Grief and trauma shake a family, especially when no clear reason, answer, or resolution can be found. In Flashlight, Choi explores various kinds of emotional, psychic, and physical wounds and how they affect a family unit. Told across various perspectives and across decades, Flashlight is a very intriguing novel. Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

At its heart, Flashlight is about family and all the things that can happen to it. In a broader way, it is about loss and how grief can warp your life. In a big way, however, Flashlight is about Korea's history, about what it meant and means to be Korean, to be a Korean in America, to be a Korean in Japan, to be either North or South Korean. This latter aspect of the novel was, in many ways, the most intriguing to me, as I know shamefully little about either Koreas and their history. As such, some parts of Flashlight felt like a history lesson, but one which is deeply tied to characterisation. In some ways, it reminded me of Han Kang's We Do Not Part, which also manages to intertwine historical and generational trauma with a character study that cuts deep. As a (half-)German, I have some experience with trying to confront and deal with the history of your country, in all its horror and complexity. The aftershocks of the Second World War and the Holocaust affected different parts of my family differently, and these sides cannot always be united into a single, coherent narrative. Both Han Kang and Susan Choi recognise the inherently fractured nature of family history and trauma and manage to display this through the fractured natures of their own narratives. Because of this, neither of their novels are always easy or straightforward reading, but they are interesting and relevant texts which will reveal something deeper to the reader if they work their way through.

I find it difficult to provide a straightforward blurb or "intro" to this novel, because it surprised me in many ways with how it was told and because that surprise is a big part of why the novel ended up working for me. This "surprise" is aided by the structure of the novel, which switches between different perspectives. We start with Louisa, who has lost her father in what seems like a freak accident and is now faced with a child psychologist. We then learn more about her mother, Anne, thereby also gaining an insight into the family history and her specific struggles. These perspectives also cover the family's move from the US to Japan and the beauty and difficuly a move such as that brings. The father, Serk's, perspective, is also given space, from his childhood in Japan to his own thoughts and challenges leading up to the accident. Other perspectives also come in as relevant. Through this hopping around, the reader gains a more complex understanding of the family, especially because many perspectives clash somewhat. How a daughter sees her mother is not how the mother sees herself, while the things a daughter does not know about her father echo constantly in the father's own mind. My view of the characters kept changing, which was a very interesting reading experience.

This is my first book by Susan Choi, although she has been on my radar since Trust Exercise, which I still haven't read. In Flashlight, as mentioned above, Choi strikes a fine balance between deep character studies and a broad historical narrative. I know a little about how the Second World War impacted Asia, the role Japan played in it all and how its occupation of especially China left deep scars. Korea's role in all of this was not as clear to me and therefore a lot of what Choi explores in this novel was new to me. It's not just this history she explores, but also the experience of immigration, of illness, of estrangement and love, and a certain sense of disconnection and displacement. I found myself gripped by the narrative from the beginning, in ways I didn't fully expect. One element I did somewhat struggle with, while appreciating it and understanding its purpose, is how the different narratives clash in certain ways. The relationship between Louisa and Anne is so complex and there are so many things which go unsaid between them that it made me want to scream at times. Neither one is fully to blame for this, but neither is blameless either. It makes for a rich reading experience, but also a frustrating one. Choi's writing is very rich, though, especially in her descriptions of settings, which utterly came alive for me. That felt especially crucial for Flashlight, as it moves around a variety of settings and each leaves its mark on the characters. I will definitely be looking for more books by Choi!

I needed some time to get into Flashlight but then found myself very intrigued by how its various perspectives and timejumps came together to tell the story of a family.

Phenomenal. Delighted to include this title in the June edition of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national lifestyle and culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

My first Susan Choi and it didn't disappoint. It reminded me a bit of Elif Shafak: she takes a topic of interest and then weaves an intricate plot with around it, criss-crossing continents, spanning decades, and at its heart an intriguing mystery.

