5 Books Every K-Pop Fan Should Read

It’s so confusing sometimes to be a fangirl. The feeling of devotion, the urge to dive deeper into the lore, the compulsion to make fan art or write fan fiction. So many have been there, at one time or another. And while some would have you believe that fangirling is a regrettable state, all vapidity and hysteria, those who’ve experienced it say otherwise.

“K-pop fandom is a huge reason I have retained my ability to speak Korean, and I learned how to tell stories by writing fan fiction,” says writer Giaae Kwon. “I’ve made friends because of fandom, because fangirling is a communal, social activity. ... There’s something so beautiful about fandom being like a beacon that draws people to each other because you share a love for the same object of affection. It feels really wholesome to me.”

In her debut essay collection, I’ll Love You Forever: Notes From a K-Pop Fan, Kwon explores her personal history as a bbasooni (K-pop stan) alongside the evolution of the K-pop industry. In doing so, she uncovers the cultural and political forces that birthed the K-pop idol and paints a compassionate portrait of fandom — a much-needed counterweight to all the ink spilled about its harmful excesses.

“We see a lot of hive mentality on social media apps that isn’t flattering because the fanwars can get super toxic, but my interactions with individual K-pop fans have shown them to be warm, generous people, eager to share their love,” she says. “K-pop fans have this way of lighting up when they learn that you like K-pop, too, and that effervescence warms my heart.”

Below, Kwon recommends five books that every bbasooni should read.

Korea: A New History of South & North by Victor Cha and Ramon Pacheco Pardo

“In my opinion, this should be required reading for all international K-pop fans. A very accessible history specifically about 20th century Korea, it provides a great look at the immediate sociopolitical history that created the environment from which K-pop was born. I’m big on properly contextualizing things because nothing exists in a bubble or comes out of nowhere, and I think K-pop emerged from a very specific environment, and this book provides that backdrop in writing that isn’t academic or obtuse. Also, Cha and Pardo close the book by seriously discussing what the possibility and reality of reunification of the Korean peninsula could look like, which I appreciated tremendously.”

Excavations by Hannah Michell

“Excavations is a lovely novel to pair with Korea: A New History of South and North. A fictionalized account of the 1995 collapse of the Sampoong department store, it does a great job of synthesizing Korean history from the postwar through the demos by university students and factory workers that marked the 1960s to 1980s, and the novel brings us to the doorstep of K-pop. I was really impressed with how Michell compresses modern Korean history into a pretty slim, engaging novel without dumbing anything down.”

Flowers of Fire by Hawon Jung

“Korea is still a patriarchal society with rigid gendered standards, and we see this play out through K-pop and fandom constantly. Flowers of Fire is a look at the #MeToo movement that, to my surprise, got pretty good traction in Korea starting in 2018. This isn’t an easy read, but I think it’s vital — Jung’s writing is accessible, and she doesn’t sensationalize or try to appeal to emotions, simply telling the stories of Korean women and telling the truth of what women go through. For example, I’d known for a while how bad the problem of molkas (hidden cameras) were in Korea, but I had no idea how bad. Jung doesn’t shy away from portraying reality, but Flowers of Fire avoids veering into totally hopeless and bleak territory, as Jung highlights the work that women activists have done and continue to do.”

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

“If I Had Your Face is a novel that looks at Korea’s beauty standards and the prevalence of plastic surgery and how both affect women in Korea. The novel follows four women who live in the same apartment building in Seoul and also looks at issues like class and gender and how they intertwine with beauty standards. Cha engages thoughtfully with her characters and the world they live in and isn’t judgmental or dismissive, which I highly appreciated. I tend to be wary of writing that tackles beauty in Korea because it often starts from a position of bad faith and, thus, stays very superficial, but Cha compels you to stop and think more deeply about why Korea is so obsessed with a singular standard of beauty and what that looks like for real Korean women.”

Y/N by Esther Yi

“The primary object of affection in Y/N is a K-pop idol from a mega-popular boy band who abruptly retires, and Yi does one hell of a job at capturing the obsessive mentality of a fan. The narrator is a diasporic Korean from Germany, who goes to Korea to go stalking, and the novel is absurdist and darkly hilarious with a very unique narrative voice that’s consistent throughout. It’s one of those books I don’t really want to say too much about because I think it’s best experienced — just dive in, trust the narrator, and enjoy the ride. It’s a lot of philosophical fun.”