9. Take Me, Take Me With You by Lauren Kelly

Lauren Kelly is the pseudonym of Joyce Carol Oates and this suspense novel involves murder, insanity, obsession, and ultimately incest. Lara Quade is a quiet, lonely research assistant at the Institute for Semiotics, Aesthetics, and Cultural Research at Princeton University. While a child in Lake Shaheen, New York, Lara (then known as Lorraine) and her brother, Ryan, were placed in a car by their mother, Hedy Quade, and driven into an oncoming freight train. Lara is left mentally and physically damaged and retreats into a life of solitude. She is therefore surprised when she receives an anonymous, free ticket to a classical music concert. While there, she finds herself seated next to Zedrick Dewe, who claims he also received a free ticket. Even though she senses danger, Lara invites the burly Zedrick back to her apartment with the night ending in violence. Who is Zedrick, and why is Lara at times repelled by his violence towards her, and at other times dangerously attracted to him?

This novel is set in 1993, yet also flashes back to Lake Shaheen during 1970 and 1971, when Lara’s childhood spirals out of control. During this time, her mother cannot handle the fact that her husband left the family and turns to alcohol. When the woman Duncan Quade was living with is found murdered, he ends up in Attica, where he is stabbed to death by another prison on the day Hedy attempts to kill their children in the train/car crash. But did Duncan really kill his lover, and where is their son that survived the attack? Readers slowly see where this story is headed, and yet the excellent writing and strangeness of the story draws readers in. This is definitely written like an Oates novel, especially when the novel focuses on the Western New York setting. While very dark, I enjoyed this strange tale.