Twelve short stories by the author of Beautyland. In their unique (unsettling) way and through her distinct brand of magic realism and the supernatural, these stories try to answer the big and small questions of life, death, and the beyond. I’m reviewing this for Strange Horizons and will definitely update this with a review link whenever it goes live. As with any collection, I adored some stories, liked others, and didn’t enjoy the remainder, but on the whole I’m a huge fan of Bertino’s writing style with its sharpness, its keen observations of humanity and what we say and don't, and the way she finds the surreal in the mundane.

Marie-Helene Bertino's writing is simply incredible.
I read one of her previous works - a novel titled Beautyland - last summer for a bookclub and it was beautiful, heartbreaking, and so brutally honest in a way that felt unraveling and mind breaking.
Exit Zero is the same. Every story gets you to quickly fall in love with the characters, their world and circumstances, and then punches you in the gut with such powerful writing that feels like an emotion is being ripped open so you can fully witness it, so you cannot avoid it. Whether it's grief (for a lost one, a lost love or a lost sense of self), love (for a partner, a family member, yourself), or any nuance of both, Bertino's words hit so poignantly I had to take many breaks because I was feeling such deep sadness.

Highly highly highly recommend (and this is coming from someone who does not like short stories and finds them unbelievably hard to care about in such short length).

Marie-Helene Bertino's talent is unparalleled and I cannot wait to read what she writes next.


Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux | FSG Originals for the opportunity to read this ARC. This amazing short story collection comes out on April 22nd, 2025.

When I was 15, I joined a program at my school that let me attend a nearby community college instead of high school while receiving credit for both. I went from being surrounded by an endless parade of teenage cliques and venomous social circles that all seemed to ignore me in equal measure to a reality where I was surrounded by people of all ages and all backgrounds mingling as if it was just the most normal thing imaginable.

The first course that I signed up for was very plainly called “Creative Writing”, but even that stark description felt light years ahead of the types of English classes offered by my high school that felt like they doubled as prison sentences more than being an exploration of literature, writing or language. The instructor of my new class was a short man with cigarette-yellow stains on both his greying moustache and his fingertips, that favoured the plaid stylings of some decade before my own time. He carried the kind of small, open-ended leather case that made it easy to see a mess of papers overflowing in every direction and a stack of worn-out books with an endless amount of post-it note annotations jutting out from what looked like every single page.

The majority of my writing class was made up of adults that were coming back to school after more than a decade away from their own graduations, while the rest had just finished high school and were simply taking the next step before applying to a university or choosing a vocation. In other words, for pretty much everyone outside of myself, this was a blow-off class; a stepping stone that all of them would likely have preferred to leap over on their way to a diploma. They barely wanted to be there to begin with and after the first ten minutes of that opening class, you could sense that feeling deepen into something almost antagonistic, something tense and unforgiving.

Our instructor was a man of few words, but the words that he did speak, he chose carefully and dictated them with an emphasis that clashed with the surroundings of our campus. It gave him a sort of awkward cadence, much like that of a Rankin-Bass villain explaining their next plan to inflict evil upon some unknowing entity. His conviction to his position and his love of the written word was obvious in that way that lends to easy criticism from those that seek out the easy targets of the world. After years of suffering through English classes taught by disinterested baseball coaches that the school needed on their payroll, I was enthralled by each word that spilled from his mouth. He instructed us to read the first entry from what was to become our main textbook, that year’s edition of The Best American Short Stories. It was story that followed an unnamed protagonist as they are led on a comprehensive job orientation at an office where something discomforting is clearly lurking under the well-managed and clean facade being presented to the new employee.

That first short story didn’t divide the class, but instead it united them in open arms against our instructor. During the next session, the air in the room was rank with bitter complaints that the story didn’t make sense, that it didn’t go anywhere, that it was pointless, that it was creepy, that it was unsettling and so on. He weathered all of these criticisms with a blank look on his face and then announced that I was the only one in class that hadn’t said a word or offered my opinion on the story. To this day, I don’t remember what I said in that panicked, on-the-spot moment as I told the class why I felt like “Orientation” was beyond brilliant and like a wake-up call to my senses, but I will forever remember the smile that crept over his face as he simply replied to me, “Yes, you nailed it.”

In 2024, Marie-Helene Bertino released a novel titled Beautyland that promised the story of a girl growing up with the belief that she exists as an alien sending communications back to her home planet reporting on humanity and all of its eccentricities. It’s a concept that many authors would have tackled and either revelled in the hilarity of potentials for misunderstanding or wallowed in the disbelief that we as humans so willingly cause each other pain in so many unique ways. Beautyland chose a different path and its central character experienced the wealth of human experience and emotion in ways that left me shouting “YES!” to an empty room as I read or cowering in the corner of my bedroom as I desperately kept reading while hoping for a resolution that took away the sinking feeling in my stomach as I worried for, adored and felt proud of her experiencing this thing we call life. As I handed a copy of Beautyland to a family member this past Christmas, I said, “You love coming of age stories? Well, get ready for the ultimate one.”

