Maggie Su’s debut novel opens as main character Vi steps outside a dive bar for some fresh air. Standing near a dumpster, she discovers a blob — a small, strange, gelatinous living creature with beady black eyes (and maybe, possibly, lips?). In a moment of concern and drunken confusion, Vi slips the blob into the hood of her sweatshirt and takes it home.
And thus begins Blob: A Love Story.
As in so many other quarter-life crisis tales, Vi is not doing so well. She recently dropped out of college and got dumped by her boyfriend. Her parents and brother annoy her. She doesn’t have many friends. She works at the front desk of a hotel, where she refills carafes of cucumber water and tries to be friendly to the demanding guests. And she tries to avoid her bubbly blond coworker, Rachel, who approaches Vi as a project.
But the sentient blob holds the promise of a whole new kind of relationship — one Vi might be able to mold and shape into just what she needs.
It’s a wacked-out premise, to be sure. But by now, you may know that weird novels are my kryptonite. At first, this one reminded me of Gerardo Samano Cordova’s thought-provoking Monstrilio from a few years back — a little bit Frankenstein, a little bit Pet Sematery. Only in this case, throw in nods to modern bizarro romances like Sky Daddy and Shark Heart.
Can Vi turn a sentient blob into the man of her dreams? She heads down that path, armed with sugary cereal and a constant stream of pop culture. And the blob does transform, a few limbs at a time. But we can all see where this is headed. As the blob becomes increasingly human in appearance, he also develops a mind and desires of his own, and Vi discovers that real relationships require mutual care and feeding.
Su’s writing is funny and fantastical, and she manages to explore the darker sides of love and longing. As much as I adored the premise, though, the novel often evolves into a series of disjointed flashbacks that distract from the main storyline, and that leaves the middle portion feeling tedious.
Overall, Blob: A Love Story does what it sets out to do: It’s a Gen Z coming-of-age story that offers an interesting meditation on growth, relationships and identity. And readers of all ages will come away pondering what it means to truly connect with yourself and others.
