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| photo: One Grid Studio | |
Chloe Gong is the author of the Secret Shanghai novels, as well as the Flesh and False Gods trilogy. Coldwire (Margaret K. McElderry) is her entry into cyberpunk dystopia, on sale November 4, 2025.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
Coldwire takes place in a world ruled by virtual reality and follows a corporate soldier and an anarchist working together to uncover a dangerous program.
On your nightstand now:
Reasons We Break by Jesmeen Kaur Deo, which is coming out the same day as Coldwire! I was lucky enough to get an early copy and it's one of the most inventive, character-driven stories I've read lately. Truly a standout novel.
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene. I found out later in life that Carolyn Keene is the pseudonym for various authors who contributed to the Nancy Drew franchise, but the Nancy Drew: Girl Detective installments specifically kickstarted my love for reading at a young age.
Your top five authors:
Tashie Bhuiyan: there is no one who knows how to pierce to the core of a coming-of-age character arc like Tashie.
Racquel Marie: lyrical, evocative, and all-around brilliant whether she's tackling contemporary young adult or zombie horror.
Zoe Hana Mikuta: Zoe's works are utterly singular in feeling and atmosphere and I'm in awe of everything she writes.
Christina Li: Christina's range and depth is stunning--an automatic rec.
Ann Liang: a generational talent in my opinion, because her romances make me giggle more than anything, and her adult fiction makes me sob.
Book you've faked reading:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. A bolt of lightning is going to strike me down for being a phony English major, but I've "read" Jane Austen's entire catalogue... by which I mean I've read half of every book and skimmed the rest. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, on the other hand... now that's my full cup of tea. The 2016 movie adaptation is one of my favorite films of all time because I adore a historical setting mixed with speculative sci-fi.
Book you're an evangelist for:
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. I know reading is subjective, but the Raven Cycle series is actually perfect. Maggie Stiefvater's work is a litmus test for whether I will agree with someone's reading tastes--if they love The Raven Boys, we will get along!
Book you've bought for the cover:
Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian. It was one of the first times I'd seen an Asian character represented on a cover, and I snatched it up immediately. The series became one of my favorite reads, not only because of how compelling the story itself was, but also because it was the first time I'd experienced reading an Asian character who was so fully formed, who got to be flawed and imperfect.
Book that changed your life:
Can I say The Raven Boys again? Alongside it entirely defining my personality in my high school years, it also was the basis of my friendship with one of my closest friends, Tashie. We were mere Twitter mutuals until the day I spotted a Gansey lookalike in the school library, and we exchanged numbers so I could keep texting her if I spotted him again. Then we became Internet video-call friends. Then, when I moved to New York, we became roommates. Although we are now ex-roommates, we are still best friends!
Favorite line from a book:
This is more than a line so please bear with me, but it's from Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, which is another series that defined my critical developmental years. I return to this passage all the time. Not only was it a beautiful story that I latched onto as a part of my personality, but it is one of those works that made me want to write.
"Karou wished she could be the kind of girl who was complete unto herself, comfortable in solitude, serene. But she wasn't. She was lonely, and she feared the missingness within her as if it might expand and... cancel her. She craved a presence beside her, solid. Fingertips light at the nape of her neck and a voice meeting hers in the dark. Someone who would wait with an umbrella to walk her home in the rain, and smile like sunshine when he saw her coming. Who would dance with her on her balcony, keep his promises and know her secrets, and make a tiny world wherever he was, with just her and his arms and his whisper and her trust."
Five books you'll never part with:
City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instruments is yet another series that changed my life. I got into it when the fifth book, City of Lost Souls, had just come out, so I was eagerly waiting with the rest of the world for the release of the sixth and final in the series. I ran out to the bookstore after school to get my hands on City of Heavenly Fire, so that copy is very precious to me.
Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake: This is a story that pierced me to the core. I read it as an ARC and annotated, circled, and outlined all over it.
Now I Rise by Kiersten White: Now I Rise is book two in the trilogy that starts with And I Darken and it's the first signed book I ever bought! Being from New Zealand, there aren't too many authors who are local, so signed books were rare. When I moved to the U.S. for school, my freshman year dorm organized a bus to the huge Target in Philly so we could pick up essentials. And while everyone else was buying lamps and toilet paper, I beelined to the book aisle and picked up Now I Rise, which had a signed tip-in. It was very exciting.
The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong: I think this series, The Darkest Powers, was the absolute peak of the YA paranormal genre and every once in a while I have to re-visit it to feel alive again.
The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle: Such a beautiful book in every sense of the word. I accidentally stumbled onto it in the bookstore, and it became one of my favorite reads. Just absolute perfection.