Short stories are a notoriously difficult place to work in as a writer. You aren’t given the space to spread your proverbial legs and take your time to get to the point somewhere in the 491st page of your almost never-ceasing tome. The impact needs to be felt almost immediately and has to grip the reader for several pages before it drops you off a cliff and walks away without a single thought or regret for where you land. As I crept into the first pages of Marie-Helene Bertino’s new collection of short stories, Exit Zero, I was assaulted by “Marry The Sea”, a story told in short vignettes that all appear disparate and disjointed until the moment you grasp the fabric that connects them. It’s creepy, it’s unsettling, it’s Lynchian and it’s astonishing. It’s the first story from my community college creative writing course all over again and it’s glorious in it’s execution and it’s impact.

Bertino has a gift for writing almost like she is actually an alien, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. Where most writers would look at a scene and approach it head on, she sneaks up on the sides and finds a way to describe things inside of a story that would normally feel unapproachable while also highlighting the multitude of smaller stories hidden inside of the larger one at play. For decades, people have marvelled at how much Hemmingway was able to say by not saying anything in his infamous six word short story, but Bertino deserves credit for the sheer amount of life and world-building that she is able to cram into just a few short pages. Not only could I visualize all of these characters and their surroundings, but I was left with an intense feeling of loss when my time with them had ended.

From the story of the septuagenarian divorcee that steals a painting of a famous singer in her first act of unmarried defiance to the story of the young woman stuck in a never-ending Groundhog Day style loop of one specific twenty-seven minute episode of Cheers (featuring the most chilling moment I’ve read in a book in years thanks to Frasier Crane and his priest from season two of Fleabag awareness of the fourth wall) to the tale of a woman making her way to her friend’s coffee shop as her ex-partners rain down from the sky and crash to the ground around her, Bertino’s stories relish in a surreal playfulness that straddles the line between what feels possible and what feels like something from a dream that you can’t seem to wake up from.

But no matter the level of humor or the often unavoidable feelings of anxiousness that each of the stories featured in Exit Zero conveys, Bertino is supremely adept at finding the heart of each of her characters and exploring the unanswered questions and the tears at the mental and emotional seams that plague each of them. In fact, it was one simple line at the end of one story (”When did you cut your hair?”) that left me completely unmoored and found me taking more than a day to recover from the way it pushed me off balance. I dare anyone to read the title story from this collection, a tale of a woman cleaning the house of her recently deceased father, and not come away a different sort of person than were before.

The joy and ache that one feels from being allowed the company of Bertino’s words might only be able to be described aptly enough by the author herself: “Is life very fragile or very resilient?” Writing that has the ability to produce this sort of profound effect in its readers deserves to be celebrated and I am certain that I will be championing the words that Marie-Helene Bertino arranges and expresses so beautifully for the rest of my own time as someone that has always felt out of time and out of step with this plane of existence.

Thank you to both NetGalley and FSG Originals for the chance to read and review an advanced copy of this extraordinary work.

This is another winner by Marie-Helene Bertino. I enjoy her work so much; there is a surreal vibe that she does so well. This collection manages to be eerie and also funny - a smart and entertaining combination. I especially appreciate how she links characters together and highlights the interconnectedness of humanity.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance e-galley; all opinions in my review are 100% my own.

Like most short story collections, this was a mixed bag. The stories primarily revolve around people who feel disconnected from the world or other people. There is a woman who must take care of her late father's unicorn, a woman who travels through New York City holding a painting, a woman who receives messages from balloons that float into her garden, and a woman who stops aging and must learn how to live anonymously. These are just a few of the fantastical scenarios the characters in these find themselves in.

Bertino is a whimsical writer, and when the stories worked, they worked. However, some were a little too experimental for me to understand. I think if you have enjoyed Bertino's other work, including her most recent novel, Beautyland, then I would recommend checking out this collection.

My all time favorite author. Uncanny, eerie, genre defying, heartfelt, bizarre, laugh out loud funny. These stories scratch an itch I can’t reach—so satisfying and luminous.

WOW. This short story collection is so digestible and full of wonder. Each story left me wanting a little bit more from it, but also satisfied with how it had ended. My favorite was the titular story, Exit Zero, but they are all wonderfully written. I like the call back to the first story in In the Basement of Saint John the Divine. Just stunning prose. I am very grateful to have been gifted an e-ARC of this by FSG! I will definitely be buying a physical copy for my shelves!

As a huge fan of Marie-Helene Bertino’s *Beautyland*, I was excited to read her latest collection of short stories, *Exit Zero*.

Like her previous work, Bertino’s writing is both inventive and emotional. She skillfully blends observations of everyday life with elements of magic and humor, all while exploring themes of human relationships and personal identity.

The twelve stories in this collection are whimsical and lyrical, featuring relatable characters. Bertino experiments with various storytelling forms, highlighting the weirdness and beauty of humanity and our connections with one another.

I highly recommend these creative, emotional, and humorous stories. Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux, as well as NetGalley, for providing this advance review copy.

