A wild premise-- you wake up after 2 years in a coma. Your parents are in your life again, despite the fact that you hadn't spoken to them in years. The love of your life has moved on and gotten married, the world lived through a pandemic, your job and car are long gone. You are too shell shocked to be grateful to be alive, although you have no memory of driving into the Hudson river. There is a little suspense and romance here, it is billed as second chance, but this is more contemporary LitFic.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed this!

An introspective novel that explores second chances, family, and the complexities of returning to a life once abandoned. A heartfelt, reflective read.
Many thanks to Random House and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

first of all i want to thank netgalley, the author and the publisher for allowing me the arc of this book in exchange of a honest review.

i really like this book. i had to warm up to it a little bit, the beginning was a little slow, but i suppose it's representative of jj's slow process of waking up and adjusting to his new life. i understood perfectly how he felt when he needed to go back to his childhood home in his 30s, given that i experienced something similar - withouth the coma. it's difficult when you have to completely flip your life and adjust to the new normal, and i liked how the author portraied it.
i loved seeing jj settle into himself for the first time in his life and manage to mend the relationship with his family. and i loved that he decided to go after emil (i do have to ask, is emil's last name a house md reference? if so, i loved it) once his life was finally stable. i will definitely recommend this book for sure, even as someone who hates fish and sushi lol

I’m not sure what I expected when I picked up I Leave it Up to You by Jinwoo Chong, but I was utterly blown away following Jack Jr as he he is reintroduced to the world he left behind after a nearly 2 year coma. His story is one of love, loss, family, obligation, and desire. It feels like a sweet coming of age story…at 30 years old. There are things that are unclear and some things you never get answers on but it all works perfectly together to put yourself in Jack Jr’s shoes and really FEEL him and for him.

I absolutely loved this book and can’t recommend it enough.

Jack Jr. was engaged to Ren and life was good when he left to run an errand. Two years later he awoke from a coma and the world had changed. After a year of hoping that Jack would wake up, Ren moved on. Jack’s life in New York City, his job and his apartment are gone. He is finally released after weeks of therapy and returns to the home where he grew up. He now lives with his father and works for the family business that he walked away from years earlier. The family owns a restaurant that specializes in sushi. Jack learned his knife skills from his father and had been expected to take over the business. When he graduated high school, he felt that he wanted more from life and left for college. His brother James, who was never comfortable in the kitchen, stayed on to take over management responsibilities. Now that Jack is back there is a lot of resentment. Jinwoo Chong builds his story around family and its’ expectations. It is also a story of growth, forgiveness and coming home.

Emil Cuddy was Jack’s nurse for the two years that he was in a coma. He continues to offer his support and there are feelings that develop between them. When Cuddy is in a place where he needs Jack’s support he is let down. Jack also has a special relationship with his nephew Juno. Like Jack, Juno has been brought up in the business. His ambitions, however, lie elsewhere and his father James refuses to see that. While there is some sympathy for Jack and what he went through, he fails to see what his family endured during that time and how they still struggle. It takes a final confrontation between brothers to realize the importance of family. Along the way Chong will have you craving sushi as he describes the delights served at the family restaurant. I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House - Ballantine for providing this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC.

I Leave It Up to You is a spare novel that progresses at its own leisurely pace. It begins when the main character, Jack Jr., suddenly wakes from a two-year coma. He doesn’t remember the events that brought him to this hospital bed, and spends time trying to make sense of the life he steps back into after the coma and a decade before it when he had been out of touch with his family.

Jack Sr. owns a sushi restaurant in New Jersey, and has been working hard to make it through the downturn caused by a pandemic that Jack Jr. knows nothing about. Other family members, including a brother, nephew, and mother, have been working together at the restaurant and providing support for one another at home, but the adjustment they all are forced to endure after Jack Jr.’s miraculous recovery are both inconsequential and life-altering.

This book offers an intimate view of an average and particular Korean American family making their way in the Tri-state area, a community, and a newly returned son who is trying to build a life on a cloud of uncertainty. It is a difficult subject matter, but the book reads like a calm and gentle stream of thoughts that move the story along.

I recommend I Leave It Up to You.

What would you do after waking up from a two-year coma? No more apartment. No more job. No more partner. And the only people you can rely on are the family members you ghosted for a decade.

