Ever heard of a "rabbit hole"? The beginning of Erin Mayer's new novel reminds me a lot like this. Bored with her day job, drinking sorrows away... Hearing a song that strikes a cord... Next thing you know, you're online doing a search and then hours later you're hooked and have visited site after site.

The narrator in "Fan Club" does just this when she becomes obsessed with Adriana Argento. However, the deeper she gets into the online world of Adriana superfans, the more things start to spiral.

This book is a look at what can easily happen in today's modern world - and it's mind bending and twisting. And honestly, I loved it. I found myself wrapped up in page after page, unable to put it down... which almost felt like my own personal rabbit hole!

Fan Club is the perfect recipe for weirdness mixed with a little bit of suspense. The story focuses on a millennial women’s lifestyle blog employee who finds herself suddenly and inexplicably obsessed with a pop star’s new song. When her coworker discovers her new fandom, she is welcomed to a small fan club that seems to get more creepy and over the top with every meeting, from women crying and tearing each other’s clothes while listening to the music to even murder?! While it didn’t keep me on the edge of my seat, this was a fun read and very reminiscent of social media in this day and age.

Fan Club by Erin Mayer is a thriller novel. This story is for the millennial generation with the main character being of that generation dealing with the drone of day to day life. With little hope of her own happiness our narrator becomes obsessed with a celebrity, Adriana, and finds herself caught up in a fan club dedicated to her new obsession.

Now as my two stars rating suggests I wasn’t exactly a fan of Fan Club by Erin Mayer which I wondered if perhaps was because I was older than the generation involved in the story and just didn’t get it so to speak. What I got out of this one was the depressing drone of the day to day life and not much thrill in the thriller side of the obsession. I’ve seen some glowing reviews on this one so I’d say give it a go for yourself but I had a hard time pushing to finish the book and not pick up something else instead.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

When I first dove into the novel I found the protagonist’s ennui relatable, as we both have boring office jobs that feel limiting to our capacities. And although as an adult I couldn’t relate to her obsession for a pop star, I can understand as a teen when I was so swept up by a certain celebrity that I had to buy any magazine they appeared in or view every single movie they were ever cast in no matter how terrible. The protagonist finds herself getting immersed in the devotion for Adriana Argento (who is a stand-in for Ariana Grande) and soon she finds like-minded stans who will do anything for their idol. I don’t know why this book was marketed as a thriller because we never fear for the protagonist’s life, and the death of a fan happened prior to the protagonist getting involved with the fan club. This isn’t a thriller but more of a women’s lit for disillusioned millennials. It’s not the genre that slowly turned me off of this novel rather the fact that not much happened. During the middle-end portion of the book, the pacing was turtle slow and I truly struggled to complete it. I also wish that the author would’ve written about an original pop star rather than take Ariana Grande’s life details and create a fictional character out of it. Many readers seem to have enjoyed this so if you like celebrity-obsessed groups you may be into this, if you’re looking for a thriller, then you may want to skip it cause this isn’t one.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and MIRA for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Sometimes I come across a book that sounds so promising--and then just doesn't deliver for me, personally. I know it's a me thing because there are other very positive reviews for this one. 

But, I just had such a difficult time with this story. Mayer is a very talented writer--however, this story didn't end up being what I thought. And, the fact that I had to slog my way through it from about 20% on, tells me that I should've known better. 

I had a really difficult time buying what the main character was selling. It wasn't believable. And when it's not believable, I have a difficult time spending time on it. 

Thank you for the chance to read and review this book.

I almost gave this book 3 stars. I was right there, even though it felt a bit disjointed, and was unbelievable much of the time. It was fascinating to see into the minds of the rabid fan cult. To see deep into the people who become so obsessed with a famous person, that they think they OWN that person. Erin Mayer mentioned more than a few times that these types of people want to crawl into the skin of their idol. Make their life their own. That they feel they have full power over that person's life. Truth be told, since I entered the world of KPop fandoms I understand how this can manifest. It's not hard to cross the line from fan, to obsessed.

