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Wasteland Girls
Wasteland Girls is a collection of lyrical, incisive and luminous stories by the Sunday Times bestselling author of Tall Bones and Our Last Wild Days.
These stunningly powerful stories explore the wildness and beauty of the American heartlands, a place where lives are lived on the margins, but also where there is dignity, hope, revenge and restitution.
In 'Long Way to Come for a Sip of Water', which was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, Texan man Ready drives through a divided US to see his dying brother. Wasteland Girls, the title story, is a powerful tale of a family of hoarders, of magic and revenge. In Yukon 1940, a woman sits beside the body of her husband in a remote cabin, trapped by the frozen sea. The Girl in the Ground follows a woman who suddenly reappears after twenty years of absence, but for whom the past is a void. A widower meets a man who should died many times.
Deeply atmospheric and soulful, the stories in Wasteland Girls are inspired by the author's experience of living amid the beautiful but often ferocious remote landscapes of the US, and among the wild and secretive people who inhabit them. In the vastness of the wilds, anything can happen...
These stunningly powerful stories explore the wildness and beauty of the American heartlands, a place where lives are lived on the margins, but also where there is dignity, hope, revenge and restitution.
In 'Long Way to Come for a Sip of Water', which was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, Texan man Ready drives through a divided US to see his dying brother. Wasteland Girls, the title story, is a powerful tale of a family of hoarders, of magic and revenge. In Yukon 1940, a woman sits beside the body of her husband in a remote cabin, trapped by the frozen sea. The Girl in the Ground follows a woman who suddenly reappears after twenty years of absence, but for whom the past is a void. A widower meets a man who should died many times.
Deeply atmospheric and soulful, the stories in Wasteland Girls are inspired by the author's experience of living amid the beautiful but often ferocious remote landscapes of the US, and among the wild and secretive people who inhabit them. In the vastness of the wilds, anything can happen...
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 27, 2026
“The rain stops as quickly as it came on, steam rising from cars and blacktop alike as the heat boils the water back to heaven.
Ready catches sight of the tornado on the far horizon, suspended from the clouds, and it lingers there in his wing mirror for an hour or so, but he doesn't pay it too much attention.
Always been good at turning his back on things, that's what
Mama would say.”
This is a collection of short stories with a range of different settings, time periods and characters that were inspired by the author’s experiences of living in the more remote parts of the US, where the vast open landscapes are as perilous as they are beautiful.
The author notes at the back of the book describe how and where Anna came to write these stories.
Beautifully written, the lyrical prose was both evocative and visceral and I was drawn so swiftly into each story that I connected immediately with the narrative and the characters with ease.
While each story was very different, the themes of love, family, loss and being an outsider, ran throughout and I enjoyed reading them all but the ones that particularly stood out for me were:
Long Way To Come For A Sip of Water, The Girl in the Ground and
Yukon, 1940
My thanks go to @alisonbarrowbooks who kindly arranged for this lovely finished copy to be sent out to me.
UK Publication Day: 30th July 2026
Ready catches sight of the tornado on the far horizon, suspended from the clouds, and it lingers there in his wing mirror for an hour or so, but he doesn't pay it too much attention.
Always been good at turning his back on things, that's what
Mama would say.”
This is a collection of short stories with a range of different settings, time periods and characters that were inspired by the author’s experiences of living in the more remote parts of the US, where the vast open landscapes are as perilous as they are beautiful.
The author notes at the back of the book describe how and where Anna came to write these stories.
Beautifully written, the lyrical prose was both evocative and visceral and I was drawn so swiftly into each story that I connected immediately with the narrative and the characters with ease.
While each story was very different, the themes of love, family, loss and being an outsider, ran throughout and I enjoyed reading them all but the ones that particularly stood out for me were:
Long Way To Come For A Sip of Water, The Girl in the Ground and
Yukon, 1940
My thanks go to @alisonbarrowbooks who kindly arranged for this lovely finished copy to be sent out to me.
UK Publication Day: 30th July 2026
September 13, 2026
I love when the setting becomes a character 🫶🫶
Truly a deep dive into character work, this is wonderful
Truly a deep dive into character work, this is wonderful
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
4.25 stars
Thank you to Doubleday UK and Ann Cater of Random Things Tours for my GIFTED finished copy of Wasteland Girls, which is an astonishing, powerful collection of stories by Anna Bailey, the author of the novels Tall Bones and Our Last Wild Days, both of which I loved.