'Flashlight' revolves around a dramatic event where little Luisa's father, an American immigrant of mixed Korean-Japanese descent, disappears on a beach in Japan. It is assumed he drowned but his body is never found. All kinds of subplots keep the reader guessing what on earth has happened, and in the process we learn more about Japanese-Korean post-war relations.

It works well on audio too as it is plot-based.

if a book is long and character-driven, there's a 90% chance i'll like it. but that's just one of the many reasons why i was blown away by this one.

susan choi's works can be polarizing, but i always find myself entranced by the intelligence and unflinching reality of her writing. in flashlight, as in her others, she brilliantly chronicles hard-to-like characters as they come up against the hard to imagine. choi is so skilled at writing wrongdoing, and the people that populate her novels are almost breathtaking in their flaws — selfishness, bravado, self-centering and victimization abound here. families resent each other, become each other. and yet you so clearly see the impossibility of their lives, the contradictions they face, the walls they build to inure themselves against them, that you can only feel heartbreaking sympathy.

on top of all of that, this has a sneaking plot, a suspense that creeps up, hushed, in what seems on the surface to be simply a very well-done character-driven novel but reveals itself suddenly doubled.

anyway. i thought it was excellent.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I am posting this review several weeks after the book has already been released, because even though I started reading it before it came out, it took me quite a while to get through it. The book was very long, and it definitely dragged in parts, but ultimately I did enjoy it. The character development was very well done. The characters of Anne, Serk, and Louisa were really well fleshed out, and each of them felt like real (albeit flawed) people. I felt truly invested in finding out what truly happened to Serk on the night of his disappearance. It was fascinating to learn about ethnic Koreans in Japan, as well as the camps in North Korea.

Susan Choi is a gifted storyteller!

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

A fascinating fictionalized true story of the unknown (to me at least) story of North Korea’s kidnappings of the 70s, told through the multi-perspective lens of family ties and trauma. Beautiful but sometimes convoluted prose, a slow first half, but I enjoyed it!

This one lives up to the hype! This is my first time reading Choi’s work and it did not disappoint. Thank you to FSG for the advanced copy to read and review!

FLASHLIGHT changes narrators throughout its story, and reading each person’s vignette made the tale that much richer. An intergenerational story of family ties, tragedy and forgiveness, Choi’s writing is beautiful. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t read it yet, but I definitely wasn’t expecting the twist although I was so happy that’s where it went.

The characters of Serk and Anne were my favorites. Two parents from different backgrounds searching for understanding in one another. Each of their personalities and character traits were so carefully constructed, and at times polarizing. They’re foils for one another and Choi crafts them masterfully.

ALSO, this cover is amazing! Kudos to its designer as it really catches the eye and sets the scene for the novel itself.

This book takes a while to wind up and probably didn't need to be quite as long, but overall, I really enjoyed it. Louisa's father Serk dies when she is young, and it's a tear in their family that never quite heals. We go back and forth between different time periods and different characters: Serk as a Korean child in Japan after his family left Korea due to war and poverty, Serk meeting and marrying his American wife Anne and settling in Michigan, Serk, Anne, and Louisa spending time in Japan (where Serk ultimately dies), Louisa and Anne trying to live as a family after the fact, years and decades later. It's hard to say anything else about the premise without giving too much away - this is essentially an expansive family drama.

Like Trust Exercise, this book is somewhat about how we all can experience and remember the same events in different ways and perspective is everything. Louisa isn't really sure what happened on the night her father disappeared, and throughout the book we get more details about what happened and make sense of it. But this is also a study of family and identity: Serk struggles with being both Korean and Japanese, Louisa struggles with connecting with either of her parents and feels both too white and not white enough, and Anne doesn't understand her husband or daughter basically at all. They orbit each other but can't quite make sense of each other, and it's fascinating and feels true. Choi's writing is magnificent: I never felt jolted between perspectives even though there was a lot of jumping around because I felt immersed in each character's brain almost immediately. I found this book moving and interesting and profound.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!

