Reviews and Comments

This book is very prescient and scary. It showcases how racist (biomedical) science is, while also dealing with related sciences such as anthropology and population genetics.

Coming from a background in genetics, it made me feel uneasy that I have been taking part of the scientific community that is plagued with racism. I cannot stress how much this book made me question my own assumptions about the work that human geneticists do. I am now seeing racism everyday, and it is difficult to handle that.

Honestly, I would love to read a sequel to this book that goes deeper into research articles, but I know that might be too much to ask, and maybe I should be the one to go into reading articles with a more critical perspective.

I recommend this book to everyone, but I would say this is a must-read for anyone involved in the biomedical sciences. When scientific topics are discussed, they are discussed with proper understading and rigor. This makes it an invaluable resource for getting members of the scientific community to read this book (although the fact that it is written by a journalist already makes it invalid in the eyes of many scientists).

I just can't keep reading this. I don't know if it is because I am listening to an audiobook, but I am incredibly bored and confused. There is too much exposition without context, to the point where you don't understand what's going on.

Maybe in the future I will try again but reading it instead of listening to it, but I will call it off for now because I am not enjoying it.

Ling Ma's writing is very organic and is able to capture the everyday life of capitalism in, what seems a first glance, a very neutral way. Al throughout the book metaphors of the dystopic nature of current capitalsm arise, and sometimes lampshaded.

Interesting from the point of view of a first-generation immigrant, Severance is able to unfold and open in several layers like a rose. The two main narratives seem to reflect several aspects of the writer's own life and contemplation of capitalism, without falling into a cliche critique.

Overall it was really enjoyable, albeit a bit despairing, but what do you expect from an apocalyptic novel?

I'm six chapters in and I am not sure what's going on. I wonder if it is because I'm listening to an audiobook and the VA is not so good. Anyway, so far it's pretty interesting but hard to follow. There is almost no exposition so you're expected to know what the narrator is talking about.