Book: Severance

Written By: Ling Ma

Reviewer: Selena De La Cruz, 12th Grade

Rating: 4/5 Stars

A worldwide outbreak of a contagious fungal disease, Shen Fever, turns the infected into mindless “zombies”, who are stuck living through an endless cycle of their past lives. The book follows the select few who are immune to this fungal disease, as the rest of the world succumbs to the fate of this disease. The main protagonist, Candace Chen, reflects on her past before the Shen Fever, and also follows her experience in the resulting apocalyptic world before her.

I genuinely loved the language and flow of the book; the language was simple enough for me to understand but the descriptive language in describing the characters’ emotions and thoughts, down to the tiny details, really added a lot to the immersion of the world. Although it is fiction, it feels so real as the characters seem so real and the underlying themes this book addresses are still applicable today.

I don’t think teens would like this, since this is a book about millennials and their lives. However, I do encourage other teens to give it a try because it reveals a lot about the world we are about to partake in.