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Baby, You're Gonna Be Mine: Stories
“Wildfire Johnny” is the story of a man who discovers a magic razor that allows him to travel back in time. “Scroll Through the Weapons” is about a couple taking care of their underfed and almost feral nieces and nephews. “Signal to the Faithful” follows a boy as he takes a tense road trip with his priest. And “Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine,” the title story, is about a narcissistic rock star who moves back home during a rough patch. These stories all build on each other in strange and remarkable ways, showcasing Wilson’s crackling wit and big heart.
Filled with imagination and humor, Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine is an exuberant collection of captivating and charmingly bizarre stories that promise to burrow their way into your heart and soul.
Filled with imagination and humor, Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine is an exuberant collection of captivating and charmingly bizarre stories that promise to burrow their way into your heart and soul.
271 pages, Hardcover
First published August 7, 2018
432 people are currently reading
4229 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Wilson
18 books4,758 followersKevin Wilson is the author of two collections, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth (Ecco/Harper Perennial, 2009), which received an Alex Award from the American Library Association and the Shirley Jackson Award, and Baby You’re Gonna Be Mine (Ecco, 2018), and five novels, The Family Fang (Ecco, 2011), Perfect Little World (Ecco, 2017) Nothing to See Here (Ecco, 2019), a New York Times bestseller and a Read with Jenna book club selection, Now is Not the Time to Panic, (Ecco, 2022), and Run for the Hills (Ecco, 2025).
His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Southern Review, One Story, A Public Space, and elsewhere, and has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2020 and 2021, as well as The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2012. He lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, with his wife, the poet Leigh Anne Couch, and his sons, Griff and Patch, where he is an Associate Professor in the English & Creative Writing Department at the University of the South.
His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Southern Review, One Story, A Public Space, and elsewhere, and has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2020 and 2021, as well as The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2012. He lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, with his wife, the poet Leigh Anne Couch, and his sons, Griff and Patch, where he is an Associate Professor in the English & Creative Writing Department at the University of the South.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 399 reviews
September 30, 2024
3.5 stars
I fell hard for Kevin Wilson’s Now Is Not the Time to Panic. It’s hard to believe two years have gone by since I somewhat embarrassingly ran around gushing about that novel to anyone that would sit long enough to listen. I promised myself I’d read his backlist straightaway. Here I am, late as usual, but having finished one of those at last. Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine is a book of short stories. I loved the title and the cover – I’m not going to lie. That’s why I picked it up before Nothing to See Here which would probably have been a better choice overall. Not that this was bad! It was unique! The writing is well-crafted and sometimes witty and often dark. Honestly though, I had trouble remembering some of the stories one week after finishing this. I guess that’s the problem with short stories at times. Or, I’ll be honest again, the trouble lies with me lately.
The first story immediately caught my attention when I read this:
“It was almost midnight when my girlfriend got a call from her sister, who had been arrested for taking a kebab skewer at a cookout and stabbing her husband.”
Don’t be fooled, however. It’s not a crime story. It’s more of a domestic tale about a guy and his girlfriend temporarily taking charge of the kids in this dysfunctional family. The narrator of this story struggles between wanting to help his girlfriend with her sister’s kids and wishing to flee. And then there’s the thought that when he has his own kids, it won’t be anything like this messed up situation. Sound familiar?! Of course, our own offspring will be sweet, compliant angels and our marriages like a fairy-tale.
“The deeper you get into this shit, the more you realize that nobody is keeping anyone else from fucking things up.”
A couple of the stories were unsettling. “Wildfire Johnny” was a completely different take on the genie in a bottle sort of tale. I haven’t read Stephen King in years, but it had his vibe, in my inexpert opinion. Some of the selections are about the relationships between adult children and a parent. “A Signal to the Faithful” is about the companionship between a young boy and a Catholic priest. There was an element that was deeply disturbing to me, but not in the way one might assume.
“Edwin knew how to pretend. It was one of the few things he was good at doing, to imagine a world and then take up residence there. To have someone else enter into that same world seemed a gift, or, it being so late at night, a dream.”
The final story was filled with tension and melancholy. In the end it left me confused and troubled. I found that to be a masterful finish to the collection now that I think about it. Kevin Wilson is an author I’ve got on my radar for sure.
“You could live with a mistake only if you made it once.”
