dedusmuln's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pregnancy, Misogyny, Death, Blood, Sexism, and Confinement
Minor: Racism and Xenophobia
amaya_jam's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
i’m embarrassed by how much i enjoyed this. for the first time, in a really long time, I was rushing to do errands and chores just so I could get back to reading this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual content, and Confinement
Moderate: Pregnancy
Minor: Death, Death of parent, and Blood
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
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
kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
i was gonna be generous and do 3 stars because the cultural parts of this book were compelling, but frankly this book was a snooze fest with a whimper of an ending
warm bodies starring nicolas fucking hoult managed to make me feel more about an apocalypse and the ~literary~ elements of this book are so overwrought it borders on self-sucking. the most poignant moments in this story are overshadowed by clunky cult shenanigans, a terrible flashback and flash-flashback structure, and an incredibly silly detour into strange & unnecessary sex. not to sound like the internet purity police but the phrase “Schwarzenegger dick” should be banned on every continent. jail for 1000 years
when are synopses going to stop using “satirical” and “deadpan” when they just mean that the author is too dry to write an actual apocalyptic novel so they wrote some handwavy overly meta shadow of one & called it literary fiction. boooooooo tomatoes tomatoes
warm bodies starring nicolas fucking hoult managed to make me feel more about an apocalypse and the ~literary~ elements of this book are so overwrought it borders on self-sucking. the most poignant moments in this story are overshadowed by clunky cult shenanigans, a terrible flashback and flash-flashback structure, and an incredibly silly detour into strange & unnecessary sex. not to sound like the internet purity police but the phrase “Schwarzenegger dick” should be banned on every continent. jail for 1000 years
when are synopses going to stop using “satirical” and “deadpan” when they just mean that the author is too dry to write an actual apocalyptic novel so they wrote some handwavy overly meta shadow of one & called it literary fiction. boooooooo tomatoes tomatoes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Blood, Sexism, Misogyny, Murder, Gore, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Religious bigotry
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
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
minnxes's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Suicide, Violence, Blood, Gore, Murder, and Pregnancy
sakisreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Ooh, I LOVED this book so much. I thought that because of its current popularity on BookTok, it had been written during the pandemic, but it turns out it had been published in 2018 which gave me a sense of foreshadowing 😳
Ling Ma captures the boredom of day-in, day-out hustle culture for the big men; in her Bible production job in New York, it’s evident she’s not loving life but she’s just keeping it going.
In sharp contrast, her perspective on Shen Fever taking over the city and her having to join this group of ‘survivors’ is so interesting and once I’d gotten into the different flashbacks I couldn’t put this book down.
I really loved the ending to this book as well. I wasn’t sure what I expected to happen in the end but I’m glad it ended the way it did 🥹
I would highly recommend this to people who are fans of reading Asian literature and about the immigrant experience… All with a twist. This book reminded me a little bit of The School for Good Mothers! Thank you so much ❤️
Ling Ma captures the boredom of day-in, day-out hustle culture for the big men; in her Bible production job in New York, it’s evident she’s not loving life but she’s just keeping it going.
In sharp contrast, her perspective on Shen Fever taking over the city and her having to join this group of ‘survivors’ is so interesting and once I’d gotten into the different flashbacks I couldn’t put this book down.
Spoiler
I wasn’t expecting Ashley’s fevered time in her house and could picture all that so clearly. This element of horror was intense and I was wide-eyed the entire time reading it 😳I really loved the ending to this book as well. I wasn’t sure what I expected to happen in the end but I’m glad it ended the way it did 🥹
Spoiler
SHE GOT AWAY WITH THE BABY, NICE ✨I would highly recommend this to people who are fans of reading Asian literature and about the immigrant experience… All with a twist. This book reminded me a little bit of The School for Good Mothers! Thank you so much ❤️
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Death of parent
devin_raquel's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
I cannot believe this book was published in 2018, so many of the details and plot points feel incredibly similar to the COVID-19 pandemic. The breakdown of New York City, an illness born out of China, the trade lockdowns causing supply shortages all make this novel seem like a parallel universe. A universe where mankind and science couldn’t beat disease.
Ling Ma writes in a way where time feels circular rather than linear; the past melting into the present and vice versa. The main characters’ life before “the fever” mage just as important as her life after “the end.” We all are different people after having lived through a global pandemic, and I think Ma captures this beautifully.
Leaving the ending open to interpretation seemed like a hopeful choice on behalf of the author. Maybe Candace finds another colony of survivors, maybe she gets reunited with Jonathan, maybe there is a happy ending after all. Or, maybe as the book suggest Candace succumbs to “the fever” and looses herself to a meaningless routine like the others.
