**Thank you to Tin House Books and NetGalley for the eARC of this unique collection!!**

I adored the writing across this collection and appreciated the variety of subject matter in the stories. Some of the subject matter felt ethereal and these were the perfect bite-sized nuggets to enjoy on my work breaks and right before bed.

I can’t wait to check out more from this author in the future and highly recommend this collection for fans of short stories!!

Full review and IG/GR posts to come once I get caught up on life!

In her dazzling new collection Hellions, Julia Elliott conjures a world where the uncanny simmers just beneath the surface of the everyday. With wit, menace, and a keen sense of the absurd, Elliott delivers horror that’s equal parts mystical, mischievous, and mordantly funny.

Each story orbits unruly women and girls—witches, wildlings, and would-be demons—who trouble the norms of their worlds. Whether it’s a plague-era enchantress drawing suspicion in a starving village, a girl bouncing spells on her suburban trampoline, or a group of artists' children slipping into feral madness after befriending eerie forest dwellers, Elliott’s protagonists are forces of nature cloaked in ambiguity.

Standouts include “The Maiden,” a sharp, chilling tale of playground ostracism turned sinister, and “All the Other Demons,” in which a young girl watches The Exorcist and begins to wonder what it would mean to let something dark inside. In “Erl King,” Elliott skewers the trope of the magnetic, morally dubious professor, recasting him as a druidic predator passing on esoteric rites to successive generations of students.

Elliott excels in blending the folkloric with the domestic, and the supernatural with suburban ennui. Her prose is vibrant and assured, her tone both playful and pointed. While the front half of the collection may feel more tightly composed than the latter, there’s not a single story here that doesn’t intrigue or entertain.

Hellions is a fierce, funny, and haunting work. Elliott is a singular voice in contemporary horror—one that demands to be heard.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the copy of the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

As always with short stories collection, some are amazing and some just completely miss the mark. I do really enjoy the otherworldly gothic vibes in these stories that Julia Elliott have so masterfully created.

I definitely will check out more stories from this author in the future.

What a wild, vine-draped waltz through the woods this was. Julia Elliott’s Hellion is a glorious tangle of dark fantasy, Southern Gothic, and mythic horror, told in the language of summer heat, strange children, and dirt-smudged memories.

The "hellion" theme is a perfect throughline: these stories brim with the reckless brilliance of youth, the kind of raw abandon that only exists in childhood summers where the air hums and your skin is always sticky with bug spray and sugar. Elliott captures that heady mix of innocence and cruelty so sharply—there’s beauty, yes, but also rot and hunger just beneath the surface.

Some standouts for me:

Arcadia Lakes – haunting and tender, like a lullaby with teeth. The monster in this story isn’t just something to fear—it’s something to understand, and maybe even love. It’s gorgeously eerie.

The Mothers – This one had me grinning at the pitch-black humour. A group of kids being led by forest children into ritualistic mischief? Yes, please. It’s clever, strange, and biting in its satire of adult cluelessness.

And then there's Hellion, which might just be my favourite. Butter is a perfect heroine, full of spunk and swampy know-how. I swear I could hear the cicadas and smell the hot pavement and SweetTarts while reading this.

Each story felt like something unearthed rather than invented. Like finding a charm buried in the backyard, wrapped in twine and full of secrets.

Thank you to Tin House Books and NetGalley for the e-ARC. Reading this was like running barefoot through wild grass—cutting, beautiful, and unforgettable!

When I was seven years old, my parents moved us across the San Francisco Bay from one suburb to another, both bathed in the omnipresent shadow of the burgeoning influence of Silicon Valley. For one glorious year, we lived on a street surrounded by families in neighbouring houses stuffed to the gills with kids around my age. For one glorious summer, I spent every hour that the California sun was awake and often several hours after it went to sleep immersed in the sort of rapture that comes with being a kid surrounded by other kids that had all been jettisoned from their homes for the day and told to “get some fresh air”.

I climbed my first tree that summer, a stately walnut tree that graced the edge of the property, and subsequently had my first fall from that same tree, requiring a handful of stitches and gifting me a little notch of a scar that I can still find on my face if I look close enough. That was the summer that I learned my first swear words from a kid that was two years older than me and then learned what happens when you exclaim, “SHIT!” in front of your aunt and uncle soon after. I rode a black BMX bike hampered with training wheels up and down the street to the various homes of friends and ended up being chased by a gang of high school kids on their own bikes as they screamed, “we’ll get you next time!” after taking flight down the length of our street, panicking and leaping off of my bike to vault over the white wooden fence that lined our front yard.

