In Bliss Montage, a woman and her family live in the same house as her one hundred ex-boyfriends, women trapped in a toxic friendship take a drug that makes themselves invisible, and a pregnant woman must caretake the protruding arm of her fetus as she awaits giving birth to the rest of it.

The distance from everyday life that fantasy brings us can be used to magnify reality, and Ling Ma takes takes ample advantage of this in Bliss Montage, a short story collection that examines themes such as family, ownership of experiences, and above all alienation.

The writing combines an unnerving flat affect with startlingly beautiful turns of phrase, and the each story are dense enough in its own way that I was left with something to chew over long after I'd finished listening to it. My favorite stories were "Peking Duck," which discusses if a daughter can claim ownership of her mother's disturbing encounter with a door-to-door salesman, and "Returning," where a couple return to an ancestral country to see a festival in which participants bury themselves alive to transform themselves.

However, sometimes the detachment of the narrators starts to become a bit much - they all seemed to be a little too similar to each other, anxious, alienated women with unsatisfying lives, as though we were seeing the same person in alternate universes. I felt that if there had been more variation in the main characters, the stories could have tapped a richer vein of themes to explore. Some of the stories were also too opaque and open-ended for my taste - "Yeti Lovemaking" in particular comes to mind.

I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Katharine Chin. I thought she did an excellent job - her gentle tone captures the detached yet conflicted tone of the narrators, but also conveys the strongly ironic strain that permeates many of the stories. This is a case where the choice of narrator really elevates the experience of the book.

Let’s just read everything Ling Ma creates! Collection of 8 stories, the weird ones are the best! Witty and playful statement pieces. Must read these entertaining bits! You’ll have a a few favorites.

Bliss Montage - Ling Ma is such a gifted writer. Through her eight stories in this book, she explores love, connection, relationships, unhealthy friendship, and a mother-daughter immagration experience. While some are a little bonkers (I can’t get the Yeti lovemaking fiction story out of my head), it was overall well done

This one was a miss for me. I didn't, couldn't, connect with the characters. It felt dry, and somehow felt like all the stories all different while simultaneously all the same (and not in a good, "thematically consistent" way). I've read "fever dream" books before and can truly appreciate their called in literature, but was more confusing. I did like the sound effects used in the audiobook, so if someone asked me I would tell them I recommend that format over reading it. I wanted to like it, because I have other Ling Ma books on my physical TBR but it makes me want to avoid reading them if they are all like this. I will not be sharing this review on my bookstagram.

Bliss Montage is a series of unsettling and surreal short stories highlighting the small, heavy moments. They are about people and relationships falling apart, the slow progression of small cracks building into the inevitable crumbling. They highlight pain and grief and the myriad ways people can hurt each other.

While some of the stories fell flat to my taste, many were strange and fascinating, pulling me along as if in a trance. Returning and Office Hours are the stories that have stayed with me the most.

I am very impressed with Ling Ma’s cadence and style and I enjoyed the narration. I plan to read more of their work soon!



Trigger/Content Warnings: domestic violence/abuse, drug use, eating disorders, neglect, abusive friendship

Not one for short story collections but was optimistic about this one since I enjoyed Severance so much. This collection brought a surprising pleasure to me. Think Ma's writing is so stunning.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* this book was.... something else lmao i would recommend but not likely to reread just not my cup of tea

BLISS MONTAGE tells the stories of eight different tales of people making their way through the madness and reality of our delusions.

I've only read a handful of short stories, but thought this was done really well, and enjoyed the narrator choice for the audiobook format that I read. Each story was beautifully written, with themes of love, loneliness, and relationships at the center.

*many thanks to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and Macmillan Audio for the gifted copy for review

Ling Ma is an incredibly talented writer. Ma's writing style is captivating and her characters are richly drawn. Her prose is both poetic and precise, and it conveys a deep understanding of the human condition.

Ling Ma's BLISS MONTAGE is a completely brilliant collection of short fiction. Not only is each piece its own unique, challenging, sometimes bizarre concept which Ma builds around the reader, sentence by sentence, but the pieces connect to each other within a bizarre framework that almost resembles time. This collection almost resembles a narrative. This form creates a curious and compelling reading experience that I can only urge you to try for yourself.

Some of the brilliant fun: One story picks up at the conclusion of a character's blackout, induced by taking drugs in another story. One story (one guess which) is the extramarital affair discovered in another story. My favorite? One story starts outside the bounds of the fiction, with Ma narrating the creation process.

I am so taken with the cleverness and style Ma displays in BLISS that I intend to add it to my library, as well as her other major work, SEVERANCE.

Stories included:
Los Angeles
Oranges
G
Yeti Lovemaking
Returning
Two Weeks
Office Hourse
Peking Duck
Tomorrow

Ma's stories are beautiful and strange, dealing with what it means to be an immigrant, to be from more than one place, to always search for home. She writes about universal themes such as love, relationships, loneliness, and ambition. In every story, I found an odd shaped glob and then felt surprised when it fit perfectly in a hole hiding inside me.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Ling Ma, and MacMillan Audio for this brilliant audio ARC. I really loved it. I listened to it twice!

