My review: ????
Not Your Idol by Aoi Makino is a Japanese Manga (like a graphic novel), about a teenage girl who has been part of a girl pop group in Japan (so an idol), who was attacked by a fan.
If you’ve not encountered Japanese or Korean pop music, go ahead and have a look at a group like AKB48. In the west, we’re used to groups having 5-7 members, with 7 feels like a lot. AKB48 has 22 members in 1 team, and the teams rotate.
There are various rules that a member of groups have to obey, such as no dating, no bad behaviour. They are expected to perform and to carry out ‘handshake events’ where they meet their fans.
Nina was one of the lead singers of her group, and was attacked at one of these handshake events. She drops out of the group to recover, and to be normal. She cuts off her hair, and starts dressing like a boy (yes, that’s her on the cover of the book), and we see the trauma that this event caused her mentally, as she has the scar to show what it caused her physically.
Not Your Idol will be published on 11th June 2020, and is available on Amazon and Waterstones. I’ve found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!
I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, and so my thanks to NetGalley and to Viz Media (the publishers) for this book.