I fell hard for Kevin Wilson’s Now Is Not the Time to Panic. It’s hard to believe two years have gone by since I somewhat embarrassingly ran around gushing about that novel to anyone that would sit long enough to listen. I promised myself I’d read his backlist straightaway. Here I am, late as usual, but having finished one of those at last. Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine is a book of short stories. I loved the title and the cover – I’m not going to lie. That’s why I picked it up before Nothing to See Here which would probably have been a better choice overall. Not that this was bad! It was unique! The writing is well-crafted and sometimes witty and often dark. Honestly though, I had trouble remembering some of the stories one week after finishing this. I guess that’s the problem with short stories at times. Or, I’ll be honest again, the trouble lies with me lately.
The first story immediately caught my attention when I read this:
“It was almost midnight when my girlfriend got a call from her sister, who had been arrested for taking a kebab skewer at a cookout and stabbing her husband.”
Don’t be fooled, however. It’s not a crime story. It’s more of a domestic tale about a guy and his girlfriend temporarily taking charge of the kids in this dysfunctional family. The narrator of this story struggles between wanting to help his girlfriend with her sister’s kids and wishing to flee. And then there’s the thought that when he has his own kids, it won’t be anything like this messed up situation. Sound familiar?! Of course, our own offspring will be sweet, compliant angels and our marriages like a fairy-tale.
“The deeper you get into this shit, the more you realize that nobody is keeping anyone else from fucking things up.”
A couple of the stories were unsettling. “Wildfire Johnny” was a completely different take on the genie in a bottle sort of tale. I haven’t read Stephen King in years, but it had his vibe, in my inexpert opinion. Some of the selections are about the relationships between adult children and a parent. “A Signal to the Faithful” is about the companionship between a young boy and a Catholic priest. There was an element that was deeply disturbing to me, but not in the way one might assume.
“Edwin knew how to pretend. It was one of the few things he was good at doing, to imagine a world and then take up residence there. To have someone else enter into that same world seemed a gift, or, it being so late at night, a dream.”
The final story was filled with tension and melancholy. In the end it left me confused and troubled. I found that to be a masterful finish to the collection now that I think about it. Kevin Wilson is an author I’ve got on my radar for sure.
“You could live with a mistake only if you made it once.”
March 19, 2021
[4+] Wilson writes about ordinary people in difficult situations with wit, brilliance and scariness. At times I felt so much tension that I realized I was holding my breath. Wilson portrays his flawed characters with warmth and generosity. These stories are not neatly wrapped or predictable -holy cow - how does a writer even come up with a "Wildfire Johnny?"
I believe I am now a Kevin Wilson completist; I need him to write another book soon!
I believe I am now a Kevin Wilson completist; I need him to write another book soon!
May 24, 2023
Note: If anyone is familiar with the last story, and can answer my question (see below) please do so in the comments. Thanks!
Prior to joining GR, I read Wilson’s other collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, 5 stars. More recently I read two novels, The Family Fang (5 stars), & Nothing to See Here (4 to 4.5 stars).
This book-- Baby You’re Gonna Be Mine--is a collection of ten stories. These are not flash fictions: the shortest story is around 18 pages, several are 35 up to 43 pages. His prose style is straightforward. Kevin Wilson will rarely (never?) pause to dazzle you with a metaphor about moonlight or what have you. (Me, I like that kind of thing--when it fits.)
Only one of these stories was a dud, in my view. One was pretty good. The remainder were very good (four stars) and several were amazing and wildly imaginative--five stars. Overall, call it 4? Maybe 4.5
Some thoughts about each story …
Scroll Through the Weapons
Humorous yet complex. Made me think of his novel, ‘Nothing to See Here’—kids that are quite a load to handle. “The kids were as close to feral as you can get, like animals dressed up in camouflage jumpsuits.”
The last line: “We would make every object a weapon that would protect us from anything that tried to convince us that we would not live forever in happiness.”
Curiously, the first person narrator provides us with no names. I can easily do without a name for the narrator, but every else is “my girlfriend, the first kid, middle kids, oldest girl, their father, their mother …” No big deal but it makes for some unnecessary confusion occasionally, when within a single paragraph there are multiples of ‘he’ and ‘she’ and ‘him’ and ‘her’, and but for the lack of a name, I had to pause to discern which he/she/him/her we were talking about.
Housewarming
Funny + sad. A man copes with his hot-tempered, troubled son. It doesn’t help much that a deer has gone antlers-up, so to speak, in the son’s pond, right before the housewarming party for his cabin. By the time it’s discovered, and dad comes to help out, the deer is bloated, limbs attached tenuously, the water ice-cold.
Wildfire Johnny
What a premise! Absolute genius. No spoiler because it comes up early, the third page (out of 43): A 17 year old stoner finds a magic razor knife that takes you back in time 24 hours. No limit to how times it will do this. Trouble is, you have to slash your throat. You experience the extreme pain, that horrible sense of drowning. But you wake up unharmed, no one remembers what happened, and it gives you a chance to undo things that need to be undone. In a way, the arc this story takes is a bit predictable, but maybe that’s because people are predictable, or those of certain personalities are anyway, and they tend to make predictably poor choices. I kept that in mind, loving every word of this story.
