Our February/March Book Club Pick: ‘Blob’ by Maggie Su

But that’s exactly what happens to Vi Liu in Blob: A Love Story, by Maggie Su, which we’ll be reading for Jezebel’s February/March book club. With the omnipresence of AI these days, and promises (threats?) that we’ll be interacting with artificial beings regularly in coming years, there’s also been a rise in novels addressing questions about what it means to relate to other humans—and how do we navigate and preserve our humanity in an ever-more-mechanized world. (Our last book club book, Hum, is about parenting in a version of our society where robots have basically taken over all service jobs—and also surveil our every move.) 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.

We’ve also recently overhauled the way the Jezebel book club works. We’re now reading one book every two months, focusing on new literary fiction releases. This doesn’t mean we’re shying away from any sort of genre crossover, but we’re focusing on appealing to our broader audience (so no fantasy or romance here—though our Fantasy Aisle column can scratch that itch for you).

Our Editor-in-Chief Lauren Tousignant and I will read Blob over the next few weeks, and publish our conversation about it toward the end of March; you’ll be invited to join the conversation in the comments. In the meantime, if you’re a Jezebel subscriber, keep an eye on your email for a potential giveaway opportunity…