As soon as I found this book online, I knew I had to read it - I mean, come on, boybands and a queer main character? It felt exactly up my alley, and I really enjoyed this story!!

As someone who has been a fan of a boyband for many years now (albeit in very different terms, since K-Pop is a unique scene in and of itself) and is engaging with fan culture on a daily basis as a result, I really appreciated the exploration into how demanding and toxic fans can be, and how that directly affects the artists that they claim to love. We've all seen the mobs, artists getting followed to their hotels, them being chased around public streets and tossed around like a puppet while surrounded by "fans", the purity culture that becomes an unspoken rule, the inappropriate tweets and messages that still get sent in spite of that - I feel like this book captures the less positive aspects of being in the public eye very well.

Add being a queer teenager to all that? And it all gets so much harder. It's no wonder that Hunter feels this overwhelming amount of pressure from trying to cope with all of it. Not only that, but constantly needing to uphold an image that sells rather than being himself definitely didn't help, either.

While all of this remains true, I also love that the book showed us how great being in the band is for him, and Hunter's relationship with his bandmates is what sold it entirely for me. His relationship with Kaivan was absolutely a plus, don't get me wrong, but it's his friendship with the other boys that ultimately keeps him going, and reassures him that he's on the right path. It's knowing that he doesn't always have to shoulder everything alone, that he has a support system around him that he can take advantage of and communicate better with, that pulls Hunter back to the surface, and I'm such a sucker for strong friendships in books, did you know, probably yes 😭

All in all, this was super fun and easy to read! Don't let the dates fool you - I started it at the beginning of the month, and then blasted through the last 3/4ths of it today. Not a perfect book by any means, but I enjoyed myself a lot, and I will be using the "freckles itching/burning" line for the rest of my life!

Last but not least: BE GAY DO CRIME!!!!!