Reviews with content warning for Death - Severance

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Severance by Ling Ma

144 reviews

taratearex's review against another edition

dark funny reflective medium-paced

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 was very skeptical about whether I would like this book based on some reviews I've seen, but I think going in knowing this isn't a typical "zombie apocalypse" book helps. I think the audiobook really enhanced my experience, but honestly I think it was just the perfect book at the moment for me and I loved it. I thought everything worked so well, I loved the critiques of capitalism, especially in the face of a pandemic- the fact that this was written in 2018 and gets so much right is so disturbing and depressing. I loved the focus on the mundane routines as the world slowly falls apart, I wanted to scream "why are you working right now?!?!" but then I look around at where we're currently at, sigh. I've seen a number of reviews say they didn't like the ending and personally it totally worked for me, honestly everything just totally worked for me. It was all a little too close to home, but somehow comforting in a really fucked up way.

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.

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honeyvoiced's review

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dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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avilareads's review against another edition

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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.

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americattt's review against another edition

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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

"A second chance doesn't mean you're in the clear. In many ways, it is the more difficult thing. Because a second change means that you have to try harder. You must rise to the challenge without the blind optimism of ignorance."

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raphtseng's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

Kind of made me feel scared and sad and shocked at times. It toes the line between dark and satirical, where at times things are so dark you have to choose to laugh. I found both the past and the present well woven, it kept the pace moving. Not too sure what to take away from it. Kind of wild that it was written pre pandemic. And also very meta that candace works at Spectra. Defo made me feel lots of emotions, found it overall unsettling. Loneliness and made me think of Taiwan, some vivid descriptions of missing home, or what home is like, and what having a Chinese parent is like.

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hello_lovely13's review

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dark reflective medium-paced

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

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softghoul_jpeg's review against another edition

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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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devin_raquel's review

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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.

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neenishtart's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

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not_another_ana's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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

3.75

3.75/5

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.

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