I have to be honest, I didn't finish this book and might go back and finish, but it was a struggle to get through. There is good character development, but I didn't like the sadistic natural of the daughter character. I also found the characters hard to keep track of and the transitions hard to follow. Also this was a slow paced story, I am a person who perfers a fast paced read. This is what I expect when I pick up a family drama. I am not familar with the geography and policitcal issues of the time. I know some readers would enjoy google this stuff, but not me. When I read it is to relax and escape into to a story.

I featured Flashlight in my June 2025 new releases video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q31xhbo1tE, and though I have not read it yet, I am so excited to and expect 5 stars! I will update here when I post a follow up review or vlog.

I received and eARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a character driven multigenerational story, which I love but, man was it LONG.

The book jumps between characters during different points in their life: Anne, the wild child turned wife with MS who had illegitimate child, lost her husband, suddenly and tragically, lost her great love, and hardly held onto her daughter, Louisa.
Louisa, who had a strained relationship with her mother very early on, was a volatile but brilliant child, and a college dropout who ended up with multiple kids of her own.
Serk, Louisa’s dad and Anne’s husband. A Korean man born in Japan who immigrated to America and went back to Japan for teaching. While in Japan it was believed that he drowned, but was actually kidnapped by Korean spies.
Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son who survived brain tumor and now shows up periodically in Anne and Louisa’s life looking like a homeless man just getting by.
In addition, there are other minor characters who have their own chapters which end up intertwined with the main characters mentioned.

Overall, it was good, but I feel like there were parts of it that were incredibly unclear and left for you to figure out on your own. A lot of stories left untied. All the stories left untied. I simultaneously just wanted more than I got and less than I got.

I loved this book!! I found it riveting and compelling, and I was thrilled -- rather than bothered -- that I could never quite tell where the narrative was going to take me next. The twist around the 75% mark is truly one of the most exciting things I've read all year, and though I didn't totally click into what the ending was trying to do (it felt a little fast, and I might have expected yet another surprise or frustration there), I would unreservedly recommend this to pretty much any reader. If you have a particular interest in historical fiction or are especially pleased by sharp, clever prose, don't miss this one.

Ugh I loved this. A deep dive on a family over the course of decades. It broke my heart a thousand times. Little bread crumbs very cleverly spread out throughout to build a devastating picture.

Susan Choi's writing in Flashlight is thoughtful and elegant, but also a bit dense, making a long ish book feel longer. I struggled to get invested in the story, though I did want to know how everything came together.

I truly enjoyed this novel. The story was so informative as well as enjoyable and emotional. I knew little about the Korean-Japanese relationship which is highlighted in this novel in so much detail. I felt so ignorant not to have know about how Korea became a split nation. It shocked and intrigued me simultaneously. Especially, since the characters, Louise, Anne and Seok, were written with so much depth - with childlike arrogance, generational trauma, dreams… it is a great depiction of people as shaped by their times and surroundings. I just wish I had not found them all to be rather unlikeable people, well except Anne, for whom I felt sorry especially due to the way in which Louisa treats her.
The propaganda present throughout most of the narrative is spine-chilling. The move back to North Korea,
Over the course of the novel however, my interest, mixed with annoyance. Louisa is a rather unkind person and while of course this makes her interesting, she bothered me. Furthermore, many chapters were a bit too long for me. They simply could’ve been reduced to a bit more streamlined sentences and trains of thought.

“𝘏𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴, 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯’𝘵 𝘢𝘥𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦, 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴, 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨? 𝘋𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵?”

Massive thanks you’s to FSG Books and Macmillan Audio for the advanced readers copies via NetGalley! 3.75 rounded up to 4.

So, I actually had not read Choi prior to this one so I didn’t know what to expect in terms of writing style but regardless it very easily made its way high up on my anticipation list, especially when others started reading and reviewing and raving!

We are given a multi-layered, character-driven story with a handful of POVs that unravel across timelines and continents the lives of a mixed race family. It’s lengthier, well over 450 pages and nearly 17 hours via audio, so if you’re expecting something quick and clean cut you won’t find that here. The flow was different for me, not bad but sometimes felt abrupt as we bounced back and forth between long POVs and timelines. It doesn’t unfold as linear as I expected and for a large chunk we jump forward beyond the disappearance of Serk and Louisa’s near-drowning, which for me drew me away from that mystery, but fortunately we do revisit it before the book concludes.

