Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - Severance

I really enjoyed just about every page of this book. I thought the concept and storytelling were immaculate. Some things that dropped this from a 5 star for me: any of the characters other than the main character Candace felt very superficial and not well thought out for a book that seems so closely tied to the experience of the characters. That is a personal preference, however, and I could see how that was intentional to reflect how the main character builds relationships with others.
Before the last thing that dropped it for me here is some good: The experience of reading about the fevered is truly creepy and bone chilling I think Ma absolutely nailed the gross and skin-crawly experience without making it hard to read. Another thing she did well: the humor. I thought the dead-pan humor in this book was absolutely hilarious, this was only aided by the fact that I too grew up in Salt Lake City. Some of her descriptions of salt lake had me right back there again, including the decor in the basement of one particular homeowner and last but not least * Smith's * . I was cry laughing to say the least.
Now to continue the bad: thing that dropped it a bit for me should only be discussed with spoilers:

I thought the ending was so incredibly lackluster compared to the rest of the book. It really felt incomplete, but not in a oh-wow-what-happens-next kinda way, more of a what-tf-thats-it? kinda way. Ling Ma clearly has incredible talent for storytelling and this just felt like they choked/dropped the ball right at the end. I was left feeling like I had just watched forrest gump with its incredibly cheesy ending.</spolier>

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nyssbomb's review against another edition

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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

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plantbetti's review

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dark funny hopeful 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? No

3.75

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acherry913's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

This book was a deeply troubling but amazing read, especially now during the COVID pandemic. The novel follows a young Chinese-American woman through her journey of safety, self-actualization, and understanding of the world. Taking place during a fungal epidemic, the dystopian environment eerily matches our own, complete with N-95 masks and locked-down cities. Themes of womanhood and perseverance guide this narrative through explorative travels and self-reflection. This is a great book to understand the immigrant struggle from a nuanced lens and an altered perspective of our current pandemic. However, with its closeness to reality, I would emphasize that Severance is not for the weak of heart.

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takarakei's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I originally read this book in 2019. Back then I rated it 5 stars, which I feel was very rare for me as I was reading a lot less, but I wonder if seeds of this book planted itself into my subconscious.

Re-reading now in 2023 after going through a global pandemic, and quitting my shitty office job - I have a new perspective on life in general. It's rather eerie to read a book written before 2020 that got so many things right. I applaud Ling Ma who likely did a lot of research to make things so realistic. This book definitely reads more literary than sci-fi, although it is a dystopian setting (although I'd say about half the book is pre-pandemic reflecting that happens throughout the story). It is really a critique of our capitalist consumeristic society intertwined with the first generation immigrant millennial experience. I've read a few reviews where people say they don't like the main character Candice, but I would challenge people to question what it is they don't like about her. Because I would propose that perhaps the things they don't like about her (her stubbornness to continue going into work despite the absurd conditions) are perhaps things that they don't like about themselves. I truly don't think I would have gotten that perspective out of this book on my first read, so I am glad I re-read it.

**I recommend doing this one on audio or a combination of the audio + ebook/physical - because all the dialogue is written in that obnoxious way where there are no quotation marks. However, the narrator does a great job inflecting when people are talking, so that made it much easier to read.

To live in a city is to take part in and to propagate its impossible systems. To wake up. To go to work in the morning. It is also to take pleasure in those systems because, otherwise, who could repeat the same routines, year in, year out?

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mondovertigo's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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erindoesdesign's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Incredible. The pandemic depiction is so uncannily accurate that I spent the first half of the book assuming it had been published sometime in the summer of 2020 at earliest. Unexpectedly emotional in places. The way the story weaves from past to present is beautiful.

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wretchen's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.5

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