Valérie

“A powerful story of love, both transcendent and tangible.”

“Bel fashions beautiful prose, punctuated, in the novel’s fringed spaces, by her own poetry leaking love and despair in equal parts. The characters themselves are delicately fleshed out, their bond throbbing with undeniable chemistry, in a true testament to Bel’s efforts-defined in the afterword-at writing a love story plagued more by internal conditioning than one beset by external obstacles.” - Book Life (from Publishers Weekly), Editor’s Pick

“Bel is a lovely stylist, and her prose sparkles with surprising and memorable imagery: Discarded socks are ‘tartan croissants’; cemetery steps are ‘slug-snotted.’ The dialogue crackles as well… The book threads the tricky needle of neither taking itself too seriously nor allowing its characters to become caricatures of young Parisians. This narrative is brief, but the feelings it contains are deep.” - Kirkus Reviews, ‘Get It’ Pick

“Zoe Marie Bel’s ‘Valérie; or, Red Velvet Nothing’ is a story that lingers long after the last page, not because it ties everything up neatly, but because it dares to sit in life’s complications… Valérie’s story is not one of easy answers but of hard-won self-knowledge, and it reminded me that the labels we wear are only parts of who we are. For readers who crave a novel rich with character, culture, and emotional depth, this book is a thoughtful and rewarding experience.” - San Francisco Book Review

Zoe Marie Bel is a writer of fiction and poetry whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Review, Australian Book Review, and more. Zoe’s poetry slimbook Foothills is in bookstores now; her poetry slimbook Stolen Neon will follow in February 2026. Zoe lived for three years in Paris, and wrote her debut novella Valérie (or, Red Velvet Nothing) while there. Her second novella The Fifty List will publish in November 2026.