Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Jason is annoying af and I don’t see any chemistry between them. He constantly gives off fboy vibes that might be intentional by the author but the story kept me hooked
Wow! This was GOOD! Especially since the author was a former KPop star. I’m ready to slap the antagonist, which was truly the whole DB organization!!! Can’t wait for book two!!!
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Maybe the goodread reviews really lowered my expectations but I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. I haven't read any kpop themed books before this one.
Some of the lines did remind me of Disney Channel music themed movies/TV shows but as a whole I think Jessica made the story very unique. And then of course added enjoyment is trying to figure out how much is real. I'd love to read a memoir by Jessica but of course pesky ndas. Can't wait to read Bright.
Some of the lines did remind me of Disney Channel music themed movies/TV shows but as a whole I think Jessica made the story very unique. And then of course added enjoyment is trying to figure out how much is real. I'd love to read a memoir by Jessica but of course pesky ndas. Can't wait to read Bright.
Shine is a typical tropey YA story in a Kpop setting. I've read a handful of YA contemporary novels and I can say that it reads almost the same. The family drama. The teen angst. The girl-on-girl hate. Etcetera. Not that it's a bad thing but it's quite dismaying on my part as a reader. I mean my expectation for this book is not that high but I expected something new to the table especially with that Kpop theme/setting.
Anyway, I still like this book and I enjoy reading it. It's a quick read. Thanks to Jung's good prose and writing style. And the Kpop setting and theme is still one of the strong points of this book. Through this book, I witness the beauty and the ugly of this industry. It may not be really the truth about Kpop but since it's Jessica Jung, a Kpop superstar, it maybe as well. It is somehow amusing and scary at the same time.
I like the talk about feminism, sexism and double standard on this book. It wasn't an in-depth discussion but these issues has been acknowledged and recognized by the characters. It was sad and enraging reading the unfair treatment towards women.
There are a lot of things I still liked about this book despite the disappointment. The friendship, the family dynamics, the banters and the genuine Kpop feel of the whole novel.
I'm not really a Kpop fan before, I only like 2ne1. But now, because of watching Kpop Random Play Dances on Youtube, I really appreciate the music and the artists. Shine just amplify my respect with these Kpop artists as I learned more about the hardships and struggles they are constantly facing just to debut and reach their dreams.
I will probably read the sequel when it comes out.
Anyway, I still like this book and I enjoy reading it. It's a quick read. Thanks to Jung's good prose and writing style. And the Kpop setting and theme is still one of the strong points of this book. Through this book, I witness the beauty and the ugly of this industry. It may not be really the truth about Kpop but since it's Jessica Jung, a Kpop superstar, it maybe as well. It is somehow amusing and scary at the same time.
I like the talk about feminism, sexism and double standard on this book. It wasn't an in-depth discussion but these issues has been acknowledged and recognized by the characters. It was sad and enraging reading the unfair treatment towards women.
There are a lot of things I still liked about this book despite the disappointment. The friendship, the family dynamics, the banters and the genuine Kpop feel of the whole novel.
I'm not really a Kpop fan before, I only like 2ne1. But now, because of watching Kpop Random Play Dances on Youtube, I really appreciate the music and the artists. Shine just amplify my respect with these Kpop artists as I learned more about the hardships and struggles they are constantly facing just to debut and reach their dreams.
I will probably read the sequel when it comes out.
shine review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️
•
This review will have spoilers! So I really enjoyed this book! After the reading slump I went through, I really wanted to take a step back from fantasy and read something light and this was perfect for that.
Although I found the writing quite cliched and predictable at times, the story was incredibly interesting to read. I’ve been a kpop fan for the past 3 years so I’ve heard a lot about the issues of the entire industry and this really explored the double standards they have, how badly the artists and trainees, especially the girls, are treated by the companies (I’ve seen video plenty of times of the artist collapsing from how much they’re overworked) and we see this in the book with Rachel and how the company tries to mould her into perfection and control everything about her life and not really caring for her well-being at all.
