Joyce Carol Oates - Mysteries of Winterthurn
Read through the lion's share of book 2
What a hard book to have an opinion on! Of the Gothic novels, its the first real drop in quality, but damn me if it doesn't have the same odd joy of those books. It's like watching the cut scenes of a movie you really like, or more specifically the the like interquel movies David Lynch makes out of his movies: Missing Pieces or More Things That Happened.
That said: the quicksand chapter in this is the best moment in maybe any of her Gothic novels (at least the three I've read most recently, at least!). The humor, the absurdity, the hints at supernatural, the absolute refusal to offer any resolution at all, even if it contradicts the text that comes after. That's the kind of shit I come to Oates for!