Dome 6 by Gail Carriger

Third in a series, follows Divinity 36 and Demigod 12.

This book made choices and I hated all of them.

Where this series was until now: Phex is a refugee from Bad Space Station, now living on Good Moon. He gets recruited to Space KPop, called the Divinity, and forms a band (called a pantheon) with five other people.

Then they go on tour! Phex's love interest, Missit, is an established pop idol in his own band with five other people, but one of them is terminally ill. Phex and Missit are not allowed to be in a relationship because TPTB forbid the idols from forming romantic or sexual relationships with each other.

This is all light and fluffy scifi, with the tension coming in from the fact that TPTB are exploiting Phex constantly, and the fact that the band keeps getting attacked by obsessed fans who are called "fixed".

What happens in this book: we discover that the Divinity exists as a tool to brainwash everyone who listens to it into non-violence to the level of not being able to defend themselves, and the "fixed" are those who are, in universe, "allergic" and so go out the other end and physically attack the band members.

Also, we meet Kagee's ex-lovers and Misst's parents, Phex non-consensually undergoes a truth drug to prove that his relationship with Missit fits whatever bullshit criteria the Dyesi have for what's an acceptable relationship among their own species, and Missit's terminally ill band member friend dies on stage, on screen, on purpose.

OK, Kagee choosing to leave the band to reunite with his exes, that I'm fine with, even though it's clearly done to solve the problem of Phex And His Love Interest Being In Different Bands. After faking everyone (including Phex's band) out about Phex joining Missit's band after the on-stage death of the 6th member of Missit's band, surprise, Kagee is leaving the group, and so now there's a place for Missit. Everyone wins! Yay! (Missit's band, I must stress, is made up of "wait, who is that guy again?" x4, plus "the guy who is terminally ill and dies on stage on purpose", and Missit).

Missit. What is to say about Missit. Already in the second book in this series, I was getting annoyed with Phex when it came to Missit. Phex's narration kept calling Missit flighty, capricious, etc, all terms that Phex used for Missit As A Boyband Star back before Phex had ever met him, and despite the fact that Missit, on the page, seems very committed to having this relationship and Phex doesn't ever say or act like he doesn't want the relationship, and so from Missit's POV, yay, he and Phex are having a slowly-developing relationship that, sure, has a lot of pitfalls because, per their contracts, they're not allowed to be in a relationship, but clearly both of them want it and are fully invested in it!

Meanwhile, from Phex's POV in the second book, Missit was just One More Person Demanding Things Of Him, and pushing him for stuff, and it seems like Phex did want to be pushed and he did want the relationship, but he was dragging his feet on it, and it kept seeming like, from inside the Phex narration, that Missit was trampling over Phex's boundaries. But... is Missit at any point supposed to know that? Missit is all in on this relationship, he does not know that Phex is not.

Anyway. We get to this book, and Missit is so serious about this relationship that he's willing to torpedo his entire career over it. And meanwhile Phex thinks this is a short-term thing, and hey, Missit is capricious and flighty and not serious!

Phex. Missit is over here being completely serious about you and this relationship.

It was extremely frustrating.

Yes, yes, Phex's traumatic background and everyone always demanding things of him and not giving him emotional support and he has to give and give and give. But he finally admits to himself that Missit is something he wants and he would pick Missit over his band.

It's just. Ugh. Phex's internal narration about Missit is really exasperating.

Speaking of Missit. I nearly threw this book across the room when we met Missit's parents, which the book firmly refused to name.

I very nearly gave up on this book at this point. Probably I should have.

There was a moment in the second book where Missit is mentioning his parents and says that they're not estranged, he's not bitter, they're still in touch, and I was like "huh? Why should we be assuming you have a bad relationship with your parents? They have never shown up or been mentioned before at any point?"

The whole thing with this book makes me wonder if there's a trope in KPop bands where none of the people in the bands are in good relationship with their parents (are the parents all stereotypical nightmare stage parents?), because no one in Space KPop has a good relationship with their parents (with the possible exception of The Band Member With The Wings Whose Main Characterization Is Giving People Hugs, who I don't recall if in the first book she mentioned anything about that).

Oh and also the Dyesi aliens, who ... I suspect have parents but considering what we saw of the Dyesi parent-stage and youth-stage in this book, I do not know how they do kinship or kinship terms in the slightest.

But more about the Dyesi worldbuilding later. I'm still pissed off about Missit's parents. Who are intellectuals/researchers into alien music (and/or anthropology?), and are studying the Divinity, and publish on it (how are they publishing on it, their son is a superstar???), but also allow all the Divinity to censor their research and decide what gets published (????) and who are condescending and smug and say it's good that Missit got into music because he's not very smart, and the reason they let him go to KPop Boyband School is because they had a deadline and had to leave the planet (??????) and so they decided to leave him behind (??????) to become a pop star.

Which is already WTF enough but if you remember back to the first book, Missit's band is first generation Space KPop.

There was so much opportunity here for worldbuilding! Missit could have said "mom, dad, Space KPop Industry is trying to do some cool new things, I want to be a part of it" and his parents could have said "cool! There's a lot of potential here in the alien musicology field. Let's do some science! Keep records! We'll get you and your band in touch with other people studying these things! Since you're a minor, we'll sign your consent forms, it's all fine. Alien Musicology Ethnography Is A Family Business, Missit!!!!"

But no! Instead we get smug academics! Who do not seem to be associated with any institute of learning or research institute! Who float around somehow doing papers and research! And it is not commonly known that Missit's parents study the field of Missit's chosen career!

