Blob is the story of a woman who finds a sentient blob by a night club sewer drain and turns him one body party at a time, into the perfect man. It’s both exactly as weird as it sounds, and not that strange at all. Vi is needy, awkward, and self-sabotaging, with complicated relationships in every aspect of her life. Bob, her handsome blob-boyfriend, is a blank slate onto which she can project her desire, but more importantly, he’s a friend to her— someone to listen and understand. What could go wrong? Oh, Blob. You odd, earnest, charming, sad little book. I could have read a hundred more pages. Blob inverts expectations by being far less outlandish than you might expect. It’s offbeat, of course, but it’s relatable and warm and deeply human. Less about Vi’s relationship with her amorphous lover than her relationship with her family, her heritage, and with herself. I couldn’t put it down. It was delightful.

A weird and wonderful masterpiece. Maggie Su delivers a darkly funny, slightly pessimistic, hopeful but hard portrayal of what it's like to be human. There is a certain magic in Su's ability to craft an unlikeable character who is also so incredibly relatable that you can't help but root for her... The effect is highly addictive, readers be warned! I highly recommend.

On the face if it Blob is an extremely strange book about Vi, who, on a drunken night out, discovers a strange blob-like creature outside a nightclub. She's no idea what it is but decides to take pity on it and take it home. I'm begging you now to completely suspend your disbelief over the eponymous character in this book (I assume it's a metaphor but I was never very good at working out what for so I'll leave that up to you to decide). This is actually a book about the way we often sabotage our own lives. Vi is an incredibly anti-social but needy young woman. She lies to keep her parents off her back, she doesn't care about her work and shows no interest in the lives of others other than how they affect her. She could be really unlikeable but she just comes off as vulnerable. The story is definitely strange as Vi nurtures the Blob (Bob) and begins to see a different future for herself rather than the hopeless loser she thinks other people see her as. As her life begins to change Vi thinks she will finally get what she wants. But she may well be missing the most important thing - self-love. I found it difficult to like Vi but that's probably because so many of her traits reminded me of myself when I was young. The writing is great and I found it difficult to put this book down. Once you've forgotten about the strange situation Vi finds herself in then the story becomes all about her struggle to negotiate a world she doesn't feel she fits into. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommended. As this is her debut novel I hope to see much more from Maggie Su in the future. Thankyou to Netgalley and Hodder &Stoughton for the advance review copy.