David Yoon’s latest work has much to offer readers regardless of age. Yoon takes on the theme of self-identity and how other people’s perceptions—or even how a person might think others would perceive them—can influence that person to change their own idea of self as a means to impress. Readers are given the opportunity to see both the negative and the positive effects of this played out by the protagonist, Sunny and his older brother, Gray.

The changes these characters make to their daily lifestyles force them out of their comfort zones, allowing them to try something new. These opportunities yield good and bad results; but more importantly, allow the characters to learn more about themselves along the way. Though some of these changes do cause a few rifts among their acquaintances and friends. At least for Sunny, his choices lead him to a path that will help him foster and strengthen these relationships in the long run. For Gray, the path forward is not as easy and straightforward, especially when his dreams and perceived expectations have been shot down at every turn. For Gray, it’s a matter of starting over, reassessing and rebuilding those goals for a better future, while remaining true to aspects of his former sense of self.

This is an excellent work that should engage many readers.

David Yoon’s sophomore novel is another contemporary romance with a lot of heart and involves an elaborate ruse. Super Fake Love Song follows Sunny Dae (pun always intended…I think?), a self-professed “loser” who has had no choice to accept his lowly status since middle school. Some may be bothered by the fact that Sunny calls himself a loser, but I think that it’s indicative of a great sense of self. When I was a kid, my mom told me to admit that I was indeed a loser so that bullies would stop bothering me, and not only did it work, but it taught me to not focus on popularity. This is the case for Sunny as well, until he meets effortless cool girl Cirrus, with whom he becomes instantly smitten.

I personally love stories that depict young men doing zany things in the name of love, and Super Fake Love Song really hit the spot in that department. In an attempt to impress Cirrus, Sunny claims that he is the headrunner of an up-and-coming band, and actually recruits two of his friends to form a band so that she doesn’t blow his cover. This is, of course, an elaborate ruse (I feel like Yoon is going to end up becoming known for writing elaborate ruse-y YA romance, between this and Frankly in Love), but in the process Sunny reckons with his complicated relationship with his brother Gray, who is an actual aspiring musician. Not many YA novels tackle the dynamic between brothers, so I enjoyed reading about in Super Fake Love Song.

In my review of Frankly in Love, I talked about how deftly Yoon writes about the first-generation American experience, and he does so here again. In Super Fake Love Song, Yoon tackles the perpetration of the sometimes-toxic “hustle culture” in middle-class immigrant families. I also grew up in a middle-class immigrant family, and I was inundated with many of the same messages that Sunny is: that I had to attend a decent college and work in a traditional job, that I had to maintain an impeccable public image so that I don’t risk losing job offers or connections. There are so many immigrant/first-generation American narratives out there, but never have I seen those specific experiences articulated so perfectly. Overall, this was a fun story with great themes.

<b> "I could belong to you," I said. "You could belong to me," I said. "We could belong to each other," I said." </b>

What is the most embarrassing thing you have ever done for love? For Sunny Dae, nerd 🤓 extraordinaire, it was faking being the front man of a 👨🏻‍🎤rock band in order to impress a girl. Sunny has one moment in his life that clearly defined him as a loser. This one moment cast his loserdom into cold carbonate.
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Sunny saw it all: name-calling, cafeteria tray flipping, body checks. Let me give you a Sunny Dae visual: "glowstick-green vintage Kazaa tee shirt. Cargo shorts the color, and shape, of potatoes." 🤣 Oh, boy. Well, the Dae family has family friends moving to town. The Soh's. Sunny landed orientation buddy to Cirrus Soh. Image: "ghostly girl straight out of a Japanese horror movie lurking in the dark beyond."😳 *clutches book harder with both hands*. Cirrus is cool. So, so cool. Friends all over the world. Completely dazzled by Cirrus' kaleidoscopic cosmopolitan ✌🏼cool, and here comes the L-I-E. Sunny takes on a big rock persona and ropes his best-guy friends in. Eek. They did NOT rock. They convulsed. Rock Star Sunny with a thick layer of nerd-tella on top. Does Sunny dial things back from rock star to super mega-nerd or does he get caught in his faking it to be cool?

