Chicago Review of Books has included “The Wilds” in “The 9 Best Horror Stories You Can Read (For Free) This Halloween,” along with great stories by Nathan Ballingrud, Sofia Samatar, Brian Evenson, Nnedi Okorofor, Jeff VanderMeer, Kelly Link, Laird Barron, and Madeline Gobbo and Miles Klee.
The title story from Elliott’s 2014 collection is a perfect introduction to her singular brand of speculative, neo-Southern Gothic fiction. When a new family moves into the neighborhood, a young girl on the brink of womanhood is intrigued by a boy who wears a wolf mask.