Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - Severance

This was.... strange. Pretty strong comparisons to COVID-19, even though it was published in 2018. I wish that there had been a more conclusive ending, but I understand that it was an important part to have it end on an open note. It also addressed a weird part of me that wants to live in a mall.

Content Warnings

svmreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

This is 100% the type of book where you finish it and the only thing you can do is stare at a wall.
Words can’t express how much Severance captivated me. Ling Ma’s exploration of religion, routine, and ritual under apocalyptic conditions/late-stage capitalism is absolutely brilliant, and reading this book as Covid still has a hold on the world brings a chilling relevance to the text.
Severance is a new all-time favorite of mine and I cannot recommend this book enough. I am so thrilled to read Ling Ma’s collection of short stories, Bliss Montage, when it is released in September!

Content Warnings

laceyc1's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Content Warnings

caidyn's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective tense 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? Yes

3.5

Even as I get older, I still don't really like books without quotation marks. I don't like trying to decipher where a character's speech ends and begins. In the beginning of the book, I loved the non-linear way it was told, but then I got tired of it. Still a good read.

Content Warnings

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

quite an interesting read...severance's deliciously satirical apocalyptic tale seems - considering the current times - depressingly prophetic in hindsight.

i rly like how society and human behavior bend in all surprising directions here when aspects of society at large consequentially start to collapse. calling dibs on shops in a mall for personal rooms? moving into the office when public transport stops? like, it doesnt get more capitalistic and american than that. the titular theme - in all its various forms - provides an intriguing examination of the ensuing loneliness of modern society as well. anddd it also makes me rly rly rly miss new york in all its barmy, yucky, yet freeing glory.

this is def a thought-provoking and mysterious read that subtly keeps one guessing, though i wish the writing was just a lill bit more polished.

Content Warnings

bluejayreads's review

Go to review page

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

kelleykamanda's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-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

4.5

When I first picked up this book, I was under the impression that it would be funny. As a book about the pandemic, something funny… while living in a pandemic… seemed enticing. This book is not funny. With that said though, it was incredibly engaging and immensely thoughtful. The author’s ability to find themes of race and family with additional themes of identity and cult mentality, all through two different storylines was impressive. An incredibly well written book. I’d recommend it to anyone in the right headspace.

Content Warnings

nyssbomb's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Content Warnings

More...