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challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It’s an entire book of lyrical up is down
“[…] carving out miles upon miles of my tunnel of imagination, I’d succeeded at making a break into his, creating a flow of secret knowledge between us. No one knew him like I did. This was no collaboration; this was collusion.”
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
obsession over a K-pop star is not a religion I will be subscribing to
Told in two threads - the MC’s point of view, and the fan fiction stories she writes - we follow a 29yo Korean American as she falls head first into extreme infatuation with a K-Pop singer called Moon. But this isn’t your average hyperfixation, parasocial social relationship or crus. (At least I hope not!!)
I was warned this one wasn’t great, and I can’t bring myself to finish the last 82 pages, as it’s just getting worse and worse. Slide 2 is the only summary you really need, but…
At the start I could overlook the weird writing style for the intriguing glimpse into the mind of hardcore fans (“𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘯𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥. 𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘶𝘯𝘢, 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴.”) but the characters rapidly became more and more nonsensical, and even at a sentence level it seems to break down. I guess if I had made it to the end I might discover the two threads are actually one or something…. Who knows, the whole first half was like a weirdly robotic fever dream. We had band mates eating each other’s cuticles early doors, so it might go in any direction.
Someone on goodreads described it as a biblically accurate representation of a fan fiction reader with a thesaurus (1*), and another as ‘each sentence having at least two conversations going on at the same time’ (5*) - so regardless if you love or hate this one, no one seems to know what the point was 😅
Recommend Idol Burning as a better look at K/J-Pop stan culture.
Popsugar reading challenge: A book about K-pop
A 2.5 - 3 star read that I’m bumping up to 4 because that average score has me in a silly goofy mood.
Exceedingly weird novella that has a strong narrator voice I’ll give it that. A ‘so purple it’s indigo’ kinda voice but in the age of ChatGPT novels written to market I value distinctive prose even more these days.
Also one of those novels that feels like trying to remember a dream or hold on to cotton candy underwater. There were times I wish the author would use more spare prose and other times I felt like the overly mannered writing style helped give it some sort of substance that a reader could cling on to.
And yeah so … it’s about kpop. But it’s really about how fandom can fill you up with love but also harshly expose all the areas in your life that make you feel lonely and worthless. And just based on my own experience kpop is one of the best possible vehicles for that theme. Kpop offers you the joy of enjoying music and choreo along with countless people at the same time. It involves people stanning corporations and keeping up with CEO’s stock portfolios. It means the elation of a first time music show win or a concert where you’re sure your particular city will be especially beloved by your fave idols. It means feeling heard and scene by songs and music videos created in board rooms to target your depression.
Throughout the book the main character is constantly cycling through this love/despair. Also that constant undertone of “aren’t you really a little too old for this?” self loathing. She twists herself into knots to convince herself it’s something greater and worse than it actually is.
Anyway, an overwritten fever dream of a tale. It’s not that good but it’s also kinda amazing. And that’s nothing if not a great descriptor for some of my favorite guilty pleasure kpop songs.
A 2.5 - 3 star read that I’m bumping up to 4 because that average score has me in a silly goofy mood.
Exceedingly weird novella that has a strong narrator voice I’ll give it that. A ‘so purple it’s indigo’ kinda voice but in the age of ChatGPT novels written to market I value distinctive prose even more these days.
Also one of those novels that feels like trying to remember a dream or hold on to cotton candy underwater. There were times I wish the author would use more spare prose and other times I felt like the overly mannered writing style helped give it some sort of substance that a reader could cling on to.
And yeah so … it’s about kpop. But it’s really about how fandom can fill you up with love but also harshly expose all the areas in your life that make you feel lonely and worthless. And just based on my own experience kpop is one of the best possible vehicles for that theme. Kpop offers you the joy of enjoying music and choreo along with countless people at the same time. It involves people stanning corporations and keeping up with CEO’s stock portfolios. It means the elation of a first time music show win or a concert where you’re sure your particular city will be especially beloved by your fave idols. It means feeling heard and scene by songs and music videos created in board rooms to target your depression.
Throughout the book the main character is constantly cycling through this love/despair. Also that constant undertone of “aren’t you really a little too old for this?” self loathing. She twists herself into knots to convince herself it’s something greater and worse than it actually is.
Spoiler
My favorite moment by far is when she launches herself at Moon and tries to kiss him so hard he’ll believe that they share a special connection beyond anyone else or maybe that they’ll just have sex. And he says something like “Now why couldn’t you have just admitted from the beginning that this is what you wanted?” It reminded me of kpop dating scandals where people offended fans just can’t admit to feeling romantic jealousy. There’s always some noble reason for it; he should be paying attention to the music, his girlfriend is a creepy, he shouldn’t spend the money his fans give him on someone they don’t approve of, etc. It never rings true.Anyway, an overwritten fever dream of a tale. It’s not that good but it’s also kinda amazing. And that’s nothing if not a great descriptor for some of my favorite guilty pleasure kpop songs.
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I feel like I read this whole book but I still don’t know if anything happened. Also, there was so much pretentious language used that it really threw me off at the beginning
a lot of waffling going on here. probably intentional but still infuriating
like i understand that people make stylistic choices but i just didn’t like it and zoned out quite a bit
sad because i love stuff about fan culture
like i understand that people make stylistic choices but i just didn’t like it and zoned out quite a bit
sad because i love stuff about fan culture