This review is coming a bit late. I read The Accidentals back in March and was blown away by how much I enjoyed this short story collection.
There are no bad stories in this collection.

The Accidentals has 8 engrossing, genre bending short-stories that carry a disquieting dread. Nettel writes about mundane experiences that are suggestive of more uncanny and nefarious circumstances.

Her writing is or in this case the translation is sharp and precise.

I can't wait to pick up more by her.

Thank you to Bloomsbury USA and Netgalley for an advanced reader's copy of The Accidentals.

First published in Spain in 2023; published in translation by Bloomsbury Publishing on April 29, 2025

Guadalupe Nettel is a Mexican writer best known for the novel Still Born. This is her third collection of short fiction. Most of the stories are set in Spanish-speaking countries. Characters are generally living with discontent or fear as they struggle to cope with the uncontrollable events that shape their lives and the secrets that burden their families.

My favorite entry is “Imprinting,” if only because it packs the surprise of an O. Henry story, albeit with a dark ending. Antonia skips her college classes to accompany a friend who is visiting her sick mother in the hospital. As Antonia walks through the halls, she notices her uncle’s name on one of the doors. She has no clear memory of her uncle but knows that other family members refuse to talk about him. She drops into the room and, while growing close to him, begins to visit every day. The shocking ending allows the reader to deduce the reason why the family wants nothing to do with Frank.

A surprising revelation about family is also at the heart of “Playing with Fire.” The narrator asks herself “if I really knew these two boys who I had given birth to and raised so carefully for years.” When she goes on a camping trip with her disgruntled sons and angry husband, she learns that she doesn’t know any of them as well as she thought she did.

Another story that relies on surprise is “The Fellowship of Orphans.” An adult woman recalls her days in an orphanage, including the warnings the orphans were given about the risk of disappearing in Mexico City if they were to wander off. Walking through a park, she sees a poster with a photo of a missing man. After she spots the man, she calls the number on the poster and learns from the man’s mother that the man she saw is indeed the woman’s son. The woman says she will come to see him, but what happens next is not what the narrator expected. The story doesn’t pack the emotional punch that Nettel likely intended, but it sends a message about familial love — or the consequences of its absence.

“Life Elsewhere,” my second favorite in the collection, tells the story of a man who, after drama school, abandoned his hope for a theatrical career and settled into marriage. He disagreed with his wife about their choice of apartment — she preferred the one with better light, he liked the one in a more interesting building. His choice is rented before they can decide. He later finds that the apartment he wanted is inhabited by an actor he knew in school. Drawn to the apartment more than to his acquaintance, over the course of time and to his wife’s dismay he “began turning into just another member of the family.”

“The Pink Door” is a “be careful what you wish for” story. As is true of most such stories, it relies on something akin to magic to deliver its lesson. An aging man with a controlling wife enters what he believes to be a house of prostitution that suddenly appeared in his neighborhood. The business instead sells him sweets that change his life, making him realize that wished-for changes come with unanticipated consequences.

Three other stories are less appealing. A thousand-year-old monkey puzzle tree in a family’s yard was a source of pride until it became infected by a parasite and lost its leaves and branches. The father believed that the tree held the family together and despaired of the family’s future. “The Forest Under Earth” is built upon predictable comparisons of root systems to family connectedness, but the story goes nowhere.

“The Accidentals” compares the albatross to migrants who flee dictatorships but yearn to return home, an “accidental” being the name given to an albatross that strays from its usual migration route and ends up in an unfamiliar place, mating with an albatross it wouldn’t otherwise desire simply because it is the only available choice. Like “The Forest Under the Earth,” the author’s chosen metaphor is a bit too obvious.

“The Torpor” imagines a permanent pandemic. A couple fled from urban enforcement of social isolation restrictions to join a commune in the woods, then decided they needed the relative comfort of urban living when the woman became pregnant. The story has some imaginative touches of world building in a lasting pandemic but the woman’s vacillation between staying or leaving after returning to the city lacks an emotional punch.

Five of eight successful stories is a decent batting average for a collection. While the volume lacks a home run, it doesn’t have any strikeouts. Her sharp prose alone makes Nettel a writer worth reading.

RECOMMENDED

Thank you soooooo much at @bloomsburybooksus for the e-copy of The Accidentals by Guadalupe Nettel, Translated by Rosalind Harvey.

I squealed when I was approved for the book. It’s been one of my favorite books that I’ve read this year. I LOVED IT!! I finished it in a day and a half and that’s because I stopped myself since I really wanted to enjoy each story to its fullest but they’re hard to put down. I feel like this book was written for me!!! I love stories that deal with sadness, isolation, the unknown, nature and magical realism. On top of that it has Guadalupe Nettel’s beautiful writing and Rosalind Harvey’s amazing translation of it.

My top three stories were:
-A Forest Under Earth ( it reminded me a bit of The Giving Tree)
-The Accidentals ( loved how the connection of the albatross to her friend who had migrated from Uruguay to Mexico)
-The Pink Door- (love the lesson that the husband learned)

So please read this book because I need more people to talk about it!!! If you haven’t read a book by Guadalupe Nettel, what are you waiting for!! She’s amazing!