One thing I didn’t like was the continuous animosity between Rachel and Mina - I get that there was competition between them but at the same time I’m so tired of the girls hating on each other trope, it’s so exhausting when in fact the true villains were the men in power. Rachel and Mina had so much in common and they both suffered from similar problems in the industry, I didn’t understand the ending either where Mina and Rachel were in the same group and Mina is threatening Rachel with a video of her that she could leak when - in fact - that could harm Mina as well since they’re in the same group??? And tbh, groups only work amazingly well when the group all gets along together like bts who are all best friends before bandmates and coworkers.
Anyways ⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me, I really enjoyed it and can’t wait for the next book next year.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
•
This review will have spoilers! So I really enjoyed this book! After the reading slump I went through, I really wanted to take a step back from fantasy and read something light and this was perfect for that.
Although I found the writing quite cliched and predictable at times, the story was incredibly interesting to read. I’ve been a kpop fan for the past 3 years so I’ve heard a lot about the issues of the entire industry and this really explored the double standards they have, how badly the artists and trainees, especially the girls, are treated by the companies (I’ve seen video plenty of times of the artist collapsing from how much they’re overworked) and we see this in the book with Rachel and how the company tries to mould her into perfection and control everything about her life and not really caring for her well-being at all.
One thing I didn’t like was the continuous animosity between Rachel and Mina - I get that there was competition between them but at the same time I’m so tired of the girls hating on each other trope, it’s so exhausting when in fact the true villains were the men in power. Rachel and Mina had so much in common and they both suffered from similar problems in the industry, I didn’t understand the ending either where Mina and Rachel were in the same group and Mina is threatening Rachel with a video of her that she could leak when - in fact - that could harm Mina as well since they’re in the same group??? And tbh, groups only work amazingly well when the group all gets along together like bts who are all best friends before bandmates and coworkers.
Anyways ⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me, I really enjoyed it and can’t wait for the next book next year.
As Goodreads only works with full stars, I had to choose between upgrading to 4 or downgrading to 3. So why did "Shine" go from 3.5 to 4?
Almost three quarters into the book, I found a copy of "Bright", the second book by Jung, and it confirmed my gut feeling that "Shine" is the better book. The romance bits are the lesser parts of the book (partially more acceptable because of the main character's age) but overall, this book has enough background to get a better look behind the scenes of the kpop industry. Fans and stans seem to overlook how toxic the kpop fandom can be (e.g. the reactions to the videos in "Shine"), haters ignore the hardship of the road to stardom (including the forced and often unhealthy diets).
As a former member of Girls Generation (for the non-initiated: a kpop sensation who had a major part in getting Korean pop to the hype it is now), Jessica Jung knows all about the struggle to fame from first-hand experience and, partially presented as a roman à clef, "Shine" is definitely not a sugar-coated glimpse into the industry. Rumour - omnipresent in the kpop world - has it that Jung left the band because she wasn't allowed to spend more time on her fashion brand and in successor "Bright" our main character Rachel Kim also wants to branch out to fashion. Yet this is why I think "Shine" is the better book: it serves as a better portrait of the industry where the artists are the puppets that allow the companies to become even richer, where the class structure is very much alive, where girls get treated less than than the male talent, ...
In order to promote "Shine", the words 'kpop' and 'young adult' were (over)used to make the target audience heard of Jessica Jung's debut, but in my opinion the book has enough power to give anyone a peek into the industry. As long as that reader doesn't mind dealing with two things. Firstly, the book is written from the perspective of a teenage trainee. Rachel makes mistakes and while Jung may perhaps regret certain decisions - bearing in mind this is a roman à clef - "Shine" doesn't feature a narrator telling you Rachel messed up. Secondly, certain words will be familiar to anyone who's ever watched a kdrama or kpop documentaries but less so to those I called the non-initiated before. Sure, search engines will bring you upto speed within a second but lots of book lovers don't like to interrupt their reading experience to find out the meaning of a word. I'm not sure a glossary at the end would have improved this (and to be honest, a 2022 reader may also struggle with 1950s slang in some classics, so why should a YA kpop novel be different?) and I'm afraid I'm too aware of most of those words to be a judge on whether or not this may distract certain readers. (Other things just aren't explained at all. One subtle example is how the characters are named. Perhaps you're aware that in Asia people mention their family name first. "Shine" never misses a beat in calling its main characters Rachel Kim, Jason Lee and Choo Mina and it's a subtle nod to how some people don't see the Korean-American Rachel as a "real" Korean.)
