Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Pandemic Through My Generation

Severance by Ling Ma

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I tried to read this gem the first few weeks after the pandemic broke out in New York. Couldn’t do it. As it is significantly better than the other pandemic reads (Killing Williamsburg and Zone One), the fact that it dealt with a terrifying virus from China was hitting too close to home. It took months to work up the gumption to return to it. And I’m glad I did, because it is really good. Yes, the focus of it is a pandemic ruining the world. Shen […]

Couldn’t put it down, but had to cuz SCARY, but then had to pick it back up again.

Severance by Ling Ma

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I love post-apocalyptic literature. Don’t know why, haven’t pulled at that thread, but it is my jaaam. My bread and butter. And other sandwich metaphors. So, I was predisposed to like this (cuz it’s my favorite genre) but also NOT like it, if it wasn’t well done. And it was so so well done. The day after I finished it, I bought it for someone else to read because I need them to read it so I can talk about it. I can’t stop thinking […]

Just because you’re adequately good at something doesn’t mean that’s what you should do.

Severance by Ling Ma

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I decided to read Severance (2018) by Ling Ma after seeing it on NPR’s Best Books of 2018 List because it looked interesting and was a little bit outside my wheelhouse. I’m up for a Dystopian novel every once in a while, but the ones I read are more like adventure stories. Severance is different. It’s a little slower and more melancholy. The book mirrors our own lives in order to make us wonder how far from the sick we really are. Candace Chen is a first-generation American living in New […]

Post-Apocalyptic, but also Pre-Apocalyptic

Severance by Ling Ma

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BINGO: Own Voices Best for: Those who enjoy novels that move around in time. Those who liked Station Eleven. In a nutshell: The fever has taken over the world. Candace has survived it, and is now traveling with other survivors. Through chapters alternating in the past and present, we learn what Candace’s life (and the life of her immigrant parents) was like, and is like now. Worth quoting: “It made me wistful for the illusion of New York more than for its actuality, after having […]

The past is a black hole, cut into the present day like a wound, and if you come too close, you can get sucked in.

Severance by Ling Ma

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Severance is a beautiful book with a lovely pink cover and a mysterious title. It opens and unfolds slowly as you read and then it just stops. It jumps backwards and forwards in time in a slow, meandering pace that feels like it ultimately amounts to nothing. We begin by meeting Candace in a post-apocalyptic world where most of the population has succumbed to Shen fever. Candace has joined a small band of survivors, but she spends most of her time reminiscing about the time […]



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