A young woman tumbles into a nightmare of decadent desire and corrupted innocence in a superb novella of suspense from National Book Award-winner Joyce Carol Oates. Art and arson, the poetry of D. H. Lawrence and pulp pornography, hero-worship and sexual debasement, totems and taboos mix and mutate into a startling, suspenseful tale of how a sunny New England college campus descends into a lurid nightmare. "A small gem.... Oates does not disappoint, nor does she waste a word."--TheWashington Post Book World Oates often takes on sensational subject matter ... yet rarely has she done so with the churningly quiet understatement of ... Beasts."--Los Angeles Times "A cunning fusion of Gothic romance and psychological horror story, and one of her best recent books."--Kirkus Reviews "Oates's new novel is a slim one, but it packs a serious punch."--Associated Press "Delicious ... Beasts is something of a jeu d'esprit noir.... The novella length is exactly right for it."--The New York Review of Books