I knew I needed to read this book because Severance was such a fantastic read for me. Ling Ma did not disappoint with these stories. The thing about short stories is that they have to be punchy or they’re not that’s exciting, and these ones delivered in punchlines. They’re all fantastical and somewhat silly at times, with just the perfect amount of reality sprinkled in. I absolutely devoured this collection and would read anything else this author continues to make for us!!

These were great, weird, and wonderful short stories! I liked all of them, but Los Angeles, Oranges, G, and Office Hours were my favorites. But again, they were all pretty special. If you like odd and magical short stories, this is the book for you! Thank you so much NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you SO much FSG and NetGalley for the ARC!

Bliss Montage is a collection of eight short stories exploring womanhood, the complexities of race and immigration, romantic and platonic relationships, loneliness, and more.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I appreciate the fact that the stories are creative, yet understandable. While I can’t write pages and pages on the meaning of each one, I still feel like I was able to walk away from each story without being completely confused or out of my depth.

My favorites were actually the first two: “Los Angeles” and “Oranges.” I absolutely loved the author’s creative choices in the first story. “Office Hours” is an honorable mention for sure. As a recent college grad, the commentary was spot on. The magical-realism aspects completely bring the book to life and add another layer of mystery and enjoyment.

I don’t have many critiques. Sometimes the stories felt very similar in tone or narration. It’s like you’re supposed to be following different people, but sometimes they all feel the same. My other slight complaint is that some stories didn’t do much for me. I say slight because I really don’t think it matters. In a short story collection, I feel like some will speak to you and others won’t. And that’s okay (to me)!

If you’re looking for a unique book that will make you think, then I think this would be an awesome choice!

I have mixed feelings about this one but I normally do with short story collections. Some were better than others of course. They are an amazing author, no doubt about that!

I was really excited to read an ARC of this since Severance is one of my favorite reads! Overall I really loved this collection of short stories and some stuck out to me more than others! While I enjoyed the surreal elements of some of the stories, I did find that the mix of some stories being bizzare and others being plausible made this collection feel a little less cohesive. Either way, I plan to purchase a hard copy of this when it is released to re-read in the future!

BY: WILLIAM SHAW
ISSUE: 11 JULY 2022

The term “bliss montage” was coined by film theorist Jeanine Basinger. It describes the brief intervals of happiness permitted to leading ladies in the old Hollywood genre of the “woman’s film”; it is “a woman’s small piece of action, her marginal territory of joy.” This cinematic term may at first seem an odd title for Ling Ma’s often bleak and decidedly literary debut short story collection, but the bliss montage is an expressly temporary state of affairs, the snatch of pleasure claimed before a puritanical narrative brings things crashing down around its recipient. Ma has identified “compromised pleasure” as a key theme of the collection, and the sense of brief and vivid joys set against a darker, more unsettling backdrop can be keenly felt throughout the book’s eight stories.

http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/bliss-montage-by-ling-ma/

Thank you Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. IYKYK, my reviews are always honest.

SYNOPSIS

An anthology of short stories set in the future covering intergenerational trauma, race, sexuality, and relationships (platonic and romantic).

MY OPINION

What a quirky lil collection of short stories. Let me be clear: THIS IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. If you enjoy literary fiction that explores heavy topics and having your mind folded like a fortune teller, grab this. If you're more a thrillerhead or a romcom reader or a regular of the smut saloon, do not pick this up. You will despise it.

Okay, now back to this gem. I honestly don't know how to describe some of the elements of this story so I'm just going to call it "make believe" LOL. Some of it was just wild... like the baby arm hanging out her pucci while pregnito in Returning. Some of it was beyond my understanding, like Yeti Lovemaking and Office Hours. Some of it was funny, like the husband only speaking in $$$$$$ in Los Angeles. All of it was unique.

Beware, the narrator's voice doesn't change across the different stories, so it might all get mushed together if you read it in one go. I love that type of disinterested, dispassionate, detached voice, so I was vibing heavily the entire time. Others might want some more variety.

Like [book:Bad Fruit|59046469], Ling Ma deftly tells the age-old tales of how East Asian values impact family dynamics, specifically, how women show love and how they navigate traumatic events.

LET ME GET PERSONAL REAL QUICK: Reading books like Bliss Montage and Bad Fruit always makes me feel closer to my mother who emigrated from the Philippines to Canada; I understand why she acts the way she does. And I understand that there will always be a chasm between us given her background, her journey, her perspective on life.

All in all, a beautiful and thought-provoking read. If you are of East Asian descent (including Filipinos in here... controversial, I know) I think this will resonate with you on a different level. Still a good read for anyone of any ethnicity.

PROS AND CONS

Pros: wonderfully written, extremely creative and unique, powerful storytelling, nailed how cultural values impact relationships

Cons: some stories were beyond my understanding but that's on me bc I'm a dummy

BTW if anyone read this and knows what the fk was happening in Yeti Lovemaking, pls slide through my DMs lmao.