The Accidentals by Guadalupe Nettel is a collection of 8 short stories. The stories tend to have some surreal element or an element of magical realism, which is typically a preference of mine in short fiction. And all of them left me with an uneasy almost hollow feeling, which oddly enough was enjoyable.
There are a few stories that stood out to me as particularly memorable, those being The Pink Door and A Forest Under Earth. The Pink Door has such a classic feeling to it, like The Monkey's Paw, while also being brilliantly original -- it felt like a vibrant and unsettling place to be! A Forest Under Earth, likewise had this looming presence that really emanated from the page. Not all stories struck me so impactfully, but nevertheless, I enjoyed my time.
Something that initially confused me, but then I later came to think of as a feature, was not knowing the genders of the narrators until getting a bit of the way into each story. Overall this increased the uneasiness and foreignness of each story as it began.
The writing style wasn't my preference -- it felt a bit sparse -- but as a complete package it worked. I recommend for a slightly unsettling time!
Thanks to Bloomsbury USA for the e-ARC!

In The Accidentals, Guadalupe Nettel creates various surreal worlds around belonging or the lack of. I was immediately confronted by the uncharacteristic formatting (or lack of) of the stories. There was no way to immediately tell when one story ended and another began, especially since the stories had mostly open ended final sentences. With some stories, this formatting error worked, with others, it took maybe an entire paragraph to realize I was reading a different story. This gave the entire collection a dreamy, half awake quality.

The stand out stories for me were “Imprinting,” “The Fellowship of Orphans,” and “The Pink Door.” “Imprinting” has a slightly incestious undertone to it. In this story, a niece finds a long lost uncle while visiting a friend’s mother in a hospital. The way their conversation flows and that Nettel describes their caressing feels like an Almodóvar movie. It's sensuous but dangerous. It’s one of the stories that I would definitely want to be expanded into a full novel of its own. As a whole, all the stories in The Accidentals are extremely appealing, visually. But a few stories fall flat because you can feel the author pulling back or rushing into the story unfolding. Such was the case with “Playing with Fire.” Overall, the collection was a worthwhile read and the translation from spanish (by Rosalind Harvey) felt mostly natural and concise. The Accidentals is not a lighthearted read per se but its preoccupation with the dark side of the human psyche leans more towards the nightmare of Luis Buñuel’s The Exterminating Angel than any number of gory horror films.

Short story collection exploring grief, loss, longing and family. Beautifully captures the human experience and its kaleidoscope of colours. Well written and translated.

I absolutely loved this collection, Nettel is a true powerhouse in her ability to dip her toes in so many different genres, as well as in her open, accessible, and atmospheric style of writing that makes you want to stop and really think/imagine what exactly it is you're reading and visualizing as a result of it. THE ACCIDENTALS manages to absolutely excel in curating a collection of short stories that tackle themes such as, but not limited to: loneliness, [fear of] the unknown, isolation/estrangement; how are actions define us and how easy it is to blur the boundaries of our lives a a result, etc. All in all, each story successfully works to serve their own specific purpose within the overarching thematic narrative and are all engaging in their own right; because honestly—? There were simply no misses for me, which is really, really rare for an anthology collection. 10000% would highly recommend and can't wait for it to come out officially on pub day!

The Accidentals by Guadalupe Nettel is a deeply absorbing collection of stories that captures the quiet, often unexpected, moments that shape our lives. Each story unfolds with a sense of intimacy, drawing readers into the inner worlds of characters facing change, uncertainty and the weight of unspoken truths.

The writing is both precise and lyrical. She expertly weaves together emotion and observation.The stories feel deeply personal yet universally resonant, exploring the complexities of human relationships with a subtlety that lingers. There’s an undeniable sense of tension running through the collection of stories that make each story pulse with quiet intensity.

It’s a stunning read and Nettel proves again that some of the most powerful stories come from the spaces between what is said and what is left unsaid.

This was fantastic. Of the eight stories, I really enjoyed seven of them, which is a pretty solid collection in my opinion. The topics covered were interesting, and the characters felt real and fleshed out, even with the brevity of the stories compared to a novel. A must-read for fans of quality literature and literature in translation, particularly for those who liked Still Born.

This short story collection follows eight characters who are struggling with loss and looking for connection with the people around them. Each character, story, and their desires for connection, and how they approach it is vastly different. There is a quite lesson in each story that teaches us to listen, be brave, and appreciate what we have. The stories were/are situations that happen to many people, or at least the sentiment of it. My favorite stories we Imprinting, The Pink Door, Life Elsewhere, and The Tapor. All of the stories are beautiful and beautifully written.
This was my first Guadalupe Nettlel read and I absolutely need to read more of her work!

Thank NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the e-ARC!

Guadalupe Nettel’s The Accidentals is a hauntingly beautiful collection that explores estrangement, isolation, and the unknown through the lives of eight unmoored characters. Like an albatross that loses its way, Nettel’s protagonists are thrust into unfamiliar terrain by unexpected disruptions—fractured family ties, mysterious forces, and quiet battles within their own minds.

From a niece uncovering secrets about her exiled uncle to a family navigating the stifling torpor of a collapsing world, Nettel blends the real with the fantastical in stories that are piercing, unsettling, and deeply human. With razor-sharp prose and unflinching insight, The Accidentals is a masterful meditation on the fragility of connection and the resilience of the human spirit.

#bloomsbury #theaccidentals #guadalupenettel