Lyla Lee

The world of K-Pop has never met a star like this. Debut author Lyla Lee delivers a deliciously fun, thoughtful rom-com celebrating confidence and body positivity--perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Julie Murphy. Skye Shin has heard it all. Fat girls shouldn't dance. Wear bright colors. Shouldn't call attention to themselves. But Skye dreams of joining the glittering world of K-Pop, and to do that, she's about to break all the rules that society, the media, and even her own mother, have set for girls like her. She'll challenge thousands of other performers in an internationally televised competition looking for the next K-pop star, and she'll do it better than anyone else. When Skye nails her audition, she's immediately swept into a whirlwind of countless practices, shocking performances, and the drama that comes with reality TV. What she doesn't count on are the highly fat-phobic beauty standards of the Korean pop entertainment industry, her sudden media fame and scrutiny, or the sparks that soon fly with her fellow competitor, Henry Cho. But Skye has her sights on becoming the world's first plus-sized K-pop star, and that means winning the competition--without losing herself.

I'll Be the One

Stef

jess

I'll Be the One was simply an incredible delight to read. I've recently gotten into K-pop, so this book came at the right time for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. It's been a while since read such a fun romcom, and this book definitely hit everything I love from a fun YA romcom. 

Skye was a joy to read about and I truly I wish I was like her--she's so self-confident, determined, and driven in everything she does during this book, and she doesn't let anyone get to her, and I found it so admirable. I loved seeing a plus-size, bisexual, Korean-American teen who loves dance, and my teen self definitely could have used Skye as a role model. I loved Henry as well, a lot more than I was expecting to. Like, he was cute and dorky and funny, and Skye and Henry had so much chemistry together. 

I also liked that the book talks about the extreme beauty standards in the Korean music industry without making it too heavy. I've seen some harrowing stories from Kpop--notably Momo from TWICE was told to lose 7kg (over 15lb) in a week, which by the way, is physically impossible for literally anyone, I did the math. What Skye goes through from people, especially Bora, is harsh, but I'm glad that Lyla Lee doesn't gloss over it. But it's done in a way that shows body positivity, which I love. 

I'll Be the One is an absolutely delightful, positive, and fun rom-com about K-pop that I think a lot of people will love, and it's such a great feel-good book. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on Lyla Lee's future books.

Latitude Tamarind

I was Too Old for this book, but it was cute!

Debbi

The world of K-Pop has never met a star like this. Debut author Lyla Lee delivers a deliciously fun, thoughtful rom-com celebrating confidence and body positivity—perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Julie Murphy. Skye Shin has heard it all. Fat girls shouldn’t dance. Wear bright colors. Shouldn’t call attention to themselves. But Skye dreams of joining the glittering world of K-Pop, and to do that, she’s about to break all the rules that society, the media, and even her own mother, have set for girls like her. She’ll challenge thousands of other performers in an internationally televised competition looking for the next K-pop star, and she’ll do it better than anyone else. When Skye nails her audition, she’s immediately swept into a whirlwind of countless practices, shocking performances, and the drama that comes with reality TV. What she doesn’t count on are the highly fat-phobic beauty standards of the Korean pop entertainment industry, her sudden media fame and scrutiny, or the sparks that soon fly with her fellow competitor, Henry Cho. But Skye has her sights on becoming the world’s first plus-sized K-pop star, and that means winning the competition—without losing herself.

review posted on 5th july but i actually finished the book quite a while ago and have been trying to pull my thoughts about it together. what i will do is first talk about my impressions, some key topics i think we need to discuss and finish with my critic's picks from live-tweeting this on my kpop stan account.

overall i found this to be a lot of fun and a very light read. the writing style felt a bit childish at times but i fully understand that i am a 27yo woman so i have little place to be stating this a critique - just a heads up for any of my kpop loving mutuals who might want to check it out. it was super quick to read, perfect for summer and i found the characters super lovable.

