Fan Club by Erin Mayer is a satirical look into celebrity and how they can pull us into their worlds. Adriana is a superstar, whom is beloved. When our unnamed protagonist is invited to a club called The Ivies that is centered around Adriana, she joins with no idea what to expect.
This is a scathing, realistic look at how our world works today regarding celebrities. I was fascinated with Mayer’s descriptions and the situations that she put our narrator in. I thought our narrator not having a name was interesting device to use. On one hand, she could be any of us but it also made me feel a distance from her. The ending was completely satisfying and I’m excited to see what topic Mayer tackles next.

I tried really hard to like this book. This is a story of young women - who act like children - idol worshipping to the point of unspeakable acts.

I just didn't enjoy this book - just not the right fit.

Fan Club is a sharp, witty commentary on stan culture, how we view fame, and the risks we take in order to find some kind of meaningful relationship.

The term "stan" comes from the song of the same name released by Eminem in 2000. It's written from the POV of a man (named Stan) so deeply obsessed with Eminem that he writes letters to him detailing his descent into anger and rage when Eminem doesn't reply. His actions get increasingly more dangerous as he begs for his idol's attention. The term entered the Oxford English dictionary in June of 2018, listed as "an overzealous or obsessive fan, esp. of a particular celebrity."

In this book, our main character isn't named. Which seems fitting, as she feels like she doesn't really exist in any great sense of the word. She uses the term "every-father" in the opening paragraph of the book - she herself is the "every-office-worker". She's anybody, she's nobody, she's everybody. She works at a job she hates, editing articles she doesn't care about for a website she doesn't read, lives with a roommate she doesn't really know, and doesn't have many friends. She craves love, intimacy, friendship, excitement, and she has all but given up - until she finds Adriana Argento.

Adriana is a pop princess, loved the world over, who is on the brink of releasing her first album after a hiatus due to a tragedy at one of her shows. If this all sounds a bit familiar - you too, may believe God is a Woman. Adriana becomes more and more important to our main character, and as so often happens, the fans find each other and our gal becomes deeply involved with a very intense branch of the Adriana fandom, to the detriment of her and the people around her. But it's exciting.

This really didn't go the way I thought it would, but I found it to be a really engaging read. The whole world of standoms and fandoms is equally terrifying and intriguing to me - I find it a little sad sometimes and one of the lines in the book really summed that up for me:

"The most efficient way to lose yourself is to idolise somebody else"

It's scary to me how much access people have to celebrities now. Of course as long as there have been celebrities, there have been stans - but I feel like with advances in technology and the ways we use social media, celebrities have gone from being untouchable to being dangerously reachable. Stan Twitter honestly scares the bejaysus out of me, but I've no doubt had I been born ten years later that I'd have absolutely been bang smack in the middle of it. I can see the allure - finding your tribe is one of the hardest things on this earth to do, and many people go through life without ever finding that kind of comraderie or a group of people with whom they can truly be themselves. Fandoms seem like ready-made families, ready and waiting to accept you with open arms - until you step out of line.

I ate this book up in one sitting - I was gutted when it ended, because I could easily have read another hundred pages. It takes celebs, fans, cults, social media, jaded millennials, capitalism, and spins it into a cautionary tale about living vs existing in a world full of online obsession. As a species, we've never been more connected - so why aren't we more connected?

I didn't adore the ending, but I really enjoyed the journey there.

Thank you to Justine at Harper Collins for having me on the Blog Tour, I really appreciate it.

You can read the first chapter on my Blog Tour spot at www.behindgreeneyes.com

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Fan Club

Author: Erin Mayer

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 3/5

Diversity: Latinx side character

Recommended For...: psychological, thriller

Publication Date: October 26, 2021

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Recommended Age: 17+ (depression, stalkerish behavior, cult-like behavior)

Explanation of CWs: Depression is shown, but not named. The MC and side characters have stalkerish and cult-like behavior in their obsession with the celebrity and it’s a bit much.

Publisher: Mira

Pages: 336

Synopsis: In this raucous psychological thriller, a millennial office worker finds relief from her crippling ennui in the embrace of a cliquey fan club, until she discovers the group of women is bound together by something darker than devotion.
Day after day our narrator, a gloomy millennial, searches for meaning beyond her vacuous job at a women's lifestyle website—entering text into a computer system while she watches their beauty editor unwrap box after box of perfectly packaged bits of happiness. Then, one night at a dive bar, she hears a message in the newest single by child-actor-turned-international-pop-star Adriana Argento, and she is struck. Soon she loses herself to the online fandom, a community whose members feverishly track Adriana's every move.