No matter how long ago that was, I can still feel that alternating sense of burning fear and cold sweat as I sensed them on my heels, chasing me up the street. I can still feel the relief that I experienced when I barrelled through the front door to my house and heard my mom’s voice as she talked to a friend on the phone. I can still feel the tang of the chlorine in my nostrils from the pool that we had in the backyard as I walked through the house and launched myself straight into the pool, still wearing all of my clothes, letting the cool water strip away the stress, the sweat, the heat. But the feeling of panic, the thrill of the fear, i can still feel those prodding at a part of my brain that will never disappear and will never die.

As I read through the eleven stories that make up Julia Elliott’s new collection, Hellions, I felt that surge of memory, that flicker of nostalgia, that pinprick of dread come swarming back into my blood and felt myself looking over my shoulder to see if I was yet again being chased by that small army of boys on their bikes. It’s not enough to say that you had the chance to read one of Julia’s stories, that word - “read” - it doesn’t do enough to define what your mind and your body go through as you take each of her stories in. Her ability to pull you into a scene with just a few sentences and introduce you to a new cast of characters all with fresh perspectives amidst unfamiliar surroundings and allow you to feel as if you’ve lived with these characters and their experiences for a good chunk of your life is masterful. I hesitate to say that you experience her stories rather than read them because even that doesn’t feel like enough. You inhale, you start the first line and then you don’t exhale until the final period marks the end of the story. You live it, it sustains you.

It’s extremely fitting that when you pick up a copy of Hellions, it’s cover is graced with quotes from two legends - Carmen Maria Machado and Jeff VanderMeer - extolling the pleasures of the stories contained within its pages. Both writers are well-known for their deft ability to pull you deep into the chaos of their own stories and surround you with an abundance of imagery that pushes your imagination and fascination to the limits. Hellions is deliciously lush in it’s own right with intense, biting and snarling descriptions of the sweat and sting of the sweet and rotten summer air, the sludge at the banks of ponds and the chittering of insects and the stink of bogs and swamps, the ache of love, of loss, of needing more. Julia clearly delights in playing with language and all of it’s mighty potential and gives a voice to a way of looking at things that usually only nags at the corners of most people’s minds, unable to find purchase and lost to time.

Throughout Hellions, childhood and all of it’s blissful wonder and naughty escapism run rampant. Even in the few stories that don’t feature children directly, it’s presence is felt to extreme degrees - both as defiance to the idea of growing up and maturing and as an ode to the sheer capabilities of an imagination allowed to flourish. The characters that traverse through each of the stories seem to transcend time and place despite it being remarkably clear when and where these stories are occurring without even a single breath given to the when or the where. They appear to exist in a liminal space in time where the past, present and future collide and allow for reality to break from it’s strict rules and standards, creating a universe unto itself.

If anything, Hellions feels like a flex of the range and abilities of it’s author, both in it’s playfulness with genre-hopping and in the way that similar elements inhabit each of the stories, giving them the feeling of being intrinsically diverse and ever-connected in spirit. Split-level houses, the struggle that comes with being forced to grow up, the pain of being virtually ignored by parents that are at constantly at odds with each other, the onslaught of love, the overwhelming presence of nature, mysticism and mythology, the cleansing power of water - all are central to so much of what lies at the heart of Hellions as words and sentences are turned into a living organism that you can almost taste, almost smell and will undoubtedly reach out to and attempt to touch.

We are barely a quarter of the way into 2025 and I have already had the pleasure to read four new collections of short stories that have left me winded, gutted and thrilled for what’s occurring right now in the world of short fiction. Hellions is the first of this batch to be released and it might just be my favourite.

Julia Elliott is at the top of her craft as far as descriptive prose and complex characterization go. I don't happen to enjoy how the majority of her stories resolve, but that's more of an problem for me than her. If you appreciate characters making what may seem to be foolish choices, out of desperation or just longing to get more out of life, and stories with horror elements, along with some stories that seem to be more like prologues than complete in themselves, you may consider her a great writer.

I requested [the book] from NetGalley mainly due to Jeff VanderMeer, author of the Southern Reach series, who recommends it thus: "Beautiful, visceral, surprising stories, both wild and dangerous, with a Southern twang but universal appeal." Sounds great, right? And everything he says is true, except maybe for the universal appeal.

