, and Jenna's first-person narrative moves at breakneck speed." -- ALA Booklist"Engrossing. Readers will find solace in the book's inspiring conclusion." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)