When a colleague notices the extent of her obsession, she’s invited to join an enigmatic group of adult Adriana superfans who call themselves the Ivies and worship her music in witchy, candlelit listening parties. As the narrator becomes more entrenched in the group, she gets closer to uncovering the sinister secrets that bind them together—while simultaneously losing her grip on reality.

Review: 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. I also thought the book had well done world building and the plot is really interesting.

However, the book is weirdly written and we never find out who the actual main narrator is because the book focuses on the obsession with celebrities. 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 generally don’t care about them.

Verdict: It was ok, but not for me.

3 stars!

The unnamed narrator of Fan Club is a millennial office worker who is bored with the day-to-day of corporate life. During a night out with coworkers, she discovers the music of popstar Adriana Argento and that discovery soon develops into an obsession. Her obsession gets noticed by a coworker who then invites the narrator to a meeting of the Ivies, a superfan group for Adriana. Unfortunately, this group of superfans isn’t as innocent as they appear.

Unfortunately, I feel like this was a bit of a miss for me! There were parts of this book where it was so good and it had my full attention. I loved how this story touched on our obsession with celebrities and how we feel like we know them best when ultimately we don’t know anything about them. I also think that the main character’s feelings of boredom and being lost in life are ones that a lot of people will connect with.

Other than that, the rest of the story didn’t really grab my attention. It got a tad bit unrealistic and I did not find the narrator to be that interesting. One minor thing that annoyed me was how Adriana Argento was essentially Ariana Grande but with a different name. I wish that character was written with more individuality. Adriana and Ariana were interchangeable in my mind during this read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this eArc in exchange for my honest review. Fan Club by Erin Mayer is available on October 26th!

An unnamed narrator has a job at a fun trendy women's website and when a new co worker joins the company, her minor obsession with a pop star named Adriana develops and becomes a major life altering obsession.

I was drawn in by this synopsis and was intrigued as this narrator is probably around my age, maybe a bit younger, if you make me admit it and I always love a book that takes a closer work at the impact on one's work life on their greater life. BUT this book took a turn and went downhill and fast along with the character. I started having a hard time following the narrator as she was tumbling downhill. I couldn't tell where her conscious thought and the plot were happening and when I get confused, I get frustrated.

If you like a book where the main character unravels and you can just watch the train wreck, then this one is for you. It may have been the difficulties going on in my personal life that affected my ability to have the patience for this read, but this one wasn't for me.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Fan Club is an introspective psychological thriller, and while I wasn’t sure about it at first, it ultimately delivered on the awesome premise, and gave me a lot to think about regarding fandom engagement and parasocial relationships.

Stylistically, the book felt somewhat similar to Rebecca, even though it’s more in the sense that the narrator is nameless, shifting the focus away from them to the people around them and the effect it has on molding each book’s respective protagonist. If you require attachment to the lead character, you won’t get that here, but I feel like this was a great intentional use of the protagonist-as-blank-slate, as we can all empathize to varying degrees with some sort of celebrity or media obsession. There’s a sense of the nothingness the protagonist’s life is, until being sucked into fandom and forming connections.

I really loved the depiction of the fandom culture. It was instantly recognizable. While the celebrity in question is very much a fictionalized version of Ariana Grande, and there are elements of her life and career embedded into the fictional Adriana’s life, I felt that the commentary could resonate with anyone who’s a fan of anyone or anything. The way fans were responding to the shift in Adriana’s musical style in a rather negative light particularly felt reminiscent of various real life situations. There’s honest, harmless criticism, and then there’s micromanagement and invasiveness, and I loved the way the lines were delineated.

While the pacing starts off slow and relatively innocuous, it was fascinating to watch the narrator start to lose touch with reality as she falls in deeper with the little “fan club,” the Ivies. It does get a little weird at times, as sometimes we’re seemingly seeing things from “Adriana’s” POV, but I assume it’s filtered through the narrator’s distorted mind. So, while it is a bit hard to follow at times, I can understand why some of the stylistic choices were made.

I don’t know if I loved this book, or even enjoyed it, but it’s definitely a well-executed story that lives up to what it promises, although it does require patience for the reader to get there. If you like a slower-paced, psychological thriller, and don’t require the “likability” or even much substance to the characters, you’ll probably enjoy this.

