'Black Water'

I thought Joyce Carol Oates wrote romancy-dramatic books in the vein of Mary Higgins Clark or Nora Roberts.

I guess she still kinda does. I don't know. I've read one JCO book and this is it. "Black Water" reads more like a failed attempt by Mary Higgins Clark to be edgy and to seem like their not trying. I can't believe it was nominated for a Pulitzer.

Furthermore, there's really nothing here. There's no real story. You get tricked into thinking that there's character development when at the end you barely know anyone at all. If you had to write an obituary about Kelly, you really couldn't. Frankly, she seems boring and kind of a slut and probably really pretentious so you probably don't want to know about her anyway.