Jessica Jung

Crazy Rich Asians meets Gossip Girl by way of Jenny Han in this knock-out debut about a Korean American teen who is thrust into the competitive, technicolor world of K-pop, from Jessica Jung, K-pop legend and former lead singer of one of the most influential K-pop girl groups of all time, Girls Generation. What would you give for a chance to live your dreams? For seventeen-year-old Korean American Rachel Kim, the answer is almost everything. Six years ago, she was recruited by DB Entertainment—one of Seoul’s largest K-pop labels, known for churning out some of the world’s most popular stars. The rules are simple: Train 24/7. Be perfect. Don’t date. Easy right? Not so much. As the dark scandals of an industry bent on controlling and commodifying beautiful girls begin to bubble up, Rachel wonders if she’s strong enough to be a winner, or if she’ll end up crushed… Especially when she begins to develop feelings for K-pop star and DB golden boy Jason Lee. It’s not just that he’s charming, sexy, and ridiculously talented. He’s also the first person who really understands how badly she wants her star to rise. Get ready as Jessica Jung, K-pop legend and former lead singer of Korea’s most famous girl group, Girls Generation, takes us inside the luxe, hyper-color world of K-pop, where the stakes are high, but for one girl, the cost of success—and love—might be even higher. It’s time for the world to see: this is what it takes to SHINE.

Shine

Gelaine Trinidad

Bria

I really tried to get into this because I looooove Jessica. She was always my favorite from SNSD. But I just couldn’t. 

I love that she called out the industry and all the problems that idols in training have to deal with, but I just couldn’t get into it. Maybe I’m just in a slump.

Maui S.

Very much enjoyed this book. I'm excited to find out what happens next in the series.

From internationally renowned K-pop legend Jessica Jung comes a fresh YA novel that peels back the curtain on the intense world of K-pop from the perspective of a Korean American girl, like Jessica, who is scouted off the street and thrust into an unknown world of competition, strict training and wild fame. What would you give for a chance to live your dreams? For seventeen-year-old Korean American Rachel Kim, the answer is almost everything. Six years ago, she was recruited by DB Entertainment - one of Seoul's largest K-pop labels, known for churning out some of the world's most popular stars. The rules are simple: Train 24/7. Be perfect. Don't date. Easy right? Not so much. As the dark scandals of an industry bent on controlling and commodifying beautiful girls begin to bubble up, Rachel wonders if she's strong enough to be a winner, or if she'll end up crushed . . . Especially when she begins to develop feelings for K-pop star and DB golden boy Jason Lee. It's not just that he's charming, sexy and ridiculously talented. He's also the first person who really understands how badly she wants her star to rise.

Winona 

I really, really wanted to like this book. I have been a fan of Jessica Jung ever since I discovered Girls' Generation's "Gee" when I was 13 years old. I followed her fansites, was the OP for her thread on OneHallyu, and stopped listening to GG after 9/30. Her voice is still one of my favourite voices ever and I can't wait for her rumoured new R&B album. Jessica is a woman of many talents from singing to fashion designing.

But this book? It was ass.

Ivy X

"Didn't anyone ever tell you? This glamour? This fame? It's all an illusion set up by the label. The execs. And then they'll take everything away from you, framing you as an irresponsible, high-maintenance diva, so that no other label will want to touch you with a ten-foot pole." 

Interesting read. This def focused more on the trainee life as opposed to the life of a Kpop star. While some tropes felt like guilty pleasures (such as standing up to bullies, performing better than competitors, etc), this book read as a middle-school read. It followed a basic YA base and it was a fast, easy read. Some parts were cringy and the logic didn't fully flow throughout either. 

Why would Rachel be getting herself in trouble in this way and then cry over how important this is to her? It seemed contradictory to put yourself at risk of not debuting by going for someone who has already debuted (especially when another trainee is already out to destroy your life). 
Also, how did Rachel manage to debut at the end anyway after the drinking/drugged video of her from the beginning of the book. I feel like that would've been game over. 

Also, why is Jason relevant? He sounds so odd and unreliable & I wasn't interested in him in the slightest. 
Where was Mina's redemption arc? It doesn't make sense how she's going to keep acting the way she is now that they're debuting & why she's planning on sabotaging Rachel. You bring down Rachel, you bring down yourself and the whole group. But then again, this may be to highlight how bullying is prevalent within the industry (even amongst groups that appear to get along on TV). 

Not my cup of tea tbh but entertaining and very quick read (sped through this in a day)

light and fun. was it good? no.

it reminded of a k-drama but maybe i was just annoyed at the romance plot. that's ok, it is just not for me. good filler to help me towards my reading goal (on which i am about to dunk 97 volumes of one piece but hush).

Adrianne

First of all, let me tell you why I picked up this book. I was hoping for a sweet K-drama-like romance with a K-pop setting. I love K-pop music, even though I am not a big fan of the industry itself and how the trainees are rumoured to be treated. Big companies relying on young talents to put money into old men’s pockets. However, this book confused me to no end.
We do get all the gory details about the industry: underage wannabe stars getting plastic surgeries, crazy restrictive diets and penalties for anything less than a perfect image, punching stomachs for strengthening the diaphragms and lots of others. 