Elliott's prose is indeed vivid, and many of her protagonists have compelling voices. I frequently paused in my reading to admire a passage's effectiveness. She's also a very creative writer, and I found the setups for her stories, and some of their twists and turns, very interesting. But I kept coming to the ends of stories being disappointed in how they resolved, either with a reaction of "Huh, so I guess that's it?" or simply recoiling. Out of the first half of the book, 5 short stories, I only really liked "Hellion" (despite some unpleasantness that happens) and decided that I had higher priorities than finishing the rest of the collection.

I usually don’t read short stories, but this one was actually really good! I would highly recommend this one!

This short story collection is full of gems. Rich, luscious writing with tons of spookiness and a heavy dose of southern Gothic makes this collection a bit of a not-to-be-missed set, if you're into that sort of thing.

2.75 ✰
"a person can be a real monster too."

hellions is a collection of short stories. while a few were fascinating and captivating, i found that most of them were a bit of a struggle to get through. personally, i just don’t think the short story/essay format is for me. all of them were unsettling in their own way, often a bit feral and based in locations i’m familiar with which is something i enjoyed. out of all of them, i liked ‘gricklemare’ the best.

thank you to julia elliott, tin house books and netgalley for the arc 🖤

These stories felt part gothic, part fairytale, rooted in reality yet otherworldly. Stunning prose and not to be shallow - but look at that cover!

What a unique collection of dark and wonderous stories. I am not sure how to qualify the genre, but dark fantasy with horror elements seems to foot the bill. If you are looking for a darkly mysterious, almost fever dream-like book of short stories with a Southern bent, look no further.

Overall, I really enjoyed Julia Elliott's writing style as well as her imagination, and the "hellion" theme was a very cool connection throughout the collection. “Hellions” indeed, there is a thread of fierce childhood abandon throughout all the stories that invokes nostalgia for a radiant summer evening of childhood in the dog days of summer. I could almost taste the red Sno cones and Dr Pepper Chapstick.

My favorite stories of the book include:

** The Maiden: an impoverished, outcast child finds unexpected power. This one had all the vibes of Stephen King's Carrie crossed with the unsettling atmosphere of Gummo.

** Arcadia Lakes: a lonely child befriends a monster. My description is a vast oversimplification, but trust me when I say that this was a very cool story… and strangely beautiful, or beautifully strange, depending on how you look at it.

** The Mothers: mysterious woodland children goad a group of kids into unleashing unique horrors upon unsuspecting adults. This story, more than any other, also had some particularly impressive dark humor from a writer's perspective.

** All the Other Demons: the famous horror film The Exorcist is enmeshed in the ether of an adolescent girl’s life. Her examination of the film’s central thesis, seen through the eyes of a young girl, made me reexamine everything I have ever thought about the seminal horror book and movie.

That said, in some cases there was some ambiguity in storytelling that left me confused. Perhaps because of the wondrous and imaginative nature of the tales, at times the writing became so fantastical that I felt like I lost the thread of the story. One example is Moon Witch, Moon Witch, which lost me and never found me again. Maybe I need to reread to see if I catch something I missed on the first read. And with Another Frequency and Gricklemare, while I largely enjoyed the stories and storytelling, I am not sure I fully grok what ultimately happened in either conclusion.

I feel like this collection will appeal to readers of Brom, for dark fantasy aspects, and Adam Leslie and Samanta Schweblin for those who enjoy those fever dream elements in storytelling.

It is difficult to rate the whole collection of stories as one, but with all stories considered I would round this out to 4 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley, Julia Elliott, and Tin House Books for sending me an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley for this arc of Hellions by Julia Elliot. This was a really well written book and super short. This is a blend of southern gothic, horror, fairytales, and some folklore. If you enjoy stories based off of those things, I would recommend reading this. It's such a fun read, it can be read in one sitting.

Bizarre, intriguing, and vivid tales of folklore mixed southern gothic horror. I enjoyed this book and had fun reading it. I think one of my favorite tales was Hellion - I loved the Swamp Ape lore and I loved the trouble Butter & Alex got into together. My favorite quote from Butter: “Can’t survive without a ride and a weapon, not with these hellion boys.” Each story focuses on the weird, feral, and strange aspects of girlhood - and I freaking love it. Some stories fell short for me but the majority of them were addicting and fun to read.

𝐃𝐢𝐝 𝐈 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠? 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐬- 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞, 𝐚 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐲.

