dedusmuln's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Pregnancy, Misogyny, Death, Blood, Sexism, and Confinement
Minor: Racism and Xenophobia
mirrorbug's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Murder, Sexual content, Suicide, and Violence
Minor: Racism, Chronic illness, Grief, and Body horror
skyba3's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Stalking, Suicide, Terminal illness, Child death, Dementia, Grief, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Addiction, Death, Gore, Xenophobia, Sexual content, Body horror, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Confinement
Moderate: Blood, Drug use, Classism, Addiction, Racism, Alcohol, Vomit, Drug abuse, and Cursing
erinpoo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
“A second chance doesn't mean you're in the clear. In many ways, it is the more difficult thing. Because a second chance means that you have to try harder. You must rise to the challenge without the blind optimism of ignorance.”
i really thought i might like this a bit more going into it a second time and because i am in dire need of a copy of bliss montage but! all feelings about this novel remained the same (which is not really a bad thing)
Graphic: Body horror and Death
Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Racism, Suicide, and Xenophobia
Minor: Gun violence
avilareads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
huge trigger warning for confinement in this novel that i had no idea of beforehand!
overall, a unique book with a captivating narrator. if it wasn’t for her flashbacks and insights on society i would not have finished this one.
Graphic: Sexual content, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Death, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Body horror, and Suicide
readwithbells's review against another edition
3.5
I think this book is well-written and 100% accomplishes what it set out to do, I just prefer books I get more emotionally attached to and this one really kept me at arm’s length. To people who liked Leave the World Behind or Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans, Severance would be a good comp title. It was just too meandering for me, with a through-line caught up in the flow of memories instead of character arc, which is my personal preference. I’m glad I read it though!
Graphic: Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Confinement
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Racism
Minor: Death of parent and Suicide
Brief but graphic mention of maggots in an open woundlilabachere's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Confinement
Moderate: Pregnancy
Minor: Racism
readwitheel's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Spoiler
The illness in the book, Shen Fever, seems to be triggered by nostalgia and the fevered enter into a state of repetition of their daily routines to never resume consciousness or self-awareness. It is a point-of-no-return sickness, taking almost all of the population. It seems to be implied that Candace herself succumbs to this wave of nostalgia at the end of the book when she is fleeing from the Facility into Chicago, as if nothing ever presented itself with enough emotional power to sway Candace into becoming fevered until now. The trigger for Candace's fever is potentially nostalgia for her ex-boyfriend Johnathan, who lived in Chicago before he moved to NYC.Ling Ma skillfully blurs the quantifiers of what it means to be sick and healthy, fevered and unfevered,
Spoiler
Candace's personality and life-choices felt distant and almost mechanical to me, even if there were writing descriptions of her laughing, being upset, etc. It was almost as if she were just living the life and having the feelings that she felt like she was supposed to have, rather that trusting that she was living the life she actually wanted to. Even though I felt distant from Candace, I was still able to relate to her, as her struggle of staking out a place in this world through working is one of many facing the harsh brutalities and requirements of surviving within capitalism requires.
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Xenophobia, Gun violence, and Violence
Minor: Racism and Body horror
shoohoob's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Really interesting book! It was slow to get into but I very much enjoyed it. I don’t know how to feel about the ending, but I loved the two different stories. As the child of immigrants, I related to many of Candace’s feelings and experiences.
Graphic: Pregnancy and Death of parent
Minor: Racism and Injury/Injury detail
alisasreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Confinement, Death, Dementia, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Vomit, and Racism