Fan Club by Erin Mayer is a uniquely progressive voice among its peers in the thriller genre. Employing a nameless, faceless twenty-four-year-old female narrator, the author created a tale that can sweep a reader quickly away. I can see where it is possible for the reader to almost merge with the narrator to be taken on a ride that is very much like a bad dream with all the disjointed scenes and randomness that means something that those dreams often utilize. That is if that reader can form a connection with the narrator. If you are someone who has experienced a mildly mundane life after college where you felt like you were in a pointless job, struggled to make new adult friends, and barely scraped by financially, whether you are a millennial or not, then there is a good chance you will be able to make that connection that will allow you to be swept away into the terror of fandom taken too far. Unfortunately, I am not that person, so I struggled to make it through the story having it feel claustrophobic at times and just plain confusing at other times. But that being said, it did not mean I couldn’t see the merits of this story and even wish I could form that connection. There have been crazed, homicidal fans for as long as there have been famous people – even before social media. However, I imagine that social media can take it to a whole new place. I’ve always found crazed over-the-top fans a bit scary, and this story takes that feeling and runs with it. I can only give this novel two stars for my enjoyment but five stars for its technical ingenuity, creative telling, and insightful reflections, as I genuinely believe that the right reader will be blown away by this story. That averages 3.5, so I have rated it four stars overall.

The world of parasocial relationships is kind of at peak right now. When a rather popular comedian announced his divorce and then subsequent new relationship and baby, Twitter and his fan girls went into a meltdown. That's what this felt like to me. A group of people who don't understand the lines of reality.

Our narrator, a millennial, in a soul-sucking job, in a web-based editing job finds herself enthralled by Adriana Argento, a young pop-star. Our narrator soon finds a group of friends that worships Adriana...to a cult level status.

What follows is a psychological (and honestly, hilarious) breakdown of reality as this group of young women anticipate the latest album release of their idol. As the anticipation grows, secrets are revealed and all hell threatens to break through and is held back by the thinest of threads.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Whenever I see those Superman pages or Twitter/Instagram accounts I always wonder what it's like to be hyper obsessed with a certain celebrity. To have your thoughts all consumed by them. This book provides a glimpse into that world and how people enter into it.

We're able to watch as the unnamed narrator slowly but surely is drawn into the world of obsessive fandom, when she first finds the behavior of her new friends weird and slightly cult like, she slowly begins to buy in to their behavior, even participating in their rituals and beginning to believe in them. It was an amazingly fascinating thing to watch. She was torn between this world of obsession and insanity and the "real world" of her coworkers, with its mundane existence of dating, drinks, dancing, etc. Seeing that conflict was intense as she waffled and tried to balance it.

In the end, it becomes a question of how much she can take; how much she is willing to take.

The ending was also really jarring. I don't want to give too much away but it's pretty intense and leaves you with a sense of both foreboding and a bit of questioning. And in this case, it works. The questions are better left unanswered, with a bit of mystery.

Overall, this book is perfect for the modern age and it is a great book for anyone of an age looking for an intense psychological thriller.

This is an interesting and insightful read. Told from the perspective from a staffer at a lifecycle website whose day is filled with drudgery. One day, when out with her co-workers, the narrator hears a song from the international pop star Adriana Argento and quickly becomes obsessed with all things Adriana. Her co-worker notices and invites the narrator to join a group of women who are Adriana superfans. As the narrator gets pulled deeper in their orbit, and her world becomes dominated by her own Adriana, she is enthralled by the group and their connection to each other and Adriana ... until she begins to see the dark side of fandom.

The book raises a number of interesting issues about technology, celebrity, and modern relationships.

Recommended!

Our bored, listless millennial narrator finds meaning, of a sort, in Adriana, a pop star, and connection, of sort, with the Ivies, her fan club in this novel that's not entirely sure what it wants to be. I wanted to like this- it has some interesting elements- but it just wasn't for me. The narrator was annoying (I may just be tired of this trope) and the Ivies are mean girls. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This has potential, particularly for fans of Ariana Grande on whom Adriana appears to be modeled.

I really tried with this book and read 60% of it then finally gave up. The writing itself was fantastic but the plot which I at first thought was great became boring to me. Maybe because I’m older, I just didn’t connect with the fandom plot and wanted more thriller/suspense to it.

Wow, what a roller coaster ride of book! The narrator undergoes an extensive transformation the more time she spends with the cult like Ivies. She loses touch with reality and any sense of personal identity. This is the dark side of obsessive hero worship in the internet age. The ending leaves no question as to the final outcome.

Our unnamed millennial "protagonist" snared my attention from moment one!