What a delightful👏🏼 rom-com from [author:David Yoon|19377275]! Heavy on the 😂com. I LOL so hard at several scenes. "Coach Oldtimer's real name was We Did Not Care What His Real Name Was." 😂SNORT! Actual footage of me while reading Super Fake Love Song:

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I adored Sunny Dae and Gray Dae. Teeheehee. Sunny day ☀️and Gray day☁️ are a variety of cloud....and brothers. Mad respect for Sunny and his best friends: the three best friends that anyone could ever have. They were a hoot and represented 42.85714268 percent of the entire non-white population of Ruby High. Sunny and Cirrus. 🥰 Just precious! Beautiful nerds. Not one, but TWO grand-gesture moments. 👏🏼Giddy! The music mentioned *chefs kiss*: Prince, Queen, Foo Fighters, Ramones, Nirvana, Green Day, Fall Out Boy, Joan Jett, and more. If you like laughing and music, [book:Super Fake Love Song|51256637] is for you! Long live rock and roll! 👊🏼

Big thanks to Penguin Teen and David Yoon for the advanced copy! To metal! 🤘🏼

🎶 song: Somebody To Love by Queen 🎶

This was such a cute read! I really enjoyed Yoon's other work, Frankly in Love and I enjoyed this one as well! It was a predictable YA read, but sometimes that is just what one needs. I enjoyed the cultural aspects of Super Fake Love Song as well as the character growth and plot line.

The writing style wasn't really suited for me. I'm sure some teens will enjoy it but I couldn't see myself continuing and giving it a fair shot.

Well dang, if this wasn’t just a super cute YA romance/drama tailor-made to be turned into a Netflix movie in the vein of To All the Boys or The Kissing Booth.

If favorite writing couple is a thing, the Yoons are definitely mine. They both do such a great job of capturing the authenticity of the teenage years while threading in themes of identity, race, class, and parental roles. I loved the real brotherly relationship between Sunny and Gray, and the brother-like friendship between Sunny, Milo and Jamal.

It was plenty quirky with its nerdy awesomeness, dropping references about video games, LARPing and more in a style that reminded me of how Crazy Rich Asians dropped in references about fashion and fame. The mini romance itself was secondary for me but still enjoyable and endearing.

Predictable? Sure. But there’s comfort in predictability.

Super Fake Love Song was a SUPER fun book! It was fast-paced and read just like a great rom-com movie. It was so entertaining to read as is definitely a lighter companion to the author's first book, Frankly in Love.
I love any books that have to do with faking it and all of the drama that ensues from the lie at the beginning. It was also so interesting to see the lines blurred between the nerd and jock stereotypes that were explored in this book.
If you need a light, funny read to escape into, this is the perfect book to pick up!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

This is a really fun YA rom/com, one that almost seemed to play out in my head as if I was watching a film rather than reading a book (I wouldn't be surprised if it does become a film at some point). Sure, it's not very plausible, but it's pretty well written and the characters are so well drawn that it's easy to suspend your disbelief and root for them all the way through. Although the book is full of the typical teen high school characters and situations, Yoon mostly avoids turning them into stereotypical tropes and keeps the story unpredictable. The fact that the characters are diverse and come from different cultures and backgrounds, yet they are all clearly representative of "typical American teens," is especially commendable. Highly recommended YA pleasure read!

Super Fake Love Song by David Yoon follows Sunny, who loves D&D and creates DIY FX videos with his friends. When his parents ask him to help Cirrus, the daughter of their business friends, settle in, Sunny’s life spirals out of control. Cirrus has mistaken Sunny’s older rock and roll brother Gray’s room for Sunny’s, and Sunny decides to play along. The lie quickly grows as Sunny tells Cirrus he has a band.

This was a really fun read. It is a great take on the classic “nerd fakes being cool for girl” trope. David Yoon is quickly becoming a favorite of mine in YA contemporary.

I really love David Yoon's way of writing, it feels honest and reminds me a lot of the way I think that I sound like. I really thought that this book had a good lesson about honesty and really think that a younger audience could really enjoy and learn a lot from it. And although the "pretending to be someone else" trope isn't my favorite, I really like the way it was explored and executed in this book

Everyone does stupid things to impress the people we like, and Sunny Dae is no exception. When Cirrus moves into Sunny's neighborhood and mistakes him as a singer in a band by walking into the wrong room, Sunny starts a fake band with his nerdy friends to impress her. This book was hilarious, cute, and nerdy, and I absolutely loved it. My favorite part of this book is how it showed how significant all the relationships we have in our lives are, and it didn't only focus on the romance. This book showed the complexities and issues that can happen within a family, which I enjoyed seeing. This book also did a fantastic job discussing high school stereotypes and clichés. The relationship between Cirrus and Sunny was adorable, and it made me smile. It did take me a while to get into at the beginning, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. I did enjoy reading this book with all its nerdy references, jokes, and adorable moments.

What I loved the most about Super Fake Love Song is the exploration of identity. What pieces of ourselves do we hide from the world, and what kind of bravery does it take to unfurl these pieces of ourselves? Part of growing up becomes trying on new hobbies, opinions, and pieces of our identity, but what drives us? Is it curiosity? Fear? Shame? How much of this process becomes growth or a lie we know is wrong before we even put it on?

