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A review by eldaaurora97
Severance by Ling Ma
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- 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
"I arrived to the city carried by the tides of others. Most of my college friends were moving there, if they hadn't already. It seemed like the inevitable, default place to go. Arriving, we did exactly what we thought we wanted to do." (34)
Severance is an interesting juxtaposition between modern life and sci-fi. Alternating between these two worlds, we have Candace Chen, a worker for Spectra Publishing trying to work on the Gemstone Bible for her company. What she really wants to do is to become one of the Art girls, in which they plan out more of the design aspects of books. All the while, the Shen fever ravages from China and across the world, shutting down New York City in the process. While Candace takes photos and posts them on her blog, even then she flees in order to survive.
Ling Ma's writing style is very wry, especially with how she deals with Candace's life in New York. "I didn't need a job right away, but I needed something, a point of entry into another life that wasn't just about milling around, walking." (47) She's observant of day-to-day life, with all the twenty-somethings' struggles with getting a job and working on their careers. This wriness also translated to life trying to survive. "It's a fever of repetition, of routine. But surprisingly, the routines don't necessarily repeat in the identical manner" (62)
Similarly, her relationship with Jonathan goes through its ebbs and flows based on what we see in those trends. In the beginning, he plans to head over to the Pacific Northwest, to escape the grind we see in NYC. "The future is more exponentially exploding rents. The future is more condo buildings, more luxury housing bought by shell companies of the global wealthy elite...Something something Rousseau something. Manhattan is sinking." (13) This idea of the future plays into ambitions, in which Candace mentions how different they were, but "What I didn't say was: I know you too well. You live your life idealistically. You think it's possible to opt out of the system. No regular income, no health insurance. You quit jobs on a dime. You think this is freedom but I still see the bare, painstakingly cheap way you live, the scrimping and saving, and that is not freedom either." (205)
Ma's formatting of the story, in which she intersperses Candace's life at Spectra with how she heads to the Facility with her friends, is a bit confusing at times, but quite interesting to see how different her two lives were. While managing the Gemstone Bible, she wonders about relationships and how she could get the different pieces of the Bible together. Whereas with her friends, they're stealing Bibles and other supplies in their "stalks", after which they kill off innocent people. There's also a policy in which they kill off weak links in their group, which is scary.
There's also the overwhelming sense of memory involved, which takes down the weak. One discussion is how "The internet is the flattening of time. It is the place where the past and present exist on one single plane. But proportionally, because the present calcifies into the past, even now...it is more accurate to say that the internet almost wholly consists of the past. It is the place we go to commune with the past" (114)
One thing which humanizes Candace is her immigration story. While not being a full-out one, we get hints here and there in terms of her background. It's interesting to see. Despite that, she seems to be disengaged from her background, especially when she's in Shenzhen. "In my imagining, I return from New York. I do whatever my uncles say. I relearn Mandarin. I relearn Fujianese. I get married to another Fujianese...I am happy" (98). Later, we get her parents' story, in which they come to Salt Lake City despite her mother's lack of desire to stay there, and it was really enlightening to see where she has come from. Her apparitions of her mother in the facility were comforting.
Speaking of which, Candace's pregnancy was a surprising plot development, but a welcome one. This allows her for time in the Facility, as she apparently did wrong and was imprisoned. It also drives the end of the story, to some extent.
Severance is not an all-timer or me, but it's still one of the most thoughtful books I've read recently. With parallels with Covid-19 (especially with when things start shutting down; Hurricane Mathilde doesn't help with the apocalyptic feel) and how we deal with our daily lives, we get a glimpse of what it takes to survive. And sometimes, there's a bit of hope amongst the chaos.
Severance is an interesting juxtaposition between modern life and sci-fi. Alternating between these two worlds, we have Candace Chen, a worker for Spectra Publishing trying to work on the Gemstone Bible for her company. What she really wants to do is to become one of the Art girls, in which they plan out more of the design aspects of books. All the while, the Shen fever ravages from China and across the world, shutting down New York City in the process. While Candace takes photos and posts them on her blog, even then she flees in order to survive.
Ling Ma's writing style is very wry, especially with how she deals with Candace's life in New York. "I didn't need a job right away, but I needed something, a point of entry into another life that wasn't just about milling around, walking." (47) She's observant of day-to-day life, with all the twenty-somethings' struggles with getting a job and working on their careers. This wriness also translated to life trying to survive. "It's a fever of repetition, of routine. But surprisingly, the routines don't necessarily repeat in the identical manner" (62)
Similarly, her relationship with Jonathan goes through its ebbs and flows based on what we see in those trends. In the beginning, he plans to head over to the Pacific Northwest, to escape the grind we see in NYC. "The future is more exponentially exploding rents. The future is more condo buildings, more luxury housing bought by shell companies of the global wealthy elite...Something something Rousseau something. Manhattan is sinking." (13) This idea of the future plays into ambitions, in which Candace mentions how different they were, but "What I didn't say was: I know you too well. You live your life idealistically. You think it's possible to opt out of the system. No regular income, no health insurance. You quit jobs on a dime. You think this is freedom but I still see the bare, painstakingly cheap way you live, the scrimping and saving, and that is not freedom either." (205)
Ma's formatting of the story, in which she intersperses Candace's life at Spectra with how she heads to the Facility with her friends, is a bit confusing at times, but quite interesting to see how different her two lives were. While managing the Gemstone Bible, she wonders about relationships and how she could get the different pieces of the Bible together. Whereas with her friends, they're stealing Bibles and other supplies in their "stalks", after which they kill off innocent people. There's also a policy in which they kill off weak links in their group, which is scary.
There's also the overwhelming sense of memory involved, which takes down the weak. One discussion is how "The internet is the flattening of time. It is the place where the past and present exist on one single plane. But proportionally, because the present calcifies into the past, even now...it is more accurate to say that the internet almost wholly consists of the past. It is the place we go to commune with the past" (114)
One thing which humanizes Candace is her immigration story. While not being a full-out one, we get hints here and there in terms of her background. It's interesting to see. Despite that, she seems to be disengaged from her background, especially when she's in Shenzhen. "In my imagining, I return from New York. I do whatever my uncles say. I relearn Mandarin. I relearn Fujianese. I get married to another Fujianese...I am happy" (98). Later, we get her parents' story, in which they come to Salt Lake City despite her mother's lack of desire to stay there, and it was really enlightening to see where she has come from. Her apparitions of her mother in the facility were comforting.
Speaking of which, Candace's pregnancy was a surprising plot development, but a welcome one. This allows her for time in the Facility, as she apparently did wrong and was imprisoned. It also drives the end of the story, to some extent.
Severance is not an all-timer or me, but it's still one of the most thoughtful books I've read recently. With parallels with Covid-19 (especially with when things start shutting down; Hurricane Mathilde doesn't help with the apocalyptic feel) and how we deal with our daily lives, we get a glimpse of what it takes to survive. And sometimes, there's a bit of hope amongst the chaos.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content and Pregnancy