Jessica releases cover and excerpt of her book "Shine"

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

Read the first excerpt from K-pop star Jessica Jung's juicy YA novel https://t.co/D637U9LSpS

— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) January 29, 2020

In case you missed it, Jessica revealed last year that she worked on her first t̶̶e̶̶l̶̶l̶-̶a̶̶l̶̶l̶ YA Novel about a Korean-American teenager in training to become the next major K-pop star. Now, the cover and excerpt of "Shine" has been released. The book will be published on October 6th.




One

Head up, legs crossed. Tummy tucked, shoulders back. Smile like the whole world is your best friend. I repeat the mantra in my head as the camera pans across my face. The corners of my lips turn up in a perfectly sweet “don’t you want to tell me all your secrets” pink-glossed smile.

But you probably shouldn’t. You know how they say three can keep a secret if two are dead? Well, that couldn’t be truer for my world, where everyone is always watching and your secrets can actually kill you. Or, at least, they can kill your chance to shine.

#

“You girls must be thrilled!” The interviewer is a middle-aged man with oily, slicked-back hair and fair skin. He might have been handsome if his garish hot-pink satin tie and red shirt combo weren’t so distracting. He leans forward eagerly, his eyes gleaming at the nine girls seated before him, a sea of perfectly tousled beach waves and unblemished faces glowing from years of skin-brightening face masks, choreographed down to the angle of our sleekly crossed legs and the descending order of our pastel rainbow-hued stilettos. “Hitting No. 1 at all the music shows, and with your debut music video no less! You’re one chart away from an All-Kill! How do you feel?”

“We couldn’t be more excited.” Mina jumps in eagerly, flashing her perfect teeth in a beaming smile. My face muscles ache as I stretch to match her.

“It’s a dream come true,” Eunji agrees before loudly popping her gum and blowing a huge strawberry-scented bubble.

“We’re so grateful for the opportunity to do this together,” Lizzie chimes in, her eyes practically glowing under layers of silvery eye shadow.

The interviewer’s eyes light up, and he leans in conspiratorially. “So you all get along? I mean, nine incredibly beautiful girls in one group. That can’t always be easy.”

Sumin gives a soft, effortless laugh, pursing her perfectly lined bright-red lips. “Nothing is ever ‘always easy,’” she says. “But we’re family. And family comes first.” She links arms with Lizzie sitting next to her. “We belong together.”

The interviewer flutters a hand over his heart. “Just precious. And what do you love about working together?”

His eyes travel slowly over the group, finally landing on me. “Rachel?”

source: @EW, ew.com

Comments

[ostsiberia.livejournal.com]

I'm normally disappointed by celebs writing but I REALLY like the excerpt. This will probably be the closest Sones will get to Jessica's tell-all 👀 So I'm preordering.

[pinklunacy.livejournal.com]

lol that's a good use of the fanfiction tag, OP

[bauci.livejournal.com]

The tag killed me but I'll definitely read it! I feel it'll be a bestseller with the western market being so into kpop right now and nothing like that existing outside archive of our own/tumblr.

[gathyou.livejournal.com]

I hope I can buy it somewhere else than Amazon. Because I reaaaally want to own it lmao. The fact that it's a 9 member girl group... lol. I know I'm saying it with a Seohyun icon but Jessica was one of my favourite members and I've always followed her solo career since. I'm really looking forward to it!

[coyote-revolver.livejournal.com]

The cover is so hideous imo :( I actually want to buy this, Jessica!

That being said, I gasped at the 'nine member group' thing, she definitely caught my attention with that.

[donutism.livejournal.com]

does she not have any self awareness to see how cringy this / that hideous cover looks? i thought she was always about that ~minimal aesthetics~, but that cover oh girl nonono. get money i guess?

[adenar.livejournal.com]

Depending on who she's with/how much of this she's funded herself, she's very unlikely to have had much say in the cover

[senshicalico.livejournal.com]

late af but there's no way she had a hand in the designing, and even if she did, she's high profile enough at the end of the day RH is gonna go with what their marketing/graphic design department says is hot and is gonna sell books to teen girls.

