Jessica Jung, former member of the highly acclaimed K-pop girl group Girls’ Generation, will release her first young adult fiction novel this month.
Described as “Crazy Rich Asians meets Gossip Girl,” Shine is told from the perspective of seventeen-year-old Rachel Kim, a Korean American trainee at one of the most renowned K-pop companies in South Korea. Strict rules such as 24/7 training and no dating challenge the lives of Rachel and her stardom-aspiring peers. Will the underbelly of the industry prevent her from reaching her dreams?
Girls’ Generation fans may be in for a treat as some of the narrative closely mirrors Jung’s own experiences. In an interview this June, she divulged that the novel is heavily inspired by her days as a K-pop trainee.
Shine was born because I wanted to tell the truth about my experience, the way only good fiction can. But I also wanted to create good entertainment, like I’ve been doing my whole life, and I know that entertainment means blending real details with great storytelling and giving all the characters their own plots to follow. I wanted this big ensemble cast of great teen characters like in Gossip Girl, but based on all the people I grew up with and trained with. Oh, and romance – there had to be romance! So this project is the perfect blend of the kinds of shows and books I love, mixed with real things that happened to me and real information about the K-pop world.
Shine is currently available for pre-order and will release September 29th.