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hekate24 's review for:
Flip the Script
by Lyla Lee
Anyway, 2.5 stars that I’m rounding up because it has its heart in the right place.
Man, I loved the authors’s previous book and the premise of Flip That is such a winner. It promised me meta on common tropes, pining, an exploration of celebrity culture, the tension between roles played in public versus private. All wrapped up in a nice wlw bow. Unfortunately I’m coming away from this reading experience a bit ambivalent.
I ultimately had two big problems with this book. First the characters were all too young and this would have been much more believable with character’s solidly into their twenties. I’m actually not too familiar with how often minors get to lead k-dramas so I’m not too sure how believable Hana’s vocation is. My biggest problem in the entire book was actually with Bryan’s job. K-pop is one of the music industries I keep up with, so I know how strict fans get about dating. They can also get grouchy if a member seems to be prioritizing something other than music (like, say, acting?)
So, let’s unpack this:
1. Bryan’s group is one of the most popular in-universe. They must have sky-rocketed to success, too, given his young age of sixteen. Minors are depressingly common in kpop but 14-year-olds are still uncommon enough that it raises eyebrows (eta after a bunch of debuts in 2022... uh even less uncommon now, oof). So, realistically, Bryan (and Bryan’s group) have probably only been around for a year which means they’re still eligible for rookie of the year awards. The market is saturated with groups right now and it can be hard even for groups from famous companies to make a splash. To achieve this level of success, then, they didn’t just have a good song. They’ve probably a famous fancam or two, weird rumors and mini-controversies, a gif from ISAC that went viral, memes that break kpop twitter containment etc. All the things that make you trendy.
2. And yet Bryan - despite probably only being one year into debut - is already on hiatus. And not for health reasons (most fans are understanding of that) but for other creative pursuits. Fans would be grumbling, especially if he’s not at performances.
3. And now - in the midst of a fandom that WOULD be grumbling - he’s choosing to openly date someone. This book explores the vitriol Hana receives (and she absolutely would!) but fans would be calling for Bryan’s head too. There would be hashtags demanding he be fired from the group. People would find fancams where he’s probably dealing with sleep deprivation and label him as lazy etc etc.
4. People would pore over videos of them together like it’s the Zapruder film trying to prove they aren’t dating, that Hana is actually a body double, etc etc.
I’m not being hyperbolic with all this. During my years keeping up with kpop, I’ve seen these exact kinds of scenarios play out when male idols in their mid to late twenties date (or, god forbid, get married.) A teenaged, famous male idol dating and pledging his love to his co-star the way Bryan and Hana pretend to do… well, he would get absolutely destroyed.
Don’t get me wrong, all books require a suspension of disbelief. But Flip the Script just pushed things too far into the realm of the unbelievable for me. It’s not that you’d have to scrap the fake dating aspect. again, if the characters had been mid-twenties I could believe it. That still causes scandals but it’s not as bad. And they could even have sold the fake dating like “well, idols deserve to have personal lives so maybe us pretending to date would normalize it!” Something like that would have given me more reason to care about the fake dating part. “Our show is a moderate success but we want to be number one!” just wasn’t cutting it for me. I also could have believed it if they were late teens but rather than openly fake dating, their teams decided to plant clues that they might be dating. That would cause fans to pore over their social media for clues/evidence of them doing the covert lovestagram kind of thing, and tuning in to check out their chemistry.
But as it stands the book just did not manage to convince me Bryan wouldn’t be immediately ejected from his group due to fan uproar haha.
Oof that was only the first reason this book fell apart for me, wasn’t it?
The second is a bit more subjective. Flip the Script always pulled back from fully digging into conflict and consequences. This book is YA and I think the author was trying to provide something soft and comforting for teenaged queer readers and given the political everything right now I definitely can’t begrudge that. I’m probably twenty years too old to be the audience for this one (although I suspect I would have given this more like four stars in my teens.)
But I still want to talk about my problems with the (lack of) tension in this book anyway because I think being so risk-averse had a negative impact on its messages sometimes.
Let’s do another list:
1. Hana is an American who gets scouted to be a kdrama actress. We’re told moving back to Korea was a struggle for her parents and she worries that it will all have been for nothing. Except her parents are remarkably supportive and chill and after a few weeks of being a moderately successful show the dating scheme makes it a huge success and this aspect sort of disappears. It doesn’t really come up when Hana is planning to publicly come out even though it could potentially sink her career.
2. She ends up with a role Minjee tried out for as well but by the time Minjee is on screen any hard feelings about this have basically evaporated on her end. And also it turns out Minjee doesn’t actually have passion for acting so they were never really rivals.
3. [refer to section above on how Bryan’s fake dating basically breaks the laws of this universe]
4. Bryan catches feelings for Hana, but when he learns she has feelings for someone else he’s chill about it, guesses she’s into Minjee, and oh yeah he’s also queer, and now all his feelings for Hana are gone! This all happens in what feels like five seconds. It’s confusing because I’ll Be the One had some lovely, lovely scenes with queer characters bonding over similar life experiences. Here it almost felt like Bryan was pansexual as a way to get him out of the way as an obstacle. It just did not feel organic here.