Ling Ma writes in a way where time feels circular rather than linear; the past melting into the present and vice versa. The main characters’ life before “the fever” mage just as important as her life after “the end.” We all are different people after having lived through a global pandemic, and I think Ma captures this beautifully.
Leaving the ending open to interpretation seemed like a hopeful choice on behalf of the author. Maybe Candace finds another colony of survivors, maybe she gets reunited with Jonathan, maybe there is a happy ending after all. Or, maybe as the book suggest Candace succumbs to “the fever” and looses herself to a meaningless routine like the others.
Content Warnings
Minor: Blood, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Death, Violence, Confinement, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Gun violence
wordsaremything's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The truth is, I had stayed in the city as long as I possibly could. The whole time, I had been half waiting for myself to turn, to become fevered like everyone else. Nothing happened. I waited and waited. I still wait.
I start every book out at 5 stars and work down, rather than start at 0 and work up. I waffled between 5 and 4 for a good amount of this, but because I was waffling, that tells me there was something in this that wasn't a five star read for me. I think because I felt it was too much about the before, and not enough about the after. I would want to see what happens when
Ultimately, this is a novel about routine. Even when it isn't, it is. Anything about Candace and the Bibles is about routine — the steps required to make it (which she thinks about to soothe herself to sleep) and the sameness of the text no matter how it's packaged. Anything about her parents is routine, too — even the scene in which she burns offerings for them: For my father, I burned a Jos. A. Bank suit. ... For my mother, I burned a Louis Vuitton suitcase and a Fendi handbag. ...I imagined that it would be more than they would ever need, more than they knew what to do with, even in eternity. She is doing this out of the tradition, the routine of remembering her family, rather than the actual feelings she has for them.
What I found most interesting, however, is how empty of a character Candace is. She is a vessel only.
In talking to her mother, stricken with memory-loss and making grand promises of what she will invite Candace to, Candace says Thank you, I'd say, though, again, she had done no such thing. Candace is used to humoring people even when things go wrong. She is a good liar and used to dealing with people who are either not all the way there or who ask impossible tasks of her.
When she goes to China to see how the Bibles are made, she says It didn't feel like I was in China. It didn't feel like I was anywhere. Candace doesn't belong to anyone or anywhere, which is why Bibles work well for her. They are worldly books that mean something different to everyone, even though she can follow the same routine in creating them most of the time. (Again, everything in here is about routine.)
And in the strongest example of this vessel-ness is something her mother says to her: I just want for you what your father wanted: to make use of yourself, she finally said. No matter what, we just want you to be of use. This whole line I would argue is Candace is a nutshell. Candace creates the Bible for others, she works for others, she She only breaks out of the routine when she decides to do something for herself.
So what's with the title? If everything is about routine?
There were only two instances that I caught where the word "severance" is used in the book, and both involve men. The first, her father, the second, Jonathan. Both are absent from her life.
- By the end of [Jonathan's] second year, corporate announced that policy regarding severance packages would be changed.
- My father rarely spoke of the past, and perhaps it was only after having officialized his severance from China that he felt free to speak openly of his life there.
Even when she is severed from the world, she is OK. She thrives in solitude because her life was rather quiet and monotonous pre-Shen. Her severance package is what she gains when everyone is gone: The push to take action without knowing what the next on the list will be.
As a final note, the line that has stuck with me for days after reading: The smell [of the shark fin soup] is so delicious, unbelievably rich, that I understand why sharks have to die to make it.
I start every book out at 5 stars and work down, rather than start at 0 and work up. I waffled between 5 and 4 for a good amount of this, but because I was waffling, that tells me there was something in this that wasn't a five star read for me. I think because I felt it was too much about the before, and not enough about the after. I would want to see what happens when
Spoiler
she gets out of the car. What does she find? What does her life look like? Luna's?Ultimately, this is a novel about routine. Even when it isn't, it is. Anything about Candace and the Bibles is about routine — the steps required to make it (which she thinks about to soothe herself to sleep) and the sameness of the text no matter how it's packaged. Anything about her parents is routine, too — even the scene in which she burns offerings for them: For my father, I burned a Jos. A. Bank suit. ... For my mother, I burned a Louis Vuitton suitcase and a Fendi handbag. ...I imagined that it would be more than they would ever need, more than they knew what to do with, even in eternity. She is doing this out of the tradition, the routine of remembering her family, rather than the actual feelings she has for them.
What I found most interesting, however, is how empty of a character Candace is. She is a vessel only.
