I had previously read Ling Ma's "Severance" so upon hearing that she was writing another book, immediately jumped at the chance to read it. "Bliss Montage" is quite different from her earlier post-apocalyptic novel, the primary factor being that it is a collection of short stories, but there are still many similarities between the two - including the melancholic writing style, the primary voice and character being an Asian-American woman, and the surreal aspects that pervade each of her stories.

Each of these eight stories is a slightly jarring read, starting with "Los Angeles", where a married woman recounts living in the same house with her husband and her 100 ex-boyfriends, and the weight each of these relationships continues to hold on her. This story segues into "Oranges", where a woman encounters an abusive ex-boyfriend and follows him home to confront him and is current girlfriend. "G" was one of the more standout stories for me, where a woman describes the impact that an illicit drug has on her and her friend, leading us to wonder if the toxicity present is due to the drug or to each other. Some of the stories, like "Yeti Lovemaking", where a woman is misled at a bar by a Yeti in disguise of a man, and "Office Hours", where a female professor looks back at her time as a college student and her interaction with her previous professor whom she now has the office of, felt too out-of-reach for me. I think the story I resonated most with was "Peking Duck", where a Chinese American girl describes the experience her mother went through as a nanny for a wealthy white family in Utah, and the repercussions she's faced with when a stranger enters the home, taking advantage of her situation.

Giving a rating to a collection of stories is difficult as, in this case, it's giving 8 individual scores and aggregating them into one. While there were some that felt impactful, others were just too far from understanding for me and my own experiences. For me, personally, "Bliss Montage" wasn't as strong as Ma's earlier novel, and across each of these different stories, the similarities in voice and tone became monotonous over time.

✏️ ARC Review: Publication Date, September 12!✏️

📚65/100
Bliss Montage by Ling Ma
Format: 📱(ARC e-book via NetGalley)

All the thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus * Giraux for the ARC in exchange for publishing an honest review!

I was SO excited to get this after being such a fan of Severance. This short story collection was unsettling- in the way Black Mirror or Twilight Zone is unsettling. It’s a uncanny closeness to our own world, but a version in which peculiar rules change everything. Ling Ma is clearly brilliant. I had a hard time rating this- as I couldn’t decide most of the time whether I was loving it or just deeply invested in the shock value and storytelling. And I think that’s the strength of the author- to tell stories in such a way that you’re both able to relate and EXTREMELY far removed. This read is best geared toward a very specific kind of reader- but this particular ready loved the journey.

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*Spoiler Free Summary*

Ling Ma’s collection of short stories range on a variety of subjects: portals in collegiate walls, mythical creatures, apartments where every ex-boyfriend resides. But somehow, she intermingles the phenomenal with the struggles specific to immigrant families, and the struggles we all have to let go of our pasts and our hopes of the future.

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This was my first time reading this author. I found the stories intriguing and at times thought provoking. However, I really found myself struggling to get through some of the stories. A few I found very interesting, others not so much. I will probably try her prior book to give this author another try.

Bliss Montage is an incredible collection of short stories that range from slightly unsettling to completely surreal, and I couldn’t put it down. Ling Ma’s writing style is beautiful and unique. Her words skillfully draw you into each story’s world, and even the most fantastical stories are deeply rooted in reality and visceral human emotions.

“I felt amazed, jostled out of character. I had never done this before… I thought, How bizarre that you can be someone else and the world will still absorb you.” – “Returning”

These stories often feature the protagonist reuniting with a figure from their past in some way, whether it is an abusive ex-boyfriend, a toxic childhood friend, a former professor, or a distant relative, and we follow as they realize or explore how their pasts continue to affect the ways in which they see themselves and the world around them.

“Her flamethrower gaze annihilated all women’s magazine adages about loving yourself, all body-positivity Oprah episodes; it could reverse all waves of feminism.” – “G”

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This the first book I've read by Ling Ma. I honestly love her writing style, a little dry and melancholic.. This whole book feels like collection of fever dreams. I will admit that the first few stories are my favorite; Los Angeles, Oranges, G, and Yeti Lovemaking. This novel starts out really strong and then I was left feeling like it was lacking a bit towards the end. I also kept finding myself wondering if the narrator was the same throughout each story or if it was a different person, as the tone stayed the same for each one. This book still felt powerful to me and I am continuing to think about it's absurdities days later.

Some of my favorite quotes:
-"I want to masticate him with my teeth. I want to barf on him and coat him in my stinging acids. I want to unleash a million babies inside him and burden him with their upbringing".
-"Under what I'm looking for I Put: I want to know someone for longer than a few years. I want to know what it feels like. I also want not to flee. By that I mean I want constancy."
-"What If I dissected my feelings, pulled them apart and brutalized them so that he would know they were true? Is this enough? I'd ask. How about this? They would explode and drip over everything like bodily fluids and finally he'd be forced to look away."
-"...He gave me a glass of water. And by the time I finished it, his human suit lay crumpled on the floor, cleaved in two by a zipper seam, to reveal a shiny sweat-dampened abominable snowman."

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this ARC.