5. Minjee avoids Hana because of what she assumes is unrequited love but that also lasts about five seconds before Bryan puts them in a room like “now kiss!” and Hana and Minjee come out to each other and agree to date. So that confusion doesn’t last too long either.
6. the producer stalks and harasses Hana and Minjee but after their coming out press conference the guy easily gets fired, production agrees to rewrite the final script to make it sapphic etc etc. Again, the girls are teens with almost no connections or clout in the industry. Bryan has famebut once again i swear he would be on thin ice with his company and would probably have zero bargaining power to make this happen no you can’t drag me off this stage.
This brings me to another moment where there was almost no tension even though on paper there is… Hana coming out to her parents goes super well. I should add I’m not saying every coming out story should involve being met with disbelief or abuse. In a vacuum I was actually really touched by her parents saying they didn’t completely support lgbt but that they support her and so they would try. I actually think it’s so important for the target audience of the book to see that coming out isn’t always going to be a horrible, traumatic thing. One of the powers of fiction is how it allows us to imagine a better world and try to create it.
It’s the context of everything around it that made this bit less impactful. Based on how so many things in this book had played out I already knew her parents would be kind/supportive. Teens need to see a variety of scenarios for coming out and this book had a bunch of them, so I do really appreciate it on that level. I can’t help but feel like the fear heading into that scene should have been more potent. Coming out to someone who has guardianship over you will probably always be so nerve wracking even when you think it will probably be okay. It’s a real heart in your throat moment where - even in good situations - it’s common to think it might go poorly. Schrodingers homophobia if you will.
It’s not that I wanted Hana to be constantly dealing with violent homophobia or misogyny or anything like that. But I do know that the entertainment industry is rough and a bit more candor about that could have let the coming out scene shine so much brighter in contrast. I really wanted to feel that relief and respite in that moment but ultimately it was on the same emotional wave length as the rest of the book.
Okay that’s probably enough rambling. Despite all my ranting I need to stress I do not hate this book. There’s a lot to love in here. For me though it ended up feeling like one of those songs that plays the same note over and over, and a lot of moments in it reminded me of the anti-drop phenomenon that’s going on in music in the past few years. I.e. building and building to something that feels like a dramatic chorus, but then the song slides away into something that feels much more subdued. Some people love that style of song but it’s not for me. And the same goes with this book.
Man, I loved the authors’s previous book and the premise of Flip That is such a winner. It promised me meta on common tropes, pining, an exploration of celebrity culture, the tension between roles played in public versus private. All wrapped up in a nice wlw bow. Unfortunately I’m coming away from this reading experience a bit ambivalent.
I ultimately had two big problems with this book. First the characters were all too young and this would have been much more believable with character’s solidly into their twenties. I’m actually not too familiar with how often minors get to lead k-dramas so I’m not too sure how believable Hana’s vocation is. My biggest problem in the entire book was actually with Bryan’s job. K-pop is one of the music industries I keep up with, so I know how strict fans get about dating. They can also get grouchy if a member seems to be prioritizing something other than music (like, say, acting?)
So, let’s unpack this:
1. Bryan’s group is one of the most popular in-universe. They must have sky-rocketed to success, too, given his young age of sixteen. Minors are depressingly common in kpop but 14-year-olds are still uncommon enough that it raises eyebrows (eta after a bunch of debuts in 2022... uh even less uncommon now, oof). So, realistically, Bryan (and Bryan’s group) have probably only been around for a year which means they’re still eligible for rookie of the year awards. The market is saturated with groups right now and it can be hard even for groups from famous companies to make a splash. To achieve this level of success, then, they didn’t just have a good song. They’ve probably a famous fancam or two, weird rumors and mini-controversies, a gif from ISAC that went viral, memes that break kpop twitter containment etc. All the things that make you trendy.
2. And yet Bryan - despite probably only being one year into debut - is already on hiatus. And not for health reasons (most fans are understanding of that) but for other creative pursuits. Fans would be grumbling, especially if he’s not at performances.
3. And now - in the midst of a fandom that WOULD be grumbling - he’s choosing to openly date someone. This book explores the vitriol Hana receives (and she absolutely would!) but fans would be calling for Bryan’s head too. There would be hashtags demanding he be fired from the group. People would find fancams where he’s probably dealing with sleep deprivation and label him as lazy etc etc.
4. People would pore over videos of them together like it’s the Zapruder film trying to prove they aren’t dating, that Hana is actually a body double, etc etc.
I’m not being hyperbolic with all this. During my years keeping up with kpop, I’ve seen these exact kinds of scenarios play out when male idols in their mid to late twenties date (or, god forbid, get married.) A teenaged, famous male idol dating and pledging his love to his co-star the way Bryan and Hana pretend to do… well, he would get absolutely destroyed.