Wildly different and entertaining stories. My favorites were the final two in the collection, "Pecking Duck" and "Tomorrow". Not every story totally worked for me, but the ones that did I found incredible. I love the authors ability to incorporate sci-fi elements into any type of story without making it feel unnecessary. Every scenario feels plausible, no matter how removed from reality. I can't wait to continue reading her work.

I couldn't bring myself to finish this book. Not to say that it isn't any good (it is fantastic). This was more of a "right person, wrong time" kind of situation. I loved Severance by this author so I was super excited to read this. Maybe I'll give it another try in the future :(

Working at a mostly used bookstore, I try to curb my spending by waiting for books on my TBR to appear in the used stock at the store, versus ordering it new. This is why I've yet to read Ling Ma's Severance despite it being one of my most anticipated reads. I think it's a testament to her writing quality that it has yet to appear. Ling Ma has mastered the art of showing, not telling. She uses vivid, poetic language to articulate even the most abstracted of concepts. The main through lines of the collection were abusive or unhealthy relationships and the tribulations of being an Asian immigrant in America. As an Asian immigrant that was seen her fair share of abusive relationships, I felt these stories to my core, an almost eerie amount that it felt like holding a mirror to my life. At times the endings felt too abrupt, but it's to be expected of a short story collection and do not fault the book on that. I just want more, need more.
Needless to say, I have just ordered Severance.
Many thanks to NetGalley and FSG for a copy of this beautiful book for review.

when i read severance by ling ma last year, the story occupied my mind for weeks. so when i saw this new title with its gorgeous cover i rushed to get my hands on these stories. normally i shy away from short stories as im always left wanting more, but overall i really enjoyed this collection even with each story’s abrupt ending. my favorites being oranges, peking duck, and tomorrow.
ling ma is a fantastic writer and expert at telling stories about ordinary life and relationships woven with magic and elements of fantasy. what i loved so much in severance was the eerie feeling, the uneasiness, and bliss montage didn’t disappoint here. however what i did struggle with was how similar each of the narrative voices were. after reading a few stories in one sitting they started to blend together in my memory. it felt like the same person was narrating each story, maybe this was deliberate but i would have liked a little more variety. looking forward to reading more from ling ma in the future 3.5/5

I adored these stories! Unusual, bizarre stories with edgy characters, these sometimes specualtive fiction stories have the perfect dose of magical realtism and reality. Loved them! I'm going to circle back and read her novel, Severance.

Thanks to FS&G, NetGalley and the author for the ARC.

Sharon
The Writer's Reader
https://thewritersreader.wordpress.com/

Every story in this book is a triumph!! The second story in the collection, “Oranges,” is a sequel of sorts that I never knew I needed and that held me in total suspense while reading. Other stories—about friendship and a drug that makes people invisible; about an unexpected pregnancy in a “country on the decline . . . [where] everyone expected to die in debt, and had learned not to mind”; about living with 100 ex-boyfriends and a husband; about rituals of renewal in fictional countries—are just as captivating and wonderful. All of these narratives, scenes, and images are in service of capturing the way we _________ now. Ling Ma is one of the most talented writers alive. I already can't wait to read this again.

I have yet to read Severence (been on my tbr for sooooo long), but when I saw this on NetGalley, I had to request it, as I have only heard good things about Ling Ma.

You know when something feels and looks so human, but is just a little off, making it extremely weird and unsettling? That is what some (and my favorite) of Ling Ma's stories in this collection feel like. The first story is about a woman having her 100 ex-boyfriends and is the story that wanted me to read this collection in the first place. It did not disappoint. The stories just get better from the first one; "G" is about the last of a female friendship, and the influence of a drug that makes you invisible (insane but also one of the best stories in my opinion)."Homecoming" is about a woman going back with her husband to his home country, to experience a cultural tradition. All the topics Ma writes about: domestic abuse, mother-daughter relationships, drug addiction, etc., are relevant to anyone and everyone, but her personal writing style and twist create a whole new world.

The only qualm I have is that while these are short stories, they seem to blend together. Is it the same narrator throughout? Is this one life, or multiple? Who am I reading about? Is this confusion a creative choice by Ma? This unknown may just add more to Ma's weird, satisfying, and thought-provoking collection.

Overall, it's a well-written and interesting short story collection. Is this the only book I have finished this month? Yes, becuase I have been in a reading slump and for this book to bring me out of it says a lot.

I will definitely be picking up Severence soon.

Thanks, NetGalley and Farrar, Straus & Giroux for my ebook review copy.

