A review by ninaprime
Bliss Montage by Ling Ma

mysterious reflective

3.5

A uncanny, surreal collection of short stories featuring mainly Chinese American women protagonists who are grappling internally with their self-conception and ennui while confronting their relationships with people, places, and memory. Pretty much every story ended abruptly with me feeling like "wtf just happened?" and "what happens next?", which shows that I was invested despite their inherent creepiness. My favorite was "G" about two estranged frenemies taking a drug that renders you invisible and "Yeti Lovemaking", a weird but tender account of a one-night stand with a yeti. "Office Hours", featuring a mentor-mentee relationship at a university and a Narnia-esque escape hatch from the boredom and frustrations of academia, was my least favorite, mostly because I didn't engage with it as emotionally. Overall I loved Ma's writing style and look forward to reading her other works.
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