obviously, one of the main topics is fatphobia in the industry and (perhaps) the korean community / society. i did not find it particularly triggering, as someone who has been the subject of fatphobia and who still struggles with their eating habits. however, i would like to go further into my thoughts about this. some spoilers possible ahead.


tw for fatphobia and weight issues 

the mc, skye, is many times the subject of body and weight shaming. i found this particularly relatable in how it is reflected in her relationship with her mother. it reminded me that, as one tumblr post went, women often are matryoshkas of generational trauma - women carry their mothers' trauma who carry their mothers' trauma who carry their mothers' trauma. and in that, i somewhat understood where her mother's fear were coming from.

however, what i disagreed is with the fact that this came directly from her mother being a former fat girl. yes, there is a side where she doesn't want her daughter to experience the bullying she'd been subjected to, i see that. and i understand i come from a different culture and i am a different person but, at the same time, i cannot imagine wanting to subject your child to the same restrictive diets and exercise, especially when they are so evidently healthy and athletic. it is just not something i would do. but i cannot say which narrative - of the mother learning to treasure her daughter for what she is and being challenged for it or having an accepting mother who does not unload her trauma onto her kid is more valuable.

that being said, i found it interesting that the only person publicly bullying sky for her weight was... a female idol. obviously, this is not my culture so correct me if i am wrong but in the five years of following the korean entertainment industry, particularly kpop, it's not female idols who have all had to undergo horrific diets bodyshaming other girls, at least not in public. it's usually old ugly men - like shindong, yang hyunsik; literally the other day a clip surfaced of jyp criticising a 17yo contestant - 17!! - for her weight and giving the exact same arguments bora was giving. it is maybe a confirmation bias - so once again, feel free to correct me and point me to examples - but i have seen many female idols like amber (standing up for 19yo sulli), sistar, tzuyu (17yo tzuyu talking about how it's normal for her and her bandmates around her age to have fat / baby fat) trying to support and uplift each other. it is something that greatly disappointed me to see from an idol of (presumably) the same generation as f(x), sistar and 2ne1.

having only women comment on skye's weight and the one female judge manipulate to get her off the dancing part of the competition just feels a tad too internalised misogyny for my taste, to be honest.

 end of tw


so now onto more fun stuff, please enjoy my kpoppie commentary:

> the mention of bts so much was annoying. all my homies hate bts, we have progressed past that because glamorising the atomic bomb, sampling jim jones in our tracks, etc., etc. does not sit right with us. grow up.

> "your group has been assigned idol by bts." thoughts and prayers for those people's ear drums, that song is ugly.

> favourite rappers mentioned are rm, dean and zico to which i say, overrated, not a rapper but an r&b artist, revenge porn distributor in cahoots with criminals whose songs are not worth your integrity

> london in a line up for places with kpop concerts when we only started getting big artist names last year... i wish

> henry really said rm is his favourite rapper and then went onto perform cherry bomb which has one of mark lee's - and kpop's - best verses. ok

> "nct 127 is a pretty big group, and henry somehow channels the energy of all ten members into his performance" nct have never performed cherry bomb as ten and i can't imagine why you'd want weishennies on your ass but go on

> i understand that skye chose chungha's gotta go because chungha is a dance-oriented performer but chungha also has a naturally high and nasal pitch without a big range - you literally end up showing? what exactly?

> imani choosing to perform ace's cactus bringing us some nugu realness and upping the level - big brain energy

> imani calling out the kpop industry and the fan community for treating black people in them like shit while also owing a lot of black people and their culture - incredibly important, especially when they got praised by the ny post for their blm "activism" in the same week they doxxed a black woman for disliking a song and kept find reasons why black composers / producers should not be paid what they're owed :) i hate y'all, i'm not going to lie :)

anyways, this is all. if you are looking for this kind of book, i'd recommend reading this over jessica's book even though i am sure her ghost writer truly deserves their pay!

