BOOK REVIEW: Kill The Boy Band // Goldy Moldavsky

If you’ve been around the twitter-sphere and the internet in general for as long as I have, you would know what are FANGIRLS and how these notorious pupil are known for their bad rep. (And for a good reason too). In general, Fan Girls are obsessive about pretty much anything and everything related to their respective Fandoms. Some fan girls are genuine well-wishers of their idols, but others take everything wayyyy overboard and literally can turn into anyone’s worst nightmare.

The book KILL THE BOY BAND by Goldy Moldavsky is a very interestingly hilarious YA novel, and a cautious tale of a couple of fangirls and their adventure of following a boyband to such an extent, that it quickly turns into a murder mystery.

Goldy brilliantly portrayed the in-depth characters of the obsessive teens and their behavioral tendencies amidst the unexpected situation where the girls mistakenly abduct one of their oh-so-loved band THE RUPERTS’s member, Rupert P, who in reality was nothing but the most hated dead weight in the band. Things further escalates when the girls find out that the abducted member of the band choked himself to death whilst trying to break free from the chair that he was tied to.

Further into the book, the mystery gets further complicated of whether Rupert P died on his own terms or was he killed by one of the girls, or was it an actual case of auto erotic asphyxiation (or so thought by his band mates when they find his body in their room, which the girls left there on purpose to save themselves).

And even amidst the shitstorm around, can a fangirl actually hope to meet her favorite band member in hopes of getting her happily-ever-after with him after all? Well, a girl can dream. This hilarious tale of hysteric fangirls, an unexpected abduction, an obsessive fake girlfriend, a murder, and a whole bunch of police arrests will make you want to take a step back from the world of crazy fandoms.

In All, I really enjoyed the read since I was a fangirl myself and I could totally relate to a lot of the stuff in the book, which is nothing but embarrassing for the Now-Adult me. dontjudgethankss :p (Take a good look at the picture below and take a guess who i was crazily in love with a long time back.)

Till I post more of my Book reviews (a lot on the way, check out my Instagram @DigitalZarda), this is me, singing off!

Digitally drooling,

Wurduh Jaffri

BOOK REVIEW: One Of Us Is Lying // Karen M. McManus

Since the day my exams ended, I’ve been on a bookscapade to read as much as I can before I dive right back into my work mode slash medical school! In the past month alone, I read Four books and I’m already onto my fifth one! (Which by my standard is a LOT, bcz yuno me, lazy and busy, but always hoarding books).

During one of my escapes before finals hit me, I bought two books from LIBERTY BOOKS at Dolmen Mall Clifton. The store itself is such a treat that I had to limit myself to only two books in order to save my ever-declining bank account. On that trip, I bought Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman, and One Of Us is Lying by Karen M McManus.

Moving on to the review, I think both the books were such a huge treat for me in their own respective genres. One Of Us is Lying is a YoungAdult Murder Mystery novel, revolving around HighSchoolers from BayView Highschool. THE MINUTE I PICKED THIS BOOK UP, IT WAS HARD TO PUT IT DOWN!! Addictive to the fullest, full of anticipation and will get anyone HOOKED!!

(Trigger Warning: the story contains death, suicide, substance abuse and similar subjects. Spoiler Alerts)

The books starts off simple. Five students in detention, from very different backgrounds, all have secrets that can potentially ruin their lives, all in detention because they got caught with phones in their backpacks that weren’t theirs. Amongst them is ONE very twisted sociopath who runs a gossip app called ABOUT THAT, that have messed up students’ lives previously, and was going to continue. UNTIL the sociopath, Simon, chokes up on water from the school’s tap, and goes through a sudden anaphylactic allergic reactions. The rest of the four in detention hurries to find Epinephrine Pens (EpiPen) in the nurses’ office, except, someone stole the entire emergency EpiPen stash. Even though the Paramedics reach fairly quickly, Simon doesn’t survive. What looked like an allergic reaction and an accident, was now being treated as a suspected homicide and a crime scene, the 4 in detention being the Murder Suspects!!

source: https://www.amazon.com/One-Us-Lying-Karen-McManus/dp/1524714682

The Story of the four continues and how they cope from their respective secrets that were tearing them down from the inside. Not only were some of them morally wrong, but also illegal at an extent. Just as they thought after Simon’s death they could bury their secrets, a series of anonymous tumblr posts starts getting published, from the perspective of one of the pupil in detention. When the anon on tumblr also publishes the post Simon wrote before his death about the four in detention, things go ugly pretty fast. Now everyone is equipped with a Lawyer at all times, But also on the lowkey, the ‘BAYVIEW FOUR’ (The name local tv gave the suspects) are trying to solve the mystery on their own, because to them things didn’t add up the minute they all walked into detention. Simon himself was not shy of keeping his sociopathic abilities to himself. Pretty soon, his 4Chan threads of pure hate and terror and his comments starts surfacing and people begin to realize this just might not be a murder after all.

Will the police believe the Bayview Four? Did one of them actually kill Simon? Is One of them Lying? Or are they all are in it together? The big reveal certainly did not shock me, but did give me a sense of relief. At least one rightful arrest made in the book gave me satisfaction that can last a lifetime (overstatement but okay).

I think Karen M McManus did a brilliant job in portraying such clear character descriptions and their own personal accounts of what happened. At least this way, the readers knew what was going on inside the brains of all the 4 in detention. Plus even though the book is around 400 paged, not for one second I thought it was a drag. A job well done, in all honesty! Now I really want to read more of Karen’s works and get into the whole YA Murder mystery genre! Y'all NEED to read this book ASAP! I'm not even kidding!

Lots of more book reviews coming up btw! Until then, this is me, signing off.

Digitally drooling,

Wurduh Jaffri