Cardiff, by the Sea Audiobook By Joyce Carol Oates cover art

Cardiff, by the Sea

Four Novellas of Suspense

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Cardiff, by the Sea

By: Joyce Carol Oates
Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $17.19

Buy for $17.19

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

Four brand-new novellas by the number one New York Times best-selling, National Book Award-winning "grand mistress of ghoulishness" (Publishers Weekly).

An academic in Pennsylvania discovers a terrifying trauma from her past after inheriting a house in Cardiff, Maine, from someone she has never heard of. A pubescent girl, overcome with loneliness, befriends a feral cat that becomes her protector from the increasingly aggressive males that surround her. A brilliant but shy college sophomore is distraught to discover that she's pregnant, and the professor who takes her under his wing may not have innocent intentions. And a woman who marries into a family shattered by tragedy finds herself haunted by her predecessor's voice, an inexplicably befouled well, and a compulsive attraction to a garage that took two lives.

In these psychologically daring, chillingly suspenseful pieces, the author of We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde writes about women facing threats past and present, once again cementing her reputation for "great intelligence and dead-on imaginative powers" (Los Angeles Times Book Review).

©2020 The Ontario Review (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Fiction Psychological Short Stories Suspense Exciting
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Cardiff, by the Sea

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    8
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

An okay collection…

The stories in this collection were okay, somewhat engaging and definitely listenable. A good choice if you don’t have time for a full length novel, and can only listen in short bursts. I don’t think Joyce Carol Oates is one of my favorite authors, but I do like this genre, so I would try more of her writing. Not bad, but just doesn’t totally grab me! I can’t decide about the narration: it was somewhat robotic and monotone, but appropriately serious for this type of (horror) content.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

All very moving and haunting

Excellent and very emotional tales. I highly recommend this set of works that reveal their inner turmoil.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Just ok

These 4 novellas were fine. I definitely struggled to finish this, though. I found each story somewhat repetitive, and all 4 of the main characters were very similar.

I also did not enjoy the narrator. The voices she used for male characters were all the same and sounded silly. Her narration was ok, but was overdone.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

It was okay.

The first novella needed some serious volume control, when I listened to it I would have to constant turn the volume up and down bc the hush tones but also raised voices would be too loud in my ears. I understand they’re short stories but I felt like so many unfinished parts could’ve had a few more things to tie it together. Kind of felt pointless to read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent storytelling

The first story is especially good. I enjoy the way she crafts a story. Strong female characters.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

All stories in collection

JCO is my all time favorite writer. Her prose is poetry. And this reader is exquisite , able to capture what I consider the essence of the "Oates-ien" experience.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Awful story and worse reading!

I couldn’t stand listening to the reader. It was the normal course of her reading not just the dreadful voices she made for almost all the characters- terrible terrible terrible and I’m a HUGE JCO fan!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Ugh.

Listened to the first novella and couldn’t continue on to the next. The narrator’s voice, when speaking as Claire, has an air of pretentiousness which made it very hard to feel anything other than disdain for the main character. I kept listening, hoping the other characters would be better, but the shrill, nails-on-a-chalkboard voice, yes voice, not voices, of the elderly sisters was more than I could take. I somehow managed to finish the novella only to sit and ponder what on earth I had just listened to. I’ve realized that just because an author is popular doesn’t mean everything they write is worth reading or listening to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!