These stories have a range of settings, contexts, characters, time periods, and styles. Inspired by Bailey's experiences of living in the remote areas of America's heartlands, she captures the wild otherness of the people and the landscape within them, and adds a twist of queer American Gothic, which makes them truly compelling reads.
Written in the most beautiful, evocative and lyrical prose, they absolutely nail for the reader a feeling, an emotion, a character or a sense of place. Each word is carefully chosen and placed for maximum effect, and not a single one is wasted.
Take this example, just one of countless in the collection:
"A seam of summer blue still lines the western horizon, and when Nate was a kid, he used to convince himself that if he drove towards it, he was going somewhere and that things were getting better.
He'd be the first to say he was a pretty dumb kid".
This last sentence demonstrates the wry, dry, mordant humour which is also laced throughout.
"Ready [a character]had bled and sweated over that house so much, there'd be enough of his DNA mixed up in the paint and the grouting for him to consider the place a blood relative".
All of the stories are threaded through with themes of love, loss, family, identity and otherness, but what also unites them are three specific elements of Anna Bailey's superb writing.
Firstly, the sense of immediacy she creates, which ensures you're very quickly drawn into the heart of the story and you feel at the very centre of it.
Secondly, the vivid evocation of atmosphere. She has a profoundly impressive ability to deftly conjure a distinctive atmosphere for each story, in a way that makes it an utterly convincing and immersive read.
And thirdly, her character creation: each one of her stories' main characters is so well realised, and rapidly established for the reader.
Like the American heartland landscapes in which the stories are set, the the characters within them, are troubled, marginalised, challenged, and challenging. These are far from soft, gentle stories, full of hearts and flowers, and yet, within each of them, there is a vein of love, care, tenderness and hope, quietly, gently, subtly expressed.
There are ten beautifully crafted stories in total, including 'Long Way to Come for a Sip of Water', which was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, but my personal favourites are:
Riddles: a couple coping with the onset of dementia
I'll Be Round For The Lonesome Woods: love and loss in the First World War, which moved me to tears.
Stray Dogs: a titled brother and sister from a landed Scottish family find their true selves on a cattle ranch in New Mexico
Jack The Devil: a grieving widower meets a man who should have died many times.
Fine writing exudes from this superb collection of character driven short stories, which live on in your head long after you've read them. Highly recommended.
Thank you to Doubleday UK and Ann Cater of Random Things Tours for my GIFTED finished copy of Wasteland Girls, which is an astonishing, powerful collection of stories by Anna Bailey, the author of the novels Tall Bones and Our Last Wild Days, both of which I loved.
These stories have a range of settings, contexts, characters, time periods, and styles. Inspired by Bailey's experiences of living in the remote areas of America's heartlands, she captures the wild otherness of the people and the landscape within them, and adds a twist of queer American Gothic, which makes them truly compelling reads.
Written in the most beautiful, evocative and lyrical prose, they absolutely nail for the reader a feeling, an emotion, a character or a sense of place. Each word is carefully chosen and placed for maximum effect, and not a single one is wasted.
Take this example, just one of countless in the collection:
"A seam of summer blue still lines the western horizon, and when Nate was a kid, he used to convince himself that if he drove towards it, he was going somewhere and that things were getting better.
He'd be the first to say he was a pretty dumb kid".
This last sentence demonstrates the wry, dry, mordant humour which is also laced throughout.
"Ready [a character]had bled and sweated over that house so much, there'd be enough of his DNA mixed up in the paint and the grouting for him to consider the place a blood relative".
All of the stories are threaded through with themes of love, loss, family, identity and otherness, but what also unites them are three specific elements of Anna Bailey's superb writing.
Firstly, the sense of immediacy she creates, which ensures you're very quickly drawn into the heart of the story and you feel at the very centre of it.
Secondly, the vivid evocation of atmosphere. She has a profoundly impressive ability to deftly conjure a distinctive atmosphere for each story, in a way that makes it an utterly convincing and immersive read.
And thirdly, her character creation: each one of her stories' main characters is so well realised, and rapidly established for the reader.
Like the American heartland landscapes in which the stories are set, the the characters within them, are troubled, marginalised, challenged, and challenging. These are far from soft, gentle stories, full of hearts and flowers, and yet, within each of them, there is a vein of love, care, tenderness and hope, quietly, gently, subtly expressed.