This was such a clever interpretation of the obsessive fan trope. I cannot recommend enough!

Thank you to MIRA for gifting me a copy. It was my pleasure to write an honest review.

📚BOOK REVIEW📚
🏔🏔🏔 1/2

“Fandom is about worship, yes, but it’s also a reminder of all the ways life is unsatisfying for the regulars. Perhaps the riskiest part of staring directly into sunlight is not how it burns your eyeballs and whites out your vision; perhaps it’s more about the way it makes you consider your own insignificance.”

I’m not sure how to rate this one. Wow! Where do I start? At times it captured my attention, but at other times I was confused by the writing. I'll admit that a book cover is important to me and this beautiful pink one is what grabbed my attention. And the description sounded interesting.

There was something about the writing style that was confusing at times. It was well-written, but it changed directions quickly, which threw me off and made it hard to follow at times. This is the author’s debut, so that might change.

The main character, who is not named, is a millennial and an editor for an internet news website. With the MC remaining unnamed, I had a harder time relating to her. I’ll call her MC! MC isn’t happy with her job or life, in general.

She becomes enchanted with a pop star and the story examines MC’s secret obsession with Adriana Argento. Her obsession begins to consume her life. A new coworker, Meghan, finds out and introduces her to a small and private fan club called the Ivies.

At first these ladies seem like very devoted fans, but after MC hangs with them for a while, she realizes they are bat-shit crazy! They are extreme, over-the-top devotees! Joining their little fan club was a mistake!

I wasn’t satisfied with the ending. It was one of those that left the conclusion open for your interpretation. It’s easy to assume what what happens, but I like to see it spelled out in ink, lol. I think this one will be enjoyed by celebrity fans. Maybe anyone who likes reality shows. I didn’t consider it a psychological thriller, but I’m interested enough to try the author’s next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing / MIRA. I received an ARC for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

#Bookstagrammer #FanClub #ErinMayer #MIRA #HarlequinTradePublishing #NetGalley #JustFinishedReading #TheIvies #Obsession #OctoberReads #Thrilleraddict #ReadingInTheRockies #ColoradoReader #BookNerd #Bookaholic #SoManyBooksSoLittleTime

Fan Club
by Erin Mayer
Pub Date October 26, 2021
Mira

I love Mira's lineup, and this book caught my eye immediately. That pink cover is absolutely stunning the synopsis was right up my alley. I was thrilled to be approved and quickly dove in.
I like to try out new authors and this one is the best! I think you should read it. What an unexpected thrill ride.
Thanks to Mira and NetGalley for the ARC.

4stars

Twenty Something Angst Turned Fever Dream. This is a book that you can largely pluck the *exact* details out and have a version of pretty well every single angsty twentysomething "My life sucks and this pointless job is draining my very soul" tale out there. At least through the first third ish. Then our lead character allows herself to be drawn into an obsessive and honestly creepy "fan club" of a singer (consisting of exactly four other members). Around the 50% mark, some feature of the narration or possibly just a lack of editing turns the tale into more of a fever dream, where all of a sudden we're sporadically getting the perspective of the very singer the narrator is now obsessed with. At this stage, the book becomes much harder to follow in any logical form, and the reader just has to adapt to diving into the crazy and holding on to whatever shred of sanity ties you into the "real" (ie, the reader's own) world, because with the combination of knocks to her head, illicit drugs, and other factors... it becomes truly less clear for a bit what is real and what isn't, in-story. But then we come out of that for the ending, which is one of those abrupt ambiguous types that many other readers have problems with and I personally rarely do. (Nor do I here.) Ultimately I'm chalking up the weirdness of the back half to a lack of editing rather than a functional error in storytelling, which preserves the five stars for the overall book. Recommended.

this was a great thriller novel, I had a lot of fun reading this book and going through this journey. the characters were great and I really enjoyed the storyline itself.

A fantastic look at what might happen when fandom teeters over the edge into obsession, and all the ways it can go horribly wrong. There were a few moments that seemed over-the-top until I stopped and considered some of the people I've seen online at the edges of my own fandom spaces: the ones who spout death threats to creators who slip up even slightly in their private lives or don't make a favored ship canon. Even the most extreme scenes in this book don't seem so far-fetched then. This isn't the sort of thriller I'd recommend to everyone, but I think it will be a great fit for its targeted audience. If you spent junior high filling your head with boy band facts or have ever engaged in angry discourse on Tumblr, this book may be right up your alley. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
(NetGalley provided me with a digital ARC of this book in return for my honest opinion.)