by Goldy Moldavsky
Point
2016
320 pages
ISBN: 9780545867474
Available February 23, 2016
I have a huge fan girl crush, and it's for the new YA book Kill the Boy Band which is everything hilarious about fandom, fan fic, and fan girls! Straight off the pages of a teen rag or a fan girl's Twitter feed, this book amazes. Spot on dialog with popping snark and "me first" just because I deserve it attitude, Kill the Boy Band is so funny it nearly aches.
Four fan girl BFFs (two go to the same school, the other two are online "friends" who know each other only from Twitter, text and DM's--don't hate--I met some of my BFF librarian friends online first and then in person, lol) agree to meet in NYC and rent a room at the hotel where their beloved boy band, the Ruperts (all the boys in the band have the real first name of Rupert--go figure), will stay while in New York. Fooling all their parents is easy since the adults seem clueless; with the help of Apple's family maid, who checks the girls into the hotel, their plan of meeting their idols is finalized. Now to find out which room the "boys" are in. Isobel wants to post inside scoop for her blog, and readers will soon find out that Erin has much darker ideas for the boys.
After an unexpected coup at the ice machine, Apple returns with an unconscious Rupert P. The girls tie him up so he won't run off. It goes from bad to worse when Apple wants to keep him as her very own pet and Isobel snaps photos to post. At first the girls question their options, but finally talk themselves into full blown kidnapping. Rupert P. is having none of it; he argues and tries to escape. The girls have to gag him. Then they have the problem of Rupert K.'s fake girlfriend who keeps trying to find him. She's becoming a real pest.
The kidnapping and felony charges/prison time does not sit well with our narrator (who never tells us her own name). She escapes to the hotel bar where an older bartender--she calls him Civil War Bartender--berates all fan girls in general for their foolish and foppish attempts to see/touch/hear/kiss/scream at/possess their idols. He tells her that someday in the future she'll be at a college party and someone will mention the Ruperts and say what a loser band they were. She does not believe Civil War Bartender at the time.
An unexpected but blissful encounter on the roof with her real crush, Rupert K., has our narrator in the throes of romantic tizzy, but it all comes crashing down (literally). When bestie Erin informs the others of her real plans for the boy band, the narrator nearly loses it.
All this mayhem is just the beginning; the story gets trippier and messier but, oh, so fun! Goldy Moldavsky has a great time satirizing boy bands, fandom, and pop culture. The media frenzy and pop culture hype created by social media makes this a believable read. #fangirllove, #KTBBrocks, #foreverRuperts! Shout out and heads up: Texas librarians, Goldy is coming to TLA in Houston this year! Score!
Highly, highly recommended and addictive grade 9-up. Profanity, sexual innuendo, mature themes, bad fan girl behavior, bad boy band behavior, sex, sexting.
FTC Required Disclaimer: I received the ARC from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.
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