That's the premise of I Leave It Up to You by Jinwoo Chong. I received a free e-ARC to review.

Jack Jr. wakes up from a coma after 23 months. He has no memory of what happened or how the car he was driving managed to get itself into a terrible accident. But what he does remember is that he has a fiance and he doesn't want to see his family.

His family are the ones who show up.

While getting himself in shape physically, Jack also has to mend sibling rivalry issues between him and his older brother, come to terms with losing his partner, and figure out what he really wants in life. Go back to New York? Or stay with his family and take over the family restaurant? It wasn't what Jack wanted before, but maybe it is now.

This was a really interesting novel about the choices we make and the paths those choices lead us down. I enjoyed the family dynamics - kind of kooky but very loveable. Everyone seems to grow throughout the length of this novel. This book would be a good one for a book club discussion. It might also make you hungry!

I Leave It Up to You is published by Ballantine Books. I received a free e-ARC. It is available on bookstore shelves now.

I definitely enjoyed this book - it made you think about family ties and what we owe each other. It felt a little slow and repetitive at times but overall would definitely recommend

This one was a long haul for me, particularly because of how raw this is. This is the perfect slice of life if I have ever read one, and I love the modern-day setting, especially in a post-COVID world. Rediscovering yourself after setbacks in your adulthood is such a humbling and hard experience. Chong perfectly captured this, from feelings of anger, pity, and resentment to finally acceptance and a new form of happiness.

I Leave It Up to You is a beautifully crafted story that explore identity and human complexity with subtlety and grace. The writing is lyrical and immersive, pulling you into intimate moments.

This book made me immediately have to go and eat some sushi while reading. I thought this was such an interesting premise and I think it was done well. I do think that I just unfortunately came in with a bit of a chip on my shoulder as a nurse knowing how unlikely of a scenario this was. I could not shake that feeling as well that this man was able to completely wake up with no consequences of being in a coma for 23 months. It was also very heavy on COVID talk, something that I lived through as a nurse and would love to disassociate from. That being said, it was certainly full of heart and I did feel for our main character Jack Jr as he tries to navigate his life suddenly back with his family after waking up from the coma. It was quite sad and forlorn at times. I thought the writing was very well done, I just felt a bit too in my feels for this one when I read it. It's definitely a me thing, so take this review with a grain of salt. I do recommend if you enjoy slice of life books set in the very recently post COVID times. I do have to say I did learn quite a bit about sushi making as well, which is a plus.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced reader copy of this book. All opinions within this review are my own.

This was okay. I was ready to finish especially because it started to meander but I was also interested enough in the story to want to read to the end.

I also don’t mind modern day references being mentioned as long as the prose is strong enough but that wasn’t the case here. From TikTok to Sean Cody (yes you read that right), I lost count the amount of times I rolled my eyes. The writing isn’t horrible by any means just simple? Maybe that’s the wrong word…

Anyway I still really liked these characters and the premise was interesting. Now I’m hungry for sushi.

Thank you to NetGalley & Random House for the arc.

*I received a copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this opportunity*

Jack Jr. wakes up to a world he doesn't recognize. He no longer has a nice water-view apartment, the company he worked for has been bought and no longer exists, and nobody will tell him where his finance-- the man he was preparing to spend a life with-- has disappeared to. Suddenly thirty, he's back in his childhood home working at the restaurant he ran away from at eighteen; slicing fish with his father and waking up before dawn to finish the fish run with his (now practically grown) nephew.

This story will resonate with people; it's an examination on second chances, familial love and forgiveness, and the opportunity to re-discover yourself after a new awakening. However, it wasn't for me this time around.

This took me some time to get through but I thoroughly enjoyed it. My favorite character was Juno but I loved how they all leaned on one another and supported each other. It felt like a realistic dynamic that I found really interesting. This was like the opposite of the TJR book One True Loves where we see the partner waking up from an accident and trying to put the pieces of his life back together. It was his family that had his back and help him find his way again. This book was sweet and made me think about how people learn to move forward and find their truest self. Great read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc

