Severance by Ling Ma

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Severance
Author: Ling Ma
Release Date: 8.14.20
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Goodreads Summary:
Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. So she barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Families flee. Companies halt operations. The subways squeak to a halt. Soon entirely alone, still unfevered, she photographs the eerie, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost.

Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?

A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma’s Severance is a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale and satire.

My Review:

Sometimes you just need to climb into bed with a couple books! Cookbooks, paperbacks, my kindle--I brought them all. I have been wanting to write a review of Severance for a  few days but I'm stumped on what exactly I want to say. ⁠

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Released in 2018 but set in 2010/2011 this novel was on ALL the "pandemic reads" lists, but the oft-provided description defaulted to the protagonist being trapped in an office building. That just didn't grab my attention. Neither did all the references to the story being an ode to the "millennial condition." I wanted to know why everyone thought it was so great so I decided to give it a try. For the 1st 150 pages I was like "well, I hate this" but I kept reading. I am all for DNF-ing a book but now I was really invested in needing to to know why anyone would like this story. Then I finished chapter 15 (p 168) and was like "oh shit. I cannot stop to make dinner. In need to know what happens next!" I can't even explain how author Ling Ma weaves together work culture, lineage, survival, cults, the apocalypse, and art to create a story that I can't stop thinking about!