I was expecting all that going into the book, even though I do not agree with it. Ultimately, it’s all these kid’s parents that are to blame, and sometimes it’s their only way to ensure a decent life.
However, the writing in this book was awful. Lots of grammar mistakes, to the point I wasn’t even surprised anymore. The story was not a romance at all, but a guidebook on how to succeed in life by becoming a bitch to everyone around you, including your family. This whole story was a poor rendition of ‘Mean girls’ with all the women hating each other and being jealous of each other’s successes. It also points out on the difference in treatment towards male and female idols. Mainly how the female idols are working hard and still make mistakes, while male idols are lazy, don’t work at all and still manage to perform flawlessly. This double standard, and all these other issues were not addressed in the end, which leads me to believe that the author of this ‘fictional’ story aimed at young adult readers is fine with all this and does not believe this should be changed. 
The main character. Rachel, was the most gullible and stupid heroine I came across in a long while. It seemed like after 6 years of being a trainee and working in this industry she knew nothing about it, and everything around her was a shock to her, even though everybody was warning her it took days, sometimes weeks for her to realise what these people meant. Her love interest, Jason, was even more naive, and quite frankly, as childish, lazy and unprofessional as he was, I could not understand his successful career. 

Finally, let me just touch upon the writing itself. I already mentioned the mistakes, but the story was simply boring. Pointless confrontations and doing makeovers, changing outfits and eating food... and repeat. The author desperately tried to create situations which in my opinion would not have happened in real life. They were there to further the plot.
Let me give you an example. In one chapter the trainees performing were supposed to take care of their costumes, but in the following chapter all of a sudden there were assistants doing that for them. Obviously, when they did it themselves something very bad happened and it served the plot. So what were these assistants doing on that day? Did they all have a day off? 

I had such great hopes for this book, so disappointing.

Jennifer

I listen to Jessica Jung's music sometimes for fun and I have some basic understanding of the toxic music industry of K-Pop (and how much the K-Pop group members had to go through). There's no denying that Jessica Jung is a very solid singer, however her experience didn't translate successfully to a good story inspired by her musical training - and there are a lot of glaring holes and technical shortcomings in Shine.

I must say that this is a pretty easy read (I've managed to finish this in a single sitting in less than 2 hours). It's also helps that there's this pastel and sparkly understone through the backdrop - so if there's something that pushed me to read this in one go, it's definitely the candy-coloured K-Pop world. Similarly, I also managed to refresh some of my distant knowledge (I had a classmate who's really into K-Pop and it prompted my music teacher to talk about K-Pop at class) regarding ot the type of experience of what K-Pop singers are expected to go through - on top of the shiny glossing there's a lot of calculated moves concerning on how well the songs sell to the public.

On the flipside, there's a lot of issues in the writing - and it's the main reason why it's given a 2-star rating despite me reading it in one go. Firstly, the characters seem more like caricatures rather than proper characters. The character development is simply inaddquate and it leads to a pretty predictable plotline where I knew who exactly is against Rachel. I find myself not really connecting with the characters because they don't feel really relatable or human to me. Moreover, there's also room for improvement with regards to the plot. I felt like everything went downhill after the insta-love happened. There isn't enough on how Rachel & Jason warmed up with each other and the fact the romance overtook everything else left me thinking that Shine literally gave up somewhere 1/3 through. So yeah, it would had been better if the relationship is slowed down a bit and more is explored in the character growth.

Last but not least, I was also lowkey triggered by the multiple mentions of vomit & alcohol throughout the Shine. I felt like these details are absolutely unnecessarily and no thanks - it just made me wonder out of all of the other potential tensions that Jessica could had used instead she still reserved to these which seemed not only gross but also pretty unrealistic. 

To summarise, Shine is just a shiny gloss on the surface but scratching beneath its glossy surface it's riddled with a lot of technical writing issues & it also suffered from too much telling and lack of subtle showing.

Euodias

Very easy to read. But it reads just like a Wattpad fanfic. 

"Do you want me to serenade you like that?" 

"Are you tired? Cause you've been running through my mind all day" 

The storyline was pretty shallow and the plot was all over the place. The writing style was quite a disappointment as well. I expected it to be more sophisticated but I found the dialogue to be rather cringy and there was barely any character development throughout the book as well. The same goes for the chemistry between Rachel & Jason. Non-existent. 

I personally wouldn't recommend it unless you're a fan and want to show your support to the author.

Juliette Raven 

I'm so disappointed, this book definitely let me down...

It shows some of the flaws of Kpop misogyny, use of scandals, etc... 

But really the way girls act around each other in this book is just awful I really hated this type of scene I understand the competition between them and the fact that you can't like everyone but it was really exaggerated. 

