A review by softghoul_jpeg
Severance by Ling Ma

dark hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

i put this book off for a whole ass year, and for what? loved every second of it. it's crazy to think that this was published in 2018? completely thought it had been published during the high of quarantine. i think that's what also makes this even more eerie to read. ling ma did wonderfully by interchanging the narrative through past and present. i think thats what kept me gripped the entire time. and gave me a sense of impending doom and anxiety. and bob. can we talk about bob? it was givingggggg cult. it was giving suffocation. i think he pissed me off the most. he was like a fucking tyrant. it was as if no one had free will. and for what? why were all the choices made only by him? why couldn't this have been an equal partnership between everyone? i feel like that could have helped everyone out--and maybe things would have turned out differently for ashley, for janelle, for evan, for candance, for bob himself. as i finished the book, i think i understood his need for structure, but in the end, i think that was his demise. to go back to a time that felt safe, certain. candance stated "memories beget memories. shen fever being a disease of remembering, the fevered are trapped indefinitely in their memories. but what is the difference between the fevered and us? because i remember too, i remember perfectly. my memories replay, unprompted, on repeat" (160). so in his remembering, bob triggered the fever, just as ashley did. and i think candance never caught it because she was someone who was uprooted. who had been uprooted for a long time. although, the ending gave me a sense of dread for her. she seemed compelled as she drove by an "unknown source." and as she relayed memories of her mother, of jonathan's time in chicago, i couldn't help but wonder if it was finally triggered in her.
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