%20(1).png)
Coldwire (2025) by Chloe Gong
The Basics
Page Length: 496
Audiobook Length: ~17 hours
Grade Reading Level: 9+
Target Audience Age: 14+
Goodreads Score: 3.93 out of 5
Buy it HERE
Setting: Earth, 2058. The setting bounces from virtual reality (Upcounrty) and the physical, decaying world (Downcountry). It also bounces between two warring nations (Atahua and Medaluo).
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian, Science Fiction, Cyberpunk
Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Military, Politics, War, Teen Sleuths, Anarchy, Friendship, Romance
Plot: It's 2058, and the Earth is crumbling. With the seas rising, diseases running rampant, and all kinds of other environmental disasters, people have escaped into the world of virtual reality. With the help of StrangeLoom technology, people can safely live inside a "pod" Downcountry (otherwise known as the physical world) for months at a time while living a virtual life in a more beautiful and safe setting Upcountry. Of course, this access is only granted to people who can afford it.
NileCorp, the company behind all the technology, controls who has access and who doesn't. They practically rule the world—especially with their extensive military force. They raise recruits from childhood at Nile Military Academy. NileCorp headquarters are located in Atahua, a global superpower. Atahua has been locked in a cold war with Medaluo, a neighboring nation that has been trying to gain a leg up on NileCorp for decades.
Eirale Ward is a devoted and well-trained NileCorp soldier who has been posted Downcountry. Her mission is to capture the extremist teenage vigilante Nik Grant. NileCorp wants to take him down—and silence his messaging. He claims that StrangeLoom technology brainwashes its users and has dangerous consequences. But when her mission to capture him goes haywire, she's stuck with him and must eventually decide who to side with.
Meanwhile, Lia Sullivan is a senior at Nile Military Academy, hoping to clinch the valedictorian spot after her final exam posting. It's what she's worked toward her whole life. As an adopted Medan, she's spent her childhood proving to her country, her family, and NileCorp that she should—and can—be trusted. But when she's paired with her archrival for her last mission, she knows her task may be harder to complete than originally expected.
When Lia and Eirale's missions converge across both Upcountry and Downcountry, they must decide who to trust, what's real, and how to protect both the physical and virtual worlds from those who are waging war on both planes.
Themes: Reality vs. illusion, displacement, ethnic identities vs. adopted identities, corporate greed and power, the control of technology, environmental crisis, artificial intelligence vs. humanity, friendship, trust and betrayal
You might like this book if you like:
Tech-based hobbies: gaming, coding, hacking, robotics, cyber security, virtual reality
Military and political intrigue
Books like: Skyward, Ready Player One, Warcross, Want, Uglies, Divergent, The Hunger Games, The Darkness Outside Us
Shows like: The 100, The Society, The Periperhal, Snowpiercer
Movies like: Tron, The Maze Runner, The Giver, Ender's Game, The 5th Wave, The Creator (almost all of these are also books)
Other books written by this author: These Violent Delights series, Foul Lady Fortune series, Immortal Longings series
Teaching Coldwire in Class
Content
Language: Some mature language
Sex/Romance: There is romance between the main characters. They kiss once and hold hands.
Violence/Scariness: This book is action packed. There are military maneuvers with shootouts, bombs, tear gas, and other violence. In some fights, soldiers are killed. Main characters are often injured or in peril during action sequences. There is some blood, but nothing gory or graphically described. One character finds out her mother's death by car accident was actually a cover-up for suicide.
Drinking/Smoking/Drugs: A character attends a party where teens are drinking. A character steals medicine when another gets infected with a virus.
Class Novel-ability:
Unfortunately, I don't think this one is going to work as a full-class novel choice. For one, it's WAY too long. It would take months to get through this one together! I also don't think it has enough class-wide appeal. This is definitely better suited for readers who enjoy dystopian, military, and action-packed books.
That being said, I loved it! I love reading new dystopian books, and these kinds of stories were so popular for a while but have definitely slowed down in recent years. Reading this one reminded me of all the dystopian books I loved when I was a teenager—the kind of books that kept me up reading and made me want to keep turning the pages. And I think this book has that same potential for your students. If you have students who love action, futuristic worlds, military conflict, and dystopian stories, Coldwire could be a book that really hooks them.
