Book Review: "Shine" by Jessica Jung

The popular saying "all's fair in love and war" is getting a Korean twist in Jessica Jung's debut novel, Shine. Jessica is a k-pop singer, actress, fashion designer, and now author with her drama packed book hitting shelves September 29, 2020. 

Shine follows Rachel Kim as she struggles to become a k-pop idol after six long years of training. While trying to prove herself worthy of becoming a singer, Rachel unintentionally runs into superstar and labelmate Jason Lee and her life changes forever. 

While it appears to be solely about dating and love, there's much more to this teen fiction. It's anything but glitz and glamour in the K-pop world, where everyone only looks out for themselves. Idols may act like sisters to the public, but behind the scenes it's a cat fight for the spotlight.

Rachel moves from New York to Seoul with her younger sister, Leah, and her parents to pursue an idol life. Rachel's mom does not support her dreams and forces her to live at home instead of the trainee dorms and pressures her to perfectly maintain a standard school experience. This special treatment causes problems with the other trainees.  

Fellow trainee, Mina, will stop at nothing to sabotage Rachel and make her look bad. She leads the other female trainees to make Rachel's life a living Hell, even calling her "Princess Rachel" for being considered the pampered American at DB Entertainment. 

Even up to the final chapters, there's plenty of twists and events that appear to be far fetched, but knowing Jessica experienced idol life firsthand leaves me to wonder how much is based on reality. Many aspects and characters used have close similarities to her time with Girls' Generation and SM Entertainment that Shine might actually be an autobiography in disguise. The novel touches on pressure to be perfect, strict company rules, backstabbing, and double standards between male and female idols. 

I personally enjoyed every chapter of Shine. Some parts reminded me of a Korean TV drama or fan fiction with how over the top it could be at times, but I didn't mind it one bit. Readers who are familiar with K-pop and Korean terms will have no trouble understanding all of the lingo Jessica uses. Those who are not may be confused at times although the accompanying context can help explain what is being said. As I drew closer to finishing the book I felt that there were too many loose ends remaining but to my surprise everything played out perfectly, setting up the story for her sequel, Bright.

Overall, Shine is packed with lots of drama that keeps readers turning pages until the end. It's easy to pick up but super hard to put down.