I was in the minority of readership that actually liked the ambitious fever dream of a sci-fi debut that was Jinwoo Chong's Flux. This one, though, is SUCH a departure from Flux, I was pleasantly surprised and moved by the range of his narrative voice. This novel may be the most New Jersey novel I've ever read. Hear me out. We have a Korean-American family running a struggling sushi restaurant, in Fort Lee, which is to Koreans/Japanese as Edison is to Indians. We have deep pandemic repercussions, a prodical son of immigrants coming back home from "the city" to work at the family business, we have DIVORCED Asian parents who are NOT homophobic and NOT pressuring their kids into academic excellence, we have family SECRETS! I mean, if this isn't the story of the quintessential Asian American NJ/NY suburban family, figuring out how to coexist with everyone's agency intact, I don't know what is. There is so much that is so refreshing about this story. As I mentioned, this is a story where literally every character in the family has agency to fail and recover. The narrative isn't trying to commodify identity and making token exceptions for bilingualism and cultural gaps; specifically, the parent characters aren't caricatures of "immigrant parents" and are extremely active characters in the story not defined by simply being parents or Koreans. The protagonist has lost two years to a coma, during which the world was changed by Covid, the life he made for himself by leaving home and going across the river is as lost to him as the fiancee who waited for him to wake until he couldn't wait anymore. What in any other novel with similar themes would be framed as a bleak defeat and return to to square one, is treated as a recalibration and reminder of what we come from, are made of and how to reclaim the most fundamental parts of who we are and makes us happy. This story liberates every cross section of minority identity to make mistakes, have seemingly insurmountable setbacks and heartbreaks, and just be broken and hurt and be taken care of until we're ready to look ahead with fresh new eyes. I cannot tell you what a breath of fresh air it is when in Anerican society, immigrants, children of immigrants, and especially queer children of immigrants are burdened by default with expectations of excellence as the only way to exist. This may be one of the most hopeful books I have read in a while.

With themes on grief, longing, and second chances, this book will tug at your heartstrings, shed a tear, and laugh unexpectedly. I gravitate toward books with complicated family dynamics, and the author depicts this Korean American family with finesse. Make sure you read when you're already full or else you will become absolutely ravenous at the descriptions of sushi and Korean food.

A bit of a slow start but after about the quarter way mark, I was hooked. I loved the family group dynamic, the one-on-one relationships, and even the romance (despite the unethical mess of it). This was both heart-wrenching and heart-warming. Also - I immediately need some high-quality sushi.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC copy.

You want a slice of life? Here's a slice of life for you. Jack Jr. has just woken up from a two year coma and has to face the reality that he had been avoiding since he was a teenager--more specifically, his family.

This was a fast read thanks to the engaging narrative that always seemed to capture the tone of the moment so well. Kudos to the author for being able to convey the emotion within the narrative, while also having a delicate touch with the dialogue and structuring.


The setting of the lives and culture of a low/middle-class Asian family really keep the story moving, as Jack Jr. navigates his way through their relationships and differences. I enjoyed the rest of the characters immensely and wanted to continue to learn more about them and cheer for them throughout the book.

The pacing of the book was nice and succinct, though I think there are moments where it feels like some things are brushed over too quickly. Perhaps the weakest part was Jack Jr. himself. He's a wry narrator with attitude and quips, but it feels like we don't get a lot of substance or insight from him other than the occasional wise observation. I felt like we were missing out on highlighting the contrast of his ideologies and lifestyle choices with his family's, which is at its core one of the catalysts of his personality.

Nonetheless, a book I really enjoyed. Would recommend for those who are interested in a fun slice of life novel with some family drama and touching moments.

JJ wakes up from a two-year coma in a world that has changed drastically. He has to learn to re-navigate a post-Covid world where relationships and everyday life as he knew them are something completely different.

This book has been sitting on my shelf for a while and I regret not reading it sooner! And, it’s a queer story with a sweet/happy ending for all characters and features a Korean family with plenty of mentions of kimchi-jjigae so of course I ended up loving it! I enjoyed JJ and his nephew Juno’s characters. The writer nailed the dialogue for me and at times I was laughing out loud. I loved the interwoven familial stories and how it’s not just a story about one guy waking up from a coma but the entire family and its undertakings, and how everyone is affected.

JJ’s dad owns a Japanese/Korean sushi restaurant and no spoilers here, eventually JJ works there with him. A detail that really sealed the deal for me was the book’s title. I wondered the entire book what the title meant/referenced and it wasn’t until the end when I pieced things together did I get it.