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taratearex's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
5.0
I highly recommend the audiobook read by Nancy Wu, I already looked up books she narrates as I just think she was so amazing and got the character vibe and the satirical mood so perfectly.
Graphic: Death and Death of parent
Moderate: Child death, Sexual content, and Pregnancy
honeyvoiced's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Drug use, Suicide, and Pregnancy
avilareads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
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.
Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Suicide, Xenophobia, and Pregnancy
americattt's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Confinement and Death
raphtseng's review
- 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
Minor: Confinement, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic
hello_lovely13's review against another edition
- 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
2.5
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, and Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual content, Dementia, and Pregnancy
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
softghoul_jpeg's review
- 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
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Confinement, Death, and Violence
devin_raquel's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Minor: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic
neenishtart's review
- 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? No
5.0
Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
Minor: Death of parent and Murder
not_another_ana's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
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, umprompted, on repeat. And our days, like theirs, continue in an infinite loop. We drive, we sleep, we drive some more.
The end is nigh and Candace Chen is still going to work. She's typical corporate drone, working in cheap Bible manufacturing submerged in the everyday routine, so when the Shen Fever hits she just forges on. But the disease cannot be contained. People get sick or flee the city, work stops and services come to a halt leaving immune Candace completely alone in New York City until a group of survivors find her. Led by a self styled messianic leader, with promises of a safe place to settle in, the group might pose more danger to Candace than the disease.
This book was published in 2018 but the similarities to the Covid-19 pandemic cannot be ignored, to the point that I wondered if Ling Ma is secretly a seer. Both diseases start in China, they have similar symptoms at first glance, people wear facemasks, the world pretty much shuts down, etc. If you're still feeling the effects of the pandemic then I don't recommend picking this up. The book also lacks any quotation marks which would usually annoy me but in this case it works in giving the story a dreamy vibe. The author also uses it quite sparingly since this is mostly an internal narration.
Ling Ma constructs this lovely atmospheric vibe-y cocoon of narration that drags the reader in. It's poetic and dreamy yet cemented in reality. It's a book that happens in the past, the present and the future at the same time. This is unmistakably personal, influenced by the author's life and it shows in the way the writer explores the themes of identity, belonging and family. A critic of capitalism and routine, I could easily connect with it and Candace. The way she clung to normality and the monotony of work resonated with me, sometimes the world is ending and you just can't deal with that. Where it lost me a bit was with the group of survivors and their journey. I understand adding a bit of conflict and drama to the story but Candace's interior world was so rich that this was a harsh break from the chapters in the past and the exploration of her psyche.
Graphic: Death and Death of parent
Moderate: Confinement and Pregnancy