Severance: A Novel

I’ve been meaning to read this book for a while, and now with a raging global pandemic, I thought it might be the right time. Severance is not the kind of apocalyptic, dystopian, zombie book that I expected, but that was also a pleasant surprise. The book has as more to do with identity and discovering our true selves as well as questioning the role of materialism, corporations, technology on our inability to connect with others and develop an authentic identity. Severance alternates between the narrator’s present, as a refugee/survivor banding together with other survivors of the Shen Fever Epidemic, her past, moving to NYC, meeting her partner, and finding work, and her parents’ past, emigrating from China to the US. I was a little confused at first, but I really enjoyed the different narrative streams that focused on her past. Sometimes it seemed like these were different novels/stories, but in the latter half of the book, I could better understand how these stories were interconnected. Interestingly, they all deal with different forms of severance—whether it is a severance from a home, culture, language, parents, loved ones, work, material goods, the internet. All of Candace’s experiences were severed at one point or another. Even her parents experienced severing, despite her mother’s desire to return to China. It seemed like Candace’s father had more of an understanding that in order to develop his own identity, he needed to start fresh. One of the more interesting aspects of Severance is “the fevered”, those who are infected with the Shen Fever. They mostly just repeat familiar patterns or experiences, looking for comfort in the familiarity. Candace and the survivors “stalk” the homes of the fevered to survive. Occasionally, they encounter families who are repeating dinner rituals. Candace witnesses a worker repeatedly folding clothes in a store and other fevered repeatedly trying on dresses. This symptom suggests the monotonousness of our lives, and how we basically do the same things every day. Even while living virtually at home during this pandemic, I haven’t quite felt this level of repetition, but I have experienced this kind of feeling before. In addition to noting the repetitive nature of our lives, Ling Ma also highlights how our material culture leads us to this kind of zombie like existence. She frequently describes the brands that Candace encounters, whether it is a pen, a chaise, skin care products, or a car. I appreciated this critique in noting how American culture in particular often goes after designer brands or brand names, and how these products can often shape our lives. When Candace gets her phone back, I could relate to how hopeful she felt in reconnecting with her past. The fact that the other survivors gave her a broken phone further emphasizes the need for severance from the past. I also appreciated how Candace goes to Shenzhen to discover where the bibles that Spectra (her employer) are made. Through Candace’s work with the companies in Shenzhen, she highlights some of the practices that companies will go to to make a profit and give the appearance of something rich or affluent. She talks about paper quality, fake leather book covers, and fake jewels, all to give appearances to an eager American market. Similarly, she notes that the Chinese allow the publication of bibles for Americans, but there are certain conditions that the workers must adhere to since bibles and religion have restrictions in China. Both countries, global economic leaders, are complicit to harming their citizens, lying to their markets, and ignoring their own values and ideals. The other interesting points that Candace brings up in her interactions with Balthasar, a Chinese intermediary, have to do with names. Balthasar says that he took his name from Shakespeare. I’m guessing that it is from Romeo and Juliet. Candace notices an old picture of Claire Daines in the office and remembers how much she liked this version of Romeo and Juliet. It’s interesting that Candace, who was born in China, is only able to connect with the Chinese workers through work and American movies. She is able to speak to Balthasar, but makes up a story about her father being a brain surgeon because of her lack of Chinese proficiency. When Balthasar asks about Candace’s Chinese name, she does not even know what it means. Balthasar goes on to explain that it reminded him of a poem by Li Bai, which he later sends to her. This part of the novel stuck out to me. Maybe because of the allusions, but I think it also says something about the costs of this kind of severance. We lose something when we experience these kinds of severances. Candace lost her cultural identity, and was more familiar with American culture, and not that of China. It seemed like her parents, especially her mother, lost something with the move to America. While we have new opportunities to gain and grow, we also end up losing parts of ourselves as well. While Severance is not a typical dystopian novel, Ling Ma asks important questions about the current state of our society and highlights some of the ways in which our materialism and desire of brand name products further alienates us from others and ourselves.

To be honest, I picked up this book because I kept hearing everyone rave about it. The book is as well made as any paperback book can be. It has held up well with both my and my teen's reading and is only slightly worse for wear. The font is clear and sized to be easy to read. I have to say, I liked the idea of someone writing a pandemic based book prior to the arrival of covid. But this didn't really scratch that itch . . . it was more about her normal life before the pandemic and presented in a rambling almost stream of consciousness that grated on my nerves. A good book, and worth a read, but I wouldn't bump any on your list down to read it.

