Based on reading this story collection and Severance, I would say that Ling Ma's specialty is using clever science-fiction premises to explore the influence of the past.
The hook in Severance is an outbreak of Shen Fever, which causes people to mindlessly repeat routines, but it's main theme is the immigrant experience in a commodifying America. Most of the stories in Bliss Montage feature a fantastical element –– a drug that renders you invisible, a portal to another dimension, yetis meeting women in singles' bars –– and follow a woman who is in thrall to a past relationship. This pattern is explicit in the first story, "Los Angeles," where the narrator lives in a mansion with her husband and all of her ex-boyfriends. The story with the invisibility drug, "G," is about a woman attempting to leave behind her best friend from college, whom she has outgrown.
I admire Ma's metaphorical use of the outlandish but am often disappointed in how the narrative plays out. It seems like the author abandons the metaphor as the story progresses. My favorite stories in this collection turned out to be the most realistic ones.
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