Flashlight
Flashlight by Susan Choi is one of 2026's most credible books, appearing on 2 of the year's most respected lists, including The Economist, The Guardian, for a Consensus Score of 34 out of 100.
Appears on these lists
Our take
AI-draftedThe disappearance at the center of this novel, a father and daughter's beach walk that ends with her half-drowned and him gone, is almost a red herring: Choi is far less interested in solving it than in unspooling the family it happened to, a Korean man raised in occupied Japan, his wife facing early-onset MS, and the daughter left with an unresolved wound. The book ranges unusually wide for Choi, crossing continents and decades in a way her earlier, tighter academic novels didn't attempt, and the ending lands with real force. But the scope comes at a cost: stretches of exposition sit next to genuinely immersive scenes, and the ambition occasionally outpaces the control.
In the press
“A major world writer . . . Choi is in thrilling command”
Dwight Garner, The New York Times
How the Consensus Score is calculated
Our Consensus Score is our own transparent editorial metric — not a user rating. It weighs each list by the credibility of its source, how recent the listing is, and any award status. Here is the full breakdown.
| Source | Authority | Recency | Award | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Economist | 0.95 | 0.85 | 1.00× | 0.81 |
| The Guardian | 0.85 | 0.85 | 1.00× | 0.72 |
| Weighted sum → Score | 1.53 → 34 | |||
Similar consensus books
Because they appear on some of the same lists.
Frequently asked
What lists is Flashlight on?
Flashlight appears on 2 lists in our 2026 corpus, including The Economist, The Guardian.
What is its Consensus Score?
Flashlight has a Consensus Score of 34 out of 100, our transparent editorial measure of how many credible lists agree on it.