Blob - by Maggie Su (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"There is so much at play in this wondrous novel. Vi, struggling to place herself in any context that makes sense within the world, earnestly leads us into a wild experiment, to turn a blob into the man of her dreams, and I was transfixed by her voice. This is a book that looks at identity and desire in profoundly interesting ways." -- Kevin Wilson, bestselling author of Now Is Not the Time to Panic

A humorous and deeply moving debut novel in the vein of Bunny and Convenience Store Woman about a young woman who tries to shape a sentient blob into her perfect boyfriend.

A New Yorker Best Book of 2025 - A Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel

The daughter of a Taiwanese father and white mother, Vi Liu has never quite fit into her Midwestern college town. Aimless after getting dumped by her boyfriend and dropping out of college, Vi works at the front desk of a hotel where she greets guests, refills cucumber water samovars, and tries to evade her bubbly blond coworker, Rachel. Little does Vi know her life is about to be permanently transformed when she agrees to a night out with Rachel. In the alley outside the bar, Vi discovers a strange blob--a small living creature with beady black eyes. In a moment of concern and drunken desperation, she takes it home.

But the blob is no ordinary pet. Becoming increasingly sentient, it begins to grow, shift shape, and obey Vi's commands. As the entity continues to change, Vi is struck with a daring idea: she'll mold the creature into her ideal partner. Feeding it a stream of sweet breakfast cereals and American pop culture, the creature grows into a movie-star handsome white man. But when Vi's desire to be loved unconditionally threatens to spiral out of control, she is forced to confront her lonely childhood, her aloof ex-boyfriend, and the racial marginalization that has defined her relationships--a journey of self-discovery that teaches her it's impossible to control those you love.

Blending the familiar with the surreal, Blob is a witty, heartfelt story about the search for love and self and what it means to be human.

Review Quotes

"Unique, heartfelt, and hilarious, Blob: A Love Story is a delightfully inquisitive meditation on relationships and identity. What responsibility do we have in the creation of our relationships? What do we bring and leave behind? And what repercussions exist when we force ourselves into an identity instead of nurturing our real selves? This winsome book pulls off the impossible feat of examining our deepest existential questions with equal parts tenderness and droll." - Ling Ling Huang, author of Natural Beauty

"Maggie Su has written an inventive, utterly unique debut. BLOB is not only a deliciously creepy, deeply entertaining take on modern relationships, it's also a moving look at new adulthood, and the inherent vulnerability that comes along with figuring out exactly who you're meant to be." - Kimberly King Parsons, author of Black Light

"Like a beguiling literary love child of Melissa Broder and Jeff VanderMeer, Blob enthralls with raw intimacy and Frankensteinian science. This is a novel that dives headfirst into the gelatinous messiness of early adulthood--with its bad jobs, bad boyfriends, and bad decision-making--finding self-actualization along the way. Maggie Su's debut will make you laugh, shriek, and cheer for its wayward, wobbly inventions. Blob is not to be missed!" - Allegra Hyde, author of The Last Catastrophe and Eleutheria

"There is so much at play in this wondrous novel. Vi, struggling to place herself in any context that makes sense within the world, earnestly leads us into a wild experiment, to turn a blob into the man of her dreams, and I was transfixed by her voice. This is a book that looks at identity and desire in profoundly interesting ways." - Kevin Wilson, bestselling author of Now Is Not the Time to Panic

"In Blob: A Love Story, Su's prose breathes magic, humor, and empathy into everything it touches. This meditation on change (and the weird, startling, and even otherworldly ways it can manifest) plunges the reader into the can't-look-away mess of the narrator, Vi's quarter life crisis as she navigates encounters with heartbreak, self-evolution, and alien lifeforms. You'll want to read this in one sitting, but try to savor it: there are gems of laughter and insight to be unearthed on every page." - Renée Branum, author of Defenestrate

"A rollicking fun, funny, poignant coming of age story, filled with honesty and delight." - Aimee Bender, bestselling author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

"Weird and heartfelt, this audiobook is an empathetic portrait of change." - AudioFile Magazine

"Blending the familiar with the surreal, Blob is a witty, heartfelt story about the search for love and self and what it means to be human." - Belletrist

"Blob tackles similar questions about connection but is ultimately also about a young woman trying to figure out herself and her relationships; think the humor of Flubber, the emotional salience of Her, and the sweet, fraught, occasionally infuriating self-discovery of Girls." - Jezebel

"Built on the premise of Build-a-Bear gone funhouse mirror build-a-boyfriend, Blob really is a love story, but maybe not in the way that you expect. At the core Blob is about falling back in love with the parts of yourself that you've thought you lost forever."

"So weird and wonderful! A funny, moving look at what it means to be real, to grow, and to truly connect with yourself and others." - Read This Next

"A laugh-out-loud and off-the-wall story... all about finding yourself and finding love." - Debutiful

"A funny and pathos-ridden tale of social awkwardness and self-realization; a modern, delayed coming-of-age. . . . This quirky, funny, pained novel considers the challenge, for any of us, of becoming fully human." - Shelf Awareness (starred review)

"Maggie Su's debut novel Blob: A Love Story offers unique look at humanity." - San Francisco Chronicle

"Funny, original, and charming, Blob ponders the shape-shifting potential of love."

"A sharp, funny and poignant look at what it means to connect with another being, and yourself." - New York Times Book Review

"Su's ambitions extend beyond a Chiller Theater rom-com. . . . To say more would spoil the dark fun of this book. Suffice it to say that Blob isn't a horror novel, and Bob isn't the only one who evolves from a disagreeable lump into someone willing to accept who and what they are. In Su's affecting Frankenstein story, the monster's transformation is the least surprising one." - Washington Post

"Now this is art! This is literature! More books about women dating weird objects they found in the street, please. Blob hive rise up." - Literary Hub

"Hilarious & heartbreaking." - Goodreads

"At parts deeply intimate in the mundanity of life and surreal in its invention, Maggie Su has built an entertaining web of relationships in her debut novel Blob." - Chicago Review of Books

"A journey of self-discovery that is as delightful and touching as it is downright strange." - Polygon

"What I love most about Blob: A Love Story is the way it manages to imbue a zany comic premise with powerful emotion and deep thematic resonance. Maggie Su skillfully manages action, pacing, and tone, and the result is serious fun, both grave and entertaining. If I happened to come across an attentive blob, I would ask it to grow two hands and applaud this fresh, terrific debut." - Chris Bachelder, author of The Throwback Special

"Blob is absolutely charming. Maggie Su's writing is imaginative and funny. Vi is a deliciously messy narrator who will make readers laugh, yes, but also think deeply about the relationship between love and generosity. A pleasure." - Megan Giddings, author of The Women Could Fly

"Funny, tender, unexpected." - Kirkus Reviews

"Like all the best comic fiction, this delightful book is both laugh-out-loud funny and achingly poignant. I root for snarky, lonely Vi as she wrestles with the risks and rewards of embracing her entire, messy self. What happens to her might be surreal, but it has the deep resonance of truth." - Leah Stewart, author of What You Don't Know About Charlie Outlaw

"Slyly self-aware and gently comic." - The New Yorker

"Su's clever conceit provides a catalyst for Vi's revelatory introspection, as she faces her self-destructive tendencies and the difficulties of being human. The result is a top-notch tale of arrested development." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)