Bertino has such vibrant, likeable voice. She’s a great storyteller with clever ideas—maybe sometimes it feels like those ideas aren’t seen through to their full potential, but I enjoyed the short journey anyway.

As with most short story collections, some offerings were stronger than others, but there were none that I disliked. I can see this being a bit difficult of a collection for some readers to get into, but if you enjoy weird little stories like I do, you’re definitely not going to want to miss this.

BEAUTYLAND was one of my favorite books of this year, so I was excited to see Bertino's off-the-wall style show up in her short stories. That said, most of the pieces fell short for me, either in the follow-through of a cool premise or a rambling narrative that was hard to follow. The writer's imagination is wonderful, so I'll always pick up something she's written; just a little disappointed in the underdevelopment of this collection. Thank you for the chance to give it a shot!

These eerie stories explore loss and loneliness primarily through interactions with others. There were stories that pleasantly reminded me of Cult Classic and One's Company. In each of the short stories, the prose is well-crafted.

Yet, the stories themselves all felt they had something missing. Many of the stories felt incomplete, or closer to a writing prompt. For example, the (very funny) lines, "He was a retired electrician with no history of whimsy. What was he doing with a unicorn?" are a great premise for a short story, but the resulting plot and character arc fell flat for me.

My favorites were "Edna in Rain," "The Night Gardener," and "Can Only Houses be Haunted?" This collection is ideal for short-story readers who enjoy strange situations.

Bertino tackles heavy themes like grief, estrangement, divorce, and disconnection with the winning charm and dry wit that made her 2024 novel Beautyland such a standout. Her writing is both funny and emotionally resonant – brimming with life, verve, humor and heart.

The stories run the gamut of topics and it was amusing to see simple setups veer so wildly off course. In “Can Only Houses Be Haunted?,” a bickering couple finds that the peaches they bought from a roadside farm stand are haunted by a malign spirit. In “Exit Zero,” my favorite of the bunch, a daughter inherits a house from her estranged father – along with an unenthused, flatulent unicorn living in the backyard. Some stories, like “Edna in the Rain,” in which a woman’s ex-boyfriends literally rain from the sky, end abruptly or feel undercooked. But the majority are satisfying – both absurd and poignant in different ways.

Not for me! I liked Bertino's novel, Beautyland, but the aspects that weren't my favorite in the novel were amplified in this collection. The aspects in question: "quirky" literary fabulism and unearned sentimentality. It felt very Mad Libs, as if each story chose one life or relationship problem and one magical element at random out of a hat, all with a tone that clobbers you with sincerity and likes to make cute new verbs out of nouns. That said, just because I wasn't charmed doesn't mean other people won't be. It's a good collection if you're looking for a sunnier Kelly Link, Aimee Bender, or Karen Russell.

Exit Zero is a short story collection I found to be good overall, though some stories stood out to me more than others. What really shone throughout the collection was the writing. The author’s style is captivating, and it’s made me eager to pick up her full length novel, Beautyland!

Among my favourites was Mary the Sea, a story about the interconnectedness of everything and everyone. The way the narrative unfolded, paired with the beautiful prose, drew me in completely. I found myself underlining paragraph after paragraph—which is always a good sign!

I also liked Edna in the Rain, a quirky and offbeat story where Edna’s ex-boyfriends literally rain from the sky. It felt a bit rushed, but was still a memorable read. Other stories I enjoyed were Flowers and Their Meanings and The Night Gardener, which both had their own distinct charm! I don't want to give too much away on those, I think they're best going in blind.

While not every story resonated with me, I really enjoyed the author's writing overall and I’m curious to see how this translates in her longer work!

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for a copy in exchange for an honest review!

Marie-Helene Bertino has done it again. "Exit Zero" is an absolute delight to read, and in true Bertino fashion each story is weirder than the next.
She is a master of the fabulist genre and this collection is not exception. It's definitely a must read.

Thanks so much for the review copy! I really enjoyed each story but did wish each story was a little longer. Personal preference really so don't let that deter you from reading. Overall a great read and some of the stories really stand out over the others.

3.5/5
Thanks to FSG for the digital ARC. Not as strong as Beautyland but there were still some wonderful short stories that I wish were a bit longer. Viola in Midwinter i would have gladly read a full length novel about because it was a wonderful and weird vampire story. Think it's more of a personal preference where I am enjoying longer books as opposed to short stories these days. Definitely worth a try if you liked Beautyland or other of her previous works.

Beautyland was one of my favorite reads of the year and I was so excited to see this collection of short stories was available to request - I’ll happily read anything the author writes. I adored the writing, world building, and strangeness.

I especially loved Marry the Sea, Edna in Rain, Exit Zero, and Flowers and Their Meanings, and Viola in Midwinter.

Thank you very much to FSG and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

Another hilarious entry from Marie-Helene Bertino!

These stories are small miracles. Bertino is entirely at home in the short story form--all the wildness of her novels compressed into a story, over and over again. I loved living in all these worlds. I need another collection ASAP.

Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley.

I really enjoyed this short story collection. I wasn't aware of this author, but now I will seek out her work. I would definitely recommend this book to my fellow readers.