ARC gifted by the publisher

I loved everything about this novel. Framed as a second chance—a gay Korean American waking up from a 2-year coma at the end of Covid—we follow a flawed and sometimes overly dramatic yet deeply realistic character getting another chance at life. With it comes chances to rebuild his relationships with his family that he hasn’t talked to in 5 years.

There’s a lot to love about Chong’s sophomore novel. JJ’s journey to healing while he explores various aspects of life—familial responsibility, career opportunities, and romantic relationships—are written with tender prose infused with humor.

Apart from the MC, I also love that every character feels fully-realized and have their own character developments. Chong excels at building a multifaceted cast that not just supports JJ’s story, but also shows the different aspects of a 3-generation Korean household and their struggles with finding themselves.

Compared to Chong’s first novel, FLUX, I LEAVE IT UP TO YOU feels less serious, and I loved every moment with it. It made me sad thinking about time, how much I’ve wasted and how little I have left with aging parents, but it also made me hopeful for how much I can still do. I think this book will hit especially hard for readers who think about forming relationships with their (Asian) immigrant parents while trying to reconcile unanswered questions and unprocessed feelings bottled up as teenagers, which is to say, every reader who doesn’t call their parents by their first names