A dazzling debut collection ofย ten powerful, feminist, and queerย short stories from bestselling author Zoe Whittall
โAbsorbing and wrenchingly intimate, with a rare balance of wit and tenderness.โโJenny Fran Davis, author of Dykette
In Wild Failure, characters encounter feelings of shame, desire, attachment, and disconnection as they find themselves navigating their way through bad decisions, unusual situations, and fraught relationships.
In โOh, El,โ a dominant woman canโt stop herself from toying with the tender heart of her co-worker. The title story, โWild Failure,โ is a doomed love story between an agoraphobic and a wilderness hiker. In โHalf-Pipe,โ a teen girlโs heterosexual ambivalence results in chaos at a skate park. A group of idealistic roommates find themselves the subject of a true crime podcast in โMurder at the Elm Street Collective House.โย In โThe Sex Castle Lunch Buffet,โ a woman reflects on her brief stint at a nineties strip club after she learns of the death of a former client.
Wild Failure is replete with Whittallโs perceptive humor and acute insights into human nature. Itโs alsoย a dynamic and vibrant collection of poetic fiction that contend with the meaning of desire in a world that devalues femininity and queerness.