I had a good time reading these stories, but a week later, I can't remember any that stood out. I liked the writing and I liked the author, but nothing really stuck with me. Good for the moment and I'd recommend for short story lovers. Haunting in a very gentle way.

Love this collection of stories. I think that it resonates to a broad audience.
Whether its about isolation, regrets and anything in between it speaks to the readers.

I very much enjoyed reading this! The writing was strong and the story was enjoyable. I recommend it.

Self-Portrait with Ghost is a great short story collection, I loved the different character perspectives. Very well-written and kept me reading.

Loved the uniqueness of this book. Each story was well-written and captivating. Enjoyed reading from the different view points

I have to admit, that I requested this based primarily on the cover, and then once my request was accepted I decided I should try out Meng Jin's debut [book:Little Gods|44890075] before going into this, and I'm very glad I did. Jin has a very unique writing style and it will not work for everyone. Her prose is beautiful but disjointed in a way that makes the narrative feel distant while at the same time invoking so much raw emotion. It's hard to describe, but I am a fan.

As with most short story collections, your mileage may vary. This collection contains 10 stories and I read about 2 per day as that was all my brain could handle. There were several stories that I fully admit to going over my head, but each one made me sit and think upon completion.

This was clearly written during the Trump administration and Covid lockdown. In the early stories, the themes explored concern relationships and intimacy and womanhood and identity and as the collection continues, themes move into isolation and community and climate disaster. The last few stories specifically mention/contain pandemics. IN THE EVENT in particular details a woman who is constantly thinking about different ways the world could end and I needed to go take a walk after that one because her anxiety catastrophizing was too relatable. Other stories I really enjoyed were the titular, SELF-PORTRAIT WITH GHOST, THREE WOMEN, and THE GARDEN.

Overall, I really liked this and know I will be returning to several of these stories again and again. I highly recommend and will definitely be on the lookout for whatever Meng Jin writes next!

Some of the stories work, others don't but the voice and purpose behind it is important. Not something I would seek out, but if I happened upon it, I wouldn't mind.

An incredible set of stories that continues to show how talented and aspirational Meng Jin is. Not only a great writer, but also great in conversation. I can’t wait to see what Jin will write next.

Writing a summary for a collection of short stories as varied as these is not easy! I’ll take a short cut and include part of the publisher’s synopsis.

Written during the turbulent years of the Trump administration and the first year of the pandemic, these stories explore intimacy and isolation, coming-of-age and coming to terms with the repercussions of past mistakes, fraying relationships and surprising moments of connection. Moving between San Francisco and China, and from unsparing realism to genre-bending delight, Self-Portrait with Ghost considers what it means to live in an age of heightened self-consciousness, seemingly endless access to knowledge, and little actual power.

These stories are interesting and each one wildly different. I found some of them more interesting than others but over all they are entertaining and thought-provoking. I can imagine being in an English class analyzing these line by line. There’s a lot to digest!

Thanks to @netgalley and @harpercollins for a copy of this book. It’s out now!

As a short story and anthology fan, I liked this. The stories seems timely as well as well written, and there is a good variety. As always, some were better than others.

"In these times, I've grown tired of my heart, how much feeling it has required, how much feeling. it has. required, and. would much prefer to laugh. But there it is, thumping, thumping."

Self Portrait with Ghost is ultimately a collection about introspection. In a stunning range of stories, ranging from the mundane to the supernatural, Meng Jin transports the reader into the contradictions and the complexities of the female lived experience. The women suspect poisoning, they prepare for earthquakes, they recall formative childhood friendships--all while constantly grappling how to make sense of their perceived world, converging desires, anxieties, truths, and deceptions.

Every premise that Jin presents is an imaginative, intriguingly nuanced yet at its core universal. I often struggle with reading through short story collections, hearing too much of an author's singular voice, but Jin's beautifully crafted narrative language carried me through varied and gripping terrain.

SELF-PORTRAIT WITH GHOST by Meng Jin is a collection of short stories that deal with intimacy and connection, suspicion and mistrust. From China to Manhattan, the characters in these stories seek lasting love, forgiveness for past mistakes, and freedom from their private hells. The stories brush upon race, but focus on the inner lives of the female protagonists, who seem mostly preoccupied with lovers.

