First finished on 5/8/23
2.5 stars
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Shine is... disappointing.

I picked this book up because it's every kpop fan's wet dream: training in an entertainment company, debuting, dating a famous kpop star... And I'll admit, Jessica Jung knows what people want, what'll sell, and it's a skill that I envy. It felt like she took every popular fanfiction trope and mixed it with her own experiences of the kpop industry, and since I know she's an ex-idol, it was really, really interesting to see what is undoubtedly the stark truth of working conditions in the kpop industry.

I respect her for touching on the double standard between female and male kpop stars too. And the struggle in Rachel's mind between the dream she's worked so hard for, and the relationship that she wants with Jason.

There were some really interesting topics to read in this book (and I don't say that sarcastically). It was enough to keep me reading until the end, and I wasn't bored throughout it.

My criticisms come with the way it's written, because it is BADLY written. It reminds me of the way I used to write when I was 15.
There is little to no narration, and when there is, it's her thoughts in the moment.

The choice to write in present tense fit the writing style of this book though, I'll give her that, and it wasn't as jarring as it usually is for me to read in this tense: it felt natural.
But the switch between "I feel terrible and my life is falling apart" to "okay things aren't so bad, I'm enjoying myself now!" was poorly transitioned through. Nothing was explained, her thoughts were never in-depth enough for me to be convinced that after feeling so terrible, she suddenly felt great. It really was that sudden. But I'll admit, I used to write like that before I understood how heavy-handed it sounds.

I understand that Jessica Jung's first trade isn't writing, but I appreciate that she's had this dream for a while — and it's not easy writing a book — so I applaud her for trying. Because I know the hours of work it takes to write one.

It's no literary masterpiece, but I didn't not enjoy reading it, so there's that. I wouldn't read again, but by all means, go ahead.

I'm surprised I ended up really liking this book. There's some aspects that I quite don't agree with but overall this is a stellar debut from Jessica. Review to come.

I wanted more tea....she only gave us drops and I wanted the whole kettle steaming hot!

This book was enjoyable. The story was cute and fun. It was nice to follow along a kpop trainee’s adventures and struggles to debut from the fantasy account of an author who actually went through that process. I gave it 3 stars because it is such a simple story, even though it is entertaining. And after finishing I was left wondering about some of the loose ends. Those loose ends are probably addressed in the second book now that I see that there is one but I think they could’ve easily been put into this story instead.

I received an eARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All these opinions are my own.

3.5/5

Wow. Ok. So. Here we go.

First off, writing style is great. It flows well. Dialogue is good. Follows YA norms and standards. Plot was good and pace was good for the most part.
Rachel Kim is, I think, a greatly written character. She has more depth than you think, as does her entire family. I really liked her morals (though she did get caught up in “the boy” - but so does every YA heroine so I can’t be too mad).

I liked the world building. I could see all the influences the real world had on Jessica Jung’s story and I like all the new and different things she added to make it her own universe.

Little background about myself before I move on: I looooooved Girls Generation and used to be a big Kpop fan. For the most part now I don’t really keep up with anything anymore. I have also studied Korean for 4 years so I understand a good bit of Korean language and some culture aspects.
So I really wanted to read this book because of Jessica and I’m really interested in the topic.

Good things: I loved the commentary about the industry. Sexism, mysogyny, opportunism, capitalism, lookism. Honestly I am here for Jessica going off about it. All those parts were great and I thought powerful. Really glad that she could write about them in this light.

Questionable parts: basically every time a romanized Korean word was used. They are just thrown into this book like crazy. And since Rachel is bilingual it was really hard to keep track of when she was speaking Korean and when she was speaking English (if ever, I truly don’t know).
Also I really hope they add a glossary because you for real need some knowledge of the Korean language to read this book. It is straight up inaccessible to people who do not know some Korean. I didn’t even know some of the romanized words and I’ve studied for 4 years!
I also really hope they italicize the romanized words because it can be jarring to see random Korean words in an otherwise fully English sentence. Like “eemo”. How would a reader know she didn’t just spell emo wrong lol. Italicization would greatly help this distinction.

So yeah, decent book if you 1) have a good base knowledge of Korean language or 2) are willing to do some research of romanized Korean. Unfortunately, the overall inaccessible-ness of this book to larger audiences, my rating had to go down at least a star.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s great for her targeted audience, but there’s not a lot of room for it to reach wider audiences. I’m know this book will still do great, but I have to think of inclusivity issues.

And so finally, as someone with the ability to read this book without being too confused, it was fun and meaningful to me. I look forward to reading future instalments.

Go Jessica!

I'm honestly not sure why I read this, as an adult

Lmao I don’t know what I expected? A scathing takedown of the industry, I guess, and in a lot of ways it was that- the strict and cruel training program, how absolutely everything is scripted and fake, how only rote perfection is acceptable, how it’s mostly old men telling young girls exactly how to look and behave, how boys are treated better and more leniently than girls and how one mistake can ruin a girl’s career but not affect a boy’s at all. And, how being from Canada and half white is an asset to Jason that makes him more interesting but being from America somehow makes Rachel not Korean enough. But, this is also a middling-quality young adult book that I am not the target audience for. And in the end, Rachel realizes how shitty the whole thing is but still wants to be a part of it, in a group with eight girls who are terrible to her, in a company that treats her abominably. I don’t know, guys! I don’t know.