Rating (there aren't enough stars)
Finished October 2022
Recommended for fans of contemporary literary short fiction, abstract or surreal fiction, experimental form in serial fiction, immigrant voices and stories, contemporary literary romance

I enjoy Ma's writing style and the ideas these stories explored. I might have liked it even better as a physical or ebook, as I could have spent longer thinking as I read the stories.

Bliss Montage by Ling Ma is a short story compilation that is composed of eight tales of people making their way through the madness and reality of our collective delusions: love and loneliness, connection and possession, friendship, motherhood, the idea of home. From a woman who lives in a house with all of her ex-boyfriends, to a toxic friendship built around a drug that makes you invisible, to an ancient ritual that might heal you of anything if you bury yourself alive, these and other scenarios reveal that the outlandish and the everyday are shockingly, deceptively,

Wow, this year I have really gotten in to short story collections and this book is another reason why I discovered my new love of short stories. Some of my favorite stories include 'Los Angeles', 'Returning', and 'Peking Duck'. I could see myself returning to all of these stories and discovering new tidbits and life lessons each reading. I highly recommend this to short story lovers and fans of Julia Armfield and Han Kang.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a really surreal but really engaging short story collection! I really enjoyed listening although I’ll be thinking a lot about what each story meant. Reading this reminded me a lot of Where the Wild Ladies Are as there is definitely the same type of deep strangeness to these stories. I’m really looking forward to reading Severance now!

Ling Ma has such a strong literary voice that shines through these stories. These stories are so smart, so creative, so thought provoking, and so unsettling. I will definitely be talking about this book on my platform, thank you for the audiobook!

This short story collection is superb. Each story has some element that is so out of the box that it makes you think hard about what it all means. A woman with a guest house filled with her ex-boyfriends, a declining America where women regularly have pregnancy complications involving the fetus’s arm protruding from her vagina, an illegal drug that makes you invisible… so much brain melting creativity that it’s hard not to be in awe of this powerhouse writer. The narrator of the audiobook does a wonderful job inhabiting the characters and bringing the stories to life.

Bliss Montage is a strange, and subversive piece of speculative literature. There are several short stories included that commentate on many different large issues including: immigration, marginalization, racism, sexism, generational trauma, trauma bonding, motherhood, love, human connection, identity, and several more. These stories really made me think and wish I had buddy read this with someone to talk with and bounce around thoughts of deeper meanings of each story. I enjoyed some more than others but overall I took pleasure in consuming this book.

I listened to the audibook version, and while it sold a flat affect well (as I believe was the intention though hard to stay engaged with) , it was at times very difficult to identify when one story would end and another began and this was infuriating.

Finally, the cover is stunning and I love it. 🍊

4 idiosyncratic stars.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan audio for the Audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hi, yes, I will buy whatever Ling Ma is selling. I loved Severance, and I was crossing my fingers that I would enjoy her short stories as well. And BOY DID I. They’re unsettling, a little taste of horror going on in some of them, while doing what all the best short stories do and making you think. Themes range from sexual relationships to immigrant families in a way that both felt very personal and like a broader examination. Being othered, for a variety of reasons, plays into most of the stories, and we get to experience how that feels from several different perspectives - do you want to hide, become defiant, beg for answers, do anything you can to assimilate to the extent of forgetting what’s happened to you. Short stories are their own art form, and I’m sure authors hate hearing it - but Ling Ma created such lush worlds that I’d love to read a much longer piece about what’s happening in the world of most of the stories here. Brava! Thank you to NetGalley for the advance audiobook!

This audiobook was well-narrated. I appreciated the narrator's proper pronunciation of Chinese words.
Bliss. Montage presents varying stories about finding your place in the world, feeling as if you belong, and other themes of place. I really enjoyed that the speculative elements weren't too "out there", but more of one step removed from reality. The writing was insightful and poignant. You related to the characters' struggles. Great collection.

I guess I am odd man out on this book. I just didn't love it. This I found the stories a bit confusing as far as which character was being portrayed. There didn't seem to be an ending ot most of the stories and in a strange way they felt connected. And they all seemed so depressing. This was a hot mess for me and I couldn't wait to get to the end. I felt no sympathy or even kindness towards any of the characters, which was disappointing because they all could have used a little love. They all seemed a bit pathetic and helpless in the end.

The cover is spunky! I liked the cover and that is what attracted me to this audiobook.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This collection of eight short stories was wild, weird, horrific, and hilarious. It was unique and an absolute joy to read. I really appreciated the insight into Ma’s twisted world.

The writing throughout all eight stories is so compelling. I did not want to put this one down. While the voice feels consistent throughout, none of the stories are exactly linked. Ma explores topics like friendship, loneliness, and “Yeti Lovemaking” in such a wild way. These stories range from one about a woman living with one hundred of her ex-boyfriends and her husband to one about a woman who finds herself dealing pregnant and dealing with some really strange complications. It's all really hard to describe and this one will definitely leave you asking, “what did I just read?!?!”

Katharine Chin narrates the audiobook of this one and does so with a really measured voice. Her performance is so calm while reading some of the most absurd things. It really brings an eeriness to the already strange collection of stories. It was fantastic and perfect. I highly enjoyed her narration.