[krissasaur]

i CAN'T GET PAST THE FIRST PART i AM CRINGING SO FUCKING BAD.

[kenziekinz09.livejournal.com]

I’m so here for this. The messy tell all I’ve wanted for 6(!!!!!) years!

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

I can't believe we're finally getting one!!! 😭

[kenziekinz09.livejournal.com]

I preordered so fast😂😂😂😂

[premonitioner.livejournal.com]

no kpop idol would pop gum during an interview Jessis, what on earth was that!

[premonitioner.livejournal.com]

godddd

but even Tiffany wouldn't be dumb or rude enough to do it during a rookie interview!

[myrrhcat.livejournal.com]

i'm still not expecting much as far as juicy reveals, but the excerpt sounds pretty good. might read it.

[radowan.livejournal.com]

the cover is tacky af but she may be playing it up for the k-pop fans whose self-insert daydreams are glitzier than her minimalist taste?

Also, 9 members? Mmmkay I guess we'll all pretend that this is a work of pure fiction and any resemblances to real existing people are entirely coincidental.

[kastih.livejournal.com]

9 members, the use of pink..repeatedly, and the fact that every name other than rachel is the name of a well-recognized idol...okay lmao. i want this. even if the read doesn't live up to this excerpt i Need to Own a physical copy. Jessica was one of my favorite members and the way she was booted and erased left me bitter towards the group as a whole.

[cairistiona.livejournal.com]

lizzie though? i guess it's li-ji. seems like a bad choice for a country that doesn't say zs! 리지 is not a name i'd see working there, honestly? i know there was linzy (린지) from fiestar but even that was a Choice.

there actually is a rachel in kpop (april), but yeah--not well-recognised.

[kastih.livejournal.com]

Lizzie was a member of After School and Orange Caramel. yeah Z names always crack me up far longer than's probably appropriate. Jello(Zelo)'s still funny to me and it's been years

[cairistiona.livejournal.com]

ahh, see, having it spelt lizzie instead of lizzy literally, for some baffling reason, made me forget her entire existence. i tried so hard to remember a lizzie in kpop and failed. honestly, remembering linzy was hard enough. it's been a sad decade in kpop.

jello is just...yup.

z names are interesting. i can get behind suzy and minzy and linzy but honestly there aren't that many others that work for me. there's z-uk which was always weird. and there's a zia somewhere too?

[kastih.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard Zia mentioned in so freaking long! I'd completely forgotten about her. z-uk though?that's.....a choice lol

[cairistiona.livejournal.com]

z-uk is a soloist formerly from bigflo...and yes, absolutely a choice ;) his real name is jaewook so it kinda makes sense i guess

edit: just on the topic of stupid names and bigflo, his duo group member's name was hightop......

[neongoldtooth.livejournal.com]

I mean she has a ghost writer too right? So she probs told the person about her life and the writer juiced it up. I’m expecting like 40% shit that really went down in her life and the rest fluffed up..... but I will definitely own this book!

I really like Jessica. I wanna know what went down w Heechul who she seemed to be close to, Taeyeon and why is she still w her shady bf.

[pepsi-twist9.livejournal.com]

This sounds like really bad fanfiction lmao. I don't know if I'll buy it but it's certainly interesting.

[vintage-boom.livejournal.com]

there's going to be nothing juicy in this theyre leaning in to that too much trying to sell books. its gonna be bland as hell.

[cosmicdaze.livejournal.com]

that excerpt is exactly as bad as i thought it would be

[warwarwar.livejournal.com]

I’ll wait for people who read it to post a recap lol. The writing is cringey.

[minstradamus.livejournal.com]

The cover doesn't look good but I can't tell I'm not excited for the book for obvious reasons lol (a sone here)

[frequency.livejournal.com]

i have a low bar for YA novels in general, but damn that is terrible writing.

[pikapika217.livejournal.com]

sounds cute and potentially juicy

[cairistiona.livejournal.com]

it sounds...bad...but then again i don't like 1) first-person or 2) romance novels, so this ain't for me

i'm hoping someone can explain all the juiciness shortly after it comes out so i don't have to read it