Severance is one of my favorite books, so I was very, very excited to receive this ARC! Bliss Montage is a collection of short stories that follows in the same vein as Severance, in that they are dark, sometimes grim, and definitely surreal. I would compare it to the feel of Black Mirror, specifically the episodes that focus on social issues (like the video game lovers or social media one).
Most of the stories were really intriguing. I loved G, Returning, Office Hours, and Tomorrow for how bizarre and sometimes dark they were, and I think that's where her writing shines the most. Peking Duck was another favorite for the double perspective we got about the same scenario, which completely changes how the reader views the mother. Love that kinda thing.
My only complaint with the book was that it felt like the stories ended just a few pages too soon! I love a good abrupt ending, but for me, I feel like I didn't get enough details from the story to piece together an ending of my own. I felt this the most with Returning and Office Hours, and a little bit with Tomorrow.

Favorite quotes:
"It is in the most surreal situations that a person feels the most present, the closest to reality."
"An ideology defined only by what it opposes is doomed to be defined by that exact thing."

Overall, a really excellent read and one I would recommend to others.

Surreal, tense, and evocative. The collection of short stories shares a similar tone and themes around women' being at odds with men, second generation immigrant Asian women coming to terms with their own identity, and the absurdity of our own reality. The standout stories for me where Returning, Oranges, and my personal favorite story, Peking Duck. Peking Duck is so beautifully structured, the characterization of her own mother feels so humanizing, and even though you already know the ending, it feels like a stab to the gut in the best way possible. For a collection of short stories, the tone and voice are so clear and connected, and the writing is so beautifully unexpected, that the whole book together makes sense. This book will leave you feeling like you woke up from a fever dream you cannot shake.

Genius, absolutely genius.

Oh what I would do to have Ling Ma's brain. What a wonderful and refreshing collection of short stories. Each stories is different yet somehow they are all connected in a subtle manner. After finishing each story, I could not help but yearn for more. If I had one criticism for this book is that it is too short (also that I have to wait to receive her next book...)., I would've liked this to be at least twice as long.

Some stories were so full of nostalgia my heart felt like exploding. Some were puzzling. Some were nothing but weird (looking at you Yeti Lovemaking). But each story tickled my brain in a beautiful way. I have not been able to think of anything but this book for the past few days. It transformed me, my entire heart belongs to it.

I cannot believe this book only comes out in physical form in September. I will be waiting impatiently until I can buy a copy and re-read it until I become one with it. Not only one of my favourite 2022 reads but one of my favourite books ever.

Thank you Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux. And biggest thanks to Ling Ma, I'm a new fan.

Interesting and well written I just personally couldn’t get into the story. Just a little slow and unbelievable at some points. As with all short story complications some were a lot better than others. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The oranges on the cover of "Bliss Montage" by Ling Ma are hidden behind plastic wrap, in full view but behind something that needs to be ripped off. I think this image summarizes the book perfectly.

This is a collection of eight stories, and it's probably best to read them one story a day: they are very condensed. In all the stories, the main character is a woman - and I feel it's the same woman - who moves between reality and fantasy, sometimes quite literally, as in "Office Hours," where moving the armoire reveals a passage to another place. The author reminds us that it's nothing unusual: this is the world Dorothy entered in "The Wizard of Oz" or the world in Tarkovsky's film "The Stalker."

The stories often portray the inability to feel at home in the country one immigrated to and one's birthplace, the strange alienation when misunderstanding is revealed: between mother and daughter (“Peking Duck”) or husband and wife (“Returning.”) Relationships that begin as ordinary transform into dependencies. For example, a friendship between young girls becomes a need for domination, so the drug that makes one invisible is a tool for enslaving another person.

Some stories were heartbreaking ("Oranges"), some unsettling, and there was even a story that I found humorous ("Yeti Lovemaking"), but all of them left me thinking about them long after I closed the book. “Bliss Montage” shows a Kafkaesque world. And a fascinating one.

A deeply, incredibly strange short story collection unlike anything I have ever read. It was amazing. It leans into speculative, surreal stories with endings that don’t so much end as fade away, leaving the reader to sit with the story long after it’s over. I will say the stories don’t seem to have much in common with one another despite the underlying themes of Asian immigrant and female perspectives but ultimately it worked for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I hardly ever read short story collections or literary fiction - so this was stretching for me. But, knowing how much people loved ‘Severance’ I was willing to give it a shot. Los Angeles and Office Hours were my favorites. However, I will admit I did confuse the stories with each other as the narrator seems pretty similar across the 8 stories. (3.5 out of 5 stars)

(Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.)

A collection of surreal and strange short stories that focus on the experiences of women. Some of the stories were really interesting and weird, my favourites being ‘Returning’, ‘Office Hours’, and ‘Peking Duck’. However, I did find that a lot of them started off really strong but had very abrupt endings and felt incomplete. While I enjoyed these mostly I can’t ignore the very glaring issue of their endings just not working at all and bringing the whole story down with it. This was pretty disappointing because I would have really enjoyed this collection more without that. Overall, I still enjoyed it and my favourite stories helped to bring the rating up. I hope to read more from Ling Ma in the future but for now this is a solid 3.5 stars (bumped up to 4 on some platforms).

