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The Comeback by Lily Chu PDF Download

 

The Comeback by Lily Chu


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The Comeback by Lily Chu PDF Download 

Details of The Comeback by Lily Chu Book

  • Book Name: The Comeback
  • Authors: Lily Chu
  • Pages: 421
  • Genre: Romance Fiction
  • Publish Date: May 9, 2023
  • Language: English
  • Format: PDF, ePub, Mobi
  • Price: Free

Book Review:


The Comeback by Lily Shu, which has been my book of the summer, hands down, no questions asked. It has brought joy in a time of complete turbulence with wave number goodness knows what — covered monkey pox outbreaks, forest fires, global warming, Roe versus Wade, and ongoing war. Like, it's been a crazy year, and this has just been a ray of sunshine warming my heart.

What is the story about? It is a romance about a high-powered lawyer called Arie, who works for a very prestigious Canadian firm and is trying desperately to make partner but feels like she's not really making any progress. She's wondering why. She doesn't want to believe that it's because of her Chinese heritage. But that's a shame because that's like her only goal in life, really. 

She doesn't have a great relationship with some of her family members, and she doesn't really have a work-life balance. She writes these elaborate and amazing vacation itineraries for her friends and never takes any vacation time herself. So, her life could definitely do with some improvements.

In walks Jihoon, who is the cousin of her roommate. Her roommate is currently away. He's visiting from South Korea, and he's clearly kind of going through some kind of emotional something. Arie senses like maybe he's just broken up with a partner or something like that. 

She feels like he needs a bit of cheering up, a little bit of coddling. And so, she takes out a bit of time from work to give him some time, to show him around the city. They become friends. What she doesn't know is that he's actually one of the biggest K-pop celebrities in the world as he tries to conceal this fact from her, and she comes closer to discovering and eventually does. Hijinks ensue.

There are so many things I love about this book. Lily Shu writes beautifully. That's given. I call the storyline trope that it follows the glow-up when you take a mousey nobody and then they are transformed into a sort of supernova queen of the storyline. This fits the mold beautifully. 

They're also really well-rounded characters, and there are so many growth arcs. Arie kind of goes through this path where she has to find her career calling and move away from just other people's expectations, and just watching her recognize and value the things that bring her joy in her life is such a fun journey. 

She's also got to confront the issues that she has with her family members so that they can move forward and have healthy relationships. Meanwhile, Jihoon has to untangle some tensions that he has with his bandmates and find out who he is as a creative artist outside of the very prescriptive contract that he's been in with his music company for years.

I also know the fact that the audiobook is narrated by American actress Philippa Soo. Her narration is just like a sprinkling of magic over this story that just brings it up to another level. It's so rich and so emotional. I love Jihoon as a hero. He's probably one of my favorite heroes. He's gorgeous. 

He's talented, but he's also very emotionally mature, which is so fantastic to see, somebody who actually knows how to use their words and communicate things and ask the questions that they need for information they want rather than, you know, finding yourselves in all kinds of situations because people just didn't talk.

He's a fantastic listener. It's all sort of superhero-level skill where he can really intensively listen to you, hear what you're saying, and act on it. And in a world that's so busy and so noisy, it's rare. It's so sexy. All heroes from here on should have this superhero gift.

Another thing that I really loved about the book is the music aspect. Jihoon is a K-pop star. He is in a K-pop group. I didn't know anything about K-pop until this year when I fell in love with BTS. 

I watched the video, affairs called 'On,' and the dance choreography is amazing. Yes. Apparently, it's choreographed by a 17-year-old girl. Just like, wow, the level of skill, and the fact that all seven members are able to deliver this really complicated choreography. I was like, Janet Jackson would be proud. 

And since she's my gold standard for good dance, I'm like, if it passes a Janet Jackson test, this is amazing. So, I love that video. Watched a bunch of other videos, fell down the rabbit hole, and now I'm basically baby army. And that is that. The hiatus, it better be just a hiatus. I feel you, know this space too. I'm enjoying it. They better stay together.

With some of the things that I wonder about in terms of BTS and being the biggest band or the biggest music act in the world right now and just so much attention on them, the fandom is so passionate.

I'm just like, how do you deal with that? And so looking at Jihoon and how he deals with being so famous and trying to be an artist and trying new things and all of these complications is really interesting how Lily Chu explores it, and she is very detailed about exploring the K-pop world. 

They really hothouse their musicians, and you know, you have bands who live in dorms together for years. They have all these very elaborate dance routines and then all these rules that they have to adhere to. You know, you can't date for x amount of years. You can't have access to social media. You can't sometimes use your phone. You have to diet quite extensively. You maybe be weighed every week. Like, it's a whole different ball game.

Lily Shu just paints a portrait of this world, and it's so detailed. It's really riveting. I don't know if it's accurate. Somebody who knows more about K-pop would have to tell me that, but it seems very plausible and it's a fascinating world. So, it was really interesting to dive into that. 

Also, fame. I'm always really interested in how famous people manage. I feel like it's such a dichotomy between, you know, the privileges of having of the glamour and the money and the access to things that regular people just cannot access. Meanwhile, at the same time, you've got the downside with, you know, the constant headlines, constant scrutiny and criticism, and feeling like you're a commodity. 

And you know, do they love me or do they love the persona that I've constructed? That kind of contrast between the benefits and the negatives is so interesting to me. So, watching Jihoon have to deal with the complications of being a massive celebrity and then Aries seeing that world that he lives in and this weird bubble that he lives in, it was so interesting to me.

Also, the dimensional frame where you're in a group, so it's not just you on your own, and your success is other people's success, and if you fall, they'll fall too. How do you manage that? How do you forge an identity away from that? 

Can you ever walk away? How do you go solo? And so many groups that we know have gone through it. Jackson Five, the Commodores, the Supremes, TLC

Destiny's Child, Spice Girls, New Kids on the Block, NSYNC. I mean, they all have a time when they're at the top, and then at some point, they start to fracture. Jihoon being part of a group, how can he manage his journey without sort of causing trouble for the rest of the group is very interesting too. So, I found it such a wonderful and satisfying journey to travel with these two characters, two people trying to live their very best lives.





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