Reading lots of praise for this book, I had high hopes. Unfortunately, I just don’t get the high ratings. The writing is ok, though I’m not a fan of not using quotation marks, but there is a total lack of character development. The main character doesn’t show any redeeming qualities, she’s just there going through the motions of her life. We basically know nothing about her feelings for anything or anyone. The people she finally joins in with, have no story. We don’t know their motivations for staying with Bob and they all seem quite happy to just go along with plan and not question anything. Why? A lot of this book makes no sense including the ending. Or lack there of. It’s like the author decided that’s enough and just quit writing. Won’t be recommending this one.

Really enjoyed reading this and crazy that it was written before Covid! I do wish it had continued Candace’s story longer.

A few months ago, I was looking for books on office life (I know, exciting!) and came across "Severance" on a list. I recently picked it up to read during "quarantime" not even knowing that the book is primarily about life during and after a worldwide pandemic. But a portion of "Severance" does involve Candace's--the protagonist's--life working in an NYC publishing/distribution firm. She ends up going to work every day, despite more and more people sickening with "Shen Fever," an incurable illness contracted by inhaling fungal spores that originated in China. Ling Ma's evocation of the illness is quite good. When people become "fevered," they continue going about their most common activities, such as folding sweaters at a retail store or driving a taxi cab, but they're totally on auto-pilot and are eventually killed or die of exposure, exhaustion. etc. They're like totally non-threatening zombies, yet still chilling, maybe more so for their lack of engagement with the non-fevered. Candace becomes the final employee to flee her office and indeed one of the last to flee New York City, and this really made me think about my own life. How long would I stay in my office if the pandemic got really bad? There seems to be a fine line between duty and habit, as Candace discovers. She tends to stay at the office for lack of a better plan, lured by the promise of a big payday at the end, but when the paycheck finally arrives, there's nowhere to spend it. Eventually Candace bands together with a small group of survivors making their way to Chicago, but, as I imagine might happen in a situation like this, one of the group members, Bob, emerges as a threatening, tyrannical leader from whom Candace must escape. What are the true motives of people who want to be in charge? We hope these motives are altruistic, but too often they aren't. What I most loved about "Severance" was how multi-faceted it was. The book wasn't just about office life, and it wasn't 100% post-apocalyptic. There were some lovely sections where Candace recalls life with her parents or fleeting relationships she has with men in the city. It's a book about immigrant life, about fitting in (and not fitting in). A lot of post-apocalyptic novels ("Dog Stars," "The Road," "Station Eleven") focus on survival, but there are no hunger games in "Severance," no fight for resources. If you've survived the fever, then you're golden. I liked that freshness in the genre. It seemed to give Ma much more room to write about the other things one would undoubtedly experience in that situation, like loneliness, grief, or memories. After experiencing the Covid-19 epidemic, I can see that some of Ma's speculations are eerily accurate. The breakdown of society can come slowly. People try to keep going about their daily lives. And I really appreciated the braveness of Ma to leave a couple narrative strands open-ended in her conclusion. Some books drag on too long, but "Severance" ended right where it should; a great debut.

Purchased and read this book as part of a school project, specifically chose this because it was written by an Asian woman. Didn't expect it to be as beautiful and compelling as it was, it's on par with the other classic dystopians I've read (1984, Animal farm, We, Fahrenheit 451, Lord of the Flies, etc.) This book should honestly be included in modern curriculums, it was so beautiful and every line was some poetic metaphor about womanhood, generational differences, and the pressures of being a child of immigrants, especially of Asian immigrants and their role in consumerism. Candace felt like a sister to me (as a fellow Asian girl) and the way she describes feeling too American yet too Asian, and struggling with her role in society, are so realistic!!! When I tell you this is one of the few books I could re-read over and over again, I mean it! Genuinely one of the most relatable and powerful books I've read, especially given it being written from an underrepresented American perspective! This book felt like a materialization of all the thoughts and feelings I've had as an Asian-American 🥹🥹