There are ten beautifully crafted stories in total, including 'Long Way to Come for a Sip of Water', which was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, but my personal favourites are:
Riddles: a couple coping with the onset of dementia
I'll Be Round For The Lonesome Woods: love and loss in the First World War, which moved me to tears.
Stray Dogs: a titled brother and sister from a landed Scottish family find their true selves on a cattle ranch in New Mexico
Jack The Devil: a grieving widower meets a man who should have died many times.
Fine writing exudes from this superb collection of character driven short stories, which live on in your head long after you've read them. Highly recommended.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Wasteland Girls, by Anna Bailey, comprises ten short stories ranging from seven to 65 pages, set in places in North America characterised by extreme weather and wide, lonely expanses, across a range of time periods. The characters span demographics, but all of them have survived/are surviving considerable adversity of one kind or another, albeit not unaltered or unhaunted.
The stories in Wasteland Girls absolutely captivated me! Bailey’s writing is simply brilliant: they describe towns and landscapes so vividly and completely, it’s hard to believe they’re not actually from America; their characters are commonly their own worst enemies, psychologically adrift, and riddled with flaws, yet I felt compelled to stick with them and see how their stories played out; and they craft ingenious one-liners and turns of phrase that stopped me in my tracks as I was reading.
This collection also showcases the particular skills required to write good short stories. I could easily imagine ways every single one of them might be expanded into a book in its own right, yet Bailey has the self-discipline to include only the backstory details that are directly relevant to the characters’ current situation. Furthermore, for all I would have loved to spend more time with, and find out more about some of the characters, each story does feel complete in itself.
The short story format lends itself especially well to the element of surprise, and Bailey often takes advantage of this, whether the surprise is a sudden act of violence, an unlikely but satisfying turn of events, or a change in my feelings towards a character in the light of new information. Along with the rich descriptions and interesting characters, this kept me highly engaged with, and invested in each story.
Relationships are a major theme across the board, whether they’re between parents and children (encompassing the non-existent, disrupted, quietly adversarial and outright violent), siblings (positive or negative, but never uncomplicated), or romantic partners (including loveless/habitual, disrupted, and nascent pairings). While many of the main characters are physically and/or psychologically alone, and it’s often their previous interactions with people who were supposed to love them that have put them in this position, there’s also potential – sometimes realised within the story – to make new connections and heal.
As with any collection, I had my personal favourites, and in this case, the three stories with spooky/supernatural elements particularly captured my imagination. In the titular story, three teenage girls live with their tough grandmother, who gives off witchy vibes with her unusual, storied cane, collection of animal bones and trinkets, and talk of magic – though brute force also has its uses.
In The Girl in the Ground, a pair of characters – a woman who’s recently re-emerged from a cave she disappeared into as a teenager 19 years previously, and a social worker whose parents abandoned him as a child – confuse and frustrate one another by talking at cross-purposes and insisting on incompatible versions of events, the eerie reason for which eventually becomes clear.
In Jack the Devil – the final and longest story – the eponymous character has been 25 years old since the American Civil War (think How to Stop Time by Matt Haig, but rather less wholesome and with a lot more, er, bite). He’d already had a rough ride before he became immortal, and has a reputation locally for being fearsome and violent that isn’t without justification. However, when he builds a relationship with young widower Ellis, we see another side of him: funny, tender, and philosophical. I’d happily read a whole novel about Jack’s long life!
Wasteland Girls is a vivid, engaging, and often surprising short story collection.
I received a free copy of this book from Random Things Tours in return for an honest review.
The stories in Wasteland Girls absolutely captivated me! Bailey’s writing is simply brilliant: they describe towns and landscapes so vividly and completely, it’s hard to believe they’re not actually from America; their characters are commonly their own worst enemies, psychologically adrift, and riddled with flaws, yet I felt compelled to stick with them and see how their stories played out; and they craft ingenious one-liners and turns of phrase that stopped me in my tracks as I was reading.
This collection also showcases the particular skills required to write good short stories. I could easily imagine ways every single one of them might be expanded into a book in its own right, yet Bailey has the self-discipline to include only the backstory details that are directly relevant to the characters’ current situation. Furthermore, for all I would have loved to spend more time with, and find out more about some of the characters, each story does feel complete in itself.