Allyson Meyer

4.5 stars but goodreads doesn’t let me give half stars :’)

Oh. My. God. Jag är helt speechless. Enda sedan jag hörde talas om boken på bok-Instagram har jag velat läsa den. I ärlighetens namn var det då mest för att det handlar om K-Pop, men nu är det ändrat. Boken är så himla mycket mer än en bok om K-Pop. Kroppspositivitet, självsäkerhet, vänrelationer, familj. Jag läste hela boken på en dag, och den var inte tråkig en enda sida. Något hände alltid och jag var aldrig uttråkad. Den var aldrig förutsägbar, vilket jag älskar böcker som inte är!!

En helt klar femma, en helt klar ny favoritbok!! 5/5!

adeline 

this book is absolute perfection. I loved Skye so much, I loved Henry, I loved the relationship between Lana and Tiffany, and i loved Imani. I can’t wait to read everything else this author chooses to put out

Liz Whitehead

Amanda Machado

This is a cute YA book, suited more for the high school student it's most likely intended for. As I was reading, I noticed the language and vocab used leaned more towards teen readers (which is fine, just something  I spotted early on.) I love the representation that is cloaked in this novel- bisexuality rep, a wlw couple, the MC is a first gen Korean girl, body positivity/fat acceptance. Skye tries out for a K pop compeition, both as a dancer and a singer & we get to experience her thoughts about the whole experience in a short time frame. My only gripe I think with this book was the love interest for Skye aka Henry Cho. I didn't really see the chemistry between them. 

Marie S

This book made me cry and laugh and smile and scream. I loved the main characters so much. Skye is everything I'm looking for in a YA main character. Her mom is one of the worst character I've ever read about, but she's so true and realistic and well-written. 
This book broke my heart into millions of pieces, it was relatable, it was fresh, it was full of sentences about my favourite music bands. 
I needed to read this book. I really did.

Alice

If you're looking for a book to take the stress off your mind, you've found the right one!

Cute, bubbly, deliciously positivity-driven, I'll Be the One is like a ball of sweet, girly energy to hold in your hands. 

Does it have the best writing style? Not my fav. Is it the most creative rom-com ever? Not really. But is it a quick, light summer read with cute characters, an interesting setting, and a satisfying ending? You bet it is!

A++ for the sprinkle of queerness (I'm a Lana and Tiffany fan). The bi inclusion made my heart flutter. And! The! Body! Positivity! YES! Thank you, Skye, for being the iconic queen you are.

Look, if I have to choose something really disappointing about this book it's that Skye isn't an irl person. Do you know how many times I had to stop myself from looking her up to watch her dances and hear her voice? I can't follow her on social media to be inspired by her self-confidence and that sucks.

This book is probably not for you if you're expecting a fierce focus on the show/competition or a challenging read, but if you've got a couple of days to fill with something sweet, then consider I'll Be the One.

Blog | Twitter | Pinterest

mia.

cossette

many thanks to delaney for recommending this one to me! 🤍 

content warnings: fatphobia, parental emotional abuse, queerphobia, cyber bullying, mentions of dieting

Katie

Even if you know nothing about K-pop, this book still has tons to love. I am one of those people who knows nothing, and obviously I loved this book.

Following Skye as she competes in a contest to become the next big K-pop star was magical. The big conflict is centered around Skye's weight, since many people, including judges in the competition and even her own mother, don't think that fat people can be successful. And before anyone comes at me, I will use a quote that I myself have said for a while, as well as it actually being in the book: "Fat is not a bad word." It's just a descriptor! Skye works her ass off to prove herself, all while trying to change the culture around her.

There's also a super sweet and cute romance, and this book has so much diversity! It's not always a central focus, which in my opinion is how it should be. People's identities don't need to be a big deal, they just ARE. There were so many wonderful, supportive friendships, and while there was "girl hate," it wasn't really that. Skye didn't dislike the popular girl for no reason; the popular girl said and did many rude things that justified Skye's negative opinion of her.

Anyway, we stan body positivity, which this book is chock full of. I've recently fallen down the rabbit hole of body positive youtubers, so I recommend Sierra Schultzzie and Carrie Dayton if you need a little confidence boost, as well as reading this book!

