Books to read after watching Severance
The employees by Olga Ravn
In The Employees, Ravn imagines a future workplace aboard a spaceship where human and humanoid workers submit fragmented reports about their experiences, memories, and emotional unrest. Much like Severance, this novel probes the emotional toll of labor and what it means to have — or lose — autonomy in the workplace. Both works present a sterile corporate setting where identity is slowly eroded in service of something bigger (and arguably, more sinister). If Severance asks what’s left of us when work and self are split, The Employees responds with the haunting echo of synthetic grief. Buy Now
Temporary by Hilary Leichter
Temporary is absurdist and surreal, following a temp worker who takes on increasingly bizarre jobs — from stand-in for a barnacle to temporary ghost — all in search of the elusive goal: permanence. Like Severance, this novel captures the disorientation of gig work and the cultish devotion demanded by capitalism. Leichter uses humor where Severance leans into dread, but both are sharp critiques of how work can become a stand-in for identity, leaving us untethered and craving meaning. Buy Now
Lakewood by Megan Giddings
Lakewood introduces a young Black woman who takes a mysterious, high-paying job that demands total secrecy and participation in disturbing medical experiments. It's a chilling companion to Severance, exploring how marginalized people are exploited under the guise of opportunity. Both narratives unravel their secrets slowly, peeling back the layers of control, consent, and the price of survival in systems that don’t care about the people trapped inside them. Buy Now
There’s no such thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura
In this quiet, oddly comforting novel, a woman cycles through a series of strange jobs in search of something meaningful — or at least tolerable. Each new role promises simplicity, but instead reveals quiet absurdities and unexpected pressures. Much like Severance, Tsumura’s work examines the emotional landscapes of seemingly mundane labor, and how alienating a "normal" job can become when it's stripped of connection and purpose. Both works thrive in their attention to the slow creep of existential dread. Buy Now
A short story in hell by Steven Peck
Though more philosophical and metaphysical, A Short Stay in Hell feels spiritually aligned with Severance. It follows a man who, after death, discovers he must find a specific book in an infinite library to leave his personal hell — a Sisyphean task loaded with existential weight. Like the Lumon employees, the protagonist is trapped in a system he can’t understand, tasked with meaningless labor that demands faith without clarity. It’s a meditation on bureaucracy, time, and the terrifying possibility that the “meaning” we search for in life and work may never be found. Buy Now
