A review by lumreads
Idol, Burning by Rin Usami

3.0

finished this on the plane back home from japan! had rly bad anxiety the first couple of days in japan but listening to this book helped me calm down oddly?

i was at sensoji temple on new years eve and in this book there's a section where it describes how akari goes from watching a music show to refreshing twitter to see everyone's thoughts on her idol's performance and ... as i was waiting in queue to pray at sensoji temple, i literally saw a japanese girl do the exact same thing??? glued to her phone even as we were all counting down to the new years. idk maybe im too boomer or not very well cultured in fan culture but having read that and to then see that very scene play out in front of me elevated the authenticity of the themes/scenes of the book.
guess it really does show that following an idol really is all consuming.