Ling Ma has a talent for making the surreal seem completely mundane. The premises of these stories are outlandish—one woman lives with her 100 ex-boyfriends, another takes drugs that turn her invisible, a third has sex with a yeti—yet each story feels utterly relatable, grounded in Ma's distinct style. Bliss Montage is a strange and delightful collection, perfect for anybody looking for something offbeat and unforgettable.

A really fantastic group of stories, so surreal and fun. I was hooked within the first few pages. I don’t usually read collections but this one was a delight, I especially loved the first two back to back stories. Thank you FsG for the arc, I will be reading more of her work!

So strange and yet so real you can feel yourself in each story. I think Ma captured the Asian American woman's experience in the perfect fragments of reality.

3.5★

I am admittedly not a lover of short story collections, and I also wasn't a big fan of Severance by this author either - which was a big surprise to me. I love weird, thought provoking, odd books, and this was definitely that, but there was also quite a bit missing for me.

I usually expect short story collections to be somewhat cohesive in theme, but differentiated enough by characters and plot that the stories are clearly separate. While I did appreciate that the tone and themes were cohesive throughout this collection, I found the narrators to be SO SIMILAR it was hard to separate the stories in my mind. Any one of the narrators could have been another at a different time in their life. Maybe that was intentional, - showcasing how similar humans can be even in different places and with different experiences - but it made me feel really confused for most of the reading experience. Thankfully I read this all in one sitting, or else I know if I would've felt even more lost.

I did not dislike this book by any means, there were some stories that I actually LOVED and felt fully immersed in (Peking Duck, Office Hours, and Returning!!), but as a full collection I felt a little underwhelmed.

*Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!*

Ling Ma's latest book, "Bliss Montage," is collection of brilliant short stories including the New Yorker's "Peking Duck". The highlight, for me a new father, was the haunting "Tomorrow," in which a pregnant woman discovers her unborn baby's arm protruding from her body. Each story is a memorable and thought-provoking read capable of transporting you into Ma's unique world.

I really enjoyed this book! Surreal and somewhat bizarre narratives that are filled with interesting and odd characters. I haven’t read Severance yet, but I certainly intend to after this read!

I was super excited about this follow up after reading Severance, but unfortunately, I didn't love it. I felt in a lot of the stories, there was this interesting premise, but not enough development of the main character for it to really all come together. Don't get me wrong, there are some standouts, and some really amazing details like a What Would Judith Butler Do? poster.

Unfortunately, these stories weren't for me. I normally love weird, surreal narratives, but there was a disconnect for me. If it sounds interesting, I recommend picking this one up.

I love short story collections, and I enjoyed Ling Ma’s debut novel Severance, so thought I would give this short story collection a try. Sadly, it was a bust for me - just not my cup of tea in a variety of different ways. Some of the stories were SUPER weird, some were just boring. All features similar narrators - often nameless, unhappy Chinese-American women with the stories told in a sort of detached, monotonous way. Sometimes there is a high concept to the stories which is perhaps intended to be metaphorical but I didn’t always get what the point is. And often the stories just sort of trail off without any resolution. The writing was interesting at times, but overall, this book was just really, really not for me.

huh? i have no idea what i just read. some of these stories were very interesting but then others made no sense at all.. at first i thought they were all connected but now i’m not so positive.

This collection of short stories was fantastic! Bliss Montage covers a wide array of complex emotions capturing the experience of immigrants, women, and those who feel like they simply don’t fit in. I loved every single story in the book. Ma’s prose is fantastic: provocative and captivating. She manages to create such a rich narrative within each story that their length doesn’t inhibit the connection you feel with the characters. I truly think this book needs to be analyzed in a literature class. There are so many themes here worth discussing.

I LOVED Severance, and Bliss Montage is a delightful return to Ling Ma's brain and way of seeing the world. She has such a special way of contrasting the heightened and the ordinary, and using that contrast to reveal things about our normal lives. I can't wait to read more from this author!

Living with 100 ex boyfriends, invisibility drugs, secret portals to different worlds; Ma has given us a magnificent group of short stories to hide inside of for 228 pages. As the stories became more and more absurd, so did my affection for this collection. Some stories challenged the hell out of me and required a reread, and I appreciated that.

4 stars

A short story collection by the author of Severance (not the same as the TV show). Some stories were good while reading them, some were too long, and most were pretty forgetful. I'm learning I'm not much of a short story person!

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this ARC. I found the writing to be very beautiful and different, but the stories a little hard to follow. I’m sure the point of these stories is too be complex and thought provoking, but it hard to grasp the message at times. I would read more from this author in the future.

Each story is so sharp and pulls the reader into its surrealist environment immediately. Ling Ma returns here after her widely loved Severance, a novel that seemed to eerily predict the pandemic, and leans into offkilter realities that so succinctly reflect ourselves back to us through her distortions. They exist in the real world, occasionally ‘a different, if not inevitable, time’ in the near future, but most quickly morph into the fantastical. These stories thrive on vibes and often leave the reader to piece things together themselves, though readers who tend to want a sense of resolution may find the stories stopping too soon for their tastes. Ma is interested less in the aftermath and more in the tension that builds, her stories are like watching the strain on the strings of a slingshot as it pulls back its projectile towards inevitable release rather than the target it may or may not hit. Her prose is fluid and fun, handling bizarre situations with the same calm as the mundane and her marvelous imagination is on full display to enjoy.

Brilliant and incisive, more knowing and intuitive on the subject of being young and getting older in the 21st century than just about anything I've ever read. I know I'm going to return to this one, countless times mentally and more than once for a reread.

Significantly better than the sum of its parts, and the parts are damn good.

YESSSSS let's hear it for weird little short stories!!! I haven't read anything by Ling Ma yet, but now I'm gonna go grab Severance. Her short stories were so funky, clever and original, and they stayed with me long after I read them. I devoured this in one sitting, but I kind of wish I read a story every day for a week so I could really immerse myself in the quirky/weird/emotional worlds. Reminded me of Gods of Want by K-Ming Chang, which also came out this year.

Ling Ma's 2018 novel, Severance, was a prescient examination of late-stage capitalism work life in the midst of a pandemic that turns people in zombies. It was incisive, surreal, and occasionally darkly hilarious. She was a writer to be reckoned with. Now she returns with a short story collection that explores similar concerns. You never know where these stories will turn, but they're worth the ride, even when it's unsettling. She entertains while making you think. Recommended for fans of Karen Russell, Kelly Link, George Saunders and the like.

The strange, languid dreaminess of Ma's first book, 'Severance', wanders through this collection of eight stories. Many of the tales serve up a tangy, irresistible fusion of reality and fantasy. I can't wait to see what she cooks up next.

I loved Severence and was excited to read these stories. The outlandish premises in each were definitely memorable, especially the house with the ex-boyfriends, the yeti and the uncommon pregnancy. But I struggled to connect the dots between the purpose of the story and the shock factor. I know there are deep thoughts for discussion here but they did not come to the surface for me. I was very distracted while reading this so perhaps it wasn’t the right time for me.