In a world where everyone has a bit of a different personality depending on what platform they are using – think online you versus at home you – we are always looking to appeal to the different kinds of our personality.
Right now, I am trying to appeal to the bookish you (or call it your innie), the one that loves to devour books at home, without being bothered by the external world. The bookish you who probably read the original story of Severance by Ling Ma back in 2018 and were more than excited when you heard that the novel will be adapted into a TV show.
Now that we know that the AppleTV Severance show has been renewed for season 3, we also know that it will take a long while before we get to see it on our screens. Therefore, how about we drop the release date waiting and pick up a few books that are similar to the Severance TV show?
I’ve compiled a list of five different books that have that eerie workplace feel, that disassociates from reality and almost literally splits reality. Here are my five top books similar to Severance.
5. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch is surprisingly another novel that has been adapted by AppleTV!
In Dark Matter, we follow Jason Desson, a college physics professor who lives a quiet life in Chicago with his wife and son. Returning home from the bar one day, he is abducted and awakens into a completely new reality.
In this new reality, he has no wife nor son, however, he is a celebrated genius who achieved something remarkable and impossible. The story is fast-paced and suspenseful. Jason must confront the darkest parts of himself and battle terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foes.
This novel parallels Severance in the way that it makes you feel how mind-bending the story is, how unfamiliar of a place Jason ends up in, and explores multiple universes.
Why we recommend it: If you enjoy mind-bending science fiction thrillers, this book is for you. It has a strong emotional core, exploring themes of choice, love, and consequences. It is recommended to go into this novel knowing as little as possible in order to maximize its impact.
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4. The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada
This one is a little bit special. If you are looking for more of a surreal and absurdist fiction, still very similar to Severance, The Factory is for you, and here is why.
If you’ve ever felt like the work you do has no purpose or is strange, wait until you’ve read this novel. It follows 3 first point of view of characters who work in a giant and sprawling industrial factory in a Japanese city. The problem is that they are doing incomprehension and seemingly unrelated tasks.
- One is tasked with studying moss
- Another is tasked with shredding documents, despite him having a background in literature
- And another meant to proofread incomprehensible documents…
Life in the factory has its own kind of logic and momentum but the factory is slowly expanding and taking over everything. Soon strange creatures start to appear and form of life evolving…
Why we recommend it: The Factory is a weird and surrealist novel that will definitely make you question not only reality but the work that you do in your real life. It offers a critique of the modern workplace that we should all take a minute to think about.
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Subscribe to our weekly newsletter3. The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
What if you could access all of your memories? What if you could also share some of your memories in order to access someone else’s? Would you do it?
This is the question that The Candy House posits. The novel begins with Bix Bouton, a successful tech entrepreneur who develops Own Your Unconscious, a technology that allows you to do precisely that; access all your memories and share them to access others.
The novel is a complex and mind-bending science fiction book that follows several characters from different perspectives over several decades. On top of that, it is written in an array of styles from omniscient to first person to plural and duet voices and even tweets.
The Candy House explores the meaning of authenticity, privacy, and a world where memories are no longer private. The Candy House is like the Hansel and Gretel fairytale because nothing good comes for free…
Why we recommend it: This book will appeal to those who seek complex and thought-provoking stories that explore the impact of technology on human connection, memory, and privacy. The different narrative structure also helps cement the mind-bending aspect of the novel.
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2. The Warehouse by Rob Hart
Imagine Amazon taking over the whole United States and now imagine it also has live-work facilities for its employees. This is the world of The Warehouse: where a company akin to Amazon called Cloud has taken over the whole country and pushed most of the small businesses. Work is scarce and everyone works in these live-work facilities.
The novel follows Paxton, a former business owner who was put out of business by Cloud and now works in Cloud’s security. It also follows Zinnia, who is trying to infiltrate the company to uncover its darkest secrets.
The interesting part is that the book is written from a third perspective, that of Gibson Wells, the dying CEO of the company. His part is written in the style of blog entries and provides his perspective on the company’s impact.
The story explores the drudgery of working at Cloud, the constant surveillance of employees, the lack of employees’ rights, and the sinister activities occurring behind the scenes.
Why we recommend it: This novel offers a scarily plausible and thought-provoking vision of the near future, which we all hope never happens. Explore the unchecked corporate power and the erosion of the individual for the sake of convenience. You won’t be able to stop reading this and being scared because it is so close to reality…
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1. House of Leaves by Michael Z. Danielewski
This novel is a bit hard to describe, therefore I will try my best to make it clear, so bear with me here…
A young family moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane and discovers that the house is much bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. The two main characters, Will Navidson a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, and his companion Karen are not prepared for the consequences of this impossible situation.
Their two children begin to speak to creatures in the darkness and an evergrowing abyss behind the closet door.
Navidson starts to document the strange occurrences creating a documentary film referred to as “The Navidson Record”.
A blind man Zampano attempts to analyze “The Navidson Record” including films and academic literature to determine its authenticity.
Zampano dies before completing his work and his disordered notes are discovered by his neighbor, Johnny.
Johnny becomes obsessed with the “Navidson Record” and tries to order and complete Zampano’s work, adding his own irrelevant and vulgar but colorful commentaries and footnotes.
The novel is a multi-nested narrative that explores the nature of reality, fear of the unknown, and the concept of love and loss.
Additionally, the book’s typography progressively gets crazier and crazier. It is physically a mind-bending novel to read with different fonts and colors, sometimes needing to read the book upside down or only a few words on a page.
Why we recommend it: One of the few novels that not only plays with your mind mentally but also physically. An insane novel that needs to be discovered by all Severance fans.
And there you have it. While you wait for the third season of Severance, you have plenty of books to keep you busy and completely mind-bent. Just make sure to not disassociate from reality while you are reading this. We don’t want the bookish you to take over now do we? … Or maybe we do… Food for thought.
