Kill the Boy Band - Goldy Moldavsky

Okay, so just know from the start that it wasn't supposed to go like this. All we wanted was to get near The Ruperts, our favorite boy band.

We didn't mean to kidnap one of the guys. It kind of, sort of happened that way. But now he's tied up in our hotel room. And the worst part of all, it's Rupert P. All four members of The Ruperts might have the same first name, but they couldn't be more different. And Rupert P. is the biggest flop out of the whole group.

We didn't mean to hold hostage a member of The Ruperts, I swear. At least, I didn't. We are fans. Okay, superfans who spend all of our free time tweeting about the boys and updating our fan tumblrs. But so what, that's what you do when you love a group so much it hurts.

How did it get this far? Who knows. I mean midterms are coming up. I really do not have time to go to hell.


My tagline: fandom can be a killer hobby

This book is fucked up! I mean, really fucked up! I loved it!

Moldavsky has created a very daring debut. Some will love it, others may not, but I'm giving you my opinion here. Her writing is raw, blunt, and her narrator (Sloane) doesn't pull any punches. Even though she second guesses the other girls and tries to forge her own path, the lure of fandom and peer pressure consistently pull her back into the ever worsening situation. 

The boy band members, who are not as fully realized as our four fearless females, are still very much the mirror of so many boy bands in reality--cute(?), semi-talented, imperfect-but-still-pretending-to-be-perfect, and ready to break up at the drop of a hat. Each of the girls has a favourite Rupert, and each is revealed to be far less ideal as the novel moves forward.

When one of the boy band members is killed (yeah, I know, it sounds like a spoiler, but come on, just look at the book's title!), Moldavsky presents readers with a fabulously relevant and sadly true analysis of fandom, boy band culture, and coming-of-age:
I didn't see my father when he died, so I knew it was the first time any of use had seen a dead body before (I assumed--you never really knew with Isabel). It reminded me of that scene in Stand by Me where the four friends find the body by the train tracks and their lives change forever in a profound yet charmingly coming-of-age way. Did this constitute our own shitty rite of passage? Had we just lost our innocence? Where we women now?
The novel is part hilarious caper, part murder mystery, part scathing satire. Readers are led to believe that each of the four girls is capable of murder, and each of their possible motivations is slowly revealed as the plot unfolds. The novel will likely make some readers uncomfortable, and I feel that means it's doing what Moldavsky set out to do.

Dark (super dark at times), humorous, and definitely unique, this book is sure to start conversations, no matter what readers ultimately decide.

Recommended

(Note: This review is from an Advance Reading Copy - Out Feb. 23, 2016)

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