Severance by Ling Ma

Book Notes

• Title: Severance
• Author: Ling Ma
• Finished: January 2026
• First Reaction: Mixed, but lingering
• Would I Recommend It?: To the right reader

In January, I read Severance by Ling Ma. I had mixed feelings about it while I was reading, and even when I finished it I wasn’t sure if I liked it. But I have thought about the book almost every day since I finished it, and that has to mean something.

The novel follows Candace Chen, an office worker in New York City during a slow-moving pandemic called Shen Fever. The disease doesn’t turn people violent or monstrous. Instead, those who catch it fall into loops of routine, repeating familiar actions over and over again until they eventually die.

For most of the book, I struggled to stay engaged with the story. I almost put the book down several times, but then at Chapter 18, something clicked. Nothing dramatic happens there, at least not in the way that a typical novel might deliver a turning point. But my relationship with the book shifted.

Up until that point, I felt like I was watching a car crash unfold in slow motion. The characters weren’t particularly likable, and I had a hard time understanding why Candace stayed with the group she eventually joins, especially under the leadership of Bob, who I disliked immediately. I kept wondering why she didn’t just leave.

I've heard people describe at satire, but that is not what this is. Severance is an allegory. Shen Fever is not just a disease. It represents something about routine, repetition, and the systems we live inside every day.

Candace stays in situations long after it might make sense to leave them. She continues working long after everyone else has abandoned the office. Even after the world has largely collapsed, she still finds herself following structures that feel familiar.

The writing itself is excellent. I was never bored with the prose, even when I felt uncertain about the story.

One section in the story describes the paper used to manufacture Bibles and the logistics of making and ordering Bibles. I found this section strangely compelling.

By the time I reached the end of the novel, I was invested in seeing how things turned out, even though I never fully warmed to Candace. I simply did not care about her in the way readers often care about protagonists.

And that may be part of the point.

If Candace had been more charismatic or heroic, the novel might have turned into something else entirely, a more conventional survival story. Instead, the book feels closer to an independent film than a blockbuster. It isn’t trying to please everyone. It seems designed for a certain type of reader.

I’m not entirely sure who I would recommend Severance to, but I suspect it would resonate with readers who enjoy stories that operate as allegories, or who don’t mind sitting with a novel that asks questions rather than delivering emotional payoff.

For me, the most unsettling part of the book wasn’t the pandemic itself. It was the idea that routine can quietly take over a life if you let it.

That’s a thought worth sitting with for a while.

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