Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Salgın by Ling Ma

31 reviews

dedusmuln's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, and Pregnancy

Minor: Racism and Xenophobia

mirrorbug's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• 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

Somehow I got it into my head that this was a tragicomedy when that is not what it was. Humor was not in the forefront, but it had its moments. I'd like to read it again without that preconception. Still really enjoyed it. Candace is a character I grew to respect more than anything and the worldbuilding was fantastic. It's crazy this book was released preCOVID, you definitely see some similarities there. I think the parts of seeing the apocalypse start to unfold felt so realistic and were definitely my favorite chapters in the book. Definitely worth the read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Body horror, Chronic illness, Racism, and Grief

skyba3's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Blood, Vomit, Alcohol, and Classism

erinpoo's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• 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) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

Moderate: Racism, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, and Medical trauma

Minor: Gun violence

avilareads's review against another edition

reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

there were things i enjoyed about this novel (mainly its reflections on capitalism, family, and the interesting concept of the fevered) but the present tense portions of the book didn’t do much for me other than make me deeply uncomfortable. 
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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Suicide, Xenophobia, and Pregnancy

readwithbells's review against another edition

3.5

A remarkably forward-thinking apocalypse book about a plague that is triggered by or flourishes within nostalgic memories. We follow Candace through a few timelines, one where she becomes the only person working in her company, one where she is caught up in a power-hungry group post-pandemmy, and interspersed with pieces of her childhood and her parent’s lives. 

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!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Racism and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide and Death of parent

Brief but graphic mention of maggots in an open wound

lilabachere's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Racism

its_eel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• 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

The cubicle banality of the end of the world is explored quite skillfully in Ling Ma's Severance.  The interweaving of two different timelines flowed nicely with the overall themes and plot of the book. Throughout the novel, it was often a point of dispute wether or not Candace living her routine as an office worker was better or worse than living in the tragedy of post-pandemic world traveling with strangers. Nostalgia, memory, and identity were strong themes that stood out to me in this book, especially when tied with the reminiscing of her parents immigration to Salt Lake City from Fuzhou, China. 

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,

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, and Xenophobia

Minor: Body horror and Racism

shoohoob's review against another edition

medium-paced

• 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

I really wish I hadn’t read this during the COVID-19 pandemic 🥲 

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Pregnancy

Minor: Racism and Injury/Injury detail

alisasreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

• 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

anti-capitalism and zombies made me want to read this, but i stayed for the way the writer managed to make me feel like i was experiencing it all with candace. very well written and definitely a book i would recommend to people. also pretty odd to read this a year after the pandemic..

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Dementia, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Vomit