A Visit
A man returns home after his mom is roughed up in a home invasion. Poignant, pitch perfect.
A Signal to the Faithful
A bit of a slow burner, one of the longer stories, 39 pages. At first I thought the opening fifteen pages could’ve been condensed somewhat: an altar boy passes out during services, and it happens again. But the story progresses quickly thereafter, the boy developing a bond with the lonely priest, both having had difficult backgrounds.
Once again, there are zero quotes in the GR library for this book. I might have to add a few. Here’s a couple of quote-worthy lines from this story. (Pg 145):
“Sometimes we’re not suited for the very thing that gives us happiness. So much of life is learning to live with what we’re capable of doing. Time and again, you’ll have to accept what is available instead of what you actually deserve.”
“What comes next will almost always be better than what happened beforehand.”
Sanders For a Night
Single mom with one boy, who says he wants to put on his dead brother’s clothes “and be my brother Sanders for Halloween.” Oh my. If this doesn’t get you close to tears if not bathing in them? You’re a replicant. Always a good thing to know sooner or later.
No Joke, This is Going to be Painful
The only I didn’t care for much. It’s always risky when male authors write in a woman’s first person voice. But when the writer ups the ante and has that character talk crudely about sex, it usually doesn’t ring true to me. Even for a writer of Wilson’s lofty abilities, it seems pretentious.
Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine.
A 36 yr old indie rock musician quits the music biz and moves back in with mom.
Surprise, surprise … it doesn’t go 100% well.
“The thought of Adam going through her kitchen, turning her nights into days, forever present in a house that she had gotten used to being alone in, once again made her nervous. She had not considered the physical presence of him, his body always arranged on a piece of furniture with such apathy and sloth that it seemed barely able to hold his liquid form.”
I liked the little twist that made for a happy ending, although it’s not hard to see this cycle repeating itself anew in the near future.
The Horror We Made
Refreshingly, it’s a story about teenage girls (plus one older brother). Beyond that, just okay. Nice line (probably helpful to mention they’re making a horror movie!):
“You die good, sis,” he told her, and Jess knew for a fact that it wasn’t thing he’d ever said to his younger sister.
The Lost Baby
A grueling premise, a couple losing their baby and not knowing what happened to him. Very good story, though there’s one part I didn’t buy, and another I have a question about. (I’ll be vague, but Possible Spoiler): Speaking privately with Paul, his neighbor had claimed that their own daughter died when she was seven. Never mind that the neighbor was a suspect, it’s enough that they share such a loss, no? Two big, separate reasons to share it, but he never thought to mention it to his wife, the police, to anyone? It’s difficult to believe. Secondly, I do like the ending, and I think I get what’s going on with this kid, but … last paragraph, their phones ring, “and then again, and then again, never stopping”.
WHO is calling them?
Lithub’s Bookmarks is a handy reference. It compiles a selection of professional book reviews, and interprets a rating for each (book reviewers usually don’t do that). This one got 5 “rave” reviews and 3 “positive”. https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/bab...
December 15, 2019
This collection of short-stories holds deep themes in its modest length. Each one is a bit dark with surprising emotions which I loved. Definitely worth checking out.
TITLES
Scroll Through the Weapons
Housewarming
Wildfire Johnny (my favorite!)
A Visit
A Signal to the Faithful
Sanders for a Night (another favorite!)
No Joke, This Is Going to be Painful
Baby, You're Gonna Be Mine
The Horror We Made
The Lost Baby
Audiobook narrated by Kirby Heyborne and Johanna Parker.
TITLES
Scroll Through the Weapons
Housewarming
Wildfire Johnny (my favorite!)
A Visit
A Signal to the Faithful
Sanders for a Night (another favorite!)
No Joke, This Is Going to be Painful
Baby, You're Gonna Be Mine
The Horror We Made
The Lost Baby
Audiobook narrated by Kirby Heyborne and Johanna Parker.
September 22, 2018
A quirky cover, an odd book title, and the contents being humorous, troublesome and bizarre, yet reflective and absurd, all at the same time.
The first page of the opening first short story was both hilarious and unconventional. I laughed out loud at the wit of the author and the outlandish situation that began unfolding at the start. That was probably the most comical; however, each short story is written exceedingly well and is meant to evoke a different set of circumstances, characters, and subsequently, the readers’ reaction to it.
