I ❤️ loved this book because...
When this book appeared in 2013, it was advertised as Joyce Carol Oates’s “vampire novel,” but that’s misleading. There is a vampire of sorts in it, and certainly, a curse that affects many in the story, but it’s far more than just a horror tale—this is an exhilarating historical Gothic fantasia set in the early 20th century and featuring, among others, Upton Sinclair, Jack London, and Mark Twain.
I found it so gripping and unputdownable that I skipped work to finish reading it and promptly picked up Sinclair’s novel King Coal afterward simply because I was so fascinated with his character in the book. King Coal turned out to be good, but The Accursed is extraordinary.
3 authors picked The Accursed as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
This eerie tale of psychological horror sees the real inhabitants of turn-of-the-century Princeton fall under the influence of a supernatural power. New Jersey, 1905: soon-to-be commander-in-chief Woodrow Wilson is president of Princeton University. On a nearby farm, Socialist author Upton Sinclair, enjoying the success of his novel 'The Jungle', has taken up residence with his family. This is a quiet, bookish community - elite, intellectual and indisputably privileged. But when a savage lynching in a nearby town is hushed up, a horrifying chain of events is initiated - until it becomes apparent that the families of Princeton have been beset…