What do you think?
Coyote Girl: Stories
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 4, 2026
Short story/flash fiction collections can be a hard sell, but I challenge anyone not to love this collection. Maybe I'm prejudiced by my absolute love of deserts, where these stories are set, but the quality of the prose, the heartache and love, will surely draw any reader in. There is violence here too, and sometimes revenge, but this is always eclipsed by love, friendship and family. A stunning collection which I will treasure and read again.
May 1, 2026
I loved this collection about the desert, growing up there, cowboys, and being a woman in the desert! My favorite is "To Arizona."
June 15, 2026
Hicks packs a punch in each of these fine stories, a combination of micro, flash, and shorts. While the author is from Arizona and many of the stories take place there, they speak well beyond that great State and the Southwest to the American West in general. A story set in the Sonora might as well have occurred outside St. George, Utah, or Joshua Tree in California. Reading “Sidewinder,” set in a Wild West theme park in Cave Creek, Arizona, made me feel like I was at Wall Drug, South Dakota. The point is this collection touches very broadly on Western life and lifestyles. Hicks captures that perfectly with an economy of words, making a short piece very big, sometimes as big and vast as the West itself.
It's difficult to narrow down favorites, but here’s my attempt: “Eight Seconds,” “Coyote Girl” (of course), “Farrago,” “Rattlesnakes,” “Dead Animal Pick Up” (the title alone should win an award), “To Arizona,” “Where the Hummingbirds Go,” “Succession,” and “Sidewinder.”
Overall, this is a captivating collection of stories, most of them previously published in some of the finest journals and literary magazines, that earns all the praise and accolades it can get.
It's difficult to narrow down favorites, but here’s my attempt: “Eight Seconds,” “Coyote Girl” (of course), “Farrago,” “Rattlesnakes,” “Dead Animal Pick Up” (the title alone should win an award), “To Arizona,” “Where the Hummingbirds Go,” “Succession,” and “Sidewinder.”
Overall, this is a captivating collection of stories, most of them previously published in some of the finest journals and literary magazines, that earns all the praise and accolades it can get.
May 14, 2026
An eclectic collection of short stories and flash fiction from the desert Southwest. Some of the stories had the wit of Carl Hiaasen, others the grit, realism and brutality of Cormac McCarthy. This is the author’s first collection. I can’t wait for more of her work. Whatever she writes, I’m reading. Some stories made me laugh out loud, some made me cheer for the underdog, others were heartbreakers like the title story, Coyote Girl. Coyote Girl is a must read, and the author is someone we must follow…
May 14, 2026
The stories in this collection are so carefully crafted the reader inhabits spaces eons away from our own. Hicks builds empathy for such an array of characters, with such striking sparseness. On one page, you weep for calves and the cowboys separating them from their mothers. On the next, you celebrate a murderer. Such gems in Coyote Girl. Must read!
April 30, 2026
Finely honed microfictions and short stories about life and death in the southwestern desert. Exceptional!
July 1, 2026
The starred Kirkus review is definitely deserved! Coyote Girl is one of the most beautifully crafted story collections I've ever read. Set in the American Southwest, Sabrina Hicks weaves the desert landscape so seamlessly through every story that it becomes a character itself. Although I live on the East Coast, my heart was captured years ago by the red rocks of Sedona and the haunting beauty of places like Jerome, Arizona. I've returned again and again just to watch the sun set over those ghost towns, so I already loved the saguaros, sagebrush, and endless desert skies. But after reading this collection, I'm convinced no one loves that landscape more deeply than Hicks.
Many of these stories first appeared in some of the finest literary magazines and earned well-deserved awards, and it's easy to understand why. I honestly can't choose a favorite. Again and again, I found myself stopping to stare at the sky, letting Hicks's sentences echo in my mind. In "All Water Holds a Memory," the words, "Listen for the sky. Watch for each other. Come home." brought me to tears. In "Rattlesnakes," Hicks confronts suicide and domestic violence without flinching, following two unforgettable women whose resilience has been forged through generations of hardship. Those stories, and so many others, moved me deeply.
