Hybrid Heart by Iori Kusano
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This novella is the polar opposite of the movie KPop Demon Hunters. The movie is heavy on fantasy and set in Korea; this book is a little bit science fictional and set in Japan. The movie offers fun and infectious music (I danced); this book is a relentlessly realistic look at the grinding self-destructive effort behind being a pop idol.
In the book, a very young woman named Rei is controlled at every moment by her manager to turn her into the perfect idol, slim to the point of malnourishment, always beautiful, always smiling, girlish but sexy, and constantly rehearsing and racing to keep up with the demands of a fickle public.
She’s desperately alone and lonely. Her best friend was banished for contract-breaking behavior (finding a boyfriend), and her manager is manipulative and unstable, but this is what she wanted, right? To be a famous pop idol? But as it turns out, the job doesn’t even pay well. So much for glamor. And eventually, she realizes how easily she could be replaced.
It’s a grim story, unlike the movie. Like the movie, though, the ending is uplifting, but in a completely different way: no more pretend happiness.
Semiosis 