I read Severance back in 2018 when it was released, and even now, years later, I still haven't stopped thinking about it. I can say that the same will likely happen with 'Bliss Montage', a collection of short stories exploring many different themes, but all still maintaining the same intriguing writing style that makes Ling Ma's writing hard to put down. Each story is so unique and individual, but are somehow paired perfectly in the collection and often touch on themes of female identity and the Asian-American immigrant experience. I was particularly struck by the stories that come later in the collection, 'Office Hours' and 'Peking Duck', The first story, 'Los Angeles' was also striking, and the perfect way to open this electric collection. The cover is also quite stunning. I can't wait to own a copy of this book when it is released and can't wait to read what comes next from Ling Ma.

I wanted to like this, but these stories were really not for me. The only two I connected with at all were the first and last in the collection, though both kind of petered out in interest for me before the end.

What a delicious book and so wonderfully done. The details in each tale were perfectly placed, and with the short length of each story, Ling Ma managed to develop rich characters that only a full-length novel would generally accomplish.

While I enjoyed the variety of stories and how different each one was from the other, I still felt as if they each had a connection, and a small part of me wished they were.
Sharing similar emotions in detailing the thoughts and feelings of each character, Ling Ma created a stark longing that reverberated throughout the landscape of this book. I felt as if I were wandering around each setting, getting lost within the worlds she had so exquisitely created.

I’m still reeling from the writing.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ling Ma has absolutely astounded me with this short story collection. Each tackled different, difficult topics – motherhood, the difficulties in confronting your abuser, girlhood, friendship, and how we attempt to connect with other people in a way that is meaningful – in a beautifully simplistic way. The eight stories Bliss Montage was composed of had me reaching for more, before I realised I had already finished over half of the book and needed to pace myself. It was a battle to decide whether I should succumb to my desires to know what would happen next (what world would Ling Ma take me to if I turned the page?) versus savouring each line.

There was a slight nauseatingly liberating feeling reading some of the stories. The way they connected with the reader disturbed me to the core, because I hadn't felt so exposed by an author's words in a very long time. She’s mastered the art of writing a story where the reader can pour their emotions into the characters without making the story, on its own, be flat and dull. It was also very reflective, and had me considering my own relationships with people that I hadn’t thought to consider before. And it had me full of nostalgia. Ling Ma has captured the feeling of missing someone, or mourning them, even when they’re right in front of you extremely well.

Los Angeles, Oranges, G, and Tomorrow remain my favourite stories of the collection (which is half of the book, but it’s very hard to choose favourites when the rest seem to have no flaws). Some of the lines in Los Angeles I will continue to think about for a long time, and the feelings I had during Tomorrow will stay with me forever. Although some of these stories had me wanting more, I found that each was still very satisfying and stood their ground well. I enjoyed the surrealist elements of Yeti Lovemaking, Los Angeles, and Office Hours – it was very refreshing.

I will definitely be buying my own copy when this comes out in September. Thank you so much to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for sending me an e-ARC through Netgalley and Ling Ma for her writing talent.

"Jeanine Basinger’s book A Woman’s View describes the “bliss montage” that interrupts many of these movies: “The leading lady can be seen laughing her head off, dressed in fabulous clothes, racing across the water in a speedboat, her yachtsman lover at her side … [The Bliss Montage] is a woman’s small piece of action, her marginal territory of joy. At fadeout, there had to be a man and woman, newly joined or about to be, with a future full of traditional gender roles.” (https://hazlitt.net/feature/efficient-system-exploitation)

So, a very ironic title.

Overall incredible collection. There are a lot of the same themes and dynamics as in Severance, but in a lot of these stories the shorter form makes it all even more effective. Her kind of weird speculative fiction is refreshing for how original it feels. In every story/environment she creates, something is glaringly off but is treated as normalcy by the characters, whether it be the US having lost its global power or a strange shift in the way people interact with each other.

Los Angeles, Oranges, and Yeti Lovemaking were reminding me of the kind of weirdness of Miranda July's short stories and Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado. Despite that, these were some of my least favorites. Other things i was reminded of throughout the collection include The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa and Midsommar.

G, Returning, and Peking Duck were the stories that really stood out to me with images and descriptions I haven't stopped thinking about since I read them.

A mostly engaging but ultimately a bit underwhelming collection of short stories. Doesn't quite live up to the high standard Ma set with Severance.

Ling Ma is a brilliant writer. I fell in love with her prose with this solid short story collection. Now I want to read her debut novel, "Severance". I absolutely adore short stories and "Bliss Montage" is no exception. These 8 stories pack a punch. There's a couple of quirky stories like "Los Angeles" and "Yeti Lovemaking". There are 2 stories that stand out from the rest, the first is "G" which is about a street drug that makes you invisible. And "Oranges" is the other standout, which deals with domestic violence/trauma. Some stories have some magical realism such "Office Hours" and "Tomorrow". This book totally got me out of my reading slump. I wish I could write like Ling Ma. She is the real deal.

Thank you, Netgalley and FSG for the digital ARC.