Don’t get me wrong, all books require a suspension of disbelief. But Flip the Script just pushed things too far into the realm of the unbelievable for me. It’s not that you’d have to scrap the fake dating aspect. again, if the characters had been mid-twenties I could believe it. That still causes scandals but it’s not as bad. And they could even have sold the fake dating like “well, idols deserve to have personal lives so maybe us pretending to date would normalize it!” Something like that would have given me more reason to care about the fake dating part. “Our show is a moderate success but we want to be number one!” just wasn’t cutting it for me. I also could have believed it if they were late teens but rather than openly fake dating, their teams decided to plant clues that they might be dating. That would cause fans to pore over their social media for clues/evidence of them doing the covert lovestagram kind of thing, and tuning in to check out their chemistry.
But as it stands the book just did not manage to convince me Bryan wouldn’t be immediately ejected from his group due to fan uproar haha.
Oof that was only the first reason this book fell apart for me, wasn’t it?
The second is a bit more subjective. Flip the Script always pulled back from fully digging into conflict and consequences. This book is YA and I think the author was trying to provide something soft and comforting for teenaged queer readers and given the political everything right now I definitely can’t begrudge that. I’m probably twenty years too old to be the audience for this one (although I suspect I would have given this more like four stars in my teens.)
But I still want to talk about my problems with the (lack of) tension in this book anyway because I think being so risk-averse had a negative impact on its messages sometimes.
Spoiler
So some really wretched stuff does happen in this book. Hana and Bryan (minors!) are pressured to fake date by their bosses. Hana gets cyber bullied. She and Minjee arestalked, outed, and ordered to stay away from each other by their boss. Minjee comes out to her parents and it goes badly. Etc etc etc. I can’t remember having emotional reactions to any of these moments though. I think because in other areas then book had a track record of presenting a problem and then immediately resolving it.Let’s do another list:
1. Hana is an American who gets scouted to be a kdrama actress. We’re told moving back to Korea was a struggle for her parents and she worries that it will all have been for nothing. Except her parents are remarkably supportive and chill and after a few weeks of being a moderately successful show the dating scheme makes it a huge success and this aspect sort of disappears. It doesn’t really come up when Hana is planning to publicly come out even though it could potentially sink her career.
2. She ends up with a role Minjee tried out for as well but by the time Minjee is on screen any hard feelings about this have basically evaporated on her end. And also it turns out Minjee doesn’t actually have passion for acting so they were never really rivals.
3. [refer to section above on how Bryan’s fake dating basically breaks the laws of this universe]
4. Bryan catches feelings for Hana, but when he learns she has feelings for someone else he’s chill about it, guesses she’s into Minjee, and oh yeah he’s also queer, and now all his feelings for Hana are gone! This all happens in what feels like five seconds. It’s confusing because I’ll Be the One had some lovely, lovely scenes with queer characters bonding over similar life experiences. Here it almost felt like Bryan was pansexual as a way to get him out of the way as an obstacle. It just did not feel organic here.
5. Minjee avoids Hana because of what she assumes is unrequited love but that also lasts about five seconds before Bryan puts them in a room like “now kiss!” and Hana and Minjee come out to each other and agree to date. So that confusion doesn’t last too long either.
6. the producer stalks and harasses Hana and Minjee but after their coming out press conference the guy easily gets fired, production agrees to rewrite the final script to make it sapphic etc etc. Again, the girls are teens with almost no connections or clout in the industry. Bryan has fame
This brings me to another moment where there was almost no tension even though on paper there is… Hana coming out to her parents goes super well. I should add I’m not saying every coming out story should involve being met with disbelief or abuse. In a vacuum I was actually really touched by her parents saying they didn’t completely support lgbt but that they support her and so they would try. I actually think it’s so important for the target audience of the book to see that coming out isn’t always going to be a horrible, traumatic thing. One of the powers of fiction is how it allows us to imagine a better world and try to create it.
It’s the context of everything around it that made this bit less impactful. Based on how so many things in this book had played out I already knew her parents would be kind/supportive. Teens need to see a variety of scenarios for coming out and this book had a bunch of them, so I do really appreciate it on that level. I can’t help but feel like the fear heading into that scene should have been more potent. Coming out to someone who has guardianship over you will probably always be so nerve wracking even when you think it will probably be okay. It’s a real heart in your throat moment where - even in good situations - it’s common to think it might go poorly. Schrodingers homophobia if you will.
It’s not that I wanted Hana to be constantly dealing with violent homophobia or misogyny or anything like that. But I do know that the entertainment industry is rough and a bit more candor about that could have let the coming out scene shine so much brighter in contrast. I really wanted to feel that relief and respite in that moment but ultimately it was on the same emotional wave length as the rest of the book.
Okay that’s probably enough rambling. Despite all my ranting I need to stress I do not hate this book. There’s a lot to love in here. For me though it ended up feeling like one of those songs that plays the same note over and over, and a lot of moments in it reminded me of the anti-drop phenomenon that’s going on in music in the past few years. I.e. building and building to something that feels like a dramatic chorus, but then the song slides away into something that feels much more subdued. Some people love that style of song but it’s not for me. And the same goes with this book.