Flux | 
so-soFlux, by Jinwoo Chong (2023)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Premise: A young man‘s life takes a bizarre turn when, after miraculously surviving a fall down an elevator shaft, he‘s recruited to a work a new tech company that promises to revolutionize the energy sector.
Review: this book is incredibly high-concept—the premise above only touches half of what‘s going on—and every plot line comes at things at odd angles. Cont.
so-soThe writing is purposefully unclear at points and purposefully so but perhaps it gets a little too muddled. Nevertheless, Chong brings a beautifully forlorn tone to the time travel genre.
pickAt the heart of this fascinating novel is an experimental bio-technology, cloaked in what the the entrepreneurs claim is a form of perpetual movement energy. Until the three stories unspool and intertwine, we‘re not sure what‘s real, indeed we‘re not sure about reality itself. I loved every brilliant word, and cried at the end, but you have to be willing to suspend belief and let this talented author drive.
panTook more than 2/3 of the book to make some sort of sense. I was about to DNF several times.
I'm still not sure I know/understand what the book was about.
#audiobook
so-soThis book was a little disappointing. There are multiple storylines that do ultimately come together at the end, but I think it was overly ambitious and a bit messy. I was only really pulled in by one of the storylines and another is a bad ripoff of Interior Chinatown, a far superior book. I nearly bailed. I think Chong has a lot of talent, but this needed more work.
pickThis is a weird one! Bo, Brandon and Blue each have a story to tell. Also going on is an Elizabeth Holmes type story plus some time travel thrown in. Plus constant references to a cop show and it‘s star, which took place years ago. Stick with all the craziness and you‘ll get some twists and a great ending.
pickThree storylines--and timelines--entwine in this mind-bending book about a man whose life is completely upendended by a mysterious Theranos-like battery start up and its infamous downfall. This book definitely leaves you with more questions than answers and occasionally gets bogged down in descriptions of the TV show the MC is obsessed with, but it was fascinating and hard to put down.
so-so#NetGalley
The diverse Asian-American characters were complex and well developed. The story that follows various POV's, all in some way connecting back to the tech industry, had a unique premise but when coupled with the multiple timelines as well, things became confusing.
I feel like the author had so many great ideas in this debut novel and I look forward to reading other books by him in the future.
Bookish Pair: Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu (2020) 2d