While the author ended the stories with his version of closing I read each story ending thinking, ok, so is that REALLY how it ends? I’d bet there’s a lot more to it afterwards and that’s what I mean about it being reflective. Even though you were finishing reading a chapter, you were still thinking hmm, after all this that went on, did things really tie up that neatly? I highly doubt it.
I enjoyed reading all the stories, though the first one, in my opinion, was the very best and the funniest.
This was my first Kevin Wilson read! I’m going to get his other books now.
The first page of the opening first short story was both hilarious and unconventional. I laughed out loud at the wit of the author and the outlandish situation that began unfolding at the start. That was probably the most comical; however, each short story is written exceedingly well and is meant to evoke a different set of circumstances, characters, and subsequently, the readers’ reaction to it.
While the author ended the stories with his version of closing I read each story ending thinking, ok, so is that REALLY how it ends? I’d bet there’s a lot more to it afterwards and that’s what I mean about it being reflective. Even though you were finishing reading a chapter, you were still thinking hmm, after all this that went on, did things really tie up that neatly? I highly doubt it.
I enjoyed reading all the stories, though the first one, in my opinion, was the very best and the funniest.
This was my first Kevin Wilson read! I’m going to get his other books now.
June 17, 2020
I'm slowly evolving the theory that brilliant Kevin Wilson fills his story collections with those notions that are too ironically bittersweet for his novels.
Nah, Wilson probably wasn't inspired by this Sweeney Todd commemorative model.
So the characters here are Wilson's usual heroes: sad sacks, burnouts, and minimum-wage minions, mostly seeking redemption, sometimes finding it, always surprising, and to me, always worth it.
Personal favorite: "Wildfire Johnny" in which casual racist Trey inherits a magical straight razor. The razor's inscription promises
Nah, Wilson probably wasn't inspired by this Sweeney Todd commemorative model.
So the characters here are Wilson's usual heroes: sad sacks, burnouts, and minimum-wage minions, mostly seeking redemption, sometimes finding it, always surprising, and to me, always worth it.
Personal favorite: "Wildfire Johnny" in which casual racist Trey inherits a magical straight razor. The razor's inscription promises
April 6, 2024
I enjoy Kevin Wilson so much! All his weird storylines are such fun reads and easy to listen to on audio.
March 18, 2018
I am calling right now that this is going to be my favorite short story collection of 2018. Wildfire Johnny, in particular, was amazing. These have a slight nostalgic feel, and a lot of them probe family relationships. They reminded me a little of Wells Tower.
February 15, 2019
DNF @ 44%.
I’m not sure if it’s because I tried listening on audiobook and I’m just not that kind of person, but I really wasn’t digging these short stories. Just not my jam.
I’m not sure if it’s because I tried listening on audiobook and I’m just not that kind of person, but I really wasn’t digging these short stories. Just not my jam.
November 6, 2021
Haunting, disturbing, brutally honest, and even humorous. There is a twisted beauty here. Bachman meets Boyle. Life hands you situations and you just deal with them. You wade through the filthy kitchen, the freezing pond, the blood, dark highways, death, returning home, slumber party movies, and babies. You wade, lackadaisical, into another day, another story, another life.
After reading “Nothing To See Here” I kind of expected humor, darkly, but humor just the same. This may have been opaque. Still, it was good writing and each story held its own apart from the prior or the following.
After reading “Nothing To See Here” I kind of expected humor, darkly, but humor just the same. This may have been opaque. Still, it was good writing and each story held its own apart from the prior or the following.
July 10, 2025
As much as I love Kevin Wilson's novels, I think I like his short stories even more, particularly his first collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth. I've reread that collection, or certain stories, several times, but hadn't revisited this one since it came out. In this collection, the stories are a little longer, darker, and more realistic than his first book. Wildfire Johnny" and "Sanders for a Night" are the two standouts here, with "Scroll Through the Weapons" not far behind.
"Scroll Through the Weapons" The story, and collection, starts off, "It was almost midnight when my girlfriend got a call from her sister, who had been arrested for taking a kebab skewer at a cookout and stabbing her husband." The narrator and his girlfriend go to her sister's squalid house and care for the kids, which causes him to reflect on their future together.
"Housewarming" A very short story about Mackie, a father confronted with his son's anger issues and tendency toward violence.
"Wildfire Johnny" One of my favorites in the collection. A stoned kid, Trey, finds a magical straight razor that lets you travel back in time 24 hours--but only if you slash your throat with it. How and when Trey ends up using this took a direction I wasn't expecting. A fascinating story about living with the lack of consequences, and the privilege that affords you.