In the end, I do think "Shine" has the potential to reach more readers than just the target audience. Whether or not they then proceed to "Bright" remains a question I don't feel like answering, especially as I myself haven't decided on buying the second book. There is a gigantic build-up to how Rachel managed to become part of a band (which isn't a spoiler but the premise) and the last bit (i.e. Rachel being part of a band) seems rushed and overlooked. The last chapter seems to function as the initial marketing for the second book. Sure, it's Jung teasing us to read on and buy "Bright" but "Shine" seems to have been robbed of a good ending, instead using the final pages as a cheap excuse to have Rachel say she wouldn't miss an opportunity to... (drum rolls)... shine.
Almost three quarters into the book, I found a copy of "Bright", the second book by Jung, and it confirmed my gut feeling that "Shine" is the better book. The romance bits are the lesser parts of the book (partially more acceptable because of the main character's age) but overall, this book has enough background to get a better look behind the scenes of the kpop industry. Fans and stans seem to overlook how toxic the kpop fandom can be (e.g. the reactions to the videos in "Shine"), haters ignore the hardship of the road to stardom (including the forced and often unhealthy diets).
As a former member of Girls Generation (for the non-initiated: a kpop sensation who had a major part in getting Korean pop to the hype it is now), Jessica Jung knows all about the struggle to fame from first-hand experience and, partially presented as a roman à clef, "Shine" is definitely not a sugar-coated glimpse into the industry. Rumour - omnipresent in the kpop world - has it that Jung left the band because she wasn't allowed to spend more time on her fashion brand and in successor "Bright" our main character Rachel Kim also wants to branch out to fashion. Yet this is why I think "Shine" is the better book: it serves as a better portrait of the industry where the artists are the puppets that allow the companies to become even richer, where the class structure is very much alive, where girls get treated less than than the male talent, ...
In order to promote "Shine", the words 'kpop' and 'young adult' were (over)used to make the target audience heard of Jessica Jung's debut, but in my opinion the book has enough power to give anyone a peek into the industry. As long as that reader doesn't mind dealing with two things. Firstly, the book is written from the perspective of a teenage trainee. Rachel makes mistakes and while Jung may perhaps regret certain decisions - bearing in mind this is a roman à clef - "Shine" doesn't feature a narrator telling you Rachel messed up. Secondly, certain words will be familiar to anyone who's ever watched a kdrama or kpop documentaries but less so to those I called the non-initiated before. Sure, search engines will bring you upto speed within a second but lots of book lovers don't like to interrupt their reading experience to find out the meaning of a word. I'm not sure a glossary at the end would have improved this (and to be honest, a 2022 reader may also struggle with 1950s slang in some classics, so why should a YA kpop novel be different?) and I'm afraid I'm too aware of most of those words to be a judge on whether or not this may distract certain readers. (Other things just aren't explained at all. One subtle example is how the characters are named. Perhaps you're aware that in Asia people mention their family name first. "Shine" never misses a beat in calling its main characters Rachel Kim, Jason Lee and Choo Mina and it's a subtle nod to how some people don't see the Korean-American Rachel as a "real" Korean.)
In the end, I do think "Shine" has the potential to reach more readers than just the target audience. Whether or not they then proceed to "Bright" remains a question I don't feel like answering, especially as I myself haven't decided on buying the second book. There is a gigantic build-up to how Rachel managed to become part of a band (which isn't a spoiler but the premise) and the last bit (i.e. Rachel being part of a band) seems rushed and overlooked. The last chapter seems to function as the initial marketing for the second book. Sure, it's Jung teasing us to read on and buy "Bright" but "Shine" seems to have been robbed of a good ending, instead using the final pages as a cheap excuse to have Rachel say she wouldn't miss an opportunity to... (drum rolls)... shine.
Let me preface this review by saying I don't think Jessica actually wrote this book and this book was created to jump on the k-pop bandwagon and use Jessica to create some buzz (nothing against this, clearly it worked because I'm writing a review right now).