The short story format lends itself especially well to the element of surprise, and Bailey often takes advantage of this, whether the surprise is a sudden act of violence, an unlikely but satisfying turn of events, or a change in my feelings towards a character in the light of new information. Along with the rich descriptions and interesting characters, this kept me highly engaged with, and invested in each story.
Relationships are a major theme across the board, whether they’re between parents and children (encompassing the non-existent, disrupted, quietly adversarial and outright violent), siblings (positive or negative, but never uncomplicated), or romantic partners (including loveless/habitual, disrupted, and nascent pairings). While many of the main characters are physically and/or psychologically alone, and it’s often their previous interactions with people who were supposed to love them that have put them in this position, there’s also potential – sometimes realised within the story – to make new connections and heal.
As with any collection, I had my personal favourites, and in this case, the three stories with spooky/supernatural elements particularly captured my imagination. In the titular story, three teenage girls live with their tough grandmother, who gives off witchy vibes with her unusual, storied cane, collection of animal bones and trinkets, and talk of magic – though brute force also has its uses.
In The Girl in the Ground, a pair of characters – a woman who’s recently re-emerged from a cave she disappeared into as a teenager 19 years previously, and a social worker whose parents abandoned him as a child – confuse and frustrate one another by talking at cross-purposes and insisting on incompatible versions of events, the eerie reason for which eventually becomes clear.
In Jack the Devil – the final and longest story – the eponymous character has been 25 years old since the American Civil War (think How to Stop Time by Matt Haig, but rather less wholesome and with a lot more, er, bite). He’d already had a rough ride before he became immortal, and has a reputation locally for being fearsome and violent that isn’t without justification. However, when he builds a relationship with young widower Ellis, we see another side of him: funny, tender, and philosophical. I’d happily read a whole novel about Jack’s long life!
Wasteland Girls is a vivid, engaging, and often surprising short story collection.
I received a free copy of this book from Random Things Tours in return for an honest review.
August 30, 2026
Thank you to @alisonbarrowbooks @doubledayukbooks for sending me this gorgeous finished copy 💛.
OUT NOW!
After reading Anna’s first two novels, TALL BONES and OUR LAST WILD DAYS, I can safely say that they are firmly in my auto buy authors category. To get sent a finished copy of WASTELAND GIRLS was so exciting.
•••••
This is a very different kind of read for me because it is a selection of short stories. Each one haunting and beautifully crafted with Anna’s distinctive voice.
I think this selection of stories would be classed as Gothic Noir. Think isolated settings, buried secrets, psychological tension and add in flawed characters, raw human nature and gritty, hard edged reality. But there was also a deep ambiguous feeling to the stories.
I’m not going to lie, some aspects of the stories left me pondering their meaning, but this isn’t always a negative for me.
Anna has a real skill for story telling. Descriptions of the landscapes and each character felt vivid and at the same time quite surreal. The stories were set in remote landscapes of the American West and Southwest, from acrid deserts and isolated small towns to the frozen wilderness of Yukon in Canada. I think this was my favourite part to the book, we travelled to many places in the 287 pages.
The environments felt isolated, desperate and forbidding and the characters were lost, troubled, and fragile, but they were also resilient, authentic and deeply human.
Stand out stories for me were Riddles, Yukon 1940, Stray Dogs and Jack The Devil.
As I’ve already said some aspects of the stories left me a little confused, but I still felt immersed by Anna’s storytelling and the atmosphere they created.
This would be a great book to dip in and out of if you want to sink your teeth into another world, for just a little while.
OUT NOW!
After reading Anna’s first two novels, TALL BONES and OUR LAST WILD DAYS, I can safely say that they are firmly in my auto buy authors category. To get sent a finished copy of WASTELAND GIRLS was so exciting.
•••••
This is a very different kind of read for me because it is a selection of short stories. Each one haunting and beautifully crafted with Anna’s distinctive voice.
I think this selection of stories would be classed as Gothic Noir. Think isolated settings, buried secrets, psychological tension and add in flawed characters, raw human nature and gritty, hard edged reality. But there was also a deep ambiguous feeling to the stories.
I’m not going to lie, some aspects of the stories left me pondering their meaning, but this isn’t always a negative for me.
Anna has a real skill for story telling. Descriptions of the landscapes and each character felt vivid and at the same time quite surreal. The stories were set in remote landscapes of the American West and Southwest, from acrid deserts and isolated small towns to the frozen wilderness of Yukon in Canada. I think this was my favourite part to the book, we travelled to many places in the 287 pages.
