(heads up for some racism and underage relationships)
I was pretty interested going into this book, because I just finished another one of Herzig’s books, The Proxima Strain, and I found it really fun and entertaining, and the summary for Idolism had me interested, too. however, as I started to read it, it quickly became boring
the concept of it is interesting: a band consisting of 4 teenage friends suddenly skyrockets to international fame after a video of the lead singer roasting some government official goes viral, and they struggle to deal with that. also the pope has just died and a new one needs to be picked. you’d think that last part would be important, but it’s really not
the characters of the story are:
Julian, the quiet yet headstrong, eccentric lead singer of the band. he’s been the “weird” kid all his life, shy and loves to educate himself on every possible topic. despite his quietness, he loves to talk about his opinions and debate with people. his friends describe him as autistic sometimes, but he’s not officially diagnosed with it. he’s really into religion, not that he’s religious, but he likes to debate it and is obsessed with rituals. he loves to watch religious stuff and likes to stop watch the guards change at the palace.
Michael, who has been Julian’s best friends since they were little kids, is the band’s drummer. he’s a genius with computers, and even though he’s just 17, he has created some sort of AI named MINDY that can do whatever the plot requires, can track anyone in the world by somehow using computers and not being traceable. despite this, he mainly uses it to keep tabs on Julian
Ginger, real name Emma but everyone calls her Ginger because, in a shocking turn, she has red hair, plays keyboard. there’s... not really much to say about her really. she’s just a normal teenage girl who doesn’t really affect the plot much. her dad’s a lawyer
then there’s Tummy, who plays bass. his name is really Thomas, but he’s fat, so everyone calls him Tummy. he is... terminally straight and terminally annoying. he hooks up with a Japanese tv host named Momoko, even though he’s 17 and she’s 22. his plot mostly revolves around that and the fact he was raised Catholic provides some insight on the religious stuff.
Momoko, whose show rocketed them to fame and follows them around. she speaks with an accent and broken english, and literally says “herro” a few times.
Robert Murdock, a southern tv show preacher who became the head of a multimedia empire that affects certain parts of the plot. gets elected to be the new pope. most definitely a Trump expy
Edward Pickle, the PR guy who is responsible for pulling the strings behidn Murdock and getting him to where he is today
the book switches between Tummy, Ginger, and MIchael’s perspectives every chapter, with a few chapters from Edward’s perspective here and there. it seems like a cool gimmick, but it doesn’t really affect much. seeing it all from everyone else’s eyes but Julian’s does help him come across more mysterious and mystical, which I liked, though. Tummy’s chapters are very British with him saying “me” in place of “I” and the like.
the story starts out at this special concert where Julian is preparing to give a big speech. he’s been missing/presumed dead, so it’ll be his first public appearance in a while. he’s dressed in all white and it’s a very on the nose Christ resurrection thing. it makes you all wonder what’s going on, how did they get to this point, Michael sends a cryptic “I failed” message to Ginger, it’s very good at raising a lot of questions.
but then it goes back to the start and all the answers to it all end up dissatisfying. it spends a LOT of time introducing us to these characters and building them up. it starts off with Tummy noticing his dad at school at night, which is odd. his dad works for some British government guy, and he sees him overseeing them haul in huge boxes from Murdock’s media company. anyway, the band shows up, Michael tells Tummy to put an SD card in dad’s laptop so he can hack, Tummy does so, and they find some documents that the government wants to force more religion into schools.
at some big school anniversary concert, their band performs, and they’re actually pretty good, so the govt guy and this media producer alumni, Peter Tholen (who is being followed by Momoko for some tv thing), come on stage to talk to them. then Julian lambasts the govt guy for the religion plan with a great rant. Momoko films this, it hits the internet, suddenly they’re famous, Peter signs them. shablam
then it goes onto this kind of pointless thing where they perform in Germany and Julian sings the former East Germany socialist anthem instead of the current one because he liked it better, it creates a controversy, so they go back to apologize, only to end up singing the same anthem with Germans singing along. idk, it’s mostly to set up that Julian follows his own drum and loves to preach or w/e
since they’re making lots of money at this point, the band’s like “lol let’s go to Rome and do a flash mob.” so that’s what they do. they get stopped by some cops, only to find out the new pope has been elected! and it’s not a cardinal? it’s Robert Murdock of the media empire, wtf??
