Coldwire

Coldwire by Chloe Gong follows the parallel narratives of Lia and Eirale, a trainee and a recent graduate of a military training programme in a futuristic society where climate disaster and corporate dependency have pushed much of humanity into living and working through a virtual world. As the novel progresses, the two narratives slowly converge in a collision that feels both surprising and deeply satisfying. Told in alternating first person perspectives, it is a structure that asks for close attention, and ultimately rewards it.

There will be spoilers in this review, so beware.

This is the first of my FairyLoot YA subscription reads that has fully drawn me in. Any early uncertainties I had were ultimately resolved by the novel’s show more larger design, with the plot revealing why certain details initially felt slightly off.

I listened to this as an audiobook, which was very well performed, though the complexity of the plot does demand focus and may even warrant a re-listen. My main early stumbling block was that Lia and Eirale initially sound strikingly similar, not because of the narration itself but because of the authorial voice. Combined with the first person perspective not always immediately signalling who was speaking, I occasionally lost track if I missed the chapter transition. In hindsight, given the novel’s conclusion, that similarity makes complete sense, and I suspect it would feel less disorienting on the page.

Character-wise, I loved both Lia and Eirale. While there are recognisable YA tropes at play, they are grounded in motivations that feel coherent rather than imposed. Lia’s determination to excel is rooted in her desire to remain close to her father, while Eirale, as a minority orphan, is shaped by a much deeper precarity and awareness of what failure might cost her.

Neither is a cookie cutter heteronormative protagonist. Both grapple with a sense of not belonging that extends beyond race or sexuality, touching something broader and more difficult to define. Their demisexuality, and the quieter questioning around gender identity, felt woven into who they were rather than presented as labels to be noticed. That grounding allowed the wider cast, from the lesbian best friend to the genderfluid younger sibling, to feel like part of a lived social fabric rather than token additions.

It also allows for a genuinely slow-burn romantic thread, with a male lead who is emotionally astute, complex in his own right, and who treats the protagonists as fully capable rather than as people to rescue. I also appreciated the absence of a stereotypical bully figure. The conflict here is systemic rather than personal, which feels far more interesting.

The wider societal reflections are handled especially well. This is a fast-paced, mystery driven novel, yet it still finds space to seed details that gradually build a convincing world. The science felt appropriately calibrated to the story, enough to feel plausible without becoming burdensome.

I particularly enjoyed the interplay between the “AI psychic,” the tension between genuine artificial intelligence and carefully managed illusion, and the quieter details around digital identity, messaging culture, and the ways the characters authenticate one another in a world where hacking could be highly prevalent. The novel’s inclusion of manipulated video, virtual presentation, and the fragility of trust online gives it a sharp contemporary relevance without ever becoming heavy-handed.

The mystery itself is impressively structured. Throwaway details, from reference to political murders and secondary teams, created some great misdirection without feeling obvious amidst other description. There are enough slight oddities seeded to guide the reader toward the truth without fully exposing it. Lia’s never setting foot on campus never raised alarm bells for me, though Eirale’s social isolation and tendency to fade into the background felt stranger, enough to register as a quiet question without giving the reveal away.

My only lingering uncertainty lies in what the ending asks us to do with its central revelation. I found myself strongly identifying with that recurring sense of being different, and there is always a slight unease when stories risk collapsing difference into non-humanness.

I am choosing to read the novel instead as an argument that humanity is located not in origin but in thought, feeling, connection, and choice. Still, it left me reflecting on how often narratives use otherness as metaphor, and how that can sit uneasily alongside readers seeking depictions of neurodivergence or difference that are allowed to remain fully, uncomplicatedly human.

That said, no single book can hold every representational possibility while remaining cohesive within its own aims. Coldwire is a hugely impressive novel, structurally ambitious, emotionally thoughtful, and one of the most satisfying YA speculative mysteries I have read in a while.

I am very much looking forward to the sequel. show less

COLDWIRE by Chloe Gong is a welcome change from the plethora of fantasy/romance novels inundating readers these days. Nary a dragon, demon, or vampire in sight throughout this story. Instead, it is a taut thriller split between a virtual world and the real one that is struggling to survive.

