A dazzling debut collection of short stories from bestselling author, Zoe Whittall.

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 Oh, El a dominant woman cant stop herself from toying with the tender heart of her co-worker. The title story, Wild Failure is a doomed love story between an agoraphobic and a wilderness hiker. In Half Pipe a teen girls heterosexual ambivalence results in chaos at a skate park. A group of idealistic 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 woman reflects on her brief stint at a 90s strip club after she learns of the death of a former client.

Wild Failure is replete with Whittalls perceptive humor and acute insights into human nature. Its also a dynamic and vibrant collection of stories that contend with the meaning of desire in a world that devalues femininity and queerness.