A dazzling debut collection ofĀ ten powerful, feminist, and queerĀ short stories from bestselling author Zoe Whittall
āAbsorbing and wrenchingly intimate, with a rare balance of wit and tenderness.āāJenny 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 āOh, El,ā a dominant woman canāt stop herself from toying with the tender heart of her co-worker. The title story, āWild Failure,ā is a doomed love story between an agoraphobic and a wilderness hiker. In āHalf-Pipe,ā a teen girlās heterosexual ambivalence results in chaos at a skate park. A group of idealistic roommates find themselves the subject of a true crime podcast in āMurder at the Elm Street Collective House.āĀ In āThe Sex Castle Lunch Buffet,ā 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 Whittallās perceptive humor and acute insights into human nature. Itās alsoĀ a dynamic and vibrant collection of poetic fiction that contend with the meaning of desire in a world that devalues femininity and queerness.