Severance – Plot Summary
Shen Fever has spread across the world. Those afflicted, called ‘Fevered’, are doomed to repeat mundane activities from their lives, mindlessly, until they die. Candace has joined a group of survivors, traveling together to find a place where they can start new lives. As they make their way towards safety, Candace relives her last few weeks in New York, and the choices she’s made.
My Thoughts
Severance, by Ling Ma, is either a great choice to read at the moment, or a terrible one. It’s a good book, to be clear, either way. Published two years ago, it describes the spread of a mysterious plague, starting in China and spreading to devastate populations across the world. I guess what I’m saying is; if you’re turning to books to forget about the current pandemic, maybe don’t go for this one!
Looking for other books to read while in Lockdown? Try these!
The book tells the story of Candace and Bob’s band of survivors, interspersed with her pre-Shen Fever memories. She describes the period of time between first hearing of the fever, to when New York collapsed and she was forced to leave. She also thinks back beyond that; to her childhood, her initial arrival in New York, and how she built a life for herself.
Candace is a reflective character, and Severance therefore a reflective novel, but there’s a dry humour throughout that helps it not to feel too heavy. The writing was great, in an unobtrusive way that made the novel very easy to read. I also liked the use of punctuation. More specifically, the abandoning of speech marks to separate dialogue from other text. I’ve seen this before in novels with a post-apocalyptic setting. Although it takes a bit of time to get used to, it adds to the atmosphere of lawlessness.
I’ve got a bit of a nit-pick around the plot. I felt that there was just enough exploration of Shen Fever—what it is, and how it affects you—for it to feel a little weird that it wasn’t explored further. I was intrigued by the links between characters’ circumstances and their development of the disease. Candace doesn’t seem interested in speculating on her own apparent immunity. The reader is given some opportunity to consider why she might not be vulnerable to the fever, but I think it would have been interesting to get more information on the others who haven’t caught it. To have a chance to explore what they might have had in common, and what might have made them survivors.
All of the supporting characters felt pretty opaque. Not shallow necessarily; when reading you get the sense that there’s a lot going on for each of the side characters. But you don’t get much in the way of clues as to their motivations, and their relationships with Candace go largely undeveloped. That all contributes to the sense of isolation around Severance’s protagonist, so although it isn’t generally my preference in a story, I don’t think it’s a mistake and I’m not criticising it.
In all, Severance is an intelligent, well-crafted and surprisingly funny take on a global pandemic. I’m guessing that situation felt a lot more hypothetical when it was written! Not exactly a reassuring read for the current times, but certainly cathartic. Even if you don’t want to read it right now, I recommend putting it on your to-be-read list for later.
You can find Severance on Amazon here!
This is my review of the month for Lovely Audiobooks.
Some say the no one could have seen this coming, but this is another example that something could be coming our way. – Margy