The stories were somewhat uneven; there were a few that ended quite abruptly though there were others that held me rapt. In “Selena and Ruthie,” Selena must face her childhood failure during a critical moment in her friendship with Ruthie. In “Suffering,” a widowed woman’s attempt at a new relationship becomes overshadowed by paranoia. The ending story, “The Odd Women,” covers the interconnected lives of three women with unusual powers - powers that warp each woman’s sense of self. There’s an eerie disquiet that permeates these stories, a crumbling of hope or of modernity.

As someone who normally prefers character-driven fiction (which usually requires a novel-length book), I am learning to appreciate good short story collections for how the stories can each hit upon the same themes but from different angles, thus melding into a symphony of exposition. It takes great skill to pull this off. For me, this collection just skirts this line, and only time will tell if it manages to deeply settle in my heart or if the stories will end up being forgettable. The collection carries echoes of Te-Ping Chen’s LAND OF BIG NUMBERS and Kim Fu’s LESSER KNOWN MONSTERS OF THE 21st CENTURY, but felt somewhat less cohesive than either.

If you’re a fan of Meng Jin’s debut novel, LITTLE GODS, (I am!) this is a great chance to immerse yourself in her unique prose and perspective. (And if you haven’t read LITTLE GODS, don’t sleep on it!)

Thank you to @netgalley and @marinerbooks for the chance to review this e-ARC!

"Self-Portrait with Ghost" is such a uniquely jarring compilation of stories; I read this right after "Bliss Montage" and while both contain a collection of short stories written by Asian American female authors, are vastly different in content. Meng Jin's writing takes on a number of different voices and perspectives, alternating across first and third-person narratives, and while it was hard to say that I fully understand any of them, all seem to center on the topic of identity, and how easily outside experiences and people can alter our own.

Stories like "Phillip is Dead", "First Love', and "Suffering" touch on the ways romantic relationships can alter our sense of self - often in ways that are more detrimental than not. Jin also utilizes aspects of fantasy and magical realism in stories like "The Odd Women", questioning the easy we can split ourselves across multiple identities as well as no identity at all. Stories like "In the Event" and "The Odd Women" also allude to the time period she wrote these stories, and the impact natural disasters and pandemics have had on society and the ways we live and interact with others. I found "Selena and Ruthie" to be her most grounded work, a piece which feels more like a coming of age novel that looks at two teenage girls and how their friendship changes after they become adults.

Admittedly, I am the type of person to prefer more concrete stories, but even though I couldn't fully wrap my head around all of these covered, perhaps the best way to describe this novel is in Jin's own words, in the "Self-Portrait with Ghost" story:

“My novel was all about subjectivity... Each character tells their version of reality and the various realities add up to something that looks more like unknowing than a solution.”

This was such a poignant and heart-wrenching set of short stories, each as insightful and wonderful as the last. I really enjoyed how each story had its own individuality, yet it fit in well with the overall theme of the book. Each character and story were well-thought out, and the writing was great.

Some of the stories revolved around deep topics, but I think that it's still relatable to the reader. The feelings of the characters and their emotions aren't feelings and emotions that are foreign to readers, despite the situations that the characters found themselves in, and it was portrayed beautifully. Overall a 4.5 star read for me.

I'm extending my gratitude to Mariner Books and Meng Jin for sending me this Advanced Reader Copy of Self-Portrait with Ghost which is set to publish on July 5, 2022. I chose a great time to read this collection of tales, what with it being May where we celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander voices and also due to the fact that May seeks to highlight short-stories. It was a win-win. These somewhat haunting and intimidating stories detail the author's many interactions with "ghosts" and how they are perhaps -- perhaps not all the time physically but a lot of the time we find ourselves mourning the loss of chance with an old friend or the person you used to be.

Presented with different outcomes, but similar themes of loss, understanding, and growth, Meng Jin takes the reader on a ride through what it feels to live and overcome uneasy encounters being of the Asian-American background. I felt these stories were beautifully done and I look forward to reminiscing and re-reading on a sunny day in the future.

As a short story and anthology fan, I liked this. The stories seems timely as well as well written, and there is a good variety. As always, some were better than others.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

A good collection of stories. I felt like these stories weren't written necessarily to make you "feel" but to "think" . Regardless, they were very enjoyable. My favorite was The Odd Women.