"A Visit" The least memorable story in the collection, about a daughter who visits her mother after she was the victim of a home invasion, and her connection with someone from her past.
"A Signal to the Faithful" After an altar boy keeps fainting during Church service, the priest takes him under his wing on a road trip to serve Mass at the priest's mother's funeral. This one doesn't take the expected direction, so the tension of anticipating the outcome permeates the story.
"Sanders for a Night" My other favorite story, about a kid who wants to dress up as his dead brother for Halloween. A lovely story about grief.
"No Joke, This Is Going to Be Painful" A woman with a tendency toward self-destruction moves in with her sister and husband. At a party, an ice fight leads to entanglement with her sister's friends.
"Baby, You're Going to Be Mine" Gina takes in her son, Adam, after his band's equipment is stolen, and has ambivalent feelings about the development.
"The Horror We Made" A group of bored girls decide to make a horror film at a slumber party, with the help of the host's brother.
"The Lost Baby" A couple's baby disappears when the neighbor couple are babysitting. Weird (in a good, Kevin Wilson way) and ambiguous.
"Scroll Through the Weapons" The story, and collection, starts off, "It was almost midnight when my girlfriend got a call from her sister, who had been arrested for taking a kebab skewer at a cookout and stabbing her husband." The narrator and his girlfriend go to her sister's squalid house and care for the kids, which causes him to reflect on their future together.
"Housewarming" A very short story about Mackie, a father confronted with his son's anger issues and tendency toward violence.
"Wildfire Johnny" One of my favorites in the collection. A stoned kid, Trey, finds a magical straight razor that lets you travel back in time 24 hours--but only if you slash your throat with it. How and when Trey ends up using this took a direction I wasn't expecting. A fascinating story about living with the lack of consequences, and the privilege that affords you.
"A Visit" The least memorable story in the collection, about a daughter who visits her mother after she was the victim of a home invasion, and her connection with someone from her past.
"A Signal to the Faithful" After an altar boy keeps fainting during Church service, the priest takes him under his wing on a road trip to serve Mass at the priest's mother's funeral. This one doesn't take the expected direction, so the tension of anticipating the outcome permeates the story.
"Sanders for a Night" My other favorite story, about a kid who wants to dress up as his dead brother for Halloween. A lovely story about grief.
"No Joke, This Is Going to Be Painful" A woman with a tendency toward self-destruction moves in with her sister and husband. At a party, an ice fight leads to entanglement with her sister's friends.
"Baby, You're Going to Be Mine" Gina takes in her son, Adam, after his band's equipment is stolen, and has ambivalent feelings about the development.
"The Horror We Made" A group of bored girls decide to make a horror film at a slumber party, with the help of the host's brother.
"The Lost Baby" A couple's baby disappears when the neighbor couple are babysitting. Weird (in a good, Kevin Wilson way) and ambiguous.
March 13, 2021
A collection of stories that expose various human vulnerabilities.
A simple but effective prose.
without a doubt one of my favorite collections.
A simple but effective prose.
without a doubt one of my favorite collections.
February 29, 2024
A quirky and consistent set of short stories, each one memorable in its own way. In one of my favorite stories, Wilson served nostalgia and cringe at a teenage slumber party. I won’t forget the story about the baby that disappears, the ice fight (like dodgeball but with ice), or the resigned father who knows his angry adult son is beyond saving. Overall a great blend of wit and sadness.
August 16, 2023
This is the 3rd book I've read by Kevin Wilson, and the first of his short stories. I enjoy his writing, and he can often find light in hard topics, but some of the stories in this were brutal.
February 28, 2022
THE STORIES:
“Scroll Through the Weapons” – Excellent. A gritty look at a flock of neglected siblings scraping out an existence while mom and dad are pursuing their own troubles. So well written, I could smell the environment.
5 stars
“Housewarming” – An episode in the life of a middle-aged man who’s still coming to the aid of his good-for-nothing son. Rather sad.
3 stars
“Wildfire Johnny” – Fantastical and inventive story of a shiftless young man who finds a knife which offers him a second chance. Makes you go, hmm..
5 stars
“A Visit” – When Missy is awakened in the middle of the night with news that her elderly mother has had an accident, she immediately drives four hours to see her. What happens in the handful of days she’s there reveal much of Missy’s mindset and outlook. Bleak, but well written.
4 stars
“A Signal to the Faithful” – Some seemingly unrelated events surrounding a period when a young altar boy has unexplained fainting spells during Mass. Just OK.
2.5 stars
“Sanders for a Night” – An incomplete exploration of grief in a family that’s still grappling with the loss of a child.