One of the things that makes Ling Ma’s stories in Bliss Montage so extraordinary is her ability to blend keen perceptions of human relationships with fantasy elements that somehow make the fantastic an intimate part of ordinary life. There is the house in “LA” the narrator shares with a hundred ex-boyfriends, the pickup date in “Yeti Lovemaking” who turns out to be a yeti in a human suit, the drug in “G” that makes the body literally disappear, and the opening in the closet of a college professor in “Office Hours” that leads to another world. The fantasy elements in Bliss Montage don’t take you out of this world but rather plunge you more deeply into the confused strivings of the characters in this one.

Each of Ling Ma’s stories works by building resemblances, interweaving several stories of different relationships to bring out truths about each one that otherwise might slip by. She doesn’t try to build to a knock-out punch but closes many stories at a heightened moment that leaves you on edge and having to think back over how the different strands of narrative have led you to that point.

................

“Returning” is perhaps my favorite story for its blending of the present journey the narrator takes with her estranged husband to the fictional country of his birth (a vaguely eastern European Garboza) and her experiences with her friend and occasional lover named only Y. The husband wants to take part in a strange ceremony of healing and rebirth in which each participant is buried in the ground overnight. He abandons her at the airport in this strange country, leaving her to find her own way to the site of the ceremony. During that evening when she is stranded, she thinks about her relationship with Y which is typically a confusion of friendship, distant lovemaking and terse communication. Her internal wandering between memory and present in which she yearns for an always elusive clarity and closeness leads to a poignant moment in which the need is clear but there is no final breakthrough.

Well, I talk about a favorite, but for me all eight stories of Bliss Montage are unforgettable. Each one dances on the edge of fantasy, the surreal, the satiric and the profoundly moving need for love and selfhood. The fact that Ling Ma’s characters are always on the verge of fulfilling themselves but never quite getting there makes this collection all the more true to life.

The stories in this collection blithely mingle the quotidian and fantastical with shockingly normal comportment. Sex with a yeti. A drug that makes you invisible. All surround the all too human experiences we’re often oblivious to.

After Severance, Ling Ma releases a collection of 8 short stories bringing magical realism that is told through heartbreak, women in society, and the experiences immigrant women have. The short stories can capture the idea of loneliness throughout life in a whimsical yet terrifying way. Every short story shows the pain these characters experience at the hands of others while still having a silver lining of hope. From a woman living with her 100 ex-boyfriends to a toxic female friendship that toes the line between loathe and obsession, Ling ma creates melancholy storylines that make you hold onto every detail.

Ling Ma’s ability to give so much with such short stories is amazing. This was my favorite collection I’ve read this year so far; I just want to read more and more from this author now. If you are a fan of Carmen Maria Macho’s writing style, then this will definitely be something you’d enjoy. Also, can we talk about the cover because I keep staring at the beauty.

Incredible collections of stories! Was easy to devour in one sitting. The emotional impact of these stories makes me crave another sit down and re read as soon as possible. I’m so excited to see what else this author creates!

the stories in bliss montage use surrealism and absurdism in a way that is both subversive yet tame. the former, i refer to how ling ma uses these elements in a way that is startling and unlike her colleagues, but remaining clever and sharp. yet it is tame, not in the sense that it is shallow, but holds back from revealing its true depths and providing a more succinct closure in order to widen the space left for interpretation. it leaves you empty, starving for more, left with only an orange in hand of which you have to peel off its thick skin to gain sustenance. as a student of literature, i enjoyed how ling ma was able to play with the idea of genre, leaving me contemplating about the real truths—and whether there actually is a truth—to what “woc literature” actually entails.

however, writing-wise, the one flaw i could pick up from this was how monotonous all her narrators felt to the point where all the stories seemed to be narrated by the same person, all connected in the same storyline. and whether that was deliberate, which it felt like it was, it made the reading process tedious. (3.5)

Thank you to FSG and NetGalley for the ARC!
4.5 Overall. Ling Ma is quickly becoming one of my favorite contemporary authors. Severance is a book I read during the early months of the pandemic and has somehow really stuck with me til this day. Bliss Montage really sucked me in from the first story and was all in all a satisfying, quirky collection of different stories.

I love how in Ma's writing, everything feels like it's possible; she never hesitates to explore the uncanny, supernatural, magical, layering onto a very real world. She teeters between the strange and real, often within one story.

Los Angeles, the first story, immediately drew me in with its voice and premise. Other standouts for me were G (especially relevant as an Asian-American Columbia grad, it was nice to see friendships given this level of exploration), Returning (masterful weaving of different narratives), and Peking Duck.

I oscillated between 4 and 5 stars and in the end settled for a compromising 4.5. The half-star I deducted is reflected in some other reviews here, some of the stories were just too open-ended and I didn't feel like I *got it*. Maybe it's just because of me, but I'm pretty okay with subtle short stories in general, some of these were just a little too subtle for it to feel satisfying. But the writing qualify and experience was good enough that I'd recommend this book without hesitation.