The environments felt isolated, desperate and forbidding and the characters were lost, troubled, and fragile, but they were also resilient, authentic and deeply human.
Stand out stories for me were Riddles, Yukon 1940, Stray Dogs and Jack The Devil.
As I’ve already said some aspects of the stories left me a little confused, but I still felt immersed by Anna’s storytelling and the atmosphere they created.
This would be a great book to dip in and out of if you want to sink your teeth into another world, for just a little while.
Read
August 3, 2026Having loved Tall Bones and Our Last Wild Days, I could hardly say no to Anna Bailey’s latest and I’m very glad I didn’t.
This collection of ten short stories really captured my attention.
Set across remote corners of North America and different time periods, these stories are shaped by extreme weather, wide open distances, and a deep, steady loneliness. Nearly every character is just about getting by and none of them come through unchanged.
Bailey’s writing is stunning. The landscapes — frozen seas, dusty roads, isolated cabins, endless wilderness — are so vividly drawn they feel like characters in their own right: beautiful, harsh, and often unforgiving.
The people are just as memorable: flawed, adrift, sometimes their own worst enemy, yet impossible to look away from. Bailey also has a real gift for sharp, striking lines that stop you in your tracks.
Short stories leave nowhere to hide, but these feel fully realised. Even when I wanted more, each one still felt complete.
There are moments of real surprise too, sudden violence, tenderness, and unsettling turns that shift everything you thought you knew. Relationships run throughout: fractured, complicated, but always with a flicker of connection underneath.
The eerie and supernatural elements were especially strong from the witchy unease of the title story to the haunting The Girl in the Ground and unforgettable Jack in Jack the Devil (I’d read a whole novel about him, no bother).
Vivid, strange, and emotionally sharp, Wasteland Girls gives voice to lives on the margins and lingers long after the final page.
A powerful collection from a writer who really knows her way around the short story form.
Thank you to the publisher for kindly sending me a review copy. All opinions my own.
This collection of ten short stories really captured my attention.
Set across remote corners of North America and different time periods, these stories are shaped by extreme weather, wide open distances, and a deep, steady loneliness. Nearly every character is just about getting by and none of them come through unchanged.
Bailey’s writing is stunning. The landscapes — frozen seas, dusty roads, isolated cabins, endless wilderness — are so vividly drawn they feel like characters in their own right: beautiful, harsh, and often unforgiving.
The people are just as memorable: flawed, adrift, sometimes their own worst enemy, yet impossible to look away from. Bailey also has a real gift for sharp, striking lines that stop you in your tracks.
Short stories leave nowhere to hide, but these feel fully realised. Even when I wanted more, each one still felt complete.
There are moments of real surprise too, sudden violence, tenderness, and unsettling turns that shift everything you thought you knew. Relationships run throughout: fractured, complicated, but always with a flicker of connection underneath.
The eerie and supernatural elements were especially strong from the witchy unease of the title story to the haunting The Girl in the Ground and unforgettable Jack in Jack the Devil (I’d read a whole novel about him, no bother).
Vivid, strange, and emotionally sharp, Wasteland Girls gives voice to lives on the margins and lingers long after the final page.
A powerful collection from a writer who really knows her way around the short story form.
Thank you to the publisher for kindly sending me a review copy. All opinions my own.
August 12, 2026
This beautifully crafted collection of short stories is atmospheric, emotional and utterly captivating from the very first page.
Inspired by the author's experiences of living in the remote American heartlands, each story introduces people whose lives have been shaped by that same isolation, hardship and hope. The characters feel completely real and seem to carry their pasts with them while also trying to find a way forward. It takes real talent to create such depth in so few pages, yet every story feels complete and so satisfying.
The sense of place is simply superb. The author's America is vast and wild, but there is beauty threaded through every landscape that she writes about. Whether set in snow-covered wilderness, forgotten towns or remote communities, each location feels alive, and are as memorable as the characters themselves. I was completely immersed from beginning to end.
The prose is stunning. There is such a lyrical quality to her writing that makes every sentence a pleasure to read, yet it never feels too much, or too wordy. The stories flow effortlessly, there are moments of tenderness, there are dark themes, and each one lingers in the mind long after you've turned the final page.
Although every story stands perfectly well on its own, together they form a wonderfully cohesive collection. I didn't want to reach the end because I wanted to spend a little longer in each carefully created world.