This search for a sense of belonging, to be accepted, is one that hits a universal chord. The beauty of Super Fake Love Song is that not only are the readers wondering who the real Sunny is, so is Sunny. It's a story focused on character development, on exploration, and Sunny's journey. Because of that, the side characters can sometimes feel like they fall to the sidelines because of how much attention is given to Sunny. I loved some of these side characters, so I would have loved more scenes and detail to them, but I also appreciate that this story is firmly focused on Sunny.

Fun, endearing, hilarious. This is my first David Yoon book and I have been missing out. I loved the musical elements and the banter of these characters was so hilarious. I will definitely be reading more from this author.

This is a great followup to Frankly In Love.

Great that the character is a self proclaimed geek.

cute premise and story.

A quick fluffy rom-com that explores and redefines the typical high school stereotypes!

I loved the length of this one! It wasn't too long, and it wasn't too short. It was just right for the story! Super Fake Love Song was a super swift, cute read that required little commitment (which I needed so bad right now, as I'm recovering from surgery). The book definitely played on the classic tropes and flipped them on their heads, which was enjoyable to read about. I loved seeing that the typical jock liked to play D&D on the sly 😂 I did find the main character a little annoying at some points, and while I wasn't a big fan of the romance, this was still funny and enjoyable.

Super Fake Love Song releases on November 17th!

Big thank you to Penguin Teen for sending me an ARC copy of this book

Fake it till you make it love story. Sunny Dae is a nerd. When he meets Cirrus and she thinks he is in a band he goes with it. Sunny manages to get his friends to pretend to be part of the band and decide to enter the talent show. You have to fake it till you make it but as he start to fall for Cirrus, Sunny finds it hard to tell the truth. Will Sunny be able to be true to himself and overcome his self-esteem? Will he be able to be honest and not lose the relationships that matter most.

A quick and fun read that I enjoyed. I will admit I found Sunny at times could be annoying because he was so focused on his self and his friends were just expected to be there no matter what. Yet that is the point of his character to show us what they are dealing with and to see how it affects other. Sunny ends up on a road of discovery of himself and what he is scared of that lead him to do the things he did. I felt the ending was rushed in order to tie all the loose ends. I also would have liked more character development on Cirrus. Overall I would recommend this book.

Fans of Yoon’s first book will not be disappointed . The male friendships in this story are what stood out for me. There is also Yoon’s whip smart dialogue, rom com brilliance, and lots of clever pop culture references to keep the reader smiling. An interesting take on sibling rivalry and affection. Great story that centers awkward lovable teens discovering love and owning their nerdiness with pride.

This book was really funny! I legitimately laughed out loud so many times while reading it. I also got pretty attached to the main character, and invested in his relationship with his brother, and with his friends. The main plot (and its resolution) was kind of predictable, but I enjoyed the book nonetheless. I definitely want to read more from David Yoon.

After receiving high praises for his debut novel, Frankly in Love, David Yoon is back with a new story that really tests the limits of how far someone would go for love. In Super Fake Love Song, readers dive into a story where D&D references clash with rock music and how everyone struggles to fit in.
If I’m being honest, I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I was going to! It was nerdy, it was funny, tear-jerking, and just overall relatable! I binged the entire book in one day and wanted more!
This rom-com seems super predictable, but it’s super not!! Yes, this is a young adult book with some of those classic tropes you can find in any ol’ YA book, but Yoon really takes it to the next level with the way he develops his characters and sucks you into the story. The narration by Sunny is amazing and the way he makes certain decisions and does certain things is more endearing than anything else.
This book also placed a large focus on relationships, and not just romantic ones. Sunny must balance what he wants with the people who are important to him. He deals with repairing his relationship with his brother, parents that are too busy working to pay him any notice, and maintaining old friendships while building new ones. It showed how honesty is the root to trusting those you love and how important it is to stay true to yourself despite the constant pressure to conform in high school.
Overall, this is a must-read for YA lovers, nerds, geeks, or anyone who’s wanted to fit into someone else’s shoes for a day! This is truly a book for everyone and I cannot wait to see what Yoon will write next!

*I received an ARC from Penguin Teen in exchange for my honest opinion.

I loved Frankly in Love and thought it was one of the best debuts I've seen in a long time so I was very excited to read David Yoon's Sophmore novel, Super Fake Love Song. Broadly, this books had many of the same elements of the first - there was an Asian American family at the center, you saw a boy struggling with other people's expectations of him, there were cute friends and a sweet love story, and silly puns galore. While all of that might have made for a great book I found the writing in Super Fake Love Song incredibly hard to get through. The attempts at teen slang were strange and took my right out of the story. I really don't know how the writing style could have changed so much between two books... if it wasn't for that I would have given this book at least another star.