Kill The Boy Band: A Fangirl Horror Story
- K.
- Nov 19, 2019
- 3 min read
Ok so first things first, I lied. Although I was reading Stephanie Perkins There’s Someone Inside Your House, the guilt from not finishing the book I’ve been trying to tackle for the past, say, three months got to me. As a result, the first book review will be of Goldy Moldavsky’s Kill The Boy Band.
According to Amazon, I’ve had this book on my iPad since December 28th, 2017. My cousin recommended it to me because she, as many people who know me do, understands that I am deep in the world of boy bands. I have been since probably junior high. Although I was more into handsome anime characters back then, boy bands and idol groups have always had a special place in my heart. In fact, last week I went to see KPop “supergroup” SuperM at their Chicago show. So yes, I was, and continue to be, deep in this fandom shit.
Also I’m a nerd and can’t go two seconds without wondering why fandoms exist, why celebrity exists, and why people get so intense about both. So, this book, which takes a comedic look at that, was right up my alley!
Kill The Boyband follows the story of an unnamed fan of The Ruperts, a fictional boyband that takes clear inspiration from One Direction. The fan has journeyed to a hotel in Manhattan with three of her friends and fellow Rupert fans, Erin, Isabel, and Apple. Each of the four have their crazy fangirl stories (ie. Isabel is infamous for being an aggressive death threatener and gossip blogger), but what happens over the course of the plot is next level. The story begins when we find out the four have successfully kidnapped one of the Ruperts, and ends with a confession to the police.
Yeah, it’s a ride. And kind of a clunky one, if you ask me. The story is told from the perspective of a fifteen year old girl, whose voice Moldavsky nails, but the main character’s penchant for tangents and portraying other characters in her world as cartoonishly evil or just cartoonish worked at the expense of an actually compelling story. The book has trouble with tone, and I wasn’t totally sure how I was supposed to feel when certain (spoilery) things would happen. The narrator is unreliable, which is fun and fine, but there’s a pretty consistent mixing of tones in the way scenes are presented, which left me entertained, but confused. There’s also some #problematic things, like the muscle character Isabel being Dominican and coming from a family with an alleged criminal history, or the majority of Apple’s character centering around her weight and her general lack of appeal.
What Moldavsky excels in is her portrait of the fangirl. The four main characters are separate from the wild screaming mass outside the hotel, which they continually look down on, and their hypocrisy is self-evident. Fangirls don’t want to be ~those fangirls~. They think of themselves as the good ones, until they aren’t. And our four really aren’t. The characters toe the line between loving and reviling the band, one evoking the title to explain her desire for revenge. The story leaves you wondering, what do people actually get out of fandom? Is it just catchy music, good stories, a community? Is it a dopamine rush followed by a painful crash? Is it mind numbing entertainment? Is it good? Is it bad?
All in all I can’t say I recommend this novel despite the interesting questions it proposes. What it lacks ultimately overshadows what it doesn’t, which makes it not a super fun read outside of a few chuckles at the dark humor and ridiculousness. If that’s your cup of tea, then go for it! I’ll be looking elsewhere.
3.5 weeping fangirls out of 5.
This was Moldavsky’s first novel. Her writing was fun, so I’ll be checking her out in the future.
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