Severance by Ling Ma

Severance by Ling Ma | Published August 14th 2018 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux |  304 Pages | Goodreads

✅ PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION

“An offbeat office novel turns apocalyptic satire as a young woman transforms from orphan to worker bee to survivor

Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. With the recent passing of her Chinese immigrant parents, she’s had her fill of uncertainty. She’s content just to carry on: She goes to work, troubleshoots the teen-targeted Gemstone Bible, watches movies in a Greenpoint basement with her boyfriend.

So Candace 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. Her bosses enlist her as part of a dwindling skeleton crew with a big end-date payoff. 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 moving family story, a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale, and a hilarious, deadpan satire. Most important, it’s a heartfelt tribute to the connections that drive us to do more than survive.”

✅ REVIEW

This is an introspective, character-driven novel. I was hesitant to pick it up but I’m glad I did.

The story follows Candace Chen as she navigates life in post-apocalyptic America. The world has succumbed to the “fever” and those who have caught it are called “fevered”.

A large part of the story takes place in NYC where Candace used to work for a publishing company, and it alternates between the present post-apocalyptic America, and the time before the epidemic arrived.

The novel moves at a slow pace because it takes its time describing details of Candace’s life and relationships, both in the present and in the past. At times I was confused when reading because the novel does not include quotation marks when the character’s are having a dialogue. Still, even with this issie I was able to follow the story easily.

Overall, I enjoyed it and recommend it to those who enjoy sci-fi and contemporary fiction.

✅ BOOK SOURCE AND FORMAT

BOTM selection, hardcover