Wild Failure: Stories

In these raucous and poignant short stories, bestselling novelist Zoe Whittall contends with the meaning of desire for both intimacy and danger in a world that questions the validity of femininity and queerness.

In “Oh, El” a dominant woman can’t stop herself from toying with a tender heart. In “Half Pipe” a teen girl’s heterosexual ambivalence gets her in trouble at a skate park. The title story, “Wild Failure,” is about the doomed love between an agoraphobic and a wilderness hiker trapped in a passionate relationship that might ruin them both—if a mountain lion doesn’t kill them first. Living collectively in a rental house, a group of bisexual roommates find themselves the subject of a true crime podcast in “Murder at the Elm Street Collective House.” In “The Sex Castle Lunch Buffet” a femme reflects on her brief stint at a strip club in the 90s when she learns of the death of a regular client. “The Sell-Out" is a satirical look at the role of literary ambition at a time when making a living as an artist has never been more difficult.

Whittall’s characters navigate shame, attachment, and disconnection in this collection of outsider stories. Through playful prose and dark humor, Whittall’s subjects challenge what we mean by a beautiful life in this addition to the genre of outlaw literature.