Review: Short story: "Back to You" by Ann Liang

Back to You by Ann Liang
Published June 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

Allison has done all the "right" things—competitive degree, high grades, prestigious job...and she's miserable. And maybe she wouldn't act upon that, but then there's a little incident with a late-night snack, and suddenly she finds herself with a chance to redo things...

I've read a few of Liang's novels, so it was interesting to pick up this short story for a change. For a moment I thought the book would be adult fiction, as, when the book opens, Allison is working her first job out of college...but then we got back into a more YA feel. It has a bit of a sliding-doors sense, or at least a do-over sense.

One quibble: Allison never really questions her do-over. This makes some sense in a short story (there's only so much room to figure out what might happen if two different timelines), but as someone who really loves a sliding-doors story (or, for that matter, a do-over story!), I would have liked to read something longer with this same premise. What if she had to choose? What if she didn't have to choose, but she did have to give up things she loved? What if her do-over were more temporary? Still cute, but I'd be really curious to see a longer-form version.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.