Superfan: A Novel

Superfan: A Novel by Jenny Tinghui Zhang

A girl is having a rough time at her first year of college at the University of Texas. She doesn't fit in well, and has few extracurriculars other than a Zine. (But even there, she keeps putting off writing.) She finds solace in a boy band she loves. This band is an American band following the Kpop model. Even further, all but one members are Asian. The girl has her favorites and spends plenty of time online following the band. It is her solace from campus life. Then things seem to put up with an upperclassman boyfriend. Alas, they come tumbling down at a party. She learns the "boyfriend" has other girls. She gets drunk and nearly raped by the boyfriend's roommate. This makes things even worse. On a fan website, she becomes associated with a group that is super involved in the boys and "stalks" them wherever they go. She decides to write her zine article on the band. Her editor has connections that allow them to get behind the scenes. She shares a message with them from the stalker group. Later she is present when somebody injures one of the members (in an attempted assault of the manager.) This causes her to cut ties with the group. She eventually gets on with her life. A few years later, they see one of the band members as a soloist.

The story of the girl is interleaved with the experiences of the band members. They all have different reasons for joining. They work extremely hard, but they are also manipulated by management. A fake gay love affair between two members is staged to gain publicity. (This was also built up by the stalker group.) It shows the dark side of idols and fandoms.

The book had great potential as both a coming of age and fandom novel. However, it went a bit too much over the deep end towards the end.