{"id":1924582,"date":"2026-05-07T19:00:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1924582"},"modified":"2026-05-07T19:00:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T16:00:44","slug":"you-should-check-out-the-other-severance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1924582","title":{"rendered":"You Should Check Out the Other \u2018Severance\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/severance-apple-tv-ling-ma-1200×675.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s a special kind of adversity in having a famous namesake. It\u2019s an existential crisis, and only a rare few avoid becoming a \u201cnot to be confused with\u201d footnote on Wikipedia (shout-out to Michael B. Jordan and James Cameron\u2019s Avatar<\/em>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Severance <\/em>wasn\u2019t so lucky. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not talking about the prestige Apple TV series. I\u2019m talking about the debut novel by my fellow Chicagoan Ling Ma, which not only predates the show but deserves just as much mainstream attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

As it happens, the two Severances<\/em> share more than just a name. Both works tinker with memory as their core theme. While the Adam Scott show wrestles with the surreal scenario of splitting one\u2019s consciousness between \u201cinnie\u201d at the office and \u201coutie\u201d at home, Ma\u2019s 2018 novel is a clever reimagination of the zombie apocalypse through the lens of millennial burnout.<\/p>\n

\"Book
\u00a9 Farrar, Straus and Giroux<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Severance<\/em> follows Candice Chen, a Manhattan-based book printing coordinator, who is so self-quarantined in the mundanity of her office life that she barely notices a global pandemic called Shen Fever plunging the world into ruin. Shen Fever is kind of like the infection in The Last of Us<\/em>, in that it originates as a fungal disease.<\/span> However, Shen Fever doesn\u2019t turn people into rampaging mushroom zombies. It behaves like\u00a0zombie-ant fungus, trapping its victims in memory-induced trances where they compulsively pantomime tasks like brushing their teeth and folding laundry until their bodies rot.<\/span><\/p>\n

The novel ping-pongs between Candice\u2019s banal pre-apocalypse life and her dire post-apocalyptic existence with a troupe of \u201cimmune\u201d survivors trekking toward a facility rumored to hold a cure. Naturally, the journey ahead of her is riddled with as many hardships as her old life. Chief among them are infighting with her hierarchical quasi-religious group, deadly encounters with \u201cfevered\u201d on supply runs, and the constant threat of being one daydream away from becoming one of them.<\/p>\n

Personally, I owe a lot to Severance<\/em> for being one of the two books that reignited my passion for reading novels back in 2023. In my Letterboxd-coded Goodreads review, I described Ma\u2019s witty,<\/span> satirical prose as \u201cvery seasoned.\u201d Honestly, that\u2019s an understatement. Finding the book while wandering a bookstore felt like its own kind of magic. And when I curiously cracked it open, I stood no chance. Ma\u2019s writing is sharp, sardonic, and genuinely funny, yet still carries a quiet weight of melancholy from the very first page.<\/p>\n

One reason why I fell in love with Severance<\/em> is that I vehemently related to Candace\u2019s hellscape. I was in the middle of my own severance period after being laid off from my first salaried writing job post-pandemic. Apparently, Ma and I are kindred spirits on that front: according to the New Yorker, she wrote Severance<\/em> while living off severance pay after being laid off herself. Kudos to her for sticking to its title, even if the Ben Stiller show is now dominating Google searches.<\/p>\n

Another reason the novel captivated me was the way it depicted the mundanity of Candice\u2019s life before and after the end of the world. Anyone who\u2019s read Severance<\/em> will immediately clock how uncanny it felt to read it in the aftermath of the pandemic. Speaking to PBS, Ma acknowledged the surreal experience folks like me must have had reading\u00a0Severance,\u00a0<\/em>panicking with every news update on the pandemic, only for our faces to go the way of Stonehenge toiling away on our little tasks, working from home.\u00a0It was almost like a\u00a0Simpsons<\/em>-esque premonition of what life during covid would become, with how it captured the strange mix of nostalgia, denial, and anticlimax that settled over the world once we realized the trappings of everyday capitalism weren\u2019t all that different from a zombie apocalypse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It also doesn\u2019t hurt that I picked up Severance<\/em> right after finishing another excellent sci-fi novel about memory: Yoko Ogawa\u2019s The Memory Police<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Book
\u00a9 Vintage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ogawa\u2019s 1994 novel is good shit in its own right. Its haunting tale reads like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33<\/em> fused with Chainsaw Man<\/em>, Ray Bradbury\u2019s Fahrenheit 451<\/em>, and George Orwell\u2019s 1984<\/em>. It takes place on an island where people wake up unable to remember the names of objects, such as birds or roses. Every day, its citizens are tasked with destroying those objects by burning them in a pyre or casting them into a river and going about their merry, ignorant way. While most people are fine with accepting their dystopian way of life, \u201cimmune\u201d folks, like the book\u2019s unnamed protagonist, live in fear of being rounded up and disappeared by\u2026 well, the Memory Police.<\/p>\n

