K-Pop Confidential by Stephan Lee REVIEW

Summary:

Candace Park knows a lot about playing a role. For most of her life, she's been playing the role of the perfect Korean American daughter. But she has a talent that she's been keeping from the world: she can sing. Like, really sing. And when she's chosen from thousands to train for a spot in the biggest K-pop label's first-ever girl group, she'll have her chance to show the world.

But plunging into the grueling life of a K-pop trainee will be tougher than she ever imagined. In the label's headquarters in Seoul, Candace must hone her performance skills to within an inch of her life, all while navigating the complex hierarchies and rules. Rule number one? NO DATING, which soon becomes impossible to follow. And the closer Candace gets to the limelight, the closer she gets to a scandal lighting up the K-pop fandom around the world.

Is a spot in the most hyped girl group of all time really worth risking her friendships, future, and everything she believes in?

My Thoughts:

This was a blast to read and I love all the different references to real K-pop artists along with the fictional ones in this book. Candace wants to do something with her voice, but her parents insist she play viola and work on getting good grades in school instead. When she skips study prep to audition for a K-pop agency, Candace doesn't think she'll be picked. After all, it will be difficult to convince her parents to let her travel to Seoul and have a music career before graduating high school. But she does get picked, and narrowly convinces her parents to let her go - at least for the summer. While training, she develops new friendships, and even starts to have feelings for a male trainee.

I loved the development of the side characters that Candace trains with - they aren't just one-dimensional characters that exist for the sake of the main character and plot. The writing is simple and easy to read, especially if you are already into K-pop and know the lingo. But even if you don't, there is a dictionary at the end. This was such a fun read for me.

My Rating: 5 stars 

Our Dead Girlfriend by Jon Athan REVIEW

Summary:

While walking through the woods, a group of boys - Daniel Burke, Gavin Graves, and brothers Connor and Tyler Parker - discover the abandoned body of a female high school student. The body is bruised but clean, lifeless but fresh. Torn between fear and fascination, the boys decide to keep the corpse hidden in a ditch in the woods in order to keep her as their girlfriend - to converse with her, to flirt, to practice, to love.

What follows is a story of adolescence, friendship, love, envy, hatred, and extreme horror.

My Thoughts:

This was my first Jon Athan book and I am now pretty excited to check out his other work! This book follows Daniel, Gavin, Connor, and Tyler - all outcasts in school who happen upon a dead body and decide to pretend it is their girlfriend as a way to practice for when they get to high school. Connor is very hesitant, but goes along with it for everybody else. After a while though, Gavin, Connor, and Tyler grow tired and increasingly guilty about not reporting the body to the authorities. Not to mention, Daniel is acting weird and pretends to have full on conversations with the corpse - as well as intimate relations.

As a fan of the extreme horror/splatterpunk genre, this was a lot of fun to read. While it does start off kind of slow, it ramps up - especially the last few chapters. I enjoyed getting to know the friendship dynamic of the four boys, and watching it fall apart due to their decisions. I appreciate the worldbuilding and depth of the characters, and I absolutely love the unhinged ending.

My Rating: 4 stars 

Piercing by Ryu Murakami REVIEW

Summary:

Kawashima Masayuki is a successful graphic designer living in Tokyo with his loving wife, Yoko, and their baby girl. Outwardly, their lives are a picture of happiness and contentment, but every night while his wife sleeps Kawashima creeps from his bed and watches over the baby's crib with an ice pick in his hand and an almost visceral desire to use it.

One particular night, as this struggle unfolds once more, Kawashima makes a decision to confront his demons, and sets into motion an uncomfortable chain of events seeming to lead inexorably to murder.

My Thoughts:

This book kind of reminds me of American Psycho. Kawashima has the intrusive thoughts to use the ice pick on his baby, but is able to refrain from doing so. In an effort to make those thoughts go away, he decides to leave town and use it on someone else. Kawashima has stabbed someone before, which is what lead him to this conclusion. However, the person he selects to be his victim is just as twisted - if not more - than himself.

The novel starts off a bit slow, and it shows the main character's descent into madness throughout. Halfway through, it does switch to the point of view of the would-be victim. I think it was a good move to make them a similar level of crazy as the main character instead of just the cookie-cutter victim. It made things a lot more interesting, and it's what sold the ending for me.

My Rating: 4 stars 

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle REVIEW

Summary:

 Nestled high up in the mountains is Camp Damascus, the self-proclaimed "most effective" gay conversion camp in the country. Here, a life free from sin awaits. But the secret behind that success is anything but holy . . .

My Thoughts:

 This book is kind of perfect. Uneasy atmosphere, body horror, spiritual horror (if that's a thing?), and good writing. This is my first Chuck Tingle book and I am extremely impressed.

Rose and her family are a part of the Kingdom of the Pine Church (*cough* cult *cough*). Her friend Isaiah is into her, but she doesn't really feel the same, and after he kisses her, she gets sick - but what comes up isn't normal. When Rose's friend dies in an inhuman way, she starts asking questions about Camp Damascus and seeing demons. But she gets nowhere until a deeply buried memory comes back to her - she had gone to the camp and was strapped to a machine. Horrified, she runs to Saul, another survivor of the camp. They figure out what's going on behind the scenes at the camp and come up with a plan to shut the place down for good.

As someone who is gay and was raised religious, this book hit me hard. While there are a lot of differences between Rose's experiences and mine, there are those scary similarities, which I think is why I loved this novel so much. I would definitely recommend giving this book a read.

My Rating: 5 stars

Saha by Cho Nam-Joo REVIEW

Summary:

In a country called Town, a doctor named Su is found dead in an abandoned car. There is only one place the police intend to look for her killer: the Saha Estates. Town is the safest, richest nation in the world. But it is a society clearly divided into the haves and have-nots, and those who have the very least - who aren't even considered citizens - live on the Saha Estates. No one is shocked when a lowlife Saha like Do-kyung becomes the main suspect in Su's - a citizen's - murder. But then Do-kyung disappears, and his sister Jin-kyung is determined to find him. To do so, she must rely on her tightlipped neighbors, from a mysterious janitor to a reluctant midwife and an unwitting test subject at the local clinic.

My Thoughts:

I have never read a book quite like this before. It's part murder mystery, part what is the government hiding from us. The people native to the land were not given citizenship when the country was taken over, banishing them to the outskirts to live in an abandoned building. They are treated like dirt, and most cannot get jobs because most jobs require citizenship. The city is run by the Council of Ministers, whose faces are never seen by the public, and crimes are punished often by execution.

The novel is split into narratives by many different Saha residents, which accumulates into the information Jin-kyung needs to find her brother and try to save him from a crime he didn't actually commit. But what Jin-kyung is told at the end turns everything she thought she knew on its head.

I liked the way this book was written, and I was surprised at the reveal, but it kind of left more questions than answers for me. Thus, I still don't know how to feel about it. I liked the different stories of the different characters and how they blended together to push the plot forward though. I think that was very well done.

My Rating: 3 stars