Fan Club by Erin Mayer
Synopsis.
In this raucous psychological thriller, a millennial office worker finds relief from her crippling ennui in the embrace of a cliquey fan club, until she discovers the group of women is bound together by something darker than devotion.
Day after day our narrator, a gloomy millennial, searches for meaning beyond her vacuous job at a women’s lifestyle website—entering text into a computer system while she watches their beauty editor unwrap box after box of perfectly packaged bits of happiness. Then, one night at a dive bar, she hears a message in the newest single by child-actor-turned-international-pop-star Adriana Argento, and she is struck. Soon she loses herself to the online fandom, a community whose members feverishly track Adriana’s every move.
When a colleague notices the extent of her obsession, she’s invited to join an enigmatic group of adult Adriana superfans who call themselves the Ivies and worship her music in witchy, candlelit listening parties. As the narrator becomes more entrenched in the group, she gets closer to uncovering the sinister secrets that bind them together—while simultaneously losing her grip on reality.
With caustic wit and hypnotic writing, this unsparingly critical thrill ride through millennial life examines all that is wrong in our celebrity-obsessed internet age, and how easy it is to lose yourself in it.
The Review
Are you wearing something pink today?
If you are, I have a book for you…
On Wednesdays, I don’t wear pink. But if you do, you might like this book.
If you always remember and repost that meme on October 3, you might like this book.
If you had/have a burn book, you might like this book.
Jokes. All jokes…
It’s not exactly Mean Girls, but it’s close. Our main character works for a women’s lifestyle blog surrounded by catty co-workers. She uses her well-timed coffee breaks to relieve the monotony of her day-to-day life.
She is obsessed with a pop star, Adriana.
And a man named Tom, with a sketchy situation, is obsessed with her.
So, what does she do?
She seeks out all of that obsession. And finds ways to create multiple triangular relationships. She joins a fangirl group, of more women obsessed with Adriana, and has several conflicting interactions with Tom, all of this she knows is bad, yet feels so good.
Or does it?!
As I’m getting closer to the end of the book, I’m realizing there is no character arc here. And that might have pissed me off a little bit.
I’m wondering when she’s going to realize that obsession is not love is not adoration and being someone’s obsession is not what you want to be?
I’m wondering when she’s going to wake up and decide to start living her life for herself and become obsessed with her own life?
Can you tell I have been reading romance novels?
I’ve got to stop that!
Overall, I enjoyed the author’s ability to capture a loathsome atmosphere. But felt something was held back on this book. One of those “scarier in the dark” situations but I am interested in what the author might do next.
The rating for me is somewhere around a 3.5 and I’m rounding down to 3. Mostly because I feel the whole thing lacked teeth.
Thanks to Netgalley and HTP Books for this advanced copy!
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