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A review by helliepad
Severance by Ling Ma
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 whenNY ended up being a shithole and she had to get out pronto .
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 toget out of New York 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
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
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?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Moderate: Blood and Pregnancy
Minor: Suicide