Idol Gossip

okay, first of all, i wasn't sure if i wanted to write a review for this or not but i kind of needed to write my thoughts down at the end of this whole kpop journey.

i have to admit, this book definitely first got my attention because of the cover and was maybe 50% a cover buy BUT i also like to look at all the books inspired by kpop and have read a few already, so the genre and plot was also right up my alley and i was excited!

now, the beginning of the book was promising. i liked the idea of the gossip blog and the articles were way too realistic lmao, i have definitely read articles about kpop like this. so, that was fun. i was also rooting for alice at the beginning and liked seeing her be thrown into this whole new world of preparing for her debut in a kpop girlgroup. this, unfortunately, didn't last though. i have nothing against an unlikable protagonist, they can be extremely fun. but with alice it was more than that. she wasn't just unlikable, i also read this book thinking “wow she doesn't really... deserve any of this?” and i wasn't rooting for her anymore, i definitely had my moments where i was actually thinking that i wanted her to fail spectacularly just so that she can finally learn her lesson.

and i really, really needed something like this here to save the character and the plot. but no, alice doesn't really learn her lesson, until the last few pages it's still always about her and god i know, she's a teenager, the world revolves around oneself at that point in one's life, at least to a certain degree, but with her it's definitely too much. i genuinely don't understand why she made friends with the way that she behaves. i was honestly also really disappointed that we don't get more of the group interacting/trying to get closer. although that is also thanks to alice's behaviour. but seriously, alice can't even apologize for her fuck-ups unless someone tells her to.

what didn't help was the pacing of the book. the beginning was solid but i feel like we lost ourselves a bit in the middle but suddenly had to resolved everything in the last third while still adding more drama. it.... didn't work. the ending doesn't feel deserved and gave me whiplash because suddenly everything was getting resolved in very lazy and unsatisfying ways? it just made me, as a reader, feel like the book was clapping its hand and shouting “let's wrap this up guys, i wanna get home” at the end of a workday even though there was still so much more to do.

i don't want to be just negative so here a mention of things that i appreciated about this book: the kpop industry and especially the trainee process were portrayed pretty well for the most part and i think someone who doesn't know kpop would have still understood what was going on. i also really appreciated joon being bi, that was a nice little surprise. also thank god that he and alice didn't have something going on in the end because i don't think that would have worked out for them or fit into the book

i don't know if i would necessarily recommend this book to someone who wants to read about someone living the kpop debut dream because of my issues with the protagonist but the book is very easy to read and the writing style keeps you engaged, so if you are looking for an entertaining read but don't have too many expectations then this might work for you