A lot in this book was exaggerated, Jason character was just too good to be true some scenes seem directly from fairy tales or cliché cringy romance. 

This book was rather unrealistic and I hated most of the characters.

laura

I got this book for review and would give it 3.5 for review*

I really enjoyed this take on the K Pop word and the glitzy world but also the harshness of this world. I also did really like the romance that did develop in this book, it took a odd turn at the end that i did not expect. It was a super fast pace read and i wish the ending had been fleshed out a tad more. I am excited to see where book 2 goes.

Elska Bee

A fun read overall, but it was a pretty mediocre book.

The good:
- The actual writing was pretty decent, not standout, but not bad for a cheesy teen novel

- Not as childish as I was worried. there's teen drinking, swearing, and real-world problems among all the over the top k-pop drama

- Much of the 'over the top' drama was pretty entertaining despite being unrealistic at times

- The main characters weren't entirely one dimensional throughout
(notice how the praise is very measured?)

The not so good:
- With all the over the top drama, it felt like it would've worked better as a k-drama (which based on the acknowledgments at the end seems to be the goal). It couldn't decide how realistic it wanted to be and made for a bit of a confused tone. It could have been an entertaining melodramatic story OR it could have been a more realistic story of a girl struggling to achieve her dreams depending entirely on the chapter. I don't mind a mix, but I wish this novel had a clearer identity.

- VERY fan-ficcy. By which I mean there were many tropes that were distractingly cliche. For example: describing outfits constantly, random insertions of Korean language that seemed out of place, describing luxury experiences without having any real meaning behind them. All three of those things at the very least could have been worked into the story better or even just left out 50% of the time.

- Although the main three characters (Rachel, Jason, and Mina) were not 1D they weren't exactly 3D either. The other background characters suffer more, almost all of them being very 1D throughout. This book subscribes to the notion that in teen media every character is the best friend or worst enemy and it gets tired pretty quickly.

- Short. I don't think I would want it longer, but some things felt rushed, especially the ending. I know there's a sequel planned for next year and some of the stuff at the end could have been pushed into the sequel rather than being tacked on in the last chapter.

Overall:
I didn't hate reading this book and at times could be entertaining, but it has a confused identity and some tropes that stop it from being a more unique and interesting story. I'd probably read the sequel when it comes out out of curiosity, but I wouldn't be rushing to recommend this to anyone. I think the target audience of teen girls interested in kpop may find it more enjoyable than I did though.

sera

3.75, had a great time. This is like a light short kdrama series with not so typical happy ending where the boy gets the girl. It's not sugarcoated, it is what it is. Love the family dynamic which reflects the real life Jung family relationship.

Shine (Export)

Shirley Krijnen

Such a fun book! I liked the look into the k-pop trainee world and experience how toxic it can be, I mean talk about DOUBLE STANDARDS towards women. I do feel like some topics could be delved into deeper, like the xenophobia, toxic diet culture and plastic surgery obsession to name a few.

the overall plot was enjoyable but the romance wasn't. Insta love with an asshole who doesn't see the toxic things happening right in front of him? No thank you. The jumps in pacing were a bit choppy, but didn't bother me too much until the second half of the book.

Some characters definitely make for an interesting sequel, I'm looking at you mina you had me raging. It was interesting to follow Rachel's story and her commitment to k-pop but her like some other characters felt a bit flat at times.


I'm interested too see were the sequel takes the story.
Definitely a fun quick read for a k-pop fan!

Katie

Reading Shine felt just like I was watching a teen movie from the 2010's, and it probably would have worked better that way.

It was a fairly quick and easy read. Everything is pretty predictable and nothing is too complicated. Some of the insights into the K-pop industry were really interesting, but it never seems to get that deep (not sure if that's because Jessica can't get that deep, or if it's because she wanted to keep it mostly lighthearted for a YA book). I did like the main character, Rachel, overall, though she was frustrating with her communication issues (Poor Akari... what was even the point of her character other than to show Rachel is an asshole?). Mina was probably the most interesting of the bunch, but even then she was just painted as a stereotypical rival/villain, and idk... I know it's bound to be common in the K-pop industry, but I'm just so tired of reading about women hating on or sabotaging other women. Rachel and Mina reached a point about halfway through the book where they seemed to have formed some sort of rapport with each other, and it was almost immediately undone.

The main love interest, Jason, was also ridiculously perfect as if he had been sculpted by God himself. It was honestly to the point that it was annoying. Especially when he was doing things like straight out of dramas, like flying out the girls for a day trip to Japan and serenading Rachel with a "boombox," I really can't do anything but cringe. Maybe I'm just too old to enjoy that sort of thing now, I'm sure I would have been crazy about him if I'd read this book as a preteen or teenager.

I really like the idea of former K-pop idols breaking into the publishing industry and writing more books. But Shine just wasn't for me. If the sequel changes things drastically and focuses more on Rachel's individual journey, I'll bite. Otherwise, it's a pass from me.

Shine

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