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novelty_reads 's review for:
K-Pop Confidential
by Stephan Lee
TW: Fatshaming, bullying (verbal and physical), dieting
I honestly didn't expect myself to enjoy this book as much as I did.
I've read so many books where girls go into the Kpop industry, become trainees, find out about dating bans, go behind the company's back and date in secret while dealing with strict regimes in the hopes to one day debut. It's quite shocking to see how many books use this exact plot to make a story and even more shocking, how I somehow get drawn into the pull of it again and again just to see how each author would take it on.
Story wise, Kpop Confidential follows that exact plot I summed up above. It follows Candace Park a Korean-American girl who on a whim goes to a Kpop audition, gets in and starts her life as a Kpop trainee with the aim to be one of the 5 members to debut as S.A.Y entertainment's first world dominating girl group. Plot and story structure wise, the book wasn't exactly original in its concept but I did enjoy reading in Candace's perspective. She was fun, quirky and sounded similar to how I was like as a Kpop obsessed 15 year old. I found myself loving how her personality bounced off the page and I found myself relating to her struggles as a trainee (particularly dancing and following choreography). She was a fresh voice I never knew I needed and it seemed from the start that this could be one of my favourite Kpop books.
But then towards the middle, Candace's characterisation soured a little.
She started to descend into "special snowflake" trope territory where everyone started saying how amazing and unique her voice was and how she was one of the best singers out of all the trainees and possibly, the company. She started to receive special treatment and she seemed slightly egotistic despite her trials and tribulations. Did she get slightly better towards the end? Honestly, no... or at least I didn't see her recognise her self-entitledness by the time the last page was flicked. That being said, her characterisation didn't majorly impact my enjoyment of the novel.
What was great about this book was the side characters. I found myself liking them a lot. There were some we got a bit of backstory on and others we didn't. I liked Binna, JinJoo, Helena, Aram and YoungBae. They were so much fun to read about. Helena was probably the most confusing though, very much one step forward, three steps back in regards to her and Candace's "friendship." It felt like they were friends one minute, enemies the next and when we got an explanation for her behaviour, it felt spruced out of nowhere and a bit rushed too especially since it happened towards the end of the book where everything was happening all at once.
Youngbae was my favourite character though, he was sweet and funny and every moment between him and Candace was one that I loved reading about. That being said, I thought Candace was too quickly infatuated with him and jumped to even quicker conclusions that he liked her. I felt like that build up was a little rushed too. Imani and Ethan were my other favourite characters and they raised this book to a four stars overall despite there being so many missed opportunities for amazing character development. There were times when we saw Candace's home life when she was visiting her mum and Halbeoji in Hospital but I felt like those scenes didn't really add anything to the story nor did it add to Candace's characterisation either.
All in all, this book was fun and quirky but at times it did feel a little bit rushed. I still will read the sequel which I just discovered is coming out in April 2022 and not this month as I previously predicted.
ACTUAL RATING: 3.8 STARS
I honestly didn't expect myself to enjoy this book as much as I did.
I've read so many books where girls go into the Kpop industry, become trainees, find out about dating bans, go behind the company's back and date in secret while dealing with strict regimes in the hopes to one day debut. It's quite shocking to see how many books use this exact plot to make a story and even more shocking, how I somehow get drawn into the pull of it again and again just to see how each author would take it on.
Story wise, Kpop Confidential follows that exact plot I summed up above. It follows Candace Park a Korean-American girl who on a whim goes to a Kpop audition, gets in and starts her life as a Kpop trainee with the aim to be one of the 5 members to debut as S.A.Y entertainment's first world dominating girl group. Plot and story structure wise, the book wasn't exactly original in its concept but I did enjoy reading in Candace's perspective. She was fun, quirky and sounded similar to how I was like as a Kpop obsessed 15 year old. I found myself loving how her personality bounced off the page and I found myself relating to her struggles as a trainee (particularly dancing and following choreography). She was a fresh voice I never knew I needed and it seemed from the start that this could be one of my favourite Kpop books.
But then towards the middle, Candace's characterisation soured a little.
She started to descend into "special snowflake" trope territory where everyone started saying how amazing and unique her voice was and how she was one of the best singers out of all the trainees and possibly, the company. She started to receive special treatment and she seemed slightly egotistic despite her trials and tribulations. Did she get slightly better towards the end? Honestly, no... or at least I didn't see her recognise her self-entitledness by the time the last page was flicked. That being said, her characterisation didn't majorly impact my enjoyment of the novel.
What was great about this book was the side characters. I found myself liking them a lot. There were some we got a bit of backstory on and others we didn't. I liked Binna, JinJoo, Helena, Aram and YoungBae. They were so much fun to read about. Helena was probably the most confusing though, very much one step forward, three steps back in regards to her and Candace's "friendship." It felt like they were friends one minute, enemies the next and when we got an explanation for her behaviour, it felt spruced out of nowhere and a bit rushed too especially since it happened towards the end of the book where everything was happening all at once.
Youngbae was my favourite character though, he was sweet and funny and every moment between him and Candace was one that I loved reading about. That being said, I thought Candace was too quickly infatuated with him and jumped to even quicker conclusions that he liked her. I felt like that build up was a little rushed too. Imani and Ethan were my other favourite characters and they raised this book to a four stars overall despite there being so many missed opportunities for amazing character development. There were times when we saw Candace's home life when she was visiting her mum and Halbeoji in Hospital but I felt like those scenes didn't really add anything to the story nor did it add to Candace's characterisation either.
All in all, this book was fun and quirky but at times it did feel a little bit rushed. I still will read the sequel which I just discovered is coming out in April 2022 and not this month as I previously predicted.
ACTUAL RATING: 3.8 STARS