This isn't the kind of book you finish and place back on a shelf. It lingers. You remain tethered to these characters and to the sunbaked desert that shaped them. By the time I reached "To Arizona," I was openly sobbing. The thought of a mother and daughter leaving that glorious landscape of red rock nearly broke me. The final paragraph of that piece is breathtaking: "I didn't know if she was speaking to you, me, or the face of God, but we left that day with our bones made of sunlight, heading south, carving through your army of saguaros."
Whenever I visit the hometown of a beloved writer, I always tour their house. I recently toured Victor Hugo's house in Paris. I wanted to see where he slept, touch the desk where he wrote, imagine the window he looked through while creating worlds that would outlive him. Sabrina Hicks is very much alive, but I had that same feeling while reading Coyote Girl. More than once I caught myself thinking, I'd love to see her writing desk. I bet the afternoon light is glorious there.
Read this book. Buy copies as gifts for friends. You will love it.
Many of these stories first appeared in some of the finest literary magazines and earned well-deserved awards, and it's easy to understand why. I honestly can't choose a favorite. Again and again, I found myself stopping to stare at the sky, letting Hicks's sentences echo in my mind. In "All Water Holds a Memory," the words, "Listen for the sky. Watch for each other. Come home." brought me to tears. In "Rattlesnakes," Hicks confronts suicide and domestic violence without flinching, following two unforgettable women whose resilience has been forged through generations of hardship. Those stories, and so many others, moved me deeply.
This isn't the kind of book you finish and place back on a shelf. It lingers. You remain tethered to these characters and to the sunbaked desert that shaped them. By the time I reached "To Arizona," I was openly sobbing. The thought of a mother and daughter leaving that glorious landscape of red rock nearly broke me. The final paragraph of that piece is breathtaking: "I didn't know if she was speaking to you, me, or the face of God, but we left that day with our bones made of sunlight, heading south, carving through your army of saguaros."
Whenever I visit the hometown of a beloved writer, I always tour their house. I recently toured Victor Hugo's house in Paris. I wanted to see where he slept, touch the desk where he wrote, imagine the window he looked through while creating worlds that would outlive him. Sabrina Hicks is very much alive, but I had that same feeling while reading Coyote Girl. More than once I caught myself thinking, I'd love to see her writing desk. I bet the afternoon light is glorious there.
Read this book. Buy copies as gifts for friends. You will love it.
June 7, 2026
Coyote Girl, by Sabrina Hicks, delivers the southwest in all its dusty, sun-dried dreamers glory, and unlike male-driven cowboy fiction, Hicks does it all backwards and in high heels, although actually her female characters are more apt to wear muddy boots and a smart mouth. These forty-two stories include flash and short stories, and the collection is artfully arranged and tightly focused.
Can Hicks ever write “voices.” Her characters are ex-cons and “pre-cons,” schoolgirls and the elderly. They’ve been let down by life, but they keep getting up and keeping on. Some of my favorite stories are “Olympus Mons,” “Pick-Me-Girl,” “Coyote Girl,” and “Potential,” but really every story is a best of the best.
Throughout the collection, the land and sun of Arizona permeate the characters and their lives. Hicks’ love of a harsh and uniquely beautiful land shines over them all. What a gorgeous, inspiring book!
Can Hicks ever write “voices.” Her characters are ex-cons and “pre-cons,” schoolgirls and the elderly. They’ve been let down by life, but they keep getting up and keeping on. Some of my favorite stories are “Olympus Mons,” “Pick-Me-Girl,” “Coyote Girl,” and “Potential,” but really every story is a best of the best.
Throughout the collection, the land and sun of Arizona permeate the characters and their lives. Hicks’ love of a harsh and uniquely beautiful land shines over them all. What a gorgeous, inspiring book!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
The desert is not only a place but a state-of-mind in Coyote Girl, Sabrina Hicks’ remarkable collection of stories. Hicks’ characters are seemingly as desolate as the desert they inhabit but there is beauty and strength in their stories that left me gasping in admiration. With hints of magic, stunning imagery, and unique and devastating insight into the human condition, this is one of the best story collections I have ever read. Highly recommended.
April 15, 2026
These are utterly beautiful stories of crosses by the side of the road, trips to CVS with white trash girls, the heaviness in the pasts of pick-me girls, long bus rides into the desert, the hottest days of the year, latch-key kids, brittlebush flowers, good guys, bad guys, road trips on parole, and (everywhere you look) coyote girls.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews