Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Salgın by Ling Ma

20 reviews

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-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

4.0

This book really freaked me out from beginning to end. It was published in August 2018, over a full year before the first case of COVID. Yet, it has so many eerie parallels to COVID. Parts of it were hard to read for this reason. It was a more extreme form of how the pandemic affected society - to the point I expected zombies to start coming to life at any moment. Between the prescience and the severity of the impact, I was so spooked! Lots of other themes underpinning the book too. Great book to teach in school. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, and Terminal illness

iro_san's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Body horror, Vomit, Cursing, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Alcohol, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual content, Gun violence, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, Violence, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, 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: 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

kelsokake's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

left me feeling pensive and almost like i would gain more after a reread

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Confinement

tatjanasbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Pregnancy, Suicide, Murder, and Confinement

Minor: Death of parent

jessjess125's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

This was.... strange. Pretty strong comparisons to COVID-19, even though it was published in 2018. I wish that there had been a more conclusive ending, but I understand that it was an important part to have it end on an open note. It also addressed a weird part of me that wants to live in a mall.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Kidnapping, and Suicide

Moderate: Pregnancy

svmreads's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

This is 100% the type of book where you finish it and the only thing you can do is stare at a wall.
Words can’t express how much Severance captivated me. Ling Ma’s exploration of religion, routine, and ritual under apocalyptic conditions/late-stage capitalism is absolutely brilliant, and reading this book as Covid still has a hold on the world brings a chilling relevance to the text.
Severance is a new all-time favorite of mine and I cannot recommend this book enough. I am so thrilled to read Ling Ma’s collection of short stories, Bliss Montage, when it is released in September! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness and Murder

laceyc1's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, Death of parent, Drug use, and Drug abuse

caidyn's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense 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

3.5

Even as I get older, I still don't really like books without quotation marks. I don't like trying to decipher where a character's speech ends and begins. In the beginning of the book, I loved the non-linear way it was told, but then I got tired of it. Still a good read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness and Confinement

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

quite an interesting read...severance's deliciously satirical apocalyptic tale seems - considering the current times - depressingly prophetic in hindsight.

i rly like how society and human behavior bend in all surprising directions here when aspects of society at large consequentially start to collapse. calling dibs on shops in a mall for personal rooms? moving into the office when public transport stops? like, it doesnt get more capitalistic and american than that. the titular theme - in all its various forms - provides an intriguing examination of the ensuing loneliness of modern society as well. anddd it also makes me rly rly rly miss new york in all its barmy, yucky, yet freeing glory.

this is def a thought-provoking and mysterious read that subtly keeps one guessing, though i wish the writing was just a lill bit more polished.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Violence

Moderate: Terminal illness, Sexual content, Death, and Racism

Minor: Pregnancy, Death of parent, and Suicide