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Give Me Your Heart: Tales of Mystery and Suspense Audiobook
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(3.07) - 305 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
The need for love—obsessive, self-destructive, unpredictable—takes us to forbidden places, as in the chilling world of Give Me Your Heart, a new collection of stories by the inimitable Joyce Carol Oates.
In the suspenseful "Strip Poker," a reckless adolescent girl must find a way of turning the tables on a gathering of increasingly threatening young men—can she "outplay" them?
In "Smother!" a young woman's nightmare memory of childhood brings trouble on her professor mother—which of them will win?
In "Split/Brain" a woman who has blundered into a lethal situation confronts the possibility of saving herself—will she take it?
In "The First Husband," a jealous man discovers that his wife seems to have lied about her first marriage, and exacts a cruel revenge, years after the fact.
In ten razor-sharp stories, National Book Award winner Oates shows that the most deadly mysteries often begin at home. Narrated by Angela Brazil, Susan Boyce, Stephen R. Thorne, Rachael Warren, Parker Leventer, Fred Sullivan, Emily Woo Zeller, Matt Clevy, and Mauro Hantman.
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"I am a huge Joyce Carol Oates fan, so I would recommend any of her books. I love her short stories especially, and this collection is as well written as they come. Oates has a gift for the strange - these stories make you uncomfortable but pull you in with such power that you cannot stop reading."
— Kim (4 out of 5 stars)
Give Me Your Heart Listener Reviews
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" If I could give this 3.5 starts I would., but it doesn't quite make it to four stars. I really enjoyed the short stories in this collection - a little dark, all surprising, and with a touch of suspense/mystery. A nice variation from what I have previously read by JCO. "
— Bikki, 2/18/2014 -
" For anyone fed up with love stories ending in a happily ever after. Some stories i liked better than others but i can't be bothered to review each separately so 4 stars for being overall fantstic but with too much swearing. "
— Meghan, 1/20/2014 -
" A strange and dark set of stories. Some better than others, all somewhat ambiguous. "
— Verena, 1/14/2014 -
" Joyce Carol Oates has always been a sort of secular Flannery O'Connor. In this collection of stories, she continues in the same way, with tensions easily prompted within threats of death and danger. Still, both Oates and O'Connor are two who can pull that off convincingly, most of the time because both are master psychologists. The stories here vary in strength. The opening story "Give Me Your Heart" seemed too forced and artificial. But "Strip Poker," "Bleed," and "Vena Cava" showed some amazing literary psychology, the style Oates is known for. As an aside, "Strip Poker" seemed to be offer an ultimately fun, alternative answer to Oates' most anthologized and haunting story "Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?" "
— doug, 1/10/2014 -
" This was Joyce Carol Oates at her most dark, twisted, effed up best. Really chilling human behavoir and relationships. "
— Katie, 1/7/2014 -
" Love these short stories ... they take you down a long exotic road and leave you ! "
— Jennifer, 1/2/2014 -
" Unreliable narrators abound in these often creepy, uncomfortable stories. Masterful story-telling. "
— Helen, 12/31/2013 -
" Joyce Carol Oates just keeps getting better. A true master of the short story, regardless the genre. "
— Jason, 12/2/2013 -
" Strange. Intruiging.Experimental. "
— Rosa, 11/28/2013 -
" Torture to read. "
— Brenda, 11/19/2013 -
" Always loved the short story format where everything is compact and dense and needs close reading. This collection looks at all the different ways in which violence simmers below the surface of our most close and personal relationships... "
— Sivananthi, 11/9/2013 -
" First one of Oates' books I've read and I'm already a fan. Her stories are so vivid and compelling that I'll be moving onto the longer fiction next. "
— Wendy, 11/24/2012 -
" her best work "
— Virginia, 11/1/2012 -
" Oof- still constantly thinking of Strip Poker, The Spill, and Vena Cava weeks later. "
— Mady, 8/25/2012 -
" This is a collection of suspenseful and often disturbing short stories. They left me feeling uneasy and a bit off-balance, but that's what they were designed to do. I recommend balancing these stories out with some lighter reading. "
— Dawn, 6/19/2012 -
" Dark, haunting tales (beautifully written) about the monsters that sometimes lurk inside the people you think you know the best. These stories stayed with me long after I finished reading them.... "
— Midnight, 10/20/2011 -
