ARC Review

Thank you to Tin House Books for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Hellions by Julia Elliott is a collection of short stories that, while not strict in their theming, contain elements of the supernatural and sublime. The stories, often set in the American south, are highly atmospheric and often times create imagery that is both incredibly vivid and incredibly grotesque at the same time.

The stories are very high brow, in both their intelligent references and theming. For readers with a love for brief, challenging, but ultimately worthwhile short stories, the collection is a wonderful choice. I would caution that readers who don’t enjoy works that don’t have concrete plot arcs or finite explanations. Part of the allure of this book is the somewhat mysterious ambiguity that defines many of the stories. It is often impossible to discern whether a character is in reality or dreaming, and whether creatures are real or imagined.

As with all collections of short stories or essays, not all of them are going to land as successfully as the others. However, Elliott’s works display a high level of consistency across selections. Personally, I found that the most compelling story was ‘Gricklemare,’ but I did particularly enjoy ‘Another Frequency’ as well.

One of my favorite things that Elliott does throughout Hellions is describe the wild, at times feral, highly magical time of girlhood. Whether her young, female characters are raising alligators, riding shoeless on mini bikes, imagining fantastical worlds on other planets, or obsessing over demons, they defy the conventions of traditional imagery. These young girls and teens have deep connections to the natural and the supernatural and are hellions as much as any of the boys depicted in the book.

I found this to be a somewhat challenging read at times. It was nevertheless enjoyable and unusual. 4/5 stars!

This book was just okay for me.. It was a bit weird and confusing a lot of the times, so it was just hard to get through. I think that the book may need some editing to clear up the messy confusing parts. But overall, I did not enjoy this book or themes

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

Julia Elliott does a fantastic job in writing this book, it had a great collection of stories and enjoyed the differences of this book. I was hooked from the first page and story, it was everything that I wanted and enjoyed the overall feel of this. It left me wanting to read more and look forward to more from Julia Elliott.

This was an endlessly compelling, atmospheric dive into myscical, uncanny, yet often funny horror. Each story had something unique to give, but all were different flavors of interesting. This is a standout collection of short stories that have me immediately interested in the author.

Hellions is a perfect word for this collection, which generally follows different women and girls who are different kinds of disruptive or bewitching. From the witch who captures the attention of a man struggling to survive in his medieval village, the young girl that seems to cast spells on her trampoline, to the mothers at an artist's retreat who can't seem to stop their children from becoming feral after making new, mysterious friends from the woods, all of these stories were a delight to follow and deeply mysterious in their own way.

A particular theme I really enjoyed was the unification of mysticism and suburban ennui. My favorite story, The Maiden, follows a group of children who become afraid of a neighborhood girl who seems to curse those who slight her. All the Other Demons follows a young girl and her family as they get ready to watch The Exorcist for the first time on TV, and her intrigue for inviting a demon into herself. Erl King is a deeply funny satirization of the kind of "compelling but creepy" humanities professor, reimagining him as a druidic force with primordial knowledge he ritually passes down to young college students he frequently ends up grooming.

This was a really cool and refreshing take on horror, and I loved many of these stories a lot. I do think the front half of the book was stronger than the latter half but I wouldn't say any of these stories were not enjoyable. It has piqued my interest in the author, and I can't wait to pick up more of her works.

Great read. I love the way Elliott weaves stories together to convey how the surreal is present in our every day lives.