Teens, poor me. I’m always a little late catching on to trends. For example, I started listening to One Direction two years ago (approximately thirteen years after it was cool and seven years after they broke up). I watched the “Twilight” movie for the first time last October (fifteen years after it was released). I’ve been known to say, “Mozart really knows what he’s doing” (a record-breaking two-hundred-thirty years behind the curve).
So recently, I discovered I really like K-pop. Maybe someone out there is like me and finds out about things twenty to two-hundred years after they start being cool. If you are in this category and have been living under a rock since before you were born, K-pop is Korean pop music. But back to the story…I “discovered” K-pop and immediately got hooked on the irresistible tunes, sensational dance moves, and joyful feeling I get when I listen to it.
Good news, teens: even though I’m late to the party, the party is still going on! Imagine my elation when I realized we have five K-pop inspired Young Adult (YA) fiction titles in our collection here at A.K. Smiley Public Library. Of course, I wasted no time scooping them up so I could tell you about them if you live, eat, breathe—and want to read—K-pop.
Author Jessica Jung not only wrote a book about K-pop, she’s actually a former K-pop star (Girls’ Generation circa 2007-2014). In other words, her credentials are unmatched. Do you want an insider’s look behind K-pop’s bubblegum veneer? So did I!
Teens, what a roller coaster ride Jung’s YA novel “Shine” will take you on. When 17-year-old Rachel Kim became a K-pop trainee with an elite Korean entertainment company at age 11, she had stars in her eyes. In the years since, she has competed, sweat, and sacrificed to be selected for the next big girl group. Her dreams are finally inches away when a few major obstacles (ahem, an irresistible crush, a shady competitor, a manipulative music label) threaten to undermine everything. “Shine” will definitely kick-ball-change you behind K-pop’s polished choreography and pitch-perfect voices, and reveal some disturbing truths about what it really takes to make it. If you get hooked, don’t miss its sequel, “Bright.”
Did you know K-pop idols are typically forbidden from having boyfriends and girlfriends? Boohoo if you have heart eyes for Jung Kook (K-pop band BTS heart-throb)…you will have to wait until he retires to make him yours! Axie Oh’s novel, “XOXO,” follows the story of classical cellist/high school junior Jenny Jooyoung Go, whose chance encounter with Jaewoo kicks off an accidental romance that spans continents as well as musical genres. Will these classical/K-pop virtuosos let their musical aspirations silence their hearts? This is a book that’s as delightful and funny as it is fun…read it and be charmed.
If you’re on a roll after these two, you may want to check out Kat Cho’s “Once Upon a K-Prom,” in which perpetual sidekick Elena Soo does NOT want to go to Prom. That is, until her childhood best-friend-turned-K-pop-sensation Robbie Choi, re-enters the scene. Or maybe try “Somewhere Only We Know” by Maureen Goo, where K-pop star Lucky pretends to be a regular girl-next-door after an existential crisis, only to find herself knee-deep in real feelings built on a pretend identity.
Okay, K-pop stans (a.k.a. enthusiastic fans), I hope this little list leads you to some satisfying K-pop reads. Remember, we have YA books for all kinds of musical (and literary) tastes, so come by and find something that’ll light you up like dy-na-na-na, na-na, na-na, dynamite (even if you’re two hundred years behind the trend).
Kristina Naftzger is a Youth Services Librarian at A.K. Smiley Public Library; her bias is Jung Kook, and she is currently making a finger heart at you.