In Chloe Gong’s “Coldwire,” released in November 2025, the Earth is ravaged by disease and climate change, and humans have created a virtual reality termed “upcountry.” Here, the richest in society can escape the physical ills of the world. But while the wars of the past may be non existent, the capitalistic systems driving the deterioration of even “upcountry” are still ever present: the most powerful nation in Gong’s world, Atahua, uses orphans from its rival nation, Medaluo, as collateral for its military.
One such orphan, Eirale, is a reluctantly loyal soldier to the Atahuan military. She’s been on a mission to capture a mysterious anarchist called Nik Grant, but ends up in a scheme larger than she can understand. Framed for murder of a fellow Atahuan, Eirale is forced to cooperate with Nik and track down a piece of technology that might be crucial to dismantling the Atahuan government.
Upcountry, soldier-in-training Lia is on track to be valedictorian of the most prestigious military academy in Atahua. Her academics, career–everything–seem perfectly aligned, but she’s unexpectedly paired with her biggest competition for valedictorian, Kieran Murray, for her last assignment at the academy and tasked to find an Atathuan traitor.
Gong’s initial set-up is classic Young Adult (YA) literature: a dystopian world, a corrupt government and a pair of young love interests who are the only people capable of saving it all. For those looking for an exceptionally subversive story, “Coldwire” is not that. What it is, though, is a masterfully executed genre piece that fits in with the best of YA: think Marissa Meyer’s “The Lunar Chronicles” or Leigh Bardugo’s “Six of Crows.”
Gong’s prose is undetectable, letting the action take center stage. Meanwhile, Gong expertly balances humor and genuine-sounding conversations with the more serious aspects of her world of virtual reality.
Lia, Kieran, Eirale and Nik shine as characters, with vibrant personalities, backstories, and motivations. The enemies to lovers trope between Lia and Kieran is especially refreshing, since the pair seems more like frenemies to friends; Gong’s avoidance of a strict adherence to classic tropes makes the character relationships seem more meaningful and interesting to readers.
Although the mystery and heist elements present in “Coldwire” are common in Gong’s books, they’re made fresh with Gong’s creative and rich worldbuilding. Gong avoids falling into either of the pitfalls many YA books fall prey to: either overcomplicating the world or making it too simplistic. In the beginning of the novel, readers are discreetly introduced to details that simultaneously add texture to the upcountry world as well as foreshadow important plot twists near the end of the book.
Plus, the complicated mechanisms underlying the world of “Coldwire”–from sleep pods that transport people from upcountry to downcountry to avatars that are only customizable in Medaluo territory–are introduced in a natural way, rather than in large info-dumps. Just as naturally integrated are the themes of race and class: the cold war between Medaluo, a stand-in for an East Asian country, and Atahua, a stand-in for a wealthy Western nation, makes the events of “Coldwire” applicable to issues the readers would be familiar with, without making the plot seem like a lazy appeal to current events.
The one drawback of Gong’s worldbuilding, however, lies in her overly colloquial language. Gong includes multiple instances of text exchanges rife with typos, abbreviations and emojis that are familiar to many of us. Yet in doing so, readers feel like Gong is messily breaking the fourth wall rather than completely immersing readers in an alternate reality.
Aside from this, “Coldwire” is an enjoyable romp through the future.
Perhaps the best aspect of the novel was Gong’s ability to keep readers on the edge of their seats. Equally engaging chapters from Eirale’s and Lia’s perspectives created suspense as Gong alternated between them. The twists at the end landed exactly how the best ones do: making readers look forward to the next installment of the series, and making them look back on all the details they missed in the build-up.
“Coldwire” seems like the culmination of the skills Gong has refined in her previous books–from the mystery and action of her debut Secret Shanghai series to the hefty worldbuilding of her adult novels. Here, Gong is truly at her best.