The stories promise folklore, fairy tales, horror and Southern Gothic, the author delivers. It is interesting how book land in my hands with a common theme. Lately it has been earthy reads, beautiful and disturbing. But as someone who often has dirt under her fingernails from digging in the garden and bits of wild weeds in my hair, I ripped through this collection that reminded me of the soundless creatures that wait in the woods and how wild our imagination runs in youth. I love Hellion, a tale about thirteen-year-old Butter who runs around earning a dollar with her daisy shootin’ lizards for her great-aunt Edna. She teaches her cousin Aiken (a soft boy from the city) a thing or two about her life sneaking up on the Swamp Ape and outsmarting the mean bullies. She has a whole universe to show him outdoors, away from his video game, and it took me back to my early days as a kid growing up under the Florida sun.

Erl King made me laugh, the boozy, middle aged “Wild Professor”- a sort of king in the humanities building luring young college girls hungry for poetry and passion to his woodland cabin for summer seduction. Despite her resistance, a sort of madness overtakes our narrator, and she falls into the trap of his shifting form. How long before this lull from reality crumbles and she shakes off the romantic spell of willful ignorance?

The Maiden is the story of a girl named Cujo, “a stunted, breastless bitter thing”, whose very existence invokes disgust in the other kids, until she mounts the trampoline and leaves them in awe with her high-flying stunts, when she isn’t spitting curses at them. I would love a novel based on Cujo and Butter, these characters would make a wonderful coming of age tale.

Each story is an enchantment, reminding the reader how we create our own monsters, terrors, as much as we lend a glamor to a chosen few. It’s all perception. With a little cleverness we can outrun disaster, change our fate. There are lands ‘kissed with curses’, suspicious wives, burned out mothers whose children are turning strange, feral at an art colony, Gricklemare harassing a lonely woman in the woods with their trickery, and a family lost in nightmares after watching The Exorcist.

Loved the stories, a fun escape.

Publication Date: April 15, 2025

Tin House Books

Hellions builds a liminal space, layer by layer: verdant, feral, and populous, with half-wild children, and the author’s world of folkloric creatures, tangley, clawed, and perhaps divine. Julia Elliot’s writing is captivating. Each story presents a world, humid and hung with kudzu vines, deep-forested and double-sided, each turn the stories take could lead you back to the most normal and average of scenarios, or an ecstatic, meandering, path to a magical world, dark and unpredictable.

Reading Hellions felt like an escape into a swamp, or a fairy tale, or like walking in the woods as a child world-building something lurking and magical in dense landscape. I would expect nothing less from Tin House. Utterly escapist. A perfect Spring / Summer vibe for the Winter blues. A beach reach for melancholy girls.

I have trouble with collections of short stories holding my attention, but this kept me engaged all the way through. I feel Hellions would be an excellent read for the Baba Yaga women, the lovers of the hidden wonders of the woods, for those with pareidolia, for the folkloric and feral, for those who run with their inner child, and anyone who loves a great read.

Elliot has an understanding of the magical natural world as perceived by the primal self, and the inner child, that was transporting and lovely. I feel she is a writer to watch, and I will be looking for more from her backlog, and from her in the future.

This was a well written short story collection. I like this genre a lot, but there are stronger collections out there. It was a decent read, I enjoyed half of the stories, and the other half were underwhelming. The cover art is gorgeous though, and I would read from this author again. If you like speculative fiction then you will devour this baby.

Vivid stories and detailed characterization. Would definitely read another book from this author. Loved the cover of my edition, very striking!

“Black Mirror” in book form that I have been looking for!!! This book was dark in a fun way, which made it shocking to read and easily enjoyable, especially since we got to know so many characters. This is what short stories are all about!!

The stories in this collection are weird and whimsical with a Southern gothic twist. Many of them center around transformation of some kind, particularly the transition from girlhood to womanhood. Although I liked a lot of the concepts and themes presented here, the only story that I really loved was the titular 'Hellion.' Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

I loved this book. Julia Elliott sees the world. Elliott’s writing style is lush and lyrical, filled with sensory detail that makes the setting feel both grotesque and dreamlike. Hellions is a collection that crackles with wild energy, balancing Southern Gothic weirdness with biting humor and deep empathy. Each story pulses with strange, unsettling beauty—whether she’s exploring futuristic nursing homes, feral girlhood, or surreal domestic horror, Elliott renders her characters with aching humanity. Her work evokes Angela Carter and Kelly Link, but with a distinctly Southern twist, where decay and desire blur in unexpected ways. Fans of speculative fiction that leans into the grotesque, the uncanny, and the fiercely intelligent will find plenty to love here.