Severance: A Novel / Ma, Ling

An Amazon Best Book of August 2018: You might read this book for its wickedly serrated, apocalyptic humor: two driven young women continue to show up at their Manhattan publishing jobs even as they’re among the last people left in the city. You might go in for the love story of two twentysomethings who meet over cigarettes on a shared fire escape. Or, you might pick the book up to experience how deftly the author captures the violent ennui of youth in the character of Candace Chen. Candace avoids overthinking how to build a meaningful life – and tries not disappoint her immigrant parents – while working in the production department of a publishing house and, later, photographing the ruins of New York for her anonymous blog. Certainly, fans of dystopian fiction will savor the understated horror of how the world ends. Most everyone contracts a mysterious disease that impels them to continuously reenact a common routine from their life. A particularly gruesome scene involves a family going through the motions of dinner as they physically waste away: the emaciated mom sets the table as the rest of the family sits down in their places to vigorously lick the plates and mouth the cutlery…only to return the plates to the cupboard and repeat the scene again. It’s these zombies that Candace and the small group of survivors she joins encounter on supply raids – and who are ‘mercifully’ shot dead by Bob, the group’s ruthless leader. Severance raises questions about how loneliness shapes identity, the hilarity and horror of the human capacity to normalize, and the stupefying effect of an urge for comfort (while also digging a well of empathy for those drawn to the familiar). Funny and upsetting, with a strange and noble stillness at its core, this deceptively light read will leave readers wanting the story to continue even after learning Candace’s big secret. --Katy Ball
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