Warning: Rambling may occur. I’ll try to keep it short and simple.
Jessica Jung; model, singer, fashion designer, now author. Shine was released on September 29, 2020 to be a fictional look into the K-pop trainee life. Already a movie is in the works and a sequel novel is titled; Bright. I have followed Jessica during her Girls’ Generation days since 2011, so I looked forward to this book mainly out of support and curiosity.
Shine is a melodramatic romantic, sometimes comedic, K-Drama as a book. There are some light hearted moments and some pretty heartbreaking moments, along with some sweet first love moments. This book is best enjoyed without expectations of shade and spilled tea. As much as Jessica claims there is truth about trainee life in Shine, there is just as much fiction that keeps the reader from knowing the difference too easily. In other words, you’d have to really be paying attention and looking for it on top of knowing K-pop really well beforehand.
Rachel Kim is a Korean-American girl from New York City that moves to Seoul, South Korea to train to become a K-Pop idol at the age of 11. 7 years later, Rachel is put into situations that lead to heartbreak and love to ultimately debuting (shocker). She gets bullied by Mina, played with by Jason (not entirely his fault), and finds her confidence along the way.
Everything in the book paints the K-pop world to be extremely dark and unforgiving. As much as that’s not wrong (diets, rules, harsh execs), I don’t think it was entirely true (hello fiction). It shows Rachel having only one friend in DB who she blow off time and time again, only in part due to the situations she has no control over. Everyone else is catty and mean to her. I hope, in any case, that not all of that is true. If every member who become the new girl group in the end hates Rachel, is Jessica implying that all of Girls’ Generation hated and bullied her, one in particular? We know that does and can happen (T-ara, AoA), there is often hints of it if you look. We do see some issues towards the end of the 7 years, however. Enough of that! Back to the book itself.
I enjoyed the book enough to finish it and I look forward to Bright. It might have some actual shade and tea, but I genuinely hope not. I will read it strictly as fiction and just enjoy something from member (formerly) of my favorite group. I had a few issues now and then with it, though. Mainly when I was trying to see fact from fiction. When I stopped doing that and just read it like any other book it was a lot better. The prose was simple, no biggie. The characters could use a little work, why does every single K-pop person have to be catty and mean? The plot wasn’t complicated, it’s YA so that’s fine. Overall it was an alright book.
Rating: 3.5
Rachels Books 