(see, Murdock’s been setting up fancy schools in impoverished locations and bringing cardinals there to bribe them, that’s how he got it lol)
so anyway, of course Julian’s like “we HAVE to record our music video at the announcement of the new pope.” so they do. however, instead of lip syncing, Julian gets too ~caught up in the moment~ and starts singing loudly enough to attract attention, leading to their arrest. they spend the night in jail, then Peter comes and forcibly takes them to America because they’ve been making such a mess in Europe.
once they reach America, Michael and Ginger give the typical “you’ve changed, man” speech to Julian after noticing his attention-seeking ways. Tummy wants to stay and have fun, but he ends up going straight back to Europe with the other two while Julian stays in America doing a press tour for a few weeks. then the book gets boring again as it mostly describes the others doing nothing but watching Julian give interviews and people on talk shows discussing him.
one fun moment is Julian’s appearance on the Bill O’Reilly show where he lambasts him for a whole chapter, and it’s pretty clear this is just the author venting his own issues with O’Reilly, which, I suppose, is valid. and then it ends with Bill threatening Julian and going all crazy, getting his show cancelled and him sent to a mental institution, which... lmao
AND THEN, once back in Europe, the bus that Julian and Peter were on crashes and explodes. they were not among the dead or survives, so they’re presumed missing. Michael is all sad, but then he uses his deus ex AI to find out they’re in Rome with the pope. turns out the pope is a fan of Julian for whatever. they use this to record the pope saying some fucked up shit.
then it goes back to the benefit concert thing, they air the footage of the pope, and Julian gives his grand speech, and it’s exactly the typical “religion can be good for people, but it can also be Bad. we as a society should be nice to each other. makes you think, no?” speech you’d expect. applause. Michael’s “I failed” text at the start was simply referring to his plan to get the concert broadcast all over the world via Murdock’s company. Edward finds him out though, magically, and sends Michael away, promising not to reveal his god AI, but airs the broadcast everywhere anyway because he’s like “my god what have I done” wrt Murdock
in a touching moment afterwards, and probably my favorite part of the book, Michael finds Julian and they reconcile after their falling out, and Michael agrees to go on a 3 week vacation with Julian to a private island. in the epilogue, Momoko has Tummy’s child after being arrested and found guilty for having sex with a minor, but only serves 3 weeks. Tummy becomes a house husband. Michael and Ginger go back to school. Julian’s giving speeches and shit, the end.
all in all... it was just kind of boring. I think it would have been a lot better if it cut Tummy and Ginger’s chapters and focused mostly on Michael watching his weird, formerly quiet friend rocket to fame. it was very clear that Michael had serious feelings for Julian and hated sharing his special guy with the world, and I would have loved if the book had done more with that.
plus I think it would have been a lot more interesting had Herzig done more to mirror Julian’s rise to fame with Murdock’s. it certainly TRIED to do that, but it fell flat in that regard. he clearly wanted to do something about how religion and fame are tied these days, but it just felt kind of impotent. like its lofty goals were held back by the fact it’s just a YA book.
Tummy’s chapters were just gross and annoying. I really don’t want to read about this 17 year old being kinkily punished by a 22 year old woman, thank you. the kink part barely comes up but even the small passing mentions are like... this is so unnecessary
Momoko and her broken English also really bothered me, and it’s an ugly pattern I’ve noticed in nearly all of Herzig’s books. at least one character speaks in a bad accent, and if it was just a one time thing, I’d side eye and move on, but it keeps happening and I’m like... bro how come no one has told you to stop that yet
also he really likes overly describing science stuff, like the tech behind MINDY, and it just gets real boring after a while