Reading The Memory Police<\/em> and Severance<\/em> back-to-back was the literary equivalent of the time I, in my infinite wisdom, double-featured Celine Song\u2019s Past Lives<\/em> and Park Chan-wook\u2019s Decision to Leave<\/em> on my flight to and from San Diego (don\u2019t do this unless you want to be big depressed). They complement each other exceedingly well as sci-fi novels, and I\u2019ve been chasing the high of that experience ever since.<\/p>\n

While the existence of Apple TV\u2019s Severance<\/em> makes it nearly impossible to expect a Hollywood adaptation of Ma\u2019s debut, I\u2019m perfectly fine with it never having one. Books aren\u2019t made legit because they\u2019re adapted, after all. Plus, the fact that they share a name means I can continue \u201cum, actually\u201d-ing folks who keep bugging me about finally watching the show by recommending Ma\u2019s book. Keeping it a buck, though, it doesn\u2019t hurt knowing that The Memory Police<\/em>\u00a0has a\u00a0film adaptation in the works starring Lily Gladstone.<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re in need of a pair of sci-fi books that play with romance, nostalgia, and the dystopian and authoritarian power memory wields, I highly recommend giving Severance<\/em> and The Memory Police<\/em> a read.<\/p>\n

\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

\n

There\u2019s a special kind of adversity in having a famous namesake. It\u2019s an existential crisis, and only a rare few avoid becoming a \u201cnot to be confused with\u201d footnote on Wikipedia (shout-out to Michael B. Jordan and James Cameron\u2019s Avatar<\/em>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Severance <\/em>wasn\u2019t so lucky. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not talking about the prestige Apple TV series. I\u2019m talking about the debut novel by my fellow Chicagoan Ling Ma, which not only predates the show but deserves just as much mainstream attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

As it happens, the two Severances<\/em> share more than just a name. Both works tinker with memory as their core theme. While the Adam Scott show wrestles with the surreal scenario of splitting one\u2019s consciousness between \u201cinnie\u201d at the office and \u201coutie\u201d at home, Ma\u2019s 2018 novel is a clever reimagination of the zombie apocalypse through the lens of millennial burnout.<\/p>\n

\"Book
\u00a9 Farrar, Straus and Giroux<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Severance<\/em> follows Candice Chen, a Manhattan-based book printing coordinator, who is so self-quarantined in the mundanity of her office life that she barely notices a global pandemic called Shen Fever plunging the world into ruin. Shen Fever is kind of like the infection in The Last of Us<\/em>, in that it originates as a fungal disease.<\/span> However, Shen Fever doesn\u2019t turn people into rampaging mushroom zombies. It behaves like\u00a0zombie-ant fungus, trapping its victims in memory-induced trances where they compulsively pantomime tasks like brushing their teeth and folding laundry until their bodies rot.<\/span><\/p>\n

The novel ping-pongs between Candice\u2019s banal pre-apocalypse life and her dire post-apocalyptic existence with a troupe of \u201cimmune\u201d survivors trekking toward a facility rumored to hold a cure. Naturally, the journey ahead of her is riddled with as many hardships as her old life. Chief among them are infighting with her hierarchical quasi-religious group, deadly encounters with \u201cfevered\u201d on supply runs, and the constant threat of being one daydream away from becoming one of them.<\/p>\n