Wasteland Girls is a collection to savour, one story at a time. Beautifully written, deeply moving and filled with unforgettable characters, it is a wonderful showcase of Anna Bailey's storytelling talent. This is a book I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.
Inspired by the author's experiences of living in the remote American heartlands, each story introduces people whose lives have been shaped by that same isolation, hardship and hope. The characters feel completely real and seem to carry their pasts with them while also trying to find a way forward. It takes real talent to create such depth in so few pages, yet every story feels complete and so satisfying.
The sense of place is simply superb. The author's America is vast and wild, but there is beauty threaded through every landscape that she writes about. Whether set in snow-covered wilderness, forgotten towns or remote communities, each location feels alive, and are as memorable as the characters themselves. I was completely immersed from beginning to end.
The prose is stunning. There is such a lyrical quality to her writing that makes every sentence a pleasure to read, yet it never feels too much, or too wordy. The stories flow effortlessly, there are moments of tenderness, there are dark themes, and each one lingers in the mind long after you've turned the final page.
Although every story stands perfectly well on its own, together they form a wonderfully cohesive collection. I didn't want to reach the end because I wanted to spend a little longer in each carefully created world.
Wasteland Girls is a collection to savour, one story at a time. Beautifully written, deeply moving and filled with unforgettable characters, it is a wonderful showcase of Anna Bailey's storytelling talent. This is a book I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Absolutely one of those times when you’ve loved a book so much it's hard to write the review so I’ll keep it short
Wasteland Girls is an incredible collection of short stories. Intimate and immersive tales set against epic landscapes. Landscapes and places that Anna brings effotlessy and vividly to life with characters you’ll love, characters that’ll give you chills, but defintely characters that you will be invested in.
The writing is on another level - powerful and evocative and poetic - everything I’ve come to love about Anna’s work. I almost ran out of tabs for marking particlualy brilliant lines and passages.
I’m not much of a short story reader as I often leave a story feeling unsatisfied but these are so well crafted. Some stories are more expansive, some quieter but no less affecting. Hard to pick a favourite from the selection but there are a couple I have already went back and read again so special mention to A Long Way to Come for a Sip of Water, Coal Country Beauty Queen and Stray Dogs
One of the easiest five stars I’ll give all year.
Wasteland Girls is an incredible collection of short stories. Intimate and immersive tales set against epic landscapes. Landscapes and places that Anna brings effotlessy and vividly to life with characters you’ll love, characters that’ll give you chills, but defintely characters that you will be invested in.
The writing is on another level - powerful and evocative and poetic - everything I’ve come to love about Anna’s work. I almost ran out of tabs for marking particlualy brilliant lines and passages.
I’m not much of a short story reader as I often leave a story feeling unsatisfied but these are so well crafted. Some stories are more expansive, some quieter but no less affecting. Hard to pick a favourite from the selection but there are a couple I have already went back and read again so special mention to A Long Way to Come for a Sip of Water, Coal Country Beauty Queen and Stray Dogs
One of the easiest five stars I’ll give all year.
August 14, 2026
This collection of short stories that delivers everything you would hope for from the author of the fabulous Tall Bones and Our Last Wild Days.
I will say that short stories are not necessarily a go to for me, finding them a little unsatisfying at times - but these ten stories are so beautifully crafted, so evocative and throw you straight into the story without a word wasted that they manage to pack quite a punch.
Inspired by the author's time in America, this is a set of stories set against the expansive landscape of more remote parts of the country - while each story is very different, they left me with much to ponder about isolation and marginalisation - in all echelons of society - and in just a few pages managed to have genuine emotional impact with some truly memorable characters. Personal favourites - Yukon, 1940 and How To Have Your Children and Eat Them - but so many more linger with me.
I will say that short stories are not necessarily a go to for me, finding them a little unsatisfying at times - but these ten stories are so beautifully crafted, so evocative and throw you straight into the story without a word wasted that they manage to pack quite a punch.
Inspired by the author's time in America, this is a set of stories set against the expansive landscape of more remote parts of the country - while each story is very different, they left me with much to ponder about isolation and marginalisation - in all echelons of society - and in just a few pages managed to have genuine emotional impact with some truly memorable characters. Personal favourites - Yukon, 1940 and How To Have Your Children and Eat Them - but so many more linger with me.
