Reviews

Severance by Ling Ma

gardnerfishbruh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

scarfires's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.75

savagescholar's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

pipo's review against another edition

4.5

This woman was a future teller, how incredible! 

carlyjordyn's review against another edition

4.0

a bit slow at the start but i absolutely devoured the rest from the part with ashley’s house. no other thoughts, just sharing my favourite quote

“To live in a city is to take part in and to propagate it’s 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?”

bmpicc's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-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? Yes

4.0

Still thinking about this one. About Bob. About Candace at the end... I didn't know I would find Bible publishing to be interesting. If you like zombies and chaos this slower walk through what could happen after the fever might not be your (post) apocalypse novel. It WAS apparently my speed!

I think this can be read simply as is OR you could dig deep and find some metaphors/connections between the before and after. But again, I'm still thinking about it all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Suicide

thekategaze's review against another edition

5.0

I raced through this because it is SO gripping and upsetting and interesting. there is SO much going on in this book, but it still feels like the perfect length to me. the shifts between the past and present are equally gripping, and even though some present sections end on massive cliffhangers, I never felt annoyed by going back to the past storyline. This is one of those books where the themes are SO clearly signposted - like the scary pandemic illness literally manifests with people compulsively repeating old patterns, and so much of the book is about repetition and rituals- but like, that's genuinely a strength of it IMO. I felt uneasy and honestly occasionally extremely spooked at various points while reading this book, but I enjoyed that feeling tbh. goddd it's so good, definitely one of my favorites so far.

disheveled_pumpkin's review against another edition

Nothings in particular that I didn't like about this books I just wasn't interested but I might come back to this book at another time. 

jairereads's review against another edition

5.0

Deeply unsettling, uncannily prophetic. Couldn’t help myself imagining this as an expansion of The Last of Us—I haven’t read anything this cinematic in a very long time.

My hot take: I stand by every decision Bob made.

daines's review against another edition

dark

4.5