The Star Qualities
I love that this book has multiple POVs—and it's two TOUGH girls! And they're both fierce, highly trained military warriors navigating a futuristic, decaying virtual world. This book has complicated enough worldbuilding that having only two POVs is just enough to keep up with everything that's going on. The two storylines are so unique, and there's so much action that the jumping back and forth keeps readers on their toes and constantly wanting to read more
The twist! The ending had me kind of reeling. I was pretty shocked when I finally put all the pieces of the puzzle together. AND the book ends on an excellent cliffhanger. It's enough to show that there is going to be SO much more to this story, but not enough to completely infuriate you. I cannot wait to read the next installment. This was one of my favorite—and definitely one of the most unique—reads of the year.
2. The hype is real! This book made the Good Morning America YA Book Club list! Plus, Chloe Gong has some other HUGE YA hits. She's written two other popular series, and they're both historical fantasies, which is totally different from Coldwire. So if you liked her writing style and intricate worldbuilding, you might want to check those out, too!
Book Talk Read Aloud Section
If you have the physical book, read pages 1-mid page 3 (through paragraph 3 "He's not getting away this time.")
If you don't, read the same pages in the reading sample here.
"Reading Like a Writer" Mentor Texts
I love the way you can feel the anxiety and discomfort in this passage. The author uses capitalization and italics to portray the narrator’s internal dialogue and sense of urgency. Then, short, dramatic sentences and fragments slow the moment down, making the reader feel the waiting. Sensory details help us hear the silence and notice the narrator’s nervous fidgeting. Together, these craft moves make the narrator’s nerves and urgency feel immediate and real.
I love the way this passage uses formatting to show volume. That’s a simple and easy craft move students can try in their own creative writing. It’s easy, effective, and gives students a new way to see how formatting can create meaning—not just on the page, but in the way we hear and experience a character’s voice.
This author is very good at creative formatting. Because the book is so techy, there are lots of passages that look different from the typical prose we find in novels. She uses formatting to show text chats, engine searches, computer functions, and so much more. Plus, she plays with sizing, fonts, and styles to create meaning. It gives the writing so much voice and so much added flavor! Here are few examples.
Coldwire, p. 198, 234, 447, 288.
Sentences for Combining and Imitation
Sentence sets for combining:
"Drones zip up and down the street, perfectly visible at hotel window height, blinking yellow, blue, pink, to signal their task." ( Coldwire. p. 125)
Drones zip up and down the street.
They are perfectly visible at hotel window height.
They are blinking yellow.
They are blinking blue.
They are blinking pink.
They are blinking to signal their task.
"She's dressed in a pantsuit, a headset still over her ears with the mix pushed up, as though she's on a lunch break from her remote job." (p. 299)
She's dressed in a pantsuit.
She still has a headset over her ears.
The mic is pushed up.
It's as though she's on a lunch break from her remote job.
"Their personal security, personal engineer teams, and personal publicity will have a system set up to rotate new second passwords--weekly, daily, maybe even hourly." (p. 222)
They will have systems set up to rotate new second passwords.
Their personal security will do it.
Their personal engineer teams will do it.
Their personal publicity will do it.
They will rotate weekly.
They will rotate daily.
Maybe they will even rotate hourly.
Sentences for Imitation:
This author uses lots of punctuation and formatting to shape her sentences: ellipses, em dashes, italics, colons, bold lettering, and more. These choices add emphasis, create clarity, and give us dramatic pauses. What I love most is that they aren’t used in complicated ways. They’re simple, purposeful choices that students can easily replicate in their own writing. Below are a few examples throughout the book that students can choose to borrow and experiment with in their own writing.
"Atahuan media spins up one new theory after another about why he wants to destroy his own country–maybe a tragic past as an orphan, or secret parentage from an extremist group–all to avoid addressing the likely truth: he despises NileCorp, and he’s doing everything in his power to ruin the company." (p. 7)
"I’m not only being followed–I’m being tracked." (p. 115)
"I don’t overthink my strategy: I bolt, sprinting down the busy street." (p. 114)
"Something solid that was more than just . . . more information to follow." (p. 239)
"As of right now, and for the indefinite future, Eirale Ward has no access to upcountry." (p. 483)
Used this book in your classroom? Tell us how in the comments!
Want to be updated when our next book review comes out? Subscribe here for weekly posts featuring fresh book reviews with brand-new sentences and passages. Your inbox’s new favorite destination for new YA reading and writing inspiration!
Comments