Disclaimer: The following review is the result of a maniac writing at 2 am in the night coz she couldn’t resist to express her thoughts and went feral after finishing the book. Any kind of mistakes or cringeyness expressed by this crazy kpop stan (aka ME) is highly regretted and your acceptance is highly appreciated! At times I’ve added my CURRENT thoughts in brackets because I didn’t want the excited feelings of a kpop stan to die out.

Hello people! I completed this book, “Trick of Spotlight” By ML East this night and I can’t wait to tell you how much I loved it!!! Oh my god! Here goes the review–! (Here I go. Fangirling self has entered the chat)

Plot —

Vortex. The group that rules the kpop industry and has millions of fans worldwide….and Kit Allister is just another Vortex fan in the kpop industry put in the same entertainment company as her biases. A complete Rookie and she gets a chance to have a joint interview with her idols in the Kpop industry’s most well known talk show. Kit can’t just accept the enormity of the situation. Her bias, her idols sitting next to her, given the same position as her and they were talking to her! And may be she fainted when one of the Vortex member, Oh Saichi, reveals that he is a Kit-Kat (Kit’s fandom name) ! Later, the Vortex members (Oh Saichi, Ryo, Jaeyoon, Mino and Namgi) invite her to their party later that night. On going to the party Kit gets to see the side of kpop idols she never knew existed. The night was bizarre! She gets to know that her bias, Oh Saichi, has a crush on HER and if anyone is pissed off by this is, Ryo. He takes pictures of Kit and threatens her to stay away from Saichi or he would leak the pictures in the internet. Over the time, Saichi and Kit get closer and even get a chance to collab. On the same time, the fans of the ship (OTP), Minchi (Mino+Saichi) go wild as they almost kissed onstage! Everything is just so perfect for Kit that it’s hard to believe the fact that now she was friends with Vortex! She even starts having these lil conversations with Mino and Saichi and her feelings for Saichi grow even more. But why is Ryo so eager to leak the pictures? Will he actually leak them? What happens when she gets to know about all these hidden scandals? What will happen if she violates the ‘dating ban’ of her company? Is Minchi real? Above all, how far will she go for Vortex….?

My Ratings —

It’s definitely a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ book and no one should fight me! This book is everything a kpop stan can ever dream of! (The current not-maniac self agrees with this too!)

My thoughts —

I absolutely LOVED the book and I just can’t put it to words how interesting it was. What’s sad is I can’t just tell you what I loved the most as that’s the climax of the story! Believe me each and every sentence will keep you hooked up and you’ll find yourself stealing time between your schedule to read what happens next! Here are some thing I LOVED about the book —-

1. The characters—

As a kpop stan myself, I will say the way the idols are represented in a book is the most important component. And I believe the author, ML East, did a completely awesome job in doing that! The characters were so real that it’s hard to believe that in real life Kit and Vortex don’t exist. It still amazes me how badly I want them to exist! (What’s with all these exclamatory marks?? Like girl… Calm down 😂)

2. The plot —

In most of the books, some chapters in the middle are kept just for fun. Like they have some sub stories or back stories but what I absolutely loved about this book was in each chapter something or the happens that you want to scream out lungs! ( I told you….the review is crazy)

3. Representation of the characters

Now look, no matter if you’re an idol, if you stan a group, you forever will. I was so impressed by how the author represented Kit. The way she giggled when she saw Minchi flirting or how she internally screamed seeing them shirtless 🤭 I mean that is what any fan would do and I’m so glad she was presented as a fan no matter how famous she was! At times I found myself getting shy over(cringe alert! This is what happens when you’re a kpop maniac writing a kpop book review at 2am in the night) by imagining what if it was me instead of Kit and BTS instead of Vortex (I’m so sorry you had to read that. Now don’t hate me. I’m just another fangirl)……There was always this spark of fangirl in her that made it so very RELATABLE!

FINAL THOUGHTS —

I badly want to share my feelings with someone about this book. This is a dream book of every kpop stan and I bet they can relate the Kit on a spiritual level. Moreover, I really felt that the way the author represented the ‘other side’ of the kpop industry, might be true. They’re just not idols, completely perfect in their life and living there bests. They too have a life….which is somehow more complicated than ours. Although it was hard to accept the climax of the story as that is what the whole freaking novel is about! Each of their actions are this related! And about the cliffhanger at the end? I couldn’t sleep a half a night because of it.

Believe me guys the plot might sound dry as I can’t just let out any more details as if I say you even 1 more your reading experience will get ruined. But trust me you will LOVE this book and thank me for recommending it to you! They’re just so much I love about this book that it’s just hard to explain what. It’s definitely my favourite book that I reviewed and I can’t wait to read more from the author. For a debut book, her writing style is simply mind blowing!

Anyways, leaving alone my ‘fangirling-over-a-book-self’ , I just wanted to saw thank you for reading till the end. If you’re a kpop stan make sure you read this. I hope you’re having an amazing day and are safe with you and your family… Until next time.. Bubye!

(So ladies and gentlemen finally we came to an end of the review of a crazy kpop stan going wild. I’m so sorry you had to read that 😂 But trust me, the now-self which ain’t a maniac holds the same opinion of the book being amazing! 😉)

Love,

Jennice 💙 ( a kpop stan)