Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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a pre-Covid novella that I thought was post-Covid

Severance by Ling Ma

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It is to Ling Ma’s credit that it wasn’t until about 1/3 way through this novella — which is about  a disease that originates in China, flattens New York, and a millennial who sticks with her corporate employer until the absolute last moment that society exists — that I realized it was written before Covid. For prescience alone, I want to give it 4 stars.  This is essentially a zombie story set during the Obama years. Our protagonist Candace is our first generation immigrant who […]

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 […]

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 […]

A second chance doesn’t mean you’re in the clear.

Severance by Ling Ma

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This is honestly one of, if not the best, novels I have read this year (as in from the year 2019). I was kind of blown away at how much emotional depth and narrative depth there is in this novel. The novel is a kind of post-apocalyptic novel, and it is, but there’s so much background and context provided in the three different timelines and narratives happening in this novel, that’s it’s so much more than “just” a post-apocalyptic. So the timelines/narratives here: we have […]

Deliverance

Severance by Ling Ma

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Severance meanders; take that for what it is and don’t expect more from it and it becomes a valuable exploration of memory in contrast to the present. It’s for people who live in cities and love walking them, both familiar and unfamiliar parts. It’s for people who work because they need to do something, anything, nevermind, what it actually is. It’s for immigrants and people who feel trapped between more than one place, who have matured over states and provinces and cities and across lines. […]



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