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querciola's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Murder
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Abortion, Addiction, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, and Drug use
jessikalange's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Kidnapping, Suicide, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
neenishtart's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Death, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
Minor: Death of parent and Murder
jessjess125's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
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
Graphic: Terminal illness, Kidnapping, and Suicide
Moderate: Pregnancy
pamreads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.5
This book felt more like a horror novel because I made the smartest decision to read this while living in a pandemic. It's super scary reading this and comparing it to what's happening now. I obviously made the super smart choice for my mental health :P I really liked how the novel went back and forth in time. Candace's narrative really helps you understand how the fever progressed, especially with a novel as short as this one. While it's a really good story and I understand why the author would leave it open-ended, I unrealistically wanted a happy ending because reality is too spooky for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Dementia, Grief, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy
queertrash's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Violence
Minor: Drug use
writtenontheflyleaves's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Severance by Ling Ma 🛍
🌟🌟🌟🌟
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🌇 The plot: Candace Chen is treading water. The routine of her corporate job keeps her from thinking about the recent deaths of her Chinese immigrant parents, her boyfriend leaving New York. It even keeps her from noticing that a fever is taking over, dismantling the city and the world she knew bit by bit. The novel jumps between this and her life After, as part of a band of survivors in the totalitarian grip of a former IT guy called Bob, from whom Candace increasingly wants to escape...
-
This book is unbelievably expansive considering it’s under 300 pages. It conjures in great detail experiences of disillusionment, of grief, of what the New Yorker called “the millennial condition” (which at first I thought was a bit lofty but after reading it makes a lot of sense). It was even more impressive to read it during an actual pandemic - there’s a moment when Candace looks up one day and realises that the world around her has totally changed, but that she can’t pinpoint exactly when, which sounds painfully familiar. I also loved the integral role that Candace’s identity as a second generation immigrant plays in this novel, the perspective it gives her and how it contrasts with other post-apocalyptic fiction I’ve read.
-
What I loved most is that this is a book about a woman surviving a plague, but it is also a book about how we survive the past. The past is an open wound in this novel: it splits the text, it divides the characters, it divides Candace. Though I loved the spirit of renewal in Station Eleven which I read this time last year, I appreciated the treatment of grief and pain in Severance. Station Eleven leans into nostalgia from the remove of a society rebuilding itself while Severance is still in the blood and guts of it, though I think they are both ultimately occupied with what it takes to keep going, to turn to the future.
-
🏪 Read if you love a good anti-capitalist novel that deals with Big Themes but has all the intrigue of a really meaty post-apocalypse novel.
-
🚫 Avoid if you don’t like reading pessimistic novels (I wouldn’t say this is fully pessimistic but it is ambivalent), and check the TWs carefully!
🌟🌟🌟🌟
-
🌇 The plot: Candace Chen is treading water. The routine of her corporate job keeps her from thinking about the recent deaths of her Chinese immigrant parents, her boyfriend leaving New York. It even keeps her from noticing that a fever is taking over, dismantling the city and the world she knew bit by bit. The novel jumps between this and her life After, as part of a band of survivors in the totalitarian grip of a former IT guy called Bob, from whom Candace increasingly wants to escape...
-
This book is unbelievably expansive considering it’s under 300 pages. It conjures in great detail experiences of disillusionment, of grief, of what the New Yorker called “the millennial condition” (which at first I thought was a bit lofty but after reading it makes a lot of sense). It was even more impressive to read it during an actual pandemic - there’s a moment when Candace looks up one day and realises that the world around her has totally changed, but that she can’t pinpoint exactly when, which sounds painfully familiar. I also loved the integral role that Candace’s identity as a second generation immigrant plays in this novel, the perspective it gives her and how it contrasts with other post-apocalyptic fiction I’ve read.
-
What I loved most is that this is a book about a woman surviving a plague, but it is also a book about how we survive the past. The past is an open wound in this novel: it splits the text, it divides the characters, it divides Candace. Though I loved the spirit of renewal in Station Eleven which I read this time last year, I appreciated the treatment of grief and pain in Severance. Station Eleven leans into nostalgia from the remove of a society rebuilding itself while Severance is still in the blood and guts of it, though I think they are both ultimately occupied with what it takes to keep going, to turn to the future.
-
🏪 Read if you love a good anti-capitalist novel that deals with Big Themes but has all the intrigue of a really meaty post-apocalypse novel.
-
🚫 Avoid if you don’t like reading pessimistic novels (I wouldn’t say this is fully pessimistic but it is ambivalent), and check the TWs carefully!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Dementia, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Murder, and Grief
Moderate: Blood, Racism, Gun violence, Confinement, Drug use, Suicide, Vomit, Murder, Mental illness, and Kidnapping
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