I did not know Jenny Tinghui Zhang before finding this book on a "new book releases of February 2026" list and immediately being intrigued. I said to some people before reading that this book was either going to be fantastic or completely miss the mark-- its just one of those. Thankfully, in my opinion, it was fantastic.

Superfan is a novel split between narrators Minnie, a college freshmen, and Eason, known as Halo in the new Western-boy-group-inspired-by-Kpop HourGLASS, who are both having issues navigating this bug life transition. Both of their experiences are fraught with parasociality-- Minnie, an avid fan of HourGLASS and Eason, an avid fan of the worship from HourGLASS fans. While it deeply revolves around parasociality and fan culture, Zhang also talks about lonliness in a multitude of ways, consumerism, misogny in these spaces, the commodification of queer people, and much more. She took big swings with this novel and they completely paid off.

I do believe that if you are not a fan of K-Pop-- or know about it or have a love-hate relationship with it, all of which I have/am-- this will not hit as hard. Fan spaces for K-Pop, especially Western fan spaces, are such a specific cultural culmination of race-making, gendered sterotypes, queerbaiting, parasociality, and much more so you do not understand how real and specific this novel is unless you are or were entrenched in that world. Zhang captures it amazingly and horrifyingly. She ESPECIALLY showed misogny within K-Pop super well, something I do not see many people highlighting when they are discussing K-Pop. While she is deeply critical, Zhang also shows the complexity of everything in a way I was really impressed by. It does not sugarcoat, but it does not wholly villify. She showed wonderfully the different things happening to Minnie and Eason that made them seek out these superficial relationships in a way I really loved.

Do not read Superfan if you want morally correct narrators. Minnie and Eason make mistakes and they make many of them. There are reasons for these mistakes, but they are made and they are Tough to get through. I actually really, really enjoyed the foil that Zhang created between these two narrators, especially with characters like Anna and Julian, respectively, to balance them out. This was probably my favorite part of the novel. My biggest issue, though, is how many of Eason's chapters turned into: "I have a secret I can't tell but know it's there." That is simply because I don't really love that in a narrator, but it had to happen.

Regarding the ending, this is probably one of the few stand-alone books that I would like a sequel to. Big spoilers ahead: I quite enjoyed that there wasn't a happy ending for Eason. Yes, of course, I wish he would have healed but he is not a real person and, therefore, I really enjoyed that we get to see that he was unable to resist what The Duke was promising him. Unfortunately, I think its real and a very sobering ending (/beginning?) for an idol being manipulated like Eason. The fact that Minnie was able to move on and heal, though, was a really nice ending and one that I think is important for the readers who, most likely, are closer to being in her shoes than Eason's.

Superfan is an honest look into the underbelly of the relationships between K-Pop idols and fans but, also, parasociality in its many forms, too, and what fuels it. Jenny Tinghui Zhang is a wonderful writer who carries this story with care, amazing writing, and a level of craze that I think is necessary in a story like this. GO READ!!!

okay so i did finish this in less than 12 hours. i don’t think i can in good faith give it higher than a 3.5 because this is not a Good book per say but i had an amazing time reading so doesn’t that make it a good book? so it’s a great book in that sense but anyway… i cannot wait to see this one get adapted. i’m going to be in pain. i’m going to laugh. i’m going to cry. i’m going to get so gay off that hollanov!!!!!!!!!