Review of advance copy received from Author
“If there is a wilderness equivalent of homesickness, then I believe I am sick indeed. I think man is unfit to inhabit a world such as this if all he can think to do in it is to make war.”
🌵I love how many of these stories are about motion and travelling great distances through vast landscapes. But they’re also about those moments of becoming stuck, what it means to be surrounded by vastness and unable to move.
🌵 The collection as a whole is an ode to the desert, like wandering from one Georgia O’Keefe painting to the next (bone country, dream country).
🌵 Lovely turns-of-phrase, gritty rural speak, an undercurrent of sarcasm pervading everything as if it were the only way to survive those places and the people in them.
🌵 Enjoyed the queerness, too! how it’s present front and centre or in the seams of storylines.
🌵 “Jack the Devil” by far my favourite story, for the way it sizzles and sparks every time a character opens their mouth, how the darkness in it is threaded with bright light. In a collection that’s almost entirely about the American identity, how tied it is to the landscape, the remoteness of it, and the space it creates between people, that story has so many things to say about the endurance of hope, and how people can reinvent themselves over the course of (numerous) decades.
🌵 Loved the parade if not danse macabre of women holding hands from one story to the next, most of them somewhat broken by life and yet still clinging on by the skin of their teeth. For all that this is a collection with male characters in it, it deserves its title! It’s a fun taking apart of the “girly pop horror” concept. Girls age twenty years underground, they have white hair and seal skins, they murder their husbands and burn down the house, they’re expert trackers (looking at you Margaret), lousy hunters, promiscuous flirts (looking at you Jack), they come in all shapes and forms and can no more be contained than the boundless landscapes around them.
🌵 It’s like if that Cal Flyn book about the survival of nature in devastated landscapes was fiction, and the landscape was a woman. Invigorating!
🌵I love how many of these stories are about motion and travelling great distances through vast landscapes. But they’re also about those moments of becoming stuck, what it means to be surrounded by vastness and unable to move.
🌵 The collection as a whole is an ode to the desert, like wandering from one Georgia O’Keefe painting to the next (bone country, dream country).
🌵 Lovely turns-of-phrase, gritty rural speak, an undercurrent of sarcasm pervading everything as if it were the only way to survive those places and the people in them.
🌵 Enjoyed the queerness, too! how it’s present front and centre or in the seams of storylines.
🌵 “Jack the Devil” by far my favourite story, for the way it sizzles and sparks every time a character opens their mouth, how the darkness in it is threaded with bright light. In a collection that’s almost entirely about the American identity, how tied it is to the landscape, the remoteness of it, and the space it creates between people, that story has so many things to say about the endurance of hope, and how people can reinvent themselves over the course of (numerous) decades.
🌵 Loved the parade if not danse macabre of women holding hands from one story to the next, most of them somewhat broken by life and yet still clinging on by the skin of their teeth. For all that this is a collection with male characters in it, it deserves its title! It’s a fun taking apart of the “girly pop horror” concept. Girls age twenty years underground, they have white hair and seal skins, they murder their husbands and burn down the house, they’re expert trackers (looking at you Margaret), lousy hunters, promiscuous flirts (looking at you Jack), they come in all shapes and forms and can no more be contained than the boundless landscapes around them.
🌵 It’s like if that Cal Flyn book about the survival of nature in devastated landscapes was fiction, and the landscape was a woman. Invigorating!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
A short story is a powerful thing, to deliver emotion, action and a sense of place in such a constrained word count, and give the reader a sense of a satisfying read, only a talented writer can do that well. Wasteland Girls is a series of short stories based on the experiences of Anna Bailey when she lived in the US and are absolutely captivating.
Wasteland Girls offers something powerful, a way to connect to characters you would never ordinarily meet in the course of your life, but that you can relate to in the everyday moments that these characters experience in the wild environments that they inhabit.
I sobbed reading "Riddles" a love letter to hope, faith and staying the course and found How to Have your Children and Eat Them absolutely haunting.
The setting in all of the stories in this collection is a character in itself, a backdrop at times, a thing to be feared and fought in others but always offering the reader an immersive understanding of a sense of place that these characters are living through and beautifully represented.
You can tell that each word in each story has been considered thoughtfully to bring something to the reader. The stories cover a wide range of subjects including strained family relationships, the battle of power and control, giving voice to our innermost desires and exploring identity and the masks we wear for the different stages and relationships in our life.