Jane The Bookaholic

⭐️ 3 Stars ⭐️

I love that there’s a book about kpop and kpop reality shows, but overall, this book wasn’t the best. Nothing was really deep and I felt a lack of reality in the story. 

The story of sky is nice, but not very realistic. Her character is so confident, and everything goes so easy for her, when in reality, life aren’t like this. Where’s the struggle? Why everything is so positive? 
In the real kpop world things aren’t like that, and I wanted to see more of this REAL kpop world, to see more of the real life problems. 
This book could discuss on so many important points, it had a huge potential, but in the end, I felt like the author is trying to sell me a perfect world, that doesn’t really represent the real one. 
The book could be better without the romance. 

I’d recommend this book to teens in the ages of 12-16, because it will make them more confident and happy about themselves. I do think sky is a good character to look up at, and to aim to be like her - but for the rest, more old readers, this will just feel too childish.

Lena

Really struggled to rate this one. While I loved everything it was trying to do, and it did make it's points very well, it just felt a bit empty to me. Fell a little flat.

We skipped through so much of Skye's life, characters felt underdeveloped, and relationships didn't seem to get enough attention. I think the book could have used some more pages to be a bit more fleshed out. 

I think especially the bisexuality aspect could have had a bit more time and care put into it. I felt like I got more insight on the supporting characters experiences with sexuality than the main character's. I don't mean to sound too harsh as I really did enjoy this book but Skye was so desperate to prove to everyone that she was more than just fat but to me it felt like that was all she really spoke about. There wasn't time for the rest of her life. 

Was a quick fun read though, would still definitely recommend!!

Mandy Friedrich

I loved everything about this book, it amazes me that it is so underrated!!

Taylor McNeely

I’ll Be the One was the cutest book I’ve read all year! It was just the book to get me out of a mini audiobook slump that I was in. I have loved Korean culture like music and dramas for about 11 years now so all the Korean culture, especially the older kpop songs Lee incorporated into the entertainment show scenes made me smile throughout this book.
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It is also deals with the horrible expectations idols and anyone trying to become one have to go through enable to be famous and how it affects their mental health. Don’t even get me started about how mental health is NOT treated properly or even talked about in the Korean entertainment scene.
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All in all though, I loved the main characters, Skye and Henry, who are just so freaking adorable, both separately and together but also the look into the different prejudices Skye comes up against enable to make her dream come true.

Becca Futrell

4.5 rounded up! this is so cute & soft & I am HERE for the rep!!

Chelsea White

4.5 stars

I really loved how Skye was so sure of herself; having that confidence in high school is difficult enough! But throw in a parent who is less than supportive because of how your body looks? Whew, kudos to Skye!!!
Even though the terrible things that were said to Skye hurt to read, I DO appreciate that a majority of the “drama” wasn’t because of miscommunication (one of my least favorite tropes). Also, hell yeah bi couples!!!!

Geneviève Rouleau

THIS BOOK. I. LOVED. IT. SO. MUCH.

I wanted to laugh. Cry. Throw it in anger (because Skye's mom UGH). Giggle. Cry again. Like ALL OF THE FEELS. It was just perfect okay and I don't know how to express my feelings into words 😭💛🌈


PROs : 

• fat positivity

• SO MUCH queerness

• a "bi squared" couple 😍

• "What distinguishes tough-love parenting from abuse?" (like ... so true)

• so many Korean-American people 💛 (also white kids auditioning for a K-POP competition, like... WHY?)

• talk of fetishizing Asian people and culture

• the romance was the perfect mixture of slow burn, admiration from afar, and butterflies 

• "can I kiss you" is officially the sexiest sentence ever because CONSENT

• the perfect mix of Korean and American abbreviations/expressions 


CON :

• why did this book have to END

Belle Ellrich

*I WAS PROVIDED A DIGITAL ARC VIA EDELWEISS IN RETURN FOR MY HONEST REVIEW. THIS DOES NOT AFFECT MY OPINION*

I had mixed feelings with this book.