In talking to her mother, stricken with memory-loss and making grand promises of what she will invite Candace to, Candace says Thank you, I'd say, though, again, she had done no such thing. Candace is used to humoring people even when things go wrong. She is a good liar and used to dealing with people who are either not all the way there or who ask impossible tasks of her.
When she goes to China to see how the Bibles are made, she says It didn't feel like I was in China. It didn't feel like I was anywhere. Candace doesn't belong to anyone or anywhere, which is why Bibles work well for her. They are worldly books that mean something different to everyone, even though she can follow the same routine in creating them most of the time. (Again, everything in here is about routine.)
And in the strongest example of this vessel-ness is something her mother says to her: I just want for you what your father wanted: to make use of yourself, she finally said. No matter what, we just want you to be of use. This whole line I would argue is Candace is a nutshell. Candace creates the Bible for others, she works for others, she
Spoiler
takes pictures of NYC for others, and then is carrying the baby for Bob.Spoiler
Because I would make the argument that Candace IS fevered: "I didn't know what to do, so I pushed it to the farthest corner of my mind. I went to sleep. Then I got up. I went to work in the morning. I went home in the evening. I repeated the routine." Her routine is to keep going, to keep pushing forward. Either that or she is 100% immune to it. Because we already know that routines don't have to be exactly the same: "The variations [in how the fevered performed their routine tasks] were what got to me." (Which gave me goosebumps to read.)So what's with the title? If everything is about routine?
There were only two instances that I caught where the word "severance" is used in the book, and both involve men. The first, her father, the second, Jonathan
Spoiler
(who is her baby's father)- By the end of [Jonathan's] second year, corporate announced that policy regarding severance packages would be changed.
- My father rarely spoke of the past, and perhaps it was only after having officialized his severance from China that he felt free to speak openly of his life there.
Even when she is severed from the world, she is OK. She thrives in solitude because her life was rather quiet and monotonous pre-Shen. Her severance package is what she gains when everyone is gone: The push to take action without knowing what the next on the list will be.
As a final note, the line that has stuck with me for days after reading: The smell [of the shark fin soup] is so delicious, unbelievably rich, that I understand why sharks have to die to make it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Gun violence, Murder, Religious bigotry, Blood, and Death
When the MC and team find any fevered, they are shot. It is vividly described.helliepad's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I actually read this book because I thought this was connected to the TV show Severance but it's not the same thing lol. However, this story also deals with the workplace and the immigrant story of alienation and being other. I like that the main character Candace keeps to herself most of the time because introspection and reflection is something that is rarely explored in stories set during a zombie apocalypse, especially one set in a metropolitan city such as New York.
There's a connection between Candace and the Latin blue collar workers, Manny from reception and Eddie from the cab, that she chose at first to be closer to the rich WASP Art Girls than Manny who asks about her day and is worried about her health; and then at the end when the world left her to find friendship in Eddie only when.
The title was mentioned during Candace's memory of her father and it talks about seperating themselves from their pasts (severing from the homeland and roots like cutting an umbilical cord, that messy painful love that all overseas workers have a word for), but it could also work as severance pay, especially when what kickstarted Candace on her journey to was seeing the severance pay in her bank account, a few months after the outbreak.
How much appeal does the American dream have to this day? To have the luxury but to live in emptiness? To go home and be with family but due to the nature of going after that dream be prevented from being able to do so? To surrender yourself to the work and routines of a city and a job until death, and even then? Is a person wrong for working? Is a city wrong for demanding of its citizens? What does it mean to be rootless and homeless yet having a home before you even go there?
There's a connection between Candace and the Latin blue collar workers, Manny from reception and Eddie from the cab, that she chose at first to be closer to the rich WASP Art Girls than Manny who asks about her day and is worried about her health; and then at the end when the world left her to find friendship in Eddie only when
Spoiler
NY ended up being a shithole and she had to get out prontoThe title was mentioned during Candace's memory of her father and it talks about seperating themselves from their pasts (severing from the homeland and roots like cutting an umbilical cord, that messy painful love that all overseas workers have a word for), but it could also work as severance pay, especially when what kickstarted Candace on her journey to
Spoiler
get out of New YorkHow much appeal does the American dream have to this day? To have the luxury but to live in emptiness? To go home and be with family but due to the nature of going after that dream be prevented from being able to do so? To surrender yourself to the work and routines of a city and a job until death, and even then? Is a person wrong for working? Is a city wrong for demanding of its citizens? What does it mean to be rootless and homeless yet having a home before you even go there?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Confinement, Abandonment, and Death of parent
Moderate: Pregnancy and Blood
Minor: Suicide