Overall, a lot of the parts of the book felt very exaggerated. It reminds me of those articles or posts written by people who don't know anything about k-pop and decide to focus on clickbait stuff like "omg they all look the same! they are so manufactured that they're practically robots!" This book feels like the author just heard a bit about the intense trainee system and forbidden dating but decided to crank up those elements up to 11 w/o doing any research. This is where I think it was a mistake to lean a little too hard on the Jesscia Jung-inspiration PR because everyone is going to think it's based on her experiences at SM. Everyone is going to think DB is SM entertainment but there is no way SM would allow one of their it boys to be running around with pre-debut trainees and using them to create buzz lmfao. Like yeah they might have had groups name drop trainees before but no way would they
On the note of dating, I was so disappointed that the book spent so much time on Jason. First, I would have preferred to hear more about Rachel's trainee experience (which felt more realistic than the rest of the book). Second, Jason was so boring (and dumb)! I ended up fast forwarding through his scenes because it just didn't add anything. The author set up Jason as a douchebag at the beginning and tried to redeem him as a "not like other guys, tortured artist" kind of guy but ugh he added nothing to the plot besides being there to cause more difficulty for Rachel.
I also ended up skipping through the stuff with her high school friends. Just extra fluff. I mean, it's a YA book so I get it but yeah, that stuff was boring. Would have preferred more Akari. And if there's a sequel (which I don't think is needed but will probably happen), I hope at least one of her members is friends or nice to her because those girls were so mean lol.
Other random thoughts:
- what was the meaning behind Mina wearing Mr. Han's watch?
- what is the whole deal with Mina's dad?
- if anything, Kang Jina reminded me the most of Jessica. Girl is kicked out of the company for dating but they hide about her wanting to end her contract...
Overall, a lot of the parts of the book felt very exaggerated. It reminds me of those articles or posts written by people who don't know anything about k-pop and decide to focus on clickbait stuff like "omg they all look the same! they are so manufactured that they're practically robots!" This book feels like the author just heard a bit about the intense trainee system and forbidden dating but decided to crank up those elements up to 11 w/o doing any research. This is where I think it was a mistake to lean a little too hard on the Jesscia Jung-inspiration PR because everyone is going to think it's based on her experiences at SM. Everyone is going to think DB is SM entertainment but there is no way SM would allow one of their it boys to be running around with pre-debut trainees and using them to create buzz lmfao. Like yeah they might have had groups name drop trainees before but no way would they
Spoiler
fabricate a love triangle.On the note of dating, I was so disappointed that the book spent so much time on Jason. First, I would have preferred to hear more about Rachel's trainee experience (which felt more realistic than the rest of the book). Second, Jason was so boring (and dumb)! I ended up fast forwarding through his scenes because it just didn't add anything. The author set up Jason as a douchebag at the beginning and tried to redeem him as a "not like other guys, tortured artist" kind of guy but ugh he added nothing to the plot besides being there to cause more difficulty for Rachel.
I also ended up skipping through the stuff with her high school friends. Just extra fluff. I mean, it's a YA book so I get it but yeah, that stuff was boring. Would have preferred more Akari. And if there's a sequel (which I don't think is needed but will probably happen), I hope at least one of her members is friends or nice to her because those girls were so mean lol.
Other random thoughts:
Spoiler
- what was the meaning behind Mina wearing Mr. Han's watch?
- what is the whole deal with Mina's dad?
- if anything, Kang Jina reminded me the most of Jessica. Girl is kicked out of the company for dating but they hide about her wanting to end her contract...
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I was so excited for this and when I unwrapped this on my birthday I couldn’t wait to start reading. I got through this one fairly quickly as well. Obviously much in here is fiction but a lot of it also gives a peek behind the glamorous K-pop world. It’s clear that Rachel and Leah are based on Jessica and Krystal. Their bond is so sweet 🥹
Did it seem like a fanfic at some parts definitely yes but I still enjoyed this book. The names of the groups aren’t really the most creative ones but it was alright. All the stuff with the drugging and the bullying will be seen as fiction by me.
Now I did root for Rachel and Jason and really wanted them to work out. It’s an open ending because there will be two more books which I definitely plan on reading.
For K-pop fans I’d definitely recommend this book.
My brain tells me 3.5 stars, but because it's written by Jessica my heart says 4 stars. <3