Fangirls Gone Off the Deep End
Sometimes, you read a book and it's just a little too real and freaks you out a bit. Kill The Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky was that book for me. In it, four fangirls do some insane things, all in the name of their favorite band. Now, I'm quite a bit of a fangirl myself- I can talk for literally hours discussing whether Snape was a good guy or a bad guy (he's so awful guys come on) or if Aaron Burr was a sociopath or just misguided (the jury's still out on this one). But these girls take being fans to a whole other level.
The book begins with four girls, drawn together in fandom- Isabel, Erin, Apple, and our narrator, whose real name I don't think we ever actually found out. Whenever she introduced herself to other characters, she used a name from an 80s movie. Quirky, but it creates an unreliable narrator. These four teenaged girls are enormous fans of a British boy band called "The Ruperts". Yep, all four members are named Rupert. It got a bit confusing referring to them as "Rupert [insert last initial here]." When the boys come to New York for a Thanksgiving special, the girls book a room at the hotel the boys are staying in. Then, somehow, unexpectedly, they manage to kidnap one. Of course, it's not the cute one or the talented one or the adorably dumb one. Nope, they manage to kidnap the most useless Rupert. He juggles. What comes after the kidnapping is what made this book insane. Could these four teenage fans actually kill the boy band? (As a concept, not as people.)
As you can probably tell, I have some issues with this book. For one, our narrator is unreliable. We never know her name, and by the end of the book even her sanity is called into question. It makes you think too hard and distrust everything. Besides the narrator problem, none of the characters were really likable. I suppose that was the point, but there wasn't really anyone that I could relate to at all. I was also vaguely uncomfortable throughout the book because there was so much cursing. I don't think I've ever read a book with more f-bombs in it, and I've read a lot of books. Seriously, I don't think anyone actually curses as much as these girls did. The book was also very repetitive. We would hear what the narrator was thinking over and over, and she never thought anything new. Even when she did, she didn't act upon it. It was frustrating.
In the end, this book had a crazy plot that kept me reading. The characters made me vaguely uncomfortable and weren't likable in the least bit. There was way too much cursing, and I just didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would.
Plot: B+
Characters: C
Book Overall: C+
The book begins with four girls, drawn together in fandom- Isabel, Erin, Apple, and our narrator, whose real name I don't think we ever actually found out. Whenever she introduced herself to other characters, she used a name from an 80s movie. Quirky, but it creates an unreliable narrator. These four teenaged girls are enormous fans of a British boy band called "The Ruperts". Yep, all four members are named Rupert. It got a bit confusing referring to them as "Rupert [insert last initial here]." When the boys come to New York for a Thanksgiving special, the girls book a room at the hotel the boys are staying in. Then, somehow, unexpectedly, they manage to kidnap one. Of course, it's not the cute one or the talented one or the adorably dumb one. Nope, they manage to kidnap the most useless Rupert. He juggles. What comes after the kidnapping is what made this book insane. Could these four teenage fans actually kill the boy band? (As a concept, not as people.)
As you can probably tell, I have some issues with this book. For one, our narrator is unreliable. We never know her name, and by the end of the book even her sanity is called into question. It makes you think too hard and distrust everything. Besides the narrator problem, none of the characters were really likable. I suppose that was the point, but there wasn't really anyone that I could relate to at all. I was also vaguely uncomfortable throughout the book because there was so much cursing. I don't think I've ever read a book with more f-bombs in it, and I've read a lot of books. Seriously, I don't think anyone actually curses as much as these girls did. The book was also very repetitive. We would hear what the narrator was thinking over and over, and she never thought anything new. Even when she did, she didn't act upon it. It was frustrating.
In the end, this book had a crazy plot that kept me reading. The characters made me vaguely uncomfortable and weren't likable in the least bit. There was way too much cursing, and I just didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would.
Plot: B+
Characters: C
Book Overall: C+
(picture courtesy of observer.com)
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