Novelist, poet, playwright, and author of many of the best American short stories of our time, Joyce Carol Oates shows another aspect of her endless creative potential. Possessed is a collection of sixteen short stories that range in genre from classic ghost stories to psychological suspense. , and rise to the level of complex, multi-layered, truly frightening literature. The stories in this collection immerse the reader in a world of nightmares, where violence creeps up unexpectedly, where reality turns into a distorting mirror, and where American culture goes awry in the most shocking and provocative ways. Joyce Carol Oates's writing skillfully combines rich plots with deep psychological insights that make her fictional horrors a worthy successor to the stories of Edgar Allan Poe and all the other luminaries of the genre.