" A little disappointing...........I enjoyed some of the stories but most were just too "out there", even for me - a big fan of the dark and twisty! "
— Joanne, 6/15/2011 -
" Loved these short stories--beautifully sensory writing and interesting plot developments. Really enjoyed the fact many stories have a working class background. "
— Shelley, 5/11/2011 -
" My introduction to Joyce Carol Oates. I am loving it. "
— Imen, 3/3/2011 -
" Unrelentingly grim and bloody--and expert, of course. "
— eb, 2/21/2011 -
" Joyce Carol Oates is a talented writer and this collection of stories did not disappoint. I normally don't like short stories, but these were very well-written, and each was better than the last. "
— Juliegsorensen, 1/19/2011 -
" I've read a lot of JCO and this was definitely my least favorite of all of her works. Give Me Your Heart is a collection of short stories, that all start out with a bang-like racing horses after the trigger is pulled-- but sadly seem to stop mid story with no creditable ending. "
— Renee, 12/30/2010
About Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates, an award-winning author of fiction, nonfiction, short stories, plays, and novellas, is the author of some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including two New York Times bestsellers. Her books have won the National Book Award, O. Henry Award, the Jerusalem Prize, and the National Humanities Medal, among others. Her work has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize several times. She has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.
About the Narrators
Tavia Gilbert is an acclaimed narrator of more than four hundred full-cast and multivoice audiobooks for virtually every publisher in the industry. Named the 2018 Voice of Choice by Booklist magazine, she is also winner of the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. She has earned numerous Earphones Awards, a Voice Arts Award, and a Listen-Up Award. Audible.com has named her a Genre-Defining Narrator: Master of Memoir. In addition to voice acting, she is an accomplished producer, singer, and theater actor. She is also a producer, singer, photographer, and a writer, as well as the cofounder of a feminist publishing company, Animal Mineral.
Angela Brazil is an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator and a professional actor who is proud to be a long-standing member of the Resident Acting Company at Trinity Repertory Company. She also teaches at the Brown/Trinity Conservatory.
Susan Boyce is the award-winning narrator of over 140 audiobooks. She performs in variety theater, is one half of the song-and-dance team of Jones & Boyce, and holds a degree in theater and biology. She can be heard in phone trees, in computer games, and as the voice of the pink “Care Bear.” She lives in St. Augustine, Florida, and summers in Greenville, Maine.
Stephen R. Thorne, winner of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards for narration, is a professional actor and member of the resident acting company at Providence’s esteemed Trinity Repertory Company, where he has played Hamlet, Henry V, and Tom Joad.
Rachael Warren, an audiobook narrator and actress, is a member of the resident acting company at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island, where she has played such roles as Eliza Doolittle, Sally Bowles, Ophelia, and Portia, as well as originating roles in world premieres by artists such as Paula Vogel and Charles Strouse. Her work has also been seen across the United States at regional theaters and on several national tours.
Parker Leventer is an actress and voice-over artist. She has worked at the Lark and the Working Theater in New York, as well as regionally at Trinity Repertory Company, California Shakespeare Theatre, and Magic Theatre. She has an MFA in acting from Brown University/Trinity Repertory in Providence, Rhode Island.
Fred Sullivan is an actor and an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator. He has played over one hundred roles as an award-winning resident actor at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island. He is resident director at Gamm Theatre and teaches acting at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Emily Woo Zeller is an artist, actor, dancer, choreographer, and voice artist who has won Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration in 2018. She began her voice-over career by voicing animation in Asia. AudioFile magazine named her one of the Best Voices of 2013 for her work in Gulp. Other awards include the 2009 Tristen Award for Best Actress as Sally Bowles in Cabaret and the 2006 Roselyn E. Schneider Prize for Creative Achievement.
Mauro Hantman has been a resident actor at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island, where he has appeared in over fifty productions since 1999. He's the artistic director of the Providence Improv Fest and a founding member of Improv Jones, an improv troupe formed in 1992.