Severance by Ling Ma - Feb 2024 Book Group discussion thread

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McGoohan
McGoohan
30 Jan
9:33am, 30 Jan 2024
53,653 posts
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McGoohan
This book, as chozz by Linds, is a jolly jape and romp on the beautiful dessert* island of Dystopia. A magical land of elves, pixies, goblins and such-like. Gaze with childlike wonder at this delightful children's tale that will also appeal to the adults in your household. No, hang on. That's The Hobbit. This one might have zombies. They're a bit like hobbits, right?

*Not a typo: it's made of toffee
Diogenes
Diogenes
30 Jan
9:35am, 30 Jan 2024
84,257 posts
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Diogenes
Let's hope our Choosinatoress has done a good job.
Diogenes
Diogenes
2 Feb
10:15am, 2 Feb 2024
84,348 posts
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Diogenes
I've just realised the above joke will not come across a few days down the line, and unless you read McG's blogs and memorise each word.
Night-owl
Night-owl
8 Feb
3:03pm, 8 Feb 2024
44,915 posts
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Night-owl
I finished this late morning today.
I still don't know how I really feel. I may come back to it later. Or I may not.

Firstly it's not my go to genre but I have read similar before
But I did like it. Not love it was good did keep me going with it I love the character

The ending was strange but admit don't like open ending finishes what happened next

Did she have the baby was she fevered in the end

I didn't like Bob but guess no one else did. And the book wouldn't have a story without him

A book also that makes you think if such a thing was to happen with so few survivors and you were one

So Linds thank you for choosing this book I didn't hate it so not a rejection I gave it a generous 7
LindsD
LindsD
10 Feb
6:48pm, 10 Feb 2024
66,565 posts
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LindsD
I finished this a couple of days ago. What to say? I definitely looked forward to reading it and wanted to know what happened, but ultimately I was a bit disappointed. I felt like the before and the after narratives weren't sufficiently connected. I was expecting some kind of excoriating critique of capitalism and I didn't really find it. It was clear that the conditions of capitalism had created the conditions for the pandemic, but we already know that (although I guess she might not have in 2018).

It was quite chilling just how the pandemic she described did play out in a lot of ways in 2020, like travel bans, and blame, and misinformation, and the mask thing. I kept having to remind myself that it was written before the Covid pandemic.

I liked her, and I liked the dystopian bits, though I thought it wasn't really explained why Bob was like he was. The 'stalks' were quite creepy, but I guess that was the point.

Unusually for me, I found the upbeat ending a bit of a cop-out. I'm glad I read it, but yeah, bit disappointed. I've read better dystopian fiction. I gave it a 7.
LindsD
LindsD
10 Feb
6:50pm, 10 Feb 2024
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LindsD
Thanks Owlie. I think we broadly agree. Did you think she might be fevered? Why?
LindsD
LindsD
10 Feb
6:52pm, 10 Feb 2024
66,567 posts
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LindsD
Oh yeah, and a big deal was made in the reviews that she was the last employee working but she wasn't working, was she? She was doing her blog.

I did like the fact that she got the big payout but there was nothing to spend it on.
Night-owl
Night-owl
10 Feb
7:12pm, 10 Feb 2024
44,921 posts
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Night-owl
Linds I don't know why no real reasons. I just thought how it ended with no answers

I went to see if she wrote anything since seeing hopefully if there was a sequel but no

Just a collection of short stories
LindsD
LindsD
10 Feb
7:13pm, 10 Feb 2024
66,571 posts
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LindsD
That's interesting.
Little Nemo
Little Nemo
24 Feb
6:24pm, 24 Feb 2024
14,383 posts
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Little Nemo
I've read a fair bit of dystopian fiction and watched things like The Walking Dead so I was wondering if this book could bring up something different. In the end it was yes and no ;-)

I find with a lot of DF you end up with quite a small story, it comes down to a few survivors and often there is a leader trying to exert his (it's normally a man!) will. There are the journeys across the country, scavenging for supplies, scoping out places to stay which I've probable seen/read too much. I found myself muttering "how come they can still find petrol?" and wondering how long it will take for it to go off! So this part of the story felt very familiar but the addition of the fevered made it subtly different. I liked the way people seemed to be triggered by nostalgia when they went back to familiar places. I found the behaviour of the fevered really creepy, the pointless repetition of routine actions while you wasted away. It was quite refreshing to not have armies of zombies to fight off, it was enough to have human conflict.

I thought the different timelines worked well, giving a good background to Candace. She felt like a real person with normal problems and issues who just happened to be amongst the few survivors. My favourite parts were the slow disintegration of NY and the moment when she suddenly realises she's alone. I had assumed that it was written after COVID as aspects felt similar to the various lockdowns we had, it was a shock to learn it was published in 2018!

I liked the open ending, it would have been a very different book if the author had decided to show us another commune. I can see it might be frustrating for people who need to know what happens to Candace but I was happy with it.

I liked the writer's style so if she writes another novel (I can only see a book of short stories that's been published) I'll give it a go. Thanks to LindsD for choosing it. I wouldn't have picked it as I would have assumed I didn't need to read another DF book but it turns out I did :-)

I gave this book a 8.

About This Thread

Maintained by McGoohan
This book, as chozz by Linds, is a jolly jape and romp on the beautiful dessert* island of Dystopia. A magical land of elves, pixies, goblins and such-like. Gaze with childlike wonder at this delightful children's tale that will also appeal to the adults in your household. No, hang on. That's The Hobbit. This one might have zombies. They're a bit like hobbits, right?

*Not a typo: it's made of toffee

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