Every Friday after school, dressed in their new South Korean prep-school uniforms — sweater vests, knee-highs, pleated skirts, and blazers — seventeen-year old Alice Choy and her little sister, Olivia, head to Myeongdong, brave a dank, basement-level stairwell full of graffiti, and slip into a noreabang.

Back in San Francisco, when she still had friends and earthly possessions, Alice took regular singing lessons. But since their diplomat mom moved them to Seoul, she pours herself into karaoke, vamping it up in their booth to Lady Gaga while loyal Olivia applauds and howls with laughter. Alice lives for Fridays, but when an older woman stops her on their way out one day, handing Alice a business card with a bow, singing turns serious.

Could the chance encounter really be her ticket to elite status at Top10 Entertainment’s Star Academy?

With a little sisterly support, backed by one of the world’s top talent agencies, can Alice lead her group on stage before a stadium of 50,000 chanting fans — and just maybe strike K-pop gold? Not if a certain influential blogger and the anti-fans get their way.

After reading Lee’s Kpop Confidential duology, I couldn’t resist trying another book in the subgenre. It’s just like those inside Hollywood YA, full of delicious drama, glamour and figuring out your boundaries in a cut-throat industry. Arguably, the Kpop industry is more cut-throat, but this felt toned down compared to Stephen Lee’s novels.

Yes, the managers still control the trainee’s lives, diets, and image, and they’re unable to get out of contracts or do anything, but the brutal workout regimes weren’t as visceral.

Rather it isn’t helped by Alice’s stubborn attitude towards everything. I know it’s YA so I should suspend some of my disbelief, but even for the greatest voice ever I found it hard to believe with how discipline and respect-focused society Korean is, they’d allow Alice to go for months with her subpar dancing, unwillingness to bond with her fellow A-List groupmates, or learn Korean. Even if it’s hard for her. I expected her to be chewed out a lot more.

Not that I don’t get it. Languages don’t come easy for her (I can relate), and she tends to avoid things that make her feel insecure about herself (I really, really relate), but I don’t have four other girls depending on me to make a debut in a singing career I supposedly really want. Alice’s strength is in her singing so I can understand why she’d focus on that, but she wouldn’t be able to get a chance to show off her pipes if she doesn’t put more effort in all the other stuff.

Of course, it is her part of her arc in learning to less be of a stubborn soloist and get over her selfish feelings or else she’ll end up alone, but I wish she had gotten to that point sooner rather than the second to last chapter. It would have made some of her mistakes more endearing instead of being the ugly American trope. Honestly, I found it hard to understand why she stayed. The book says it’s because she can get get professional singing lessons, and a real chance in the industry, but I just don’t see her having the chops to make it as part of a group no matter how much she loves singing.

Unfortunately, Alice standing alone means we get little insight to the rest of her group mates. Aria, the leader, and Alice’s main rival gets the most depth and sympathy as she has been training all her life for this and is understandably irked by the American newcomer blowing things off. The others feel one-note and I wish we got more time to get to know them.

In fact, this feels more like the beginning of Alice’s journey than a stand-alone. We don’t even get to find out the reaction to their debut or how perform in any of the variety shows.

There are some good points. For instance, Aria was very interesting. I’d almost prefer her as the protagonist instead of another American in the Kpop. But I digress. The other interesting bit was Joon. The heartthrob of a male group, but he doesn’t become a love interest! It was such a change and refreshing to see such wholesome boy-girl friendship. It allowed the book to narrow its focus to just Alice and her world rather than add some romantic drama. It also allowed the book to focus on Alice’s really important, the one with her sister which was so sweet.

The other interesting plot-line through the book is the kpop insider blog run by V. We never meet V, we only get 10 pages of her blog, but we get a full arc of this stranger; learning what kpop means to her, and the thin line between exposing a corrupt industry and anti behavior. She was a fully-realized character which I found amazing how Young did it in so few pages. I only wish that more of the blogposts focused on the upcoming debut of A-List.

There were only two (one which they find out their company is promoting neon blurred nude postcards of them which I expected so much more uproar within the novel than one chapter of violation), and it re-emphasizes my feelings that this is only the beginning of Alice, and the rest of the A-List’s story. I wanted to see more of the kpop fandoms’ reaction to them, their concept and more.

So it was a good novel that adds some new twists in my limited experience of the genre but a stubborn protagonist and wish for more makes this only a 3 star.