surprisingly did not really get into this one. i thought i'd love it because i love pop music and books about music and all, but i guess this one was not for me. that being said, i still recommend the book!

This was a fun and cute way to live out all my teenage pop star dreams! Just call me Britney Spears, lol

I enjoyed this, but it sadly did take me a while to get into. The story was okay, I did get confused that it only had two of the five main characters as viewpoints, which I wished we got to delve deeper into the other characters a bit more, but I did enjoy reading about the story.

So You Wanna Be A Pop Star is a fun and entertaining choose your own adventure story.
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. I have been a fan of pop music for a long time and the getting to make choices along the way to be part of the story was a cool touch. I love the characters and each were so different they did not get lost in the story. Them being put together when each of them have there own goals and dreams it was great. I would love to read more books like this one. It kept me turning the pages to see what they were going to do next in their adventures in the music business.

A fun and interesting "choose your own adventure" novel that will let you live out your pop star dreams!

I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard of ‘interactive’ or ‘choices’ novels so that part immediately intrigued me, but the story itself is the sorta thing I liked so I was both excited & curious to read this. And I can’t compare it to any others but it was still really well written!

I won’t describe the story too much as it’s pretty much what the title/blurb says it is, but it was definitely a mystery throughout trying to work out the puzzle. I did like tho how well it all connected together at the end! But aside from the puzzle, it also had a lot of teenage drama, divas, friendship & found family! This is also the sorta book that’s less about the ending/conclusion & more about what happens to reach it! Which is personally my type of book so if it’s yours too then I highly recommend!!

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher
The basic story was ok, but not that interesting. It only has the viewpoint of two of the five main characters. I was left wanting either chapters from all of the band members or chapters from only one viewpoint. I was expecting more from a choices novel. The choices in this book didn't really make a difference to the story. You would have two options, the exception being during songwriting sessions, that led to the same outcome that was just vague and general enough that whatever you chose would fit. Most of the choices can be completely skipped or skimmed and the story isn't affected because of the way it is written.
If you are reading this for the choice element, I would skip it.

I remember having a choices novel as a kid and revisiting it to read the story in different ways several times. I also love choice-based narrative videogames, like Life Is Strange. So I was VERY excited to try this queer YA choices novel, especially since it's about a pop group, and I LOVE books about music and celebrities.

At the start of the book, you get presented the choice to read the full novel from front to back, or, for the full experience, to follow the interactive option. Wanting to experience this book as it was intended, I decided to go with the interactive route for my first read-through, which is what my review is based on. I do intend to revisit the book eventually and read it through completely to see where the other choices would have led.

This didn't prove possible reading the eARC, which was formatted very poorly and made it pretty much impossible to keep track of the possible choices and follow through on them, so I waited for my preorder to arrive to review this.

Luckily my preorder arrived shortly, so I could finally actually read this, and I had a really fun time. In the back of the book is a reading guide to keep track of your choices, but I decided to use sticky tabs instead to mark every choice I made in the book.

Reviewing the choice aspect of the book, I would say I had a lot of fun, but I felt like the choices could have impacted the story, and particularly the ending, more. I would have expected several different storylines to unfold, leading to different possible endings, but unfortunately, every choice eventually led back to the main storyline, which didn't change based on your choices. I think there was potential to explore the choice-based narration more, but I will say it was fun to see how some choices impacted the story again later on.

Reviewing the actual content, I thought this was a really fun queer contemporary. I love books about pop music and celebrities, and this was delightfully messy but with a lot of heart. Every band member felt distinctive, and had a unique style.

I would definitely recommend this as a fun queer YA, and the choice aspect just adds a fun interactive element.

Thank you to NetGalley and Running Press Kids for the e-ARC of this book to read and review. I'd rate this one a 3.5 star read! I wasn't able to take advantage of the "choose your own adventure" feature of this book in my ARC Kindle copy, so I can't really comment on that element beyond confirming that, as the author says from the star, you can read right through and have a cohesive story. I really enjoyed this cast of characters, who were all dynamic and you could tell they were developed personalities with star power qualities. They're all looking to be recording artists, and they're all from a competition singing show, but they have to balance solo goals with their opportunities for kickstarting their careers - and also stardom. I'm a pop culture fangirl for sure, and it was very clear that this story was (either? both?) very personal to the author's interests and/or very well researched, because it lingered over moments of TV boy band/girl group history and contextualized the phenomenon and the onstage/offstage dynamic incredibly well. (Yes, it's very manufactured, but when it's done right, the singing competition shows can churn out major stars and influential bands, and it's not always a solo journey!)

I would say that I *did* have a bit of trouble imagining this group's sound, so a lot of the lyrics felt like flat words on the page to me. I could pretend I was hearing a major pop song or a star reality television moment, but that then would seem generic when it's been made clear that these particular cast of singers come from all different musical backgrounds and influences and therefore wouldn't sound like the made-for-TV stuff I could dream up. I ultimately couldn't connect to their music, which seemed like an important part of the story.

This was a fun idea. I liked the setting, the music and the characters but I was expecting more from the choices. I learned early on that my choices were pretty meaningless - to the overall story.

It doesn't matter which option you choose each time, they both lead to the same pages and make little difference.

For the most part, it's kind of more like choosing small interactions that show the character's personality, rather than controlling their destiny.

A fun idea but I would have really loved the choices you made to have had some kind of drastic change to the overall story. With extremely different consequences and endings.

DNFed at 25%.

Couldn't really get used to the "pick your own adventure" format and the story wasn't particularly captivating to me... But it's still a unique book that I would recommend to people if it seems like something you're interested in!

First up thank you for allowing me to read this one!

Sadly, I will be waiting for the book to come out so I can read in physical. On my Kindle it just doesn't work (maybe if it had links to the pages it would have worked now I was just hoping I was on the right page) and I cannot for the life read a 354 book just on my computer. I already had to get glasses last year because my eyes were not happy, I am not going to ruin them more by forcing myself to read it.
But I did like what I read, so yeah, I am going to be getting this book. I want to continue reading! I am curious about what is next for these characters and what paths we can follow and where they will lead to. I just love the cover. And I love that this one is a choose your own adventure, we definitely need more of those. Especially for YA/upper MG. So for that I am giving this book 4 stars.

Thank you, Running Press, Running Press Kids, for allowing me to read So You Wanna Be A Pop Star? early.

This was simply brilliant. An incredibly original idea and an amazing ensemble of characters.

this took me back to the 90s where a lot of the books I had were a choose your own adventure, this had a fun concept for an adventure. I was glad I was able to read this as I enjoyed the path I took. It was easy to do the choices and I enjoyed the characters within. Zachary Sergi does a great job in telling the story and I'm glad I got to read this.

"I understand now why I’ve hidden away in my room honing my craft, why I’ve only slayed theater-acting roles, or only sang straight-up cover songs in this competition—and why I haven’t pushed to debut a drag persona on this show . . . "