I am going to keep this nice and short (just like this collection!)...Hands down one of the best reads of the year! Each story stood on its own two feet thanks to Bermudez masterful combination of hilarious irreverence and cynical commentary. Well worth a read if you are even slightly disillusioned about…well, anything.

Thank you to NetGalley, A. J. Bermudez, and University of Iowa Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Bermudez's stories are sharp, witty, and speak to the nature of us as we are but hope we aren't. In these stories, we see reflected the myriad ways in which human beings are selfish, ignorant, ambitious, uncaring, oblivious, silent, captive, and needful. As I read through each story, it became almost an obsession to identify the 'culprit' to see who was existing solely for themselves, who was testing limits and boundaries, who was privileged because of race, who cloaked themselves in privilege through socio-economic opportunity and identity, who questioned the need to be selfish, to be jealous, to be resentful and self-absorbed, and who were the very ones to whom the title pointed, yet who do not wish to be identified thus.

I enjoyed these stories and even the very short ones left me with questions and observations: what would you do if you saw your most unattractive self reflected back through words or thought? Could you change? Must you change? and Are these flaws really so despicable? Am I not teachable?

Man, I'm bummed. I really wanted this to be something I loved. I want to sing the praises of an emerging Hispanic writer, I love short fiction, and I love it, even more, when it's got something to say. I will implore you to look up the premise of this short story collection, and if it sounds good to you, pick it up!! There is a lot of good here... so I'll start there. As I said, all the stories have some something to say that goes beyond the story itself. I like that. I liked the diversity and the themes of hispanidad. The biggest problem I had with this was that I just didn't enjoy reading it. There was an element of "too much" to the writing style that put me off. I also didn't enjoy serval of the stories' perspectives... often too on the nose. I would hope to see this author grow into their voice and explore a more nuance way of communicating the themes they want to convey in the future.

Slow short stories to start but the last few were really good. ‘The Train Speaks’ was particularly poignant, only three pages long. I also liked ‘Orphan Type’ of children in a printing workhouse, it was gripping and terrifying but ‘Totenhaus’ was probably my favourite - a story Edgar Allen Poe would have been proud of. #netgalley

This is such a unique collection of short stories! Dark and offbeat, each story offers not just a snippet in time, but a pivot or a turn, a place where something changed and the character moves forward. You get both a sense of conclusion and a wonder about what’s next. Such interesting writing, I particularly enjoyed “Obscure Trivia of the Antarctic” and “Octopus.” I often shy away from short stories, they often feel incomplete, but in this collection the stories are compelling and unexpected. A fantastic debut, I look forward to reading more from Bermudez. Thanks to NetGalley and University of Iowa Press for the advanced copy.

Wow. This is a hidden gem if ever I found one in a collection of short stories. Excellent writing of excellent tales. I really look forward to Bermudez future work.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

Stories No One Hopes Are about Them is a collection of short stories, with various narratives that don't always show the best there is in humans or nature. After reading each story I did concur with the title of the book because of their darkness. They flowed in a way you would think it stories about just one person, author, A. J. Bermudez, did that brilliantly. Not only are they short stories, but the amount of detail that is expressed in the stories makes you feel like you entered an entirely different space, world, and environment.

Stories No One Hopes Are About Them is a thrilling collection. The sentences are fizzy, fast, bright, impeccable, and inventive. And thematically, so many of these stories feel really current, urgent. They're examining what it means to be proximate to money and power--the way these things can be dangerous and unhealthy, but also gorgeous. To travel, to be near glamorous people (even if those people are hollow at the core!) can lead at once to despair and to elation. I love this tension in the writing--danger and beauty intermixed. And I love the writing. A stellar book!