Miao Dao by Joyce Carol OatesMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
One of a series of seven horror(ish) stories that are being offered to Amazon Prime members in the Dark Corners collection.
This story started off really slowly. It moved along about the speed of a glacier. Which for a short story/novella is not great pacing. Protagonist Mia is being harassed at school so she takes refuge in a vacant lot populated by feral cats. She becomes obsessed with said cats to the point that she practically wants to live amongst them. So she's a little weird, and well on her way to crazy cat lady status at thirteen but that's not horrific just a little sad.
The story picks up when her mother starts dating again after the divorce. Mia's mom remarries and that's when the horror element comes into play. Mia's new stepdad starts to show Mia a little too much attention in all the wrong ways. In the end, he gets what he deserves.
The cat, Miao Dao, is far and away the best character in the entire story and the reader can never be sure if she's a normal cat or has some element of the supernatural. All in all, not terrible but not great.
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