This is a fun story collection with a good variety of themes and story lengths. Bertino's writing is as good in these shorter pieces as is it in her full length novel. Some of these stories reminded me of the work of Steven Millhauser or Ray Bradbury, accomplishing excellent character or scene building in very limited space. I look forward to reading more by Bertino.

Short stories can be very hit or miss for me and unfortunately I think this one was a miss. I read it less than a month ago, I'm fairly sure, and I already cannot remember a single one of the stories, and definitely no detail about any of them. Characteristic to Marie-Helene Bertino, I have a vague recollection that they were all written from the perspective of interesting characters, and her writing always seems quite purposeful, but I truly have nothing more to offer to the discourse. I will still be looking forward to her next novel, though.

Thank you to FSG Originals for the opportunity to read and review.

Textured realism and speculative elements are woven together in this collection of stories by Marie Helene Bertino. A woman becomes the steward of her dead father’s pet unicorn. A dead girl emerges from a bowl of peaches and sets off the demise of a marriage. The surreal populates this collection of stories–and yet at their core, these stories are deeply fundamentally what it means to be a human existing with other humans in a strange and trying world.

The stories are always quirky and interesting–sometimes very satisfying emotionally, but sometimes so esoteric that I found it hard to engage. They are best for people who appreciate a certain intellectual, weird whimsy as a vehicle for insight into the human condition.

Some stories felt more like vignettes with abrupt endings. Others lean into fragmented surrealism, leaving questions behind. The Night Gardener was my clear favorite in an otherwise confounding collection. The rhythm of the prose grew on me, and the ideas are striking, but ultimately, I was left scratching my head.

There are some bright moments across these stories, especially in the title story and opening story, "Marry the Sea.," that are inventive on the sentence level and left me hopeful that the other stories in the collection would be equally exciting. However, most of these stories feel barely finished. They flirt with the fantastic but never do anything new with these elements of the unreal. They feel like they are just there in an attempt to make the stories less uninteresting. Nothing here that I haven't seen Aimee Bender and Karen Russell do better.

Exit Zero was an excellent collection. I can see parts of Bertino's writing from Beautyland here. I loved her writing and the stories were quirky and well-written. Perfection!

I love short stories. It is a form that can be tricky to do well as it leaves very little room to hide. Marie-Helene Bertino’s new short story collection EXIT ZERO dazzled me with its strangeness, imagination, and humor. I loved Bertino’s novel, BEAUTYLAND, so jumped at the chance to see what magic she could spin in this shorter form. I am obsessed. So much that in the middle of reading an eARC I went out and purchased it for myself. I don’t want to say too much because her storytelling feels like landing inside this incredible space where magic and reality collide and I don’t want to spoil anything. It captures what it feels like to navigate loss and connection and living in the world.

I have received this short story collection for free as eARC and I write this review voluntarily.

Exit Zero is a fun collection of weird stories. I liked the most but real gems were the last stories. There is no way to figure out endings of any of the stories and some even do not have an ending. Some feel like weird girl fiction and some are like Julian Barnes style. There is no way to fully describe this ingenious collection, but it worths the time and effort for readers of weird fiction and also cosy stories. If you are up to read something extraordinary, Exit Zero is a good selection.

Thanks a lot to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux and the author Marie-Helene Bertino for this chance to read this dreamy story collection.

Any regular reader of my writing will know I love quirk. It’s a particular kind, though: it must be cerebral; odd but not ridiculous or too obvious; and it’s extra nice if it’s something that makes the mundane just that slightest bit weird. This is what Bertino does in these twelve stories, that feature girl ghosts, getting trapped in an alternate timeline (such a great pay-off in this story!), haunted balloons, a blind boy who learns to see but maybe doesn’t need to. It’s all about existential oddness.

It’s this kind of weird, often a bit maudlin (in this case about a budding relationship):
“The boy’s penis had been injured in war and replaced with two orchids that needed different kinds of sunlight. The girl doesn’t want a sexual relationship.”

It’s quirky ideas like this:
“My town’s chief bragging point is: A short drive to everything! But me, I like to walk. Arms akimbo. Toes out.”

Bertino is also very frequently funny. Do you find this unexpectedly funny?
“Sara Rice has cerebral palsy. I assumed because she had a disease she was a nice person, in the way we are all, when confronted by the headlights of death, prioritized. I introduced her to my friends, cooked her a meal from a centuries-old recipe. Sara Rice belittled my interests, hit on my boyfriend, ripped off my front bumper with her bare hands. I asked why she did it. She said she wanted to see if she could.”

Or how about:
““How was Saturn?” James says.
“Great,” I say.
“It was?” He sounds suspicious.
“So great.”
“You’re lying,” he says, trembling. “You didn’t go.”
“I did,” I insist.
“I know you didn’t,” he says. “I gave you the wrong directions.””

