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*2.5/5
As a K-pop stan, I was sorta excited for SHINE. It was mediocre.
SHINE is a story that follows Rachel Kim, a Korean-American trainee at DB Entertainment. It touches up on some very important topics like misogyny in the K-pop industry but that does not excuse the bad things about SHINE.
I went into this with pretty low expectations. The synopsis sounded extremely corny. Fiction written by celebs is usually…not the best.
The characters were okay. Rachel wasn’t a very stand-out main character and Jason was honestly pretty meh. Akari though — Akari was 100% my favourite character; I would read the sequel if it meant finding out how she was doing. However, all of them (even Akari sigh) felt kind of plastic — like there wasn’t a whole lot of emotion in any of them.
To add along with that, the writing style was not really my cup of tea. There were some words and sentences that I found too cheesy. The writing style was actually the reason I stopped halfway through the book and took a break for like a month before resuming reading. The writing style is very YA, which isn’t always a bad thing (I’ve read wonderful books with very YA writing styles) but it just added to the already cheesiness of the story.
Let me rant about the ending. That ending is not an ending. I know open endings are things, but I have way too many questions. There’s a sequel coming out, according to Goodreads, so if I read that, I suppose my questions might be answered.
I felt like the plot was over the place sometimes. There were far too many sub-plots that ended up adding absolutely nothing to the overall story in the end. One of the sub-plots ended up getting too major, although I’m pretty sure it was to explore deeper into misogyny and the double standards.
I want to give a plus to the fact that SHINE opens immediately with action. The girls are at a mock interview and we are instantly thrust into the trainee life. Many stories open with a long ass introduction and info dump before actually getting into the action but SHINE, to my delight, did not.
Like I said, SHINE covers on things like misogyny, especially the double standards there are. There are little touches of racism, xenophobia, saesangs, and mistreatment from companies here and there. I’m glad Jessica decided to mention things like these because they’re very genuine problems. I do think there was a lot of potential to discuss racism, xenophobia, and sasaengs further, however, and I don’t think it would’ve taken away from the main point (misogyny) but rather would’ve actually added to it.
Overall, SHINE was a pretty mediocre book that I have a 1% chance of rereading. It touched up on some important topics but had the capacity for a deeper exploration. If you’ve read all of my review, damn, thank you for doing that.
As a K-pop stan, I was sorta excited for SHINE. It was mediocre.
SHINE is a story that follows Rachel Kim, a Korean-American trainee at DB Entertainment. It touches up on some very important topics like misogyny in the K-pop industry but that does not excuse the bad things about SHINE.
I went into this with pretty low expectations. The synopsis sounded extremely corny. Fiction written by celebs is usually…not the best.
The characters were okay. Rachel wasn’t a very stand-out main character and Jason was honestly pretty meh. Akari though — Akari was 100% my favourite character; I would read the sequel if it meant finding out how she was doing. However, all of them (even Akari sigh) felt kind of plastic — like there wasn’t a whole lot of emotion in any of them.
Spoiler
There was a lot of telling, and not enough showing. Also, Leah saying she didn’t care what those other girls think of her is very unrealistic to me. She’s a teenage girl, she’s going to want the approval of other people.To add along with that, the writing style was not really my cup of tea. There were some words and sentences that I found too cheesy. The writing style was actually the reason I stopped halfway through the book and took a break for like a month before resuming reading.
Spoiler
It was during a kiss scene and I just could not with the writing during the scene. Rachel I do not want you to describe how wonderful that kiss with Jason in aMaZiNg detail was while literally saying “the wall were white” the next time you describe a room.Let me rant about the ending. That ending is not an ending. I know open endings are things, but I have way too many questions. There’s a sequel coming out, according to Goodreads, so if I read that, I suppose my questions might be answered.
I felt like the plot was over the place sometimes. There were far too many sub-plots that ended up adding absolutely nothing to the overall story in the end. One of the sub-plots ended up getting too major, although I’m pretty sure it was to explore deeper into misogyny and the double standards.
I want to give a plus to the fact that SHINE opens immediately with action. The girls are at a mock interview and we are instantly thrust into the trainee life. Many stories open with a long ass introduction and info dump before actually getting into the action but SHINE, to my delight, did not.
Like I said, SHINE covers on things like misogyny, especially the double standards there are. There are little touches of racism, xenophobia, saesangs, and mistreatment from companies here and there. I’m glad Jessica decided to mention things like these because they’re very genuine problems. I do think there was a lot of potential to discuss racism, xenophobia, and sasaengs further, however, and I don’t think it would’ve taken away from the main point (misogyny) but rather would’ve actually added to it.
Overall, SHINE was a pretty mediocre book that I have a 1% chance of rereading. It touched up on some important topics but had the capacity for a deeper exploration. If you’ve read all of my review, damn, thank you for doing that.