2 stars
“No Joke, This Is Going to Be Painful” – Dark, but very powerful story of an unemployed woman who lives with her married sister for a time. Exceptionally well written.
5 stars
“Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine” – Though written in third-person POV, we are entirely in the head of Gina, a middle-aged widow coping with her son’s failing career as a musician. In moments of stunning honesty, this story portrays the quiet anguish of parenting grown children. Took my breath away.
5 stars
“The Horror We Made” – Unsettling story of a group of unsupervised teenage girls who enact a slasher movie on home video during a sleepover. Yeesh.
1 star
“The Lost Baby” – When Paul and Meggy decide to leave their 8-month-old in the care of a neighbor couple for an evening, it results in a life-changing disaster. A difficult but “good” read.
3 stars
MY THOUGHTS:
Sometimes I think I should stop reading collections. Even authors I like can’t knock it out of the park every time. Kevin Wilson’s writing is right up my street, and I’m glad to have recently discovered him. But there were a few disappointments in here. Still, I marvel at writers who have such easy command of the short story form, and Wilson sure does.
Mostly enjoyable. The 4- and 5-star stories alone are worth the price of admission.
“Scroll Through the Weapons” – Excellent. A gritty look at a flock of neglected siblings scraping out an existence while mom and dad are pursuing their own troubles. So well written, I could smell the environment.
5 stars
“Housewarming” – An episode in the life of a middle-aged man who’s still coming to the aid of his good-for-nothing son. Rather sad.
3 stars
“Wildfire Johnny” – Fantastical and inventive story of a shiftless young man who finds a knife which offers him a second chance. Makes you go, hmm..
5 stars
“A Visit” – When Missy is awakened in the middle of the night with news that her elderly mother has had an accident, she immediately drives four hours to see her. What happens in the handful of days she’s there reveal much of Missy’s mindset and outlook. Bleak, but well written.
4 stars
“A Signal to the Faithful” – Some seemingly unrelated events surrounding a period when a young altar boy has unexplained fainting spells during Mass. Just OK.
2.5 stars
“Sanders for a Night” – An incomplete exploration of grief in a family that’s still grappling with the loss of a child.
2 stars
“No Joke, This Is Going to Be Painful” – Dark, but very powerful story of an unemployed woman who lives with her married sister for a time. Exceptionally well written.
5 stars
“Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine” – Though written in third-person POV, we are entirely in the head of Gina, a middle-aged widow coping with her son’s failing career as a musician. In moments of stunning honesty, this story portrays the quiet anguish of parenting grown children. Took my breath away.
5 stars
“The Horror We Made” – Unsettling story of a group of unsupervised teenage girls who enact a slasher movie on home video during a sleepover. Yeesh.
1 star
“The Lost Baby” – When Paul and Meggy decide to leave their 8-month-old in the care of a neighbor couple for an evening, it results in a life-changing disaster. A difficult but “good” read.
3 stars
MY THOUGHTS:
Sometimes I think I should stop reading collections. Even authors I like can’t knock it out of the park every time. Kevin Wilson’s writing is right up my street, and I’m glad to have recently discovered him. But there were a few disappointments in here. Still, I marvel at writers who have such easy command of the short story form, and Wilson sure does.
Mostly enjoyable. The 4- and 5-star stories alone are worth the price of admission.
May 15, 2018
I have so far loved everything I have read of Kevin Wilson's, but I have especially loved his short fiction. Tunneling to the Center of the Earth was full of somewhat odd situations (sometimes even a little bit magical) that are dealt with by ordinary people. Families are always at the center. This collection is no exception.
Baby, You're Gonna be Mine is compulsively readable, often truly funny, but also full of longing, family conflict, loss, love and uncertainty. They are usually not neatly wrapped up, which I think is part of their strength. In one story, a child desperately wants to dress as his dead brother for Halloween despite his mother's forbidding it, just so the other kids at school know what he looked like. In another a couple is forced to watch their four wild nieces and nephews who live in utter squalor, while the kids' parents deal with hospitalization and jail time from an injury one inflicted on the other. Several of them are completely implausible, but believable in their emotion.
I think my favorite story was Wildfire Johnny, where a young man finds a razor that will allow him to travel back in time 24 hours, fixing all mistakes he has made or tragedies that have happened, if he uses it to slit his own throat. It is so original.
I loved these stories and will happily place them into the hands of any patron who likes heartfelt stories that are a bit offbeat. They made me swoon a little bit.
Thank you to Harper Collins and Kevin Wilson for the opportunity to read it early.
