Thank you Atria Books & NetGalley for the ARC!

The Band was an interesting book. I found the writing to be a double-edged sword: it was lyrically written, but then on the other hand it was hard to understand. I enjoyed the story, but found it a little wordy and hard to follow at times.

Thank you again for the ARC!

I really loved the highbrow/lowbrow mix here, of both k-pop and academe-speak. It is slow in the beginbut once it starts to come together, it really sings.

I am not going to publish this review. To be honest, I tried to read this. I got about 50 pages in and quit. I found the writing absolutely unreadable. The sentences were tortuously long. The descriptions were flat. I couldn’t really even follow what little of the story I read because the writing was so very unclear and tangled. My apologies.

I was extremely excited for the opportunity to review THE BAND! As soon as I saw the description on NetGalley, I knew it was something I had to at least attempt to get my hands on-- I've been involved fairly heavily in fandom culture throughout my young adult life, and the sociological dynamics behind it fascinate me. While I"m not a KPOP fan myself (and believe my perception of this book would be drastically different if I was), I observe the fandom implosions from afar with equal parts shock and intrigue.

THE BAND is an intellectual deep-dive into such parasocial relationships and infighting, told through the lens of a jaded Chinese-American psychologist. MC lives a perfectly stable and utterly unsatisfying life in a California McMansion with her negligent husband and interchangeable children. When she runs into Sang Du-ri at H-mart, a member of the international megahit The Band on the lam after facing internet cancellation, she shelters him in her home and begins a tumultuous and complicated relationship. The narrative flips between the narrator and Du-ri, The Band's manager, and the members of his failed girl group.

I found the beginning somewhat slow, and struggled to become fully invested in the story. I felt that it flipped a bit too frequently between perspectives and took a bit too long to really delve into the narrator's POV, which made it difficult to emotionally connect. However, I really enjoyed the opportunity to view the inner workings of the industry from various perspectives: band members, managers, fans, and outsiders, Korean and American outside. Once I reached a certain point, however, the narrative streamlined and the pace of events started to pick up, and I started to read at a much quicker pace, with more dedication. The hanging threads of the extraneous characters started to tie together and I found myself pulling out my phone between meetings and classes to keep following them.

Some characters in THE BAND were more fleshed out more than others, but the main narrator was in my opinion the most unique and most unexpected. The tone and voice of the book strikes a peculiar balance between detached and personally overinvested, academic and colloquial, cruel and compassionate, analytical and understanding. The style feels almost like a blend between a nonfiction report and a personal essay narrative, which sounds strange--- and it is--- but works for the tone of the story. The writing is wonderfully rich, extremely well-informed and well-researched, but still maintains humor, levity, and voice. I have to agree with one of the blurbs that THE BAND couldn't have been written by anyone else; Ms. Ma-Kellams possesses a unique talent for both prose and journalism that lends itself excellently to the bizarre and compelling nature of the story. The book delves into some dark and fascinating subject matter regarding the parasocial, toxic, and all-consuming nature of the fan-idol relationship, the exploitation within the industry, and the psychological phenomena behind it--- mirrored in smaller scale by the narrator and Du-ri's relationship. I would be remiss if not to mention the footnotes that pop up throughout each chapter. On my e-ARC, tapping them brought me to an index at the end of the chapter. I can't tell how I feel about them as a stylistic choice: on one hand, they inject both additional voice and supplemental information, but I also found them distracting and jarring. If I were reading on a physical book, I think flipping back and forth would have been a bit frustrating and would have removed me from the narrative.

THE BAND wasn't what I thought it would be, but I'm glad it wasn't; it's hard to think of a book quite like this one. I can see this blowing up upon its release due to the subject matter, but I can also (ironically) see the possibility of backlash from fans expecting something lighter. All in all, I look forward to Ms. Ma-Kellams' next release, and commend her for the achievement that is THE BAND.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t think I’m the right person for this book. I’ve read some K-Pop books before but they were romance, reverse harem books which is completely different from this. The writing style was interesting but didn’t keep my attention for too long and I ended up dnf ing at 60% because the story hadn’t made me care about any of the characters. Flipping back and forth between groups to try to show the different dynamics in the media and fans between male and female pop groups was interesting.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

Interesting and complex. The writing was stellar, and it opened my eyes to the toxicity of the music industry that I never would have imagined it being. We hear it all - but we are not deeply intertwined, all we see is the black and white. You don’t have to be a fan of K Pop to fall into this dark, sultry and heartbreaking book.

I am not a K-Pop fan but I enjoy books about bands and the relationships among the singers and dancers. This had some of those things! I just didn't love how it was written. I struggled to get through it. Perhaps it's just me? I do want thank NetGalley for the ARC.

DNF at 10%: This book is just not for me, unfortunately. The prose and the dialogue in particular were rough to get through. I do think fans of Esther Yi's Y/N would enjoy the book though, since its style and themes surrounding fandom and obsession are similar.

I wasn’t sure I was the target audience for this, not being a K-pop fan. The synopsis sounded interesting though so I thought it was worth a shot. It was definitely a good choice.

I liked the characters, even though if you ask me, no one was particularly likable. There’s a lot of things I wouldn’t have understood if it wasn’t for the footnotes, kind of like Crazy Rich Asians had. There’s an entire culture in K-pop that is very strict and has to be just impossible to thrive in. This book digs into it in a way that shows just how hard it is. No one is perfect, but in K-pop, you need to be.

The American angle wasn’t particularly good. So much psychology and so little depth or humanity in that part. I wanted to feel like that part was a lot more of a character based than psych file.

I’d recommend this, but it’s better to go in blind. Enjoy!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, all opinions are my own.

I was pre approved for this book and its SO good. Like I read horror and thrillers. If it wasn't pre approved for me I may have never picked it up. But I was and I love this. If you are on the fence then let this be what makes your decision. Read it.