Severance

Candace Chen is a millennial office worker in New York City whose life is built around routine, work, and a sense of drift. As a strange epidemic spreads and people around her begin to vanish or change, the narrative moves between her life before the outbreak and the emptied city after it.

In the present, Candace survives in a deserted New York, documenting the city as NY Ghost before falling in with a group of survivors led by a controlling man named Bob. The group heads toward a promised refuge called the Facility, but the journey raises questions about trust, control, and what Candace is hiding.

The past sections trace Candace’s work life, relationships, and family history, including her immigrant background and the pressures of modern work culture. As the two timelines interleave, the book builds an allegorical story about survival, belonging, and what remains when ordinary life collapses.