Absolutely beautiful.
Wasteland Girls offers something powerful, a way to connect to characters you would never ordinarily meet in the course of your life, but that you can relate to in the everyday moments that these characters experience in the wild environments that they inhabit.
I sobbed reading "Riddles" a love letter to hope, faith and staying the course and found How to Have your Children and Eat Them absolutely haunting.
The setting in all of the stories in this collection is a character in itself, a backdrop at times, a thing to be feared and fought in others but always offering the reader an immersive understanding of a sense of place that these characters are living through and beautifully represented.
You can tell that each word in each story has been considered thoughtfully to bring something to the reader. The stories cover a wide range of subjects including strained family relationships, the battle of power and control, giving voice to our innermost desires and exploring identity and the masks we wear for the different stages and relationships in our life.
Absolutely beautiful.
July 30, 2026
I am not usually a reader who would choose a short stories book but I liked the cover and thought I would give it a try. I am so glad I did. These short stories are brilliantly written, transporting the reader immediately to the heart of the story and the character’s lives. I loved the setting of the vast, dry, harsh landscapes of America. The stories that stayed with me the most were
Long Way to Come for a Sip of Water and The Girl in the Ground. What a special skill to capture the essence of a subject and its characters in such a compact way. I am definitely converted to the short stories form when it’s written this well.
Long Way to Come for a Sip of Water and The Girl in the Ground. What a special skill to capture the essence of a subject and its characters in such a compact way. I am definitely converted to the short stories form when it’s written this well.
August 3, 2026
I loved Anna Bailey's novels so couldn't wait to read this collection of short stories.
Anna Bailey is fascinated by huge American empty landscapes with little more than a highway joining a few small towns.
The sort of places where things happen that people don't see, or want to see.
This is stunning collection of stories, her language is poetic even while describing some very unpleasant people and scenarios. The stories are so well constructed they are like mini novels with a similar sense of satisfaction from finishing each one. I enjoyed them all though Yukon, 1840 was a standout.
Anna Bailey is fascinated by huge American empty landscapes with little more than a highway joining a few small towns.
The sort of places where things happen that people don't see, or want to see.
This is stunning collection of stories, her language is poetic even while describing some very unpleasant people and scenarios. The stories are so well constructed they are like mini novels with a similar sense of satisfaction from finishing each one. I enjoyed them all though Yukon, 1840 was a standout.
August 5, 2026
I was kindly sent a free copy of this book as part of a book tour in exchange for an honest review. This was an immensely gripping and surprisingly powerful collection of 10 short stories by Anna Bailey. They span a diverse range of settings, time periods and styles and yet all of them appealed to me and had me immersed straight away. In fact I think all of them I wished had been full blown novels because I felt they were beautifully captured and truly compelling. The writing is masterful and almost poetic at times - each word has been chosen with deliberate care for maximum effect and I cannot wait to read more books by this author. 4.5 stars (rounded up to 5 for Goodreads)
August 6, 2026
Each of these short stories really gripped me, and I wholeheartedly agree with the blurb, these were soulful and beautiful and the descriptions of the setting really brought it all to life.
Short stories can easily feel lacking but these certainly didn’t, each one was full of emotion and content, I loved them all.
A highly recommended read.
Short stories can easily feel lacking but these certainly didn’t, each one was full of emotion and content, I loved them all.
A highly recommended read.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This is a haunting collection of short stories exploring loneliness, grief, and what it means to feel like an outsider.
My standout stories were The Girl in the Ground and Riddles—both stayed with me long after I finished. The thread of isolation running through the collection was genuinely heartbreaking, and Anna Bailey's atmospheric writing made every emotion hit that little bit harder.
As with most short story collections, I preferred some stories more than others, but the writing was consistently beautiful and thoughtful throughout. If you enjoy character-driven, quietly devastating reads with a lingering emotional impact, this one is worth picking up. 🖤
My standout stories were The Girl in the Ground and Riddles—both stayed with me long after I finished. The thread of isolation running through the collection was genuinely heartbreaking, and Anna Bailey's atmospheric writing made every emotion hit that little bit harder.
As with most short story collections, I preferred some stories more than others, but the writing was consistently beautiful and thoughtful throughout. If you enjoy character-driven, quietly devastating reads with a lingering emotional impact, this one is worth picking up. 🖤
August 16, 2026
singlehandedly restored my love of reading
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