Mother Knows Best

On her first day of college lectures, Chloe Jiang's phone floods with texts from her mother, who knows her exact screen time and even that she has just ordered spicy noodles. When the professor's phone rings on speaker, the whole hall hears her mother demand the phone be confiscated. A thousand miles away, her mother still counts down the minutes until Chloe cancels her lunch order.

Since the divorce when Chloe was twelve, her mother has scripted every hour of her life, and Chloe learned that only her mother's feelings matter. A refund from a harassed noodle-shop owner and a hidden monitoring app prove the control follows her across the country. Yet the spyware may also be leverage: if she stops using the phone, she can act freely.

With her roommates' help, Chloe begins testing the edges of that cage.