Having heard a lot of good things about 'I'll Be the One', I was sure that I'd end up loving it as much as everyone else was. But unfortunately, it wasn't as great as it was proclaimed to be.

For one, I think this book has fantastic representation for both Korean and LGBTQ+ readers. Lyla Lee clearly put her focus into that, and I loved seeing it. It especially made my bi heart happy to see the main character identify as bisexual, as I feel like it's still a "cautionary" sexuality amongst the YA genre.

Looking into the plot-building and character-development, though, I was less than impressed.

This book is very cliche. So cliche that mostly everything that can happen does in fact happen. It was abundantly clear that this was the case about four or five chapters into the book, and I'll admit, I almost put it down because of it.

The scenes with our MC Skye dancing and singing aren't fleshed out well enough. In fact, I'd argue that they're barely fleshed out at all. When I went into this book, I was expecting scenes filled with excitement and utter devastation on how amazing her singing and dancing were supposed to be. But, that didn't happen. Instead, we got glimpses of her competition scenes and then a few minutes of the judges giving their assessments. It was really a letdown, considering this is the main focus of the book.

Then, to make it worse, it felt like the characters were lacking a lot. Skye was a bit better than the others, but overall, it felt like I was reading a clothing line of character ideas, not actual characters.

All in all, I think this is a great book for younger-teen audiences. But when it comes to the older teens as Skye was supposed to be centered toward, this one just didn't cut it. For that, I rate it 3.25 stars. I'm hoping that when Lee releases the sequel, it will show improvement and be a lot better than this one.

Kate

This book left my heart and soul brimming with pure joy. 

- Skye was such a wonderful character with a wonderfully unique and strong voice. I adored and admired her her wit, strength, heart and refusal to change herself for anyone from the first page. Skye is the kind of character I wish I'd seen in books and the media growing up. Her attitude towards not only her body but how other perceived it was so incredibly empowering and made it all the more obvious how much we need more truly body positive characters, not only in YA, but in the media in general. As a fat, bi, Korean girl, with a powerful mindset, Skye's perspective was a breath of fresh air.

- Although this book undeniably features a lot of fatphobia, I felt as though it was dealt with superbly. It portrayed the very real way in which fatphobia is still alive and thriving in all cultures but it was never excused. It was made very clear that all the fatphobic, body shaming comments and attitudes were entirely wrong and the fact that Skye was unflinching in her positive attitude towards her body made me unbelievably happy. It was great to see both Skye herself and her friends calling out the blatant fatphobia within the competition and my heart grew every time Skye stuck up for herself and explained why she didn't need nor want to change. I loved that any conflict that Skye faced came from the outside, rather than from herself. She was truly happy and comfortable in her own skin and for me, that's what made this a true body positive read.

- The relationship between Henry and Skye was soft, adorable and peak rom-com excellence. Their chemistry and banter was perfect. With both Skye and Henry being bi (and an adorable f/f relationship between two of their friends), I thought the way Lyla Lee explored how Korean culture can still be unaccepting towards the LGBTQIA+ community was really interesting and whilst heartbreaking, also hopeful.

- Whilst the competition elements were super fun, for me, the best part of the competition were the relationships Skye forged throughout it. Her friendship with Lana and Tiffany (aka the cutest couple) was so much fun and I loved how supportive they were of each other. 

- Skye's relationship with her mother was so hard to read at times. It completely broke my heart. I'm not Korean, so I can't speak for the representation for Korean attitudes towards bodies but I thought their relationship dynamic was really interesting to follow and I felt the way the book left it fitted perfectly.

Overall, this is without a doubt one of my favourite books of 2020 and now has a comfortable home amongst my all time favourite contemporaries. I couldn't recommend this more highly. If you're looking for a diverse, fun and body positive read with the cutest relationship, supportive friendships, music, passion, adorable dog and a lot of heart, this is the book for you.

TW: fatphobia, body shaming, discussion of queerphobia

I'll Be the One

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