"Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque" by Joyce Carol Oates

An interesting collection of very unpleasant stories, which actually caused me to finally like Joyce Carol Oates. In the past, what I've read by her has somehow let me down. Not these stories, which contained some of the most grotesque and disgusting images I have  ever encountered in literature. There is an eerie allegorical aspect to some of the stories in this collection, which forces the reader to have to interpret exactly what's going on.