I really hoped I'd love this book but it just felt a bit disjointed. I think it could be good as a book about the naturally occurring horrors of a kpop competition (although, with the curse of This Is A Thing I Know About, I don't think a lot of the kpop stuff felt accurate/realistic either) or good as a book where a more generic competition gets real eldritch horror-y, but both at the same time is not working for me. It also, unfortunately, feels VERY trend-ride-y, between the kpop and the "eldritch horror but make it about a real life social issue" stuff, which are both massively trending in YA right now. That's almost certainly the publisher's fault more than the author's, but it's still a problem if you keep up with YA at all.
I will be reading this book, and I do think it'll be popular with the teens at our library, but I just wish so much that it was better. Hopefully if I get more time with this book it'll fill my long-standing itch for a kpop book that actually feels grounded, because I have not found a single one of those yet.
I will be reading this book, and I do think it'll be popular with the teens at our library, but I just wish so much that it was better. Hopefully if I get more time with this book it'll fill my long-standing itch for a kpop book that actually feels grounded, because I have not found a single one of those yet.