A dazzling debut collection ofΒ ten powerful, feminist, and queerΒ short stories from bestselling author Zoe Whittall
βAbsorbing and wrenchingly intimate, with a rare balance of wit and tenderness.ββJenny 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 βOh, El,β a dominant woman canβt stop herself from toying with the tender heart of her co-worker. The title story, βWild Failure,β is a doomed love story between an agoraphobic and a wilderness hiker. In βHalf-Pipe,β a teen girlβs heterosexual ambivalence results in chaos at a skate park. A group of idealistic roommates find themselves the subject of a true crime podcast in βMurder at the Elm Street Collective House.βΒ In βThe Sex Castle Lunch Buffet,β 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 Whittallβs perceptive humor and acute insights into human nature. Itβs alsoΒ a dynamic and vibrant collection of poetic fiction that contend with the meaning of desire in a world that devalues femininity and queerness.