Baby, You're Gonna be Mine is compulsively readable, often truly funny, but also full of longing, family conflict, loss, love and uncertainty. They are usually not neatly wrapped up, which I think is part of their strength. In one story, a child desperately wants to dress as his dead brother for Halloween despite his mother's forbidding it, just so the other kids at school know what he looked like. In another a couple is forced to watch their four wild nieces and nephews who live in utter squalor, while the kids' parents deal with hospitalization and jail time from an injury one inflicted on the other. Several of them are completely implausible, but believable in their emotion.
I think my favorite story was Wildfire Johnny, where a young man finds a razor that will allow him to travel back in time 24 hours, fixing all mistakes he has made or tragedies that have happened, if he uses it to slit his own throat. It is so original.
I loved these stories and will happily place them into the hands of any patron who likes heartfelt stories that are a bit offbeat. They made me swoon a little bit.
Thank you to Harper Collins and Kevin Wilson for the opportunity to read it early.
May 11, 2022
Wonderful book. Very weird but completely unique. In fact, it's one of the most idiosyncratic books of stories I can think of, which is good! The more idiosyncratic the better. Wilson shows tons of heart in these stories, combined with a knowing real world grittiness, and more than a touch of the bizarre. The last story, "The Lost Son," shows all three brilliantly. I have a feeling that Wilson is not for everyone, but then again, a lot of people seem to buy his books! This one would be a good place to start.
January 3, 2019
3.5 stars. A well-written and acutely observed collection of stories, with the first one being by far the best. In fact, it was so good, so darkly humorous and touching, that the rest of the collection suffered by comparison.
July 8, 2024
3.75 | Kevin Wilson has become one of my favorite authors, so I was delighted to discover a collection of short stories from him that I somehow missed (thanks again, Katie!) As with most short story books, some stood out to me more than others. All of them are certainly reflective of his brand of storytelling - modern & realistic with so much feeling and flourishes of truly bizarre, sometimes veering into magical realism. The story to stand out most for me was Wildfire Johnny (one of the strangest time travel stories I’m sure I’ll ever read). Maybe not my favorite short stories ever, but I definitely appreciate anything from the mind of this author.
March 21, 2019
I am not a regular short story reader. They always leave me wanting more or less. This collection felt complete in the oddness, realistic, and not so realistic.
August 27, 2021
really enjoyed this!!! i believe this is the first short story collection i've read and i definitely want to read more of them. i love ambiguous endings and not getting all of the details about characters and their story, just seeing a snippet of their life and that's it. i love how weird yet normal and simple yet complex wilson's writing is. he writes about unusual circumstances, but in a way that makes it seem like nothing is out of the ordinary and the writing, on the surface, is very simple but he handles very complex themes. definitely want to visit the rest of his work.
May 4, 2025
I’ve pretty much LOVED everything I’ve read from Kevin Wilson… up until this collection of short stories. I thought most of them were okay. A few I liked more than others. But for the most part these just didn’t hit me the same way his other stories and books have. And it’s hard for me to explain why. Because they’re similar to his other writing with odd situations, messy family dynamics, and emotion mixed with humor. But at the end of reading this I was left just feeling like…. “meh, okay.”
August 23, 2018
A strong collection of stories about relationships—parent to young child, parent to struggling adult child, child to parent in trouble, sibling to sibling (+nieces and nephews), even priest to young boy (not what you think). I was partial to stories of man/woman relationships that made me think “How on earth did Kevin Wilson come up with this?!”: Wildfire Johnny, in which the protagonist (Mr. Lonelyhearts columnist) is able to slice his throat with a found magic razor and move back 24 hours in time (as many times as he wishes) to correct missteps; and No Joke, This Is Going To Be Painful, in which ice fights among friends (ice fights = throwing ice cubes at each other)—fun for a minute—wreak havoc on marriages.
The last two stories had less impact than all the rest. In The Horror We Made, teen girls and one big brother make a horror film while parents are out, and leave the house a mess. In the closing story, The Lost Baby, a couple’s baby is lost. And possibly found. And I cannot for the life of me explain what really happened.
Strikes me as rare for an author to flit between realistic family drama, near comedy, and fantasy, but Wilson has the skill to do it successfully.
The last two stories had less impact than all the rest. In The Horror We Made, teen girls and one big brother make a horror film while parents are out, and leave the house a mess. In the closing story, The Lost Baby, a couple’s baby is lost. And possibly found. And I cannot for the life of me explain what really happened.
Strikes me as rare for an author to flit between realistic family drama, near comedy, and fantasy, but Wilson has the skill to do it successfully.
October 21, 2018
This is the best collection of short stories I've read since Jordan Harper's Love and Other Wounds, and you all now how I felt about that one! Each one was unique - if there was a through plot, it would be "quirky" or "smart people foolish choices" but both of those things undersell how outstanding each story in this book is.