This is really, really, really (really x100) good BUT the ending made me angry. Spoilers below. The novel follows Candace Chen, a photographer with a blog that only gains prominence with the end of civilization, who works doing project design for Bibles, before and after Shen Fever slowly destroys global civilization. It’s funny and makes a ton of wry observations about living as a millennial in New York, about relationships, about modern work culture, about family, and about nostalgia. The fever arises (spoiler) from global shipping and unfettered capitalism, as a fungal infection that leads people to repeat their habits until they die (it takes a long time for them to die). The infection itself is at least in part triggered by nostalgia. Society breaks down as people get stuck in repetitive loops, but you also see unfevered people stuck in repetitive loops because they need to make a living or because they fall into easy habits. The meta narrative is of course a criticism of global capitalism. As such this is a phenomenally successful book. I got to the end and was angry that (spoiler) there was no resolution for Candace. I’m not a person who needs a clean-cut ending with everything tied up neatly, but I really thought there’d be at least one more chapter to let us know how doomed Candace was, or to show us some pocket of civilization she could start another loop in, or something. The book just ends. It’s probably the right artistic choice—I’ll have to think about it—but my immediate reaction right now, as I’ve just finished, is frustrated anger.

This mindbending novel tells of a worldwide pandemic both before and after it hits! Yikes!!! Too close to the Coronavirus epidemic news, although published before 2019. Ugh! This first-person narrative of Candace Chen, born in China, raised in Salt Lake City, and now living in New York City, explores her how she lives through a world catastrophe of incurable fevers. Great start, but??? The storyline describes how she survives hostile conditions both before and after an apocalyptic event that changes the world forever. This caught my interest. However, the back-and-forth storylines dampened the suspense and momentum, making the novel more of an introspective story of an observer and apathetic participant. The book's strengths are its unusual alternating "before" and "after" chapters and how Candace, a young single, struggles to exist in two different worlds, controls so little in her life, and yet somehow sees herself as something other than a victim. Candace's character development plays the dominant role in the plotline, as she learns to move from the passive compliance of her multicultural past and the controlling expectations or demands of others into becoming a stronger, more assertive person. In this context the book has some literary value beyond the disaster parts of the storyline. The weaknesses of the book are twofold. First, the avant garde dialogue format WITHOUT quotation marks or italics for thoughts expressed internally was a major procedural shortcoming and distraction of the natural reading flow of the story, forcing me to stop consistently to reread passages, trying to understand the author's intentions. So confusing and unnecessary! Perhaps the author should consider first the needs of the reader and the reading experience over any literary suggestions of her writing friends if she wants to create a larger and more loyal following. These cheap tricks in the name of artistic freedom tell readers to go somewhere else with their time and purchase investments. I was continually annoyed and angered at this reader insensitivity, making the book so much less readable and enjoyable. The Audible narration did help by adding different character inflections and pacing; however, many passages lacked the clarity of speaker identification and seemed questionable even for the narrator. So sad!! The other major weakness was the disappointing ending that failed to bring clarity to Candace's current state of being and possible futures. Although this murky ending will likely motivate many book club discussions, it will likely also leave most readers dissatisfied and half filled after the traumatic journey of just getting to the last page. Not fair! I was left to wonder the book's correct genre classification and whether this was a contemporary novel or a literary work. It was neither. I see this as a major failure in the book's structure and how the author, like Candace, was trying too hard to please too many people. I might look at future books by this author, but unless she creates a more focused and compelling story with a more satisfying plotline and ending, I probably will not invest my time or energies trying to decipher and psychoanalyze her intentions. Readers should not be expected to be mind readers. I wanted to like it better and was intrigued many of the author's creative situations, such as the Mad-Max-like adventures with the post-disaster "stalking" team. Still, I was left with the feeling that neither the author nor Candace were reliable storytellers, given their blurring of reality. Ouch!! Guess I too became an unwilling victim of this book.

A good book and an excellent taking on the subject. The mixing between the before and the after is superb and the personal side of the main character its, to me, the best part.

Read Severance for my book club and we all really loved this book as an excellent portrayal of New York City, as a critique of capitalism, and as a critical meditation on nostalgia all set within the context of an apocalypse storyline. I quite liked all the descriptions of memories and the character development of the main character in the book.

This book is a surprisingly fresh addition to the increasingly-saturated genre of pandemic fiction. The characters are fresh, set in a vivid world of decay. To increase the unease that comes with reading Severance: read it directly after reading Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Fantastic, funny, intriguing, loved every single page of this book. Totally recommend. Will purchase the author’s other books now. Wow

I enjoyed reading this book