COLDWIRE feels like two separate stories, even while logic tells you that there is a connection there you can't yet see. Some of the separation occurs naturally, since Lia's story takes place in the virtual world and Eirale's in the real world. Also contributing to this feeling of distinctness are the girls' differences. One is a high achiever, still in school, with a father who loves her, an academic rival who pushes her to succeed, and a best show more friend who will drop everything and come to her aid if necessary. While the other is alone, with no family or close friends, simply existing each day while knowing there is nothing she can do to change her circumstances now that she is no longer a student.

At the same time, you innately understand that Lia and Eirale will connect at some point. All signs point to this fact, even as your brain struggles to make sense of each girl's story. They are so close in age, and their journeys are taking them on the same route. One of the girls follows the other's superior officer on social media. Both are orphans. You know these commonalities are not a coincidence, but Ms. Gong does an excellent job of keeping the truth just out of reach until it suits the story.

And what a truth it is! While I knew there was a connection and had my suspicions about it, I was not prepared for the collision when it happened. The ending comes at you with shock after shock until the slight cliffhanger ending, leaving you reeling with the amount of information just dumped on you in such a short period of time. Once you get a chance to sort out all of that information, you can only appreciate the way Ms. Gong built COLDWIRE and the secrets she kept so close to her chest.

I also appreciate Ms. Gong's dystopian world in COLDWIRE. She makes both the physical and virtual worlds believable in an oddly Matrix-like way. The pods people use to enter the virtual world make sense to me, not only because they solve the problem of being online long-term, but also because I never understood when authors have people accessing a virtual world with nothing but a pair of goggles or via holograms. Goggles or holograms make no sense to me because it still leaves your body free to move as your avatar does, which simply seems dangerous. Putting your body in a pod and connecting to the virtual world directly through your brain eliminates all that confusion and concern.

At the same time, Ms. Gong does not skimp on building the existing physical world either, something that is also rare in stories involving a virtual world. It is all too easy to picture cities torn apart by climate change with air quality warnings, lack of rain and subsequent poor crops, and cities constantly flooding from a rise in ocean levels. Ms. Gong also includes the severe class differences between those with and without and the scary rise of corporations and governments operating as one. The world in COLDWIRE is a harsh one on many levels and serves as yet another warning of the road it appears the world is heading down.

Ms. Gong is a talented writer, and COLDWIRE showcases her skills admirably. Her ability to craft such intricate and unique worlds that could easily exist is apparent throughout COLDWIRE as she builds not one but three different worlds. She also develops characters to such an extent that it becomes a simple exercise to step into those characters' shoes. Your concern for these characters is genuine, and the tension that results from your emotional involvement heightens the considerable suspense of the story. Because the novel ends with so many questions answered, your mind starts reeling at the possibilities that now exist for the story's sequel, about which I will be stalking Ms. Gong's online presence until we get a publication date for it. show less

Wow! This book just kept surprising me, right up to the end. Literally no one and nothing is what they seem. What a twisty plot! I also did not realize until very close to the end that this was the beginning of a trilogy, but it's definitely a satisfying story on its own.

I really loved the main characters. The hetero romance felt kind of rote, but I guess that's what makes this YA? Because the setting and themes are far from simplistic. We have a terrifying totalitarian reality, where the difference between how the rich and poor live has reached new extremes, and capitalism has even more fully combined with the state. We have a technology that could be endlessly creative and egalitarian, but has instead been set up to preserve the show more status quo. And we have a system that cynically exploits racialized young people to feed the war machine.

I'm intrigued by where this might go next! Definitely going to keep an eye out for the sequel. show less

The cyberpunk world in this is super cool and the world building is great. I really like the futuristic aspects.

It was really confusing at first switching between Lia and Eirale. I couldn’t tell if it was flash backs or if they were completely different people.

The ending was a wild twist that i definitely did not see coming. I can’t wait for the next book.

(The StrangeLoom Trilogy)