If you giggled a bit, then you’re the right kind of reader, and you should pick this up.

Readers of Bertino’s previous novel, *Beautyland*, will know she has a real way with words, a precision and beauty:
“His bedspread, a halfhearted floral, is perforated by an array of precise divots, as if it has recently been the resting place for a constellation of stars.”

This collection is like a mid-afternoon walk through a series of dreams, a kind of here-and-not-here-ness. Fantastic. She’s my very favourite kind of writer.

Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for early access.

Thank you to NetGalley and FSG for the ARC


This short story collection was EXCELLENT. I haven't had this much fun reading in a while, and I'm so glad I picked this up. The writing is controlled and hilarious, and the characters feel so real despite only being with them for 20 pages or so. I muttered to myself "this is what a short story collection is SUPPOSED to be" at least 39 times throughout reading this, and now I'm ready to read everything else Marie-Helene Bertino has written.

Marie-Helene Bertino employs her same distinct flavor of magical realism to the short story collection Exit Zero as she did in her previous novel Beautyland, and that's a good thing because I can't get enough. I just really like her writing and storytelling! Sometimes laughably absurd, oftentimes deceptively casual in tone, always effortlessly poignant.
If I had to nitpick, I'd say the collection starts strong but drags in the middle, before it picks up again at the end.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Exit Zero contains twelve delightful stories that will surprise and charm you! Again, Bertino dazzles us and I will read anything that she writes. My favorite was the unicorn tale, I am still thinking about it. I recommend this to anyone who appreciates a fever dream vibe in their stories.

I am so grateful to live in a time when I can read Marie-Helene Bertino's short stories. Her first collection was my first experience with her brilliance, and this collection (along with her glorious novels!) solidified her as one of my absolute favorite contemporary fiction writers. ALL THE STARS FOR EXIT ZERO!

I expect this book to be sort of Mariana Enriquez's The Dangers of Smoking in Bed. But instead, I got it little bit confusing to understand the end of some stories.

Don't worry, I enjoy the book. Marie-Helene Bertino is an author I have just discovered because of this eARC. Thank you NetGalley!

I've been a huge fan of Marie-Helene's work and I was super excited to be approved for an eARC by NetGalley for this! This was as strange, lovely, and amusing as I had dreamed and hoped for. I can't wait to read the next book!

A culmination of wonderful short stories, eerie and poetic, raw and gripping, Exit Zero gave me a wonderful time floating in a transitional realm of blurred out realities and possibilities. An essential piece of work for those who love short stories. I'm pretty sure they'll love it!!!

I have made it no secret that I absolutely adored Beautyland last year and this one ended up being every bit the story collection I would have expected from Bertino with this title. Bertino has a unique way of figuring out the core of her characters and conveying them in a way that resonates emotionally all delivered through dry wittiness. While the topic and themes change, each one of these stories left me with a sense of inevitable loss and loneliness, but the aftertaste isn’t sad, it’s more hope tinged with melancholia. I loved the imaginative supernatural elements that made their way into the stories from a unicorn to haunted peaches. With some of the stories, I craved a bit more length and more space to explore the minds of her characters, unpack everything and get into the stylistic rhythm more. The titular story was probably my favorite, but I enjoyed this one as a whole in its poignant absurdism.

Exit Zero: Stories by Marie-Helene Bertino is a collection of mystical realism stores by the author of Beautyland. I was very excited to see this book come up for review, and unfortunately, after reading Beautyland it did not live up to my personal expectations. The stories themselves were inconsistent where I loved some and most were just ok.

The narration by Adenrele Ojo was lacking for me. I found I DNF’d the audio book and because I was given an eBook as well, completed it in that format, and that was a much better experience.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and Farrar, Straus and Giroux | FSG Originals for the opportunity to listen to this ALC and read the eARC. All opinions are my own.

Book Rating: 3 stars
Audiobook Rating: 2 stars
Pub Date: Apr 22 2025

Tags:
#DreamscapeMedia
#ExitZero
#FarrarStrausAndGirouz
#MarieHeleneBertino
#AdenrekeOjo
#YarisBookNook
#netgalley

I accidentally requested this book in ebook and audiobook format, and was granted access to both - and I’m so happy that happened! I started this book first with the audio version, and was so put off by the voice of the narrator, that I thought I hated the stories! But, upon giving it another go in the ebook format, I discovered that couldn’t be further from the truth. I truly enjoyed these stories. I’m not usually a lover of magic and whimsy, but it just worked for these stories. I especially loved the one about the unicorn left to the grieving estranged daughter. Reading these stories, I could have gone in completely blind, and I’m certain I could have guessed accurately who the author was. Bertino has such a distinctive voice. Exit Zero was a pleasure to read.

Such fun, engaging, weird stories in the best way! I'm just getting into short stories, and this book does an excellent job of grabbing your attention, keeping it and having a satisfying end, 4.5 stars!