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
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Death, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Body horror, and Suicide
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
elliehoney's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Religious bigotry
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.cheye13's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
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
This was a very interesting premise that I really wanted to love.
And I did love Candance and her voice, and how real and rounded she felt as a character. I appreciated the nuances and commentaries on her job and her life "before" and the plot of "after" and how the two intercepted.
I think the dual timeline hurt the narrative a little, but I also think it's the only way the story could be told. I was extremely bored by the "before" timeline, which I assume was kind of the point, but it read so much like general millennial ennui fiction that I just hate. I didn't hate it here, and maybe that was because it was intermittent or just because of how complex Candance's character felt. Meanwhile, the "after" timeline felt incongruous to the book's intent, and also like the only plot we're given.
I think I personally would have preferred a book that was just the "after" timeline with some flashbacks, but I did really appreciate where the timelines aligned at the end of the book and the point that was made.
And I did love Candance and her voice, and how real and rounded she felt as a character. I appreciated the nuances and commentaries on her job and her life "before" and the plot of "after" and how the two intercepted.
I think the dual timeline hurt the narrative a little, but I also think it's the only way the story could be told. I was extremely bored by the "before" timeline, which I assume was kind of the point, but it read so much like general millennial ennui fiction that I just hate. I didn't hate it here, and maybe that was because it was intermittent or just because of how complex Candance's character felt. Meanwhile, the "after" timeline felt incongruous to the book's intent, and also like the only plot we're given.
I think I personally would have preferred a book that was just the "after" timeline with some flashbacks, but I did really appreciate where the timelines aligned at the end of the book and the point that was made.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, Body horror, and Gun violence
Moderate: Drug abuse, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Abortion, Alcohol, and Religious bigotry
There is an off-page implied drug overdose.bluejayreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I barely skimmed the back cover before picking this up. I’m trying to read more broadly. I don’t think I’ve ever read a satire, it’s by a Chinese author featuring a Chinese protagonist, and looked to be satirizing the meaninglessness of modern work culture (relatable) and post-apocalyptic fiction (I’ve read a lot, could be interesting).
This was published in 2018, but I had to check. I think it was supposed to be satire of the modern millennial life in NYC or the post-apocalyptic genre or both. In 2018, maybe it was. But in February 2022, nearly two years into a deadly global pandemic that varies only slightly from the “epidemic” of the book, Severance isn’t satire – it’s prophetic.
This book is told out of order, altering back and forth between Before and After. Before and After what isn’t obvious in the book, but it’s clear to me. I can’t pinpoint a particular event or moment, but my life has definitely divided into Before Covid and After Covid. “It seemed to happen gradually, then suddenly,” as Candace says. Candace keeps going into work as everything slowly crumbles, keeps trying to do her job even though there’s less and less job to do, until suddenly it’s After and things are completely different.
I am not going to talk about the After timeline. I am not prepared to touch those emotions right now.
I didn’t think I had much if any of that “collective pandemic trauma” people talk about. Then I read Severance, and it turns out I do. When Candace’s job started requiring N95 masks, I felt a sinking familiarity. When a character first said the phrase “these uncertain times,” it felt like a punch in the gut. This book pulls on the trauma of living through a pandemic and the horror of surviving an apocalypse and combines them into something vividly repulsive and hideously possible. It evokes the visceral terror of being in a place usually full of people and discovering you are alone; the agonizing helpless realization that even if you survive this, there is no future; the despair of knowing that even if the world is ending, the only thing you can do is get up and go to work.
I read this as an audiobook at work, my mind lost in the horror and despair of this barely-fictional world while my hands, nearly independent of the rest of me, did my job. Scan the box. Open the box. Take out the bag. Label the bag. Put the bag in a new box. Label the new box. I repeat the same process over and over again, just like the epidemic victims in the book. I think that’s what Severance is supposed to be satirizing.
If there is an apocalypse, it won’t be like any of my post-apocalyptic novels. If it’s like any work of fiction, it will be like this. And if that’s the case, I don’t think I want to survive. I took several books off my to-read list. I have no more desire to read any post-apocalypses. I am too afraid of surviving the end of the world.
I’ve never legitimately described a book as life-changing before, but Severance is. I feel like I’ve just realized the world is about to end and can’t understand everyone continuing on and worrying about unimportant stuff. I feel like I have to sit down and figure out what actually matters because most of the shit I’m doing now just doesn’t.
Severance feels terrifyingly, painfully, imminently possible. If no one ever recovered from covid, we might be living in the world of Severance right now.
This book is not satire. It’s psychological, existential horror.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Child death, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Body horror, Gun violence, Blood, and Confinement
Moderate: Suicide, Gore, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Sexual content, Drug use, Car accident, Child abuse, Alcohol, and Vomit
Existential horror, existential despairtakarakei's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I originally read this book in 2019. Back then I rated it 5 stars, which I feel was very rare for me as I was reading a lot less, but I wonder if seeds of this book planted itself into my subconscious.
Re-reading now in 2023 after going through a global pandemic, and quitting my shitty office job - I have a new perspective on life in general. It's rather eerie to read a book written before 2020 that got so many things right. I applaud Ling Ma who likely did a lot of research to make things so realistic. This book definitely reads more literary than sci-fi, although it is a dystopian setting (although I'd say about half the book is pre-pandemic reflecting that happens throughout the story). It is really a critique of our capitalist consumeristic society intertwined with the first generation immigrant millennial experience. I've read a few reviews where people say they don't like the main character Candice, but I would challenge people to question what it is they don't like about her. Because I would propose that perhaps the things they don't like about her (her stubbornness to continue going into work despite the absurd conditions) are perhaps things that they don't like about themselves. I truly don't think I would have gotten that perspective out of this book on my first read, so I am glad I re-read it.
**I recommend doing this one on audio or a combination of the audio + ebook/physical - because all the dialogue is written in that obnoxious way where there are no quotation marks. However, the narrator does a great job inflecting when people are talking, so that made it much easier to read.
Re-reading now in 2023 after going through a global pandemic, and quitting my shitty office job - I have a new perspective on life in general. It's rather eerie to read a book written before 2020 that got so many things right. I applaud Ling Ma who likely did a lot of research to make things so realistic. This book definitely reads more literary than sci-fi, although it is a dystopian setting (although I'd say about half the book is pre-pandemic reflecting that happens throughout the story). It is really a critique of our capitalist consumeristic society intertwined with the first generation immigrant millennial experience. I've read a few reviews where people say they don't like the main character Candice, but I would challenge people to question what it is they don't like about her. Because I would propose that perhaps the things they don't like about her (her stubbornness to continue going into work despite the absurd conditions) are perhaps things that they don't like about themselves. I truly don't think I would have gotten that perspective out of this book on my first read, so I am glad I re-read it.
**I recommend doing this one on audio or a combination of the audio + ebook/physical - because all the dialogue is written in that obnoxious way where there are no quotation marks. However, the narrator does a great job inflecting when people are talking, so that made it much easier to read.
To live in a city is to take part in and to propagate its impossible systems. To wake up. To go to work in the morning. It is also to take pleasure in those systems because, otherwise, who could repeat the same routines, year in, year out?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Confinement
Moderate: Body horror, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Gun violence, Dementia, and Pregnancy
Minor: Drug use, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Xenophobia
this is a pandemic novel, so most of the content warnings come from living in that apocalyptic world.aandromeda's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Thank you Ling Ma for reminding me that I love to read.
Content Warnings
Minor: Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Sexism