Despite how slow this felt at times, and how much I wanted to shake some sense into our unnamed narrator, I carried on. I guess I kind of understood where she was coming from. To have nothing, to belong to nothing, and then to suddenly find meaning and belonging is a feeling that is too easy to sink deeply into without much thought. Even when she discovered that the people she was spending time with were terrible, she kept choosing them over and over. It's sad, but it's not beyond the realm of reality. I will saw though, it was so very frustrating. If that's what Mayer was going for, then it worked well.

The ending killed it for me though. All that time invested, and then the ending was just so lackluster. I almost rated this three stars, but I couldn't forgive that ending.

Overall, this was an ok book. The book was interesting and it had some really well written parts about celebrity obsession and how harmful it can be to the obsessed and the obsesse.

The book is also slow in pace and I just couldn’t connect with the narrator or the storyline at all. The ending was also flat. I don’t think I connected well with this book because I’ve never been obsessed with celebrities and others.

This was an ok book. I enjoyed the dive into celebrity obsession and what this obsession does to both the celebrity and fan. The narration and pacing kept me from fully enjoying it. The narration was seemed disconnected from the plot despite the first-person narration. And I felt that the pacing was too slow and dragged out the "twists" too much.

A love of music turns into something as important as air, what starts as just a scrolling of feeds and listening to interviews turns into The Ivies. The Ivies aren't just a fan club though, they are something more, something much more. I especially appreciated the execution of the friendships really reminded me of some of my favorite toxic girl groups. Heathers, The Plastics, etc--all those elements of competition and fear of exclusion are there, except in this instance, we also get this delicious commentary on the obsessive and dangerous nature of celebrity worship. Instead of a god and church, we get a cult-like attachment to a celebrity. The ritualistic behavior, the picking apart of every morsel of gossip, pap photo, and social media update is portrayed as both normal and aggressive, both sides of the coin, and the line between healthy interest and extreme obsession is blurred and stretched. I loved Mayer's exploration, even though there were several moments I visibly cringed at the events. You're supposed to feel uncomfortable, and in that discomfort, you question your own level of reliance on pop icons. This is why I can see how this won't work for everyone. It's a thriller that is a little bit adult fiction and a little bit literary fiction. I did not love that Adriana is a spitting image of Ariana Grande. While the author’s writing was solid, it did annoy me and I think this could have been a bit more compelling if the star at the heart of the Ivies’ obsession was more original.

My whole experience with this book was bizarre. I found the premise to be fascinating but the execution to be lacking. A lot of the book felt disjointed.

This book was very well written and made me uncomfortable at times. We follow our protagonist as she’s navigating her way through her boring life and her new friends who are obsessed with a pop star.

The author did an amazing job putting a spotlight on people’s obsession with celebrities and how it can turn dark real quick. There was so parts throughout the story that was slow and lost on attention but overall, I still wanted to find out what happened at the end. Also, the pop star in this story seemed a lot like Ariana Grande so there’s that.

Overall, I enjoyed my time reading this book. It will definitely keep you hooked until the very end.

Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to review this book!

I am of two minds with this novel. On the positive side, it faithfully chronicles the group of urbane 20-somethings women caught in the thrall of fandown over a pop music star that is similar to Taylor Swift.. The ladies approach a cult-like intensity that is both hilarious and frightening, and you are never quite sure what will happen next. During one of the pop icon's concerts, a teen-age girl is stabbed, and you aren't quite sure what the role of the group was during this concert. The story is told both from the POV of one of the group's members and the icon herself, and that gets me to talk about my issues: her voice is less authentic than the original narrator, and somewhat confusing. I think Mayer captures the zeitgeist fairly authentically, and that might frustrate some readers who have had enough of reading about this generation's exploits.

I really wanted to enjoy this story as I was expecting so much out of it. Unfortunately, I didn’t get much out of it. I think the story was fine and the characters were okay. I just think it was a bit over the top.

I’m going to be honest this synopsis really intrigued me, but unfortunately it wasn’t what I was expecting. I found the story to be very dull and boring and I wanted more out of it.

I personally would say skip this one unless you’re dying to read it. I felt like nothing exciting really happened and I wasn’t a fan of that ending.

