alisalmao's reviews
37 reviews

I didn’t feel like writing a review for this book, simply because i didn’t like more than half of it. But I keep thinking about it and felt the need to share my thoughts. Severance was such a slow-paced but jarring read for me. Some scenes were so beautifully written and some seemed so vile and unnecessary that they completely threw me off guard. The plot lines following her parents and their immigration to the USA was my favorite, as it felt the most human. It developed the characters further and outlined the human condition so well. I loved the mother and her sacrifice of her own happiness and career successes for her family. My absolute favorite scene was when Candace was burning magazine clippings as offerings for her dead parents. These scenes made me feel connected with the characters and had me reflecting on my own life — they were literary amalgamations of all humans and their connections with family and loved ones. These beautiful and poignant scenes were completely overshadowed by the underdeveloped and hasty inserts of her office life and experiences with the post-apocalyptic doomsday cult group she joins. Also, the convenient infection of Bob at the end and Candace’s escape was so anticlimactic. The ending felt unresolved and unfinished. Finally, the unsettling and unnecessarily descriptive sex scenes seemed so self-hating and crass. There was no purpose to these, other than to perhaps emphasize the main character’s dissatisfaction with her life and her choices. It didn’t do anything to further the story except for disgust me and taint the rest of the book. The sci-fi/dystopia aspects of this book were not good at all, and as a dystopia-lover this really threw me off. I still am giving the book 3 stars solely because of the exploration of family and memories and the interconnection between individuals. Other than that, though, this book is not worth reading and I would not recommend it.

Content Warnings

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

4.75

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

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emotional informative reflective medium-paced

2.75

Richard Dawkins clearly has religious trauma from his upbringing and sympathizes with the Catholic Church. He is overtly more critical of other religions, specifically Islam, and shows a clear dismissal for the atrocities committed against children by the Catholic Church. He claims that the indoctrination children experience is more traumatizing and with longer lasting impacts than the “embarrassment” of experiencing the “non-harmful” acts of sexual abuse and assault against them. He makes good arguments for many of his other points, however I could not get past these two major flaws in his morality and rhetoric. I have never experienced any religious indoctrination as I was raised “atheist”, however I also have not experienced any discrimination for not believing in a God either. I am not sure how he can come to the conclusion that there is real discrimination and prejudice against individuals who are atheist, but then again this is my experience. This book feels like Dawkins wanted to throw a tantrum as he is blatantly disrespectful to all groups of religious followers.

Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History by Richard Thompson Ford

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informative reflective slow-paced

3.75

Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 25%.

I usually love Alice Hoffman. Her style of writing is phenomenal and I always become hopelessly attached to her main characters. This book, however, reads like a passive re-telling of a watered-down story someone heard from someone and is now telling to the reader. I could not get into it nor feel any sort of connection to the characters within the story. It felt so detached, like I was watching the “story” happen through a piece of frosted glass and the characters’ voices were muffled. Maybe I will pick it up again solely because I want to watch the movie and compare the two, but for now, this was a huge disappointment.

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Jonathan Haidt, Greg Lukianoff

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challenging informative medium-paced

4.0

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alisalmao's reviews 37 reviews

alisalmao's reviews
37 reviews