This is a hard one to give a review for as I know I’ll have to reread to catch all the details, connections, parallels, allusions, and more. I had done the audio but should I reread I’ll do a physical/ebook. Is it longer than it could have been? Probably, but there’s also something stunning, even haunting, about it. Perhaps it’s because it is inspired by real life events. If you enjoy character-driven, multiple POVs, multicultural family drama, then this is one you should pick up. Content includes racism, some profanity, references to domestic disputes, chronic illness, and a brief, invasive examination.

Susan Choi is a master of language and stories that you follow blindly, but trusting. As a fan of her previous work Trust Exercise, which was fairly concise, I was surprised to experience this longer work that was larger in scope and subject matter. Language and sentences were dense and long at times, requiring all of a reader's attention and mindshare. The reading experience was taxing due to the subject matter and density, but ultimately rewarding. Thank you to FSG for access to this ARC!

Thank you Netgalley for the copy of the ARC. All views and opinions in this review are my own.

“Flashlight” was a poignant family drama with Louisa, a Korean-American girl, coming to terms with her father’s disappearance during an incident on the beach when she was spending her childhood in Japan. The author has a unique way of letting the story unfold. Of course there are flashbacks, but the author uses each chapter to focus on the POV of a different character, such that the story isn’t just Louisa’s, but also Serk’s and Anne’s and Tobias’. I did find some characters’ stories more interesting than the others, particularly Serk’s and Anne’s. If you enjoyed books like “Pachinko” and “The Sympathizer”, then this one is for you.

Flashlight follows a complex narrative that intertwines personal trauma, historical upheaval, and the haunting effects of memory. Set against the backdrop of real historical events, the novel begins with a compelling mystery and gradually unravels a story of tangled relationships, loss, and survival. As the timeline jumps across decades, we’re drawn into the lives of these characters.

What I loved most was the story itself: gripping, emotionally charged, and rich with historical depth. The mystery element was woven in subtly, keeping me invested as more was revealed. Choi’s writing shines when it comes to atmosphere and emotional detail, her descriptions are immersive without being overindulgent.

However, the novel at times felt like two books stitched together. One storyline in particular didn’t feel necessary, and its inclusion disrupted the otherwise tight pacing. The characters, though three-dimensional and vividly drawn, often lacked clear motivation or backstory. Louisa, especially, remained enigmatic in a way that felt more confusing than intentional.

The time jumps were also a challenge. With each leap, characters seemed to shift so drastically that it became hard to stay emotionally connected. A character who reappears late in the novel (after a long absence and another significant time shift) felt more like a distraction than a payoff. By the time he returned, I had already stopped caring about his arc. And while the writing was beautiful overall, a few passages felt clunky or repetitive, disrupting the flow.

Still, The Flashlight is a compelling read with memorable scenes and haunting insights. but I wish its structure had served the readers more.

I was a big fan of Susan Choi's Trust Exercise, excited about her next novel. Flashlight was captivating.

Louisa's father Serk disappears off the coast of Japan when she's young. While this pivotal event defines her, the novel spends time with both parents in their before times, leading up to the scene. We understand the family from multiple perspectives, and over multiple time jumps. Flashlight is a very deep, very rich, family story that plays with memory, identity, and relationships. It plays across continents and across politics - Serk was a Korean born in Japan during the Japanese occupation of Korea. That complicated history is woven throughout the novel. Equally compelling is Anne's story, the American mother of Louisa with her own complicated past.

Choi's prose is dense and Flashlight is a long, slow burn. It goes in unexpected directions, and trusts the reader to follow along (not a lot of hand holding is offered across the time jumps). I was drawn into the world of Flashlight, and it will linger.

My thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the Advance Reader Copy. (pub date 6/3/2025)