"Signal to the Faithful" is one of the best short stories I've ever read. About an altar boy who passes out in church, and then is taken on a bizarre road trip to be a funeral altar boy with his priest. How Wilson manages to take the ominousness of a priest taking a young boy on an overnight road trip with his priest, while never saying the unsaid, and how the story actually plays out is just masterful craftsmanship.
In addition, "Wildfire Johnny" is simultaneously a great look at the confusing way white people can deal with race, and a take on the present day dating scene, and a take on being "internet cancelled" plus so much more than that
No more! It will bring spoilers! But if you're a fan of short stories you owe it to yourself to read this
"Signal to the Faithful" is one of the best short stories I've ever read. About an altar boy who passes out in church, and then is taken on a bizarre road trip to be a funeral altar boy with his priest. How Wilson manages to take the ominousness of a priest taking a young boy on an overnight road trip with his priest, while never saying the unsaid, and how the story actually plays out is just masterful craftsmanship.
In addition, "Wildfire Johnny" is simultaneously a great look at the confusing way white people can deal with race, and a take on the present day dating scene, and a take on being "internet cancelled" plus so much more than that
No more! It will bring spoilers! But if you're a fan of short stories you owe it to yourself to read this
December 5, 2023
7/19 - I really enjoy Kevin Wilson's writing, but what I most enjoy about it is the weirdness and absurdity that he leans into so comfortably. This collection had some of that, but the stories were largely set in a world that felt relatively normal, and many of the stories were far more grounded than what I expect from Wilson. To me, that existence (with some exceptions) in the real world felt like an absence of what I look to Wilson for.
All that to say that these are good, well-written stories with deep questions and issues and pathos. I just wanted them to feel more inventive, as well.
12/23 - I liked this more on reread, when I didn't expect the absurd. I think Wilson had a strong thread throughout of children (largely) disappointing their parents and the parents grappling with the people their children had become. The weird was more evident when I wasn't looking for it to be quite so surreal. Still not my favorite of his works, but I'd raise it to 3.5.
All that to say that these are good, well-written stories with deep questions and issues and pathos. I just wanted them to feel more inventive, as well.
12/23 - I liked this more on reread, when I didn't expect the absurd. I think Wilson had a strong thread throughout of children (largely) disappointing their parents and the parents grappling with the people their children had become. The weird was more evident when I wasn't looking for it to be quite so surreal. Still not my favorite of his works, but I'd raise it to 3.5.
November 17, 2018
Probably more like three stars but Wildfire Johnny was worth the price of admission while A Signal to the Faithful and Sanders for a Night were both strong stories as well.
In Wildfire Johnny a young man stumbles on a razor that can transport you back in time 24 hours......if you slit your own throat. Fantastic story.
A Signal to the Fauthful is a story of a young boy who suffers several fainting spells while participating in a church service as an altar boy and the subsequent overnight trip with the priest to help in a service for a member of the priests family.
Sanders for a Night about a boy who wants to dress up as his dead brother for Halloween.
Overall a mixed bag for me but one outstanding story and two strong ones made it worth the read.
7/10
In Wildfire Johnny a young man stumbles on a razor that can transport you back in time 24 hours......if you slit your own throat. Fantastic story.
A Signal to the Fauthful is a story of a young boy who suffers several fainting spells while participating in a church service as an altar boy and the subsequent overnight trip with the priest to help in a service for a member of the priests family.
Sanders for a Night about a boy who wants to dress up as his dead brother for Halloween.
Overall a mixed bag for me but one outstanding story and two strong ones made it worth the read.
7/10
October 3, 2019
One of the best story collections I've read in the past few years. Blisteringly funny at times, compact, unafraid to get relentlessly dark. Just one of those books that make me think, "Damn, I wish could write like this," while also thinking, "Damn, I'll never be able to write like this," while also just appreciating what a great writer Wilson is. Also, the story "Scroll Through the Weapons" totally made two people I know cry, and I'm one of them. Recommended.
February 14, 2019
Man. This dude is a great author--weird, simple, funny, stylish, complex, tender, mystifying...but, at least for these stories (I wasn't too fond of his previous novel), never errant, never wasteful. In two of these stories, the descriptions of grief and personal relationships were so powerful I wept. Great great stories.
December 1, 2019
I greatly enjoyed The Family Fang and am looking forward to reading Wilson's newest novel, and thought I would try his short stories for the first time. I found myself struggling to get through them and don't know if I've overdosed on short stories or if the subject matter and the characters just didn't much appeal to me.
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