Personally, I owe a lot to Severance<\/em> for being one of the two books that reignited my passion for reading novels back in 2023. In my Letterboxd-coded Goodreads review, I described Ma\u2019s witty,<\/span> satirical prose as \u201cvery seasoned.\u201d Honestly, that\u2019s an understatement. Finding the book while wandering a bookstore felt like its own kind of magic. And when I curiously cracked it open, I stood no chance. Ma\u2019s writing is sharp, sardonic, and genuinely funny, yet still carries a quiet weight of melancholy from the very first page.<\/p>\n

One reason why I fell in love with Severance<\/em> is that I vehemently related to Candace\u2019s hellscape. I was in the middle of my own severance period after being laid off from my first salaried writing job post-pandemic. Apparently, Ma and I are kindred spirits on that front: according to the New Yorker, she wrote Severance<\/em> while living off severance pay after being laid off herself. Kudos to her for sticking to its title, even if the Ben Stiller show is now dominating Google searches.<\/p>\n

Another reason the novel captivated me was the way it depicted the mundanity of Candice\u2019s life before and after the end of the world. Anyone who\u2019s read Severance<\/em> will immediately clock how uncanny it felt to read it in the aftermath of the pandemic. Speaking to PBS, Ma acknowledged the surreal experience folks like me must have had reading\u00a0Severance,\u00a0<\/em>panicking with every news update on the pandemic, only for our faces to go the way of Stonehenge toiling away on our little tasks, working from home.\u00a0It was almost like a\u00a0Simpsons<\/em>-esque premonition of what life during covid would become, with how it captured the strange mix of nostalgia, denial, and anticlimax that settled over the world once we realized the trappings of everyday capitalism weren\u2019t all that different from a zombie apocalypse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It also doesn\u2019t hurt that I picked up Severance<\/em> right after finishing another excellent sci-fi novel about memory: Yoko Ogawa\u2019s The Memory Police<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Book
\u00a9 Vintage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ogawa\u2019s 1994 novel is good shit in its own right. Its haunting tale reads like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33<\/em> fused with Chainsaw Man<\/em>, Ray Bradbury\u2019s Fahrenheit 451<\/em>, and George Orwell\u2019s 1984<\/em>. It takes place on an island where people wake up unable to remember the names of objects, such as birds or roses. Every day, its citizens are tasked with destroying those objects by burning them in a pyre or casting them into a river and going about their merry, ignorant way. While most people are fine with accepting their dystopian way of life, \u201cimmune\u201d folks, like the book\u2019s unnamed protagonist, live in fear of being rounded up and disappeared by\u2026 well, the Memory Police.<\/p>\n

Reading The Memory Police<\/em> and Severance<\/em> back-to-back was the literary equivalent of the time I, in my infinite wisdom, double-featured Celine Song\u2019s Past Lives<\/em> and Park Chan-wook\u2019s Decision to Leave<\/em> on my flight to and from San Diego (don\u2019t do this unless you want to be big depressed). They complement each other exceedingly well as sci-fi novels, and I\u2019ve been chasing the high of that experience ever since.<\/p>\n

While the existence of Apple TV\u2019s Severance<\/em> makes it nearly impossible to expect a Hollywood adaptation of Ma\u2019s debut, I\u2019m perfectly fine with it never having one. Books aren\u2019t made legit because they\u2019re adapted, after all. Plus, the fact that they share a name means I can continue \u201cum, actually\u201d-ing folks who keep bugging me about finally watching the show by recommending Ma\u2019s book. Keeping it a buck, though, it doesn\u2019t hurt knowing that The Memory Police<\/em>\u00a0has a\u00a0film adaptation in the works starring Lily Gladstone.<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re in need of a pair of sci-fi books that play with romance, nostalgia, and the dystopian and authoritarian power memory wields, I highly recommend giving Severance<\/em> and The Memory Police<\/em> a read.<\/p>\n

\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/severance-apple-tv-ling-ma-1200×675.jpg”] There\u2019s a special kind of adversity in having a famous namesake. It\u2019s an existential crisis, and only a rare few avoid becoming a \u201cnot to be confused with\u201d footnote on Wikipedia (shout-out to Michael B. Jordan and James Cameron\u2019s Avatar).\u00a0 Severance wasn\u2019t so lucky. I\u2019m not talking about the prestige Apple TV […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,53],"class_list":["post-1924582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-gizmodo-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1924582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1924582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1924582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1924582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}