BLOB

Get in the xigxag app
Already purchased

Click to open directly in the xigxag app.

This book is not purchasable in your country. Please select another book. Pre-order Buy Now ${{ price }} Send as a gift
How does xigxag pricing work?

Listen to a sample

What to expect

'Witty and wild'
Harper's Bazaar

'A strange but uniquely beautiful concept of a love story that delves into care, compassion and what it is to be human'
Stylist

'This is a sharp, funny and poignant look at what it means to connect with another being, and yourself'
Weike Wang, New York Times

A hilarious and moving debut novel about a young woman who decides to turn a sentient blob into her perfect man...

Vi Liu's life is a mess. Having dropped out of college, she's stuck in a job she hates at a local hotel. Her ex-boyfriend has blocked her and she's lashing out at her family and co-workers.

One night, drunk outside a drag club, she stumbles across a mysterious sentient blob. She takes it home, where she feeds it a diet of sugary cereal and reality TV. Slowly, she realises that she can shape the blob into her perfect man: someone attentive, outgoing and with more than a passing resemblance to Ryan Gosling.

But is Bob the blob really the answer to all her problems, or a catalyst for further disaster? Sharp, strange and very funny, BLOB is a delightful story about growing up, fucking up and learning how to be a real person.

'Maggie Su's debut novel is nothing if not surprising.'
The Times *Book of the Month*

'A modern-day Mrs. Caliban, BLOB is a book that looks at identity and desire in profoundly interesting ways'
Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here

'Just brilliant -- utterly original, charming and funny, weirdly real and really weird. I can't stop thinking about this book and I'm telling everyone I know to read it'
Kate Davies, author of In at the Deep End

Critics Review

Witty and wild ... a surprisingly moving and imaginative debut from a fiercely original new talent
Harper's Bazaar
The only fantastical element in Su's otherwise realistic universe, Bob's transformation from mute mound of flesh to gorgeous blond himbo is a delight . . . This is a sharp, funny and poignant look at what it means to connect with another being, and yourself
New York Times
A strange but uniquely beautiful concept of a love story that delves into care, compassion and what it is to be human.
Stylist
A complicated but moving take on how tricky it can be trying to become a grown-up . . . Maggie Su's debut is tender, compulsive reading
Daily Mirror
Maggie Su's debut novel is nothing if not surprising
The Times
This weird but oddly wonderful debut makes for tender but compulsive reading
Sunday Post
Such a wonderfully strange and beautiful exploration of love, compassion and, essentially, what it is to be human. Short but sweet, and a real page turner towards the end
Stylist
While the sentient ball of goo in Maggie Su's BLOB certainly grabs the reader's attention, there is so much more 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, a weird mix of excitement and dread. A modern-day Mrs. Caliban, BLOB is a book that looks at identity and desire in profoundly interesting ways.
Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing To See Here
Dark fun . . . In Su's affecting Frankenstein story, the monster's transformation is the least surprising one
Washington Post
A hilariously absurd debut . . . a perfectly apt coming-of-age story about modern romance in your twenties
Elle Australia
Just brilliant - utterly original, charming and funny, weirdly real and really weird. I can't stop thinking about this book and I'm telling everyone I know to read it
Kate Davies, author of In at the Deep End
A rollicking fun, funny, poignant coming-of-age story, filled with honesty and delight
Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
BLOB follows a young woman who discovers a sentient blob and tries to turn it into her ideal boyfriend. Now this is art! This is literature! More books about women dating weird objects they found in the street, please. BLOB hive rise up
Lit Hub
Comic, quirky and unlike any other novel
Woman & Home
Maggie Su's debut is tender, compulsive reading
Evening Express
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
Unique, heartfelt, and hilarious, BLOB 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
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
What I love most about BLOB is the way it manages to imbue a zany comic premise with powerful emotion and deep thematic resonance. Maggie Su skilfully 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
'In BLOB, Su's prose breathes magic, humor, and empathy into everything it touches . . . 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
Renee Branum, author of Defenestrate
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
Megan Giddings, author of The Women Could Fly
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
Su's first novel, about a young woman who constructs her ideal mate (literally), is an entertaining, quirky mash-up of Frankenstein and Bridget Jones' Diary, made more substantive as a clever parable of self-discovery... [A] hilarious-and somehow also touching-debut
Booklist
In Su's marvelous debut, a Taiwanese American woman sculpts a seemingly perfect partner out of a sentient blob... 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
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
Maggie Su's debut novel is the tale of a down-on-her-luck woman, Vi, who finds a pitiable blob of goo with eyes in the alley behind a bar. She gradually molds it into a dreamy human-shaped love interest but finds her own angst harder to contain.
New York Magazine
Funny, original, and charming
Interview
Comical, quirky and enjoyably unpredictable, BLOB is unlike any other novel you'll read this year
Woman's Weekly

User Reviews

Book 5.0
Narration 5.0
5.0
5.0
Unique, funny and so so refreshingly different
Eviecatmum 28/02/2025

More from the same

Narrator

About xigxag

Experience the best audiobooks with xigxag, an innovative and user-friendly audiobook platform designed for seamless discovery, purchase, and enjoyment of your favorite titles. Our flexible pricing model offers bestselling audiobooks for less, providing affordable prices and the best audiobook deals without requiring a subscription. Perfect for gifting, xigxag also features convenient audiobook gift cards and in-app audiobook gifting options.

 

Beyond the listening experience, xigxag stands as an exciting alternative to big tech, embodying a strong commitment to sustainability and ethical practices. As the only B Corp certified UK audiobook service, we ensure a guilt-free listening experience from a leader in audiobook innovation.

 

Effortlessly search audiobooks, access honest audiobook reviews that evaluate both the content and narration, and easily discover hidden gems. Whether you prefer to download or stream top audiobook titles, xigxag provides the best possible listening experience anytime, anywhere, on the UK’s best independent audiobook app. Discover the future of audiobooks today.