Goldy Moldavsky’s Kill the Boy Band is exactly as much fun it sounds. The novel follows four teenage girls who are huge fans of British band the Ruperts. In fact, they’re such big fans that when they’re unable to score tickets to the band’s Thanksgiving show in NYC, they book a room in the same hotel where the band will be staying in hopes of glimpsing their idols. After they’ve checked in, it seems like they’re in for the night of their lives – until they (sort of) accidentally kidnap one of the members of the band.
This book is an often hilarious take on fandom and the extremes fangirls will go to for the band/series/author/actor they love. As a member of the Potter fandom, I chuckled when remembering screaming fangirls I’ve seen at events and sympathized with the main character when she states:
Other people may have seen fangirls as crazy teenage girls obsessed with a fad, but they couldn’t understand the small but important joy you can get from indulging in these fandoms…They didn’t get the friendships that formed, the community of people who shared in your same joy.
There’s a lot of interesting articles out there about fan culture and the way young women express their passions, and I appreciate that this book doesn’t take the view that fangirls are mindless, screaming idiots – all of the characters have tangible reasons why they love the Ruperts so much, and Moldavsky honors the pure joy and friendship that comes from fans bonding. That being said, Kill the Boy Band definitely goes WAY over the top in showing how fans definitely *shouldn’t* act. While loving famous people and the work they do is fine and being a fan can be empowering, it is vital to remember that the person you’re obsessing over is, in fact, a person – a lesson the fans in this book would have been much better off for remembering! But if they had…we wouldn’t have had this hilarious story. So there’s that.
The novel moves along at a quick pace, with loads of humor and twists and turns; at times I wasn’t sure if I was reading a psychological thriller or a One Direction fan fiction taken to wild extremes. It’s a ridiculous romp, and if you’re looking for a fun read, you might want to try this one out.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review.