A young woman falls into obsessive fandom in this novel with YA/new adult interests. Fan Club follows a first-person narrator who's bored with her life working at a women's lifestyle website until the night she hears a new song by pop star Adriana Argento. The song speaks to hear like nothing she's heard before, and becomes obsessed with the star, ultimately falling into an online fandom where fans obsess over Argento's every Instagram post, song lyrics, and appearances. A coworkers invites her to join her group of Adriana superfans who call themselves "The Ivies"; a group of young women who gather to listen to her music and talk about the star, her life and career, with eerie, almost cult-like devotion. As she becomes more mired in the group, the narrator discovers a horrible secret about the women - but is she too far gone to pull away?

Fan Club is so timely in its depiction of our celebrity-obsessed society and social media, toxic, and obsessive fandom culture. It's not a character-driven book; readers may recognize character archetypes, but this read is purely about the big picture. Acerbic, dark humor takes aim at pop culture and makes this a read your teen and young adult/new adults will devour. Pair this with Megan Angelo's Followers and Goldy Moldavsky's Kill the Boy Band.

2.5 Stars

An unnamed millennial becomes a part of an over-the-top fan group called ‘The Ivies’ who are obsessed, to put it mildly with Adriana Argento, an Ariana Grande clone pop star.

This is probably the hardest review I’ve ever had to write. I always can find something I like about any book I’ve read, but this one left me flat and wishing I could get my time reading back. The writing was over the top, to the point where I would have to reread full passages. I did not like any of the characters, at all. I seriously hope there are no millennials that act like prepubescent girls gone psycho, out there! God help us if there are! This book is listed as a Thriller, but I found it anything but thrilling. Predictable. Slow. I do applaud the author for the premise, I just wish the follow through was better.

Thanks to Harlequin Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.

This was so well written. I was engrossed from the first page and it ticked all the boxes of my expectations. I would definitely recommend to others.

I wanted so much to love this book...a great cover, a tantalizing blurb, and a fascinating premise...but it just didn't work.

I hated the fact that the protagonist was unnamed. I guess it was supposed to represent she could be anyone stuck in a tedious, dead-end job just waiting for something exciting to happen. We are indeed a culture obsessed with all things celebrity, so when our unnamed narrator becomes obsessed with pop star Adriana Argento (I'm assuming she is loosely based on Ariana Grande?) A co-worker notices her obsession and invites her to an adult fan group, and this is where things should have really taken off.

Unfortunately, the action never picked up, and the plot was pretty dull and tedious, just like the narrator's day-to-day life. I was hoping for a salacious, juicy, tabloid-like read, and this one was pretty disappointing. Nevertheless, I thank the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC.

Thank you to Harlequin and Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. This title was featured on my website as part of a flash blog tour.

Have you ever just been OBSESSED with a celebrity? Like tracking them online everywhere, listening to their music over and over again, etc... and then find a group that is equally as obsessed (if not more) and you just end up spiraling out of control? Yeah, me neither but our unnamed protagonist is excessively nuts.. and while I do enjoy crazy, this one just didn't quite work for me. Maybe if the celebrity in question wasn't who I think she was? *shrug*

Mayer does a good job showcasing how celebrity obsession is a real thing - and it truly is unbelievably crazy. Remember reading about celebrity deaths at the hands of their stalker/#1 fan? Yeah - I'm not sure if the perks would outweigh always being watched. For me, this started quite slow... and yet I understood where the main character was headed - daily trudging of life at a desk just to get home, shove some food down the throat, watch a little tv, avoid the roommate and then wake up to do it all over again. How mundane. But once you find yourself involved with some absolutely insane women... well, life sure isn't boring anymore but you may regret your decision making.

Unfortunately the ending kinda killed the whole shebang for me. I have a love/hate relationship with these kinds of endings and this one clearly fell on the latter side. If they adapted it would I watch it? Absolutely - I think this particular kind of read would resonate better for me on screen.

This book was quite bizarre. The MC is obsessed with a singer we can only assume is "Ariana Grande". She meets a group of girls and it goes down from there. They are beyond obsessed and are cult like. This book was not for me, but perhaps it is a generational gap.