"Oates has written what may be the world's postmodern Gothic novel.… It's dense, challenging, problematic, horrifying, funny, prolix and full of crazy people. You should read it. I wish I could tell you more…feverishly entertaining" (Stephen King,
New York Times Book Review)
"Enthralling...it is both a commentary on the art of Gothic fiction, and a marvellously sustained piece of Gothic writing itself. We await the next novel with renewed excitement. We will not have to wait long." (Stephen Abell,
Sunday Telegraph)
"Oates is not a genre writer, but like most writers sincerely engaged in the job of telling stories, she isn't afraid of genre motifs, and
The Accursed is packed to the gills with them: ghouls, succubi, vampires, body snatchers, a plague of snakes consorting with schoolgirls, child-devouring beasts in the night... a large number of the narrative riffs are powerful and absorbing...it's clear throughout these 600-plus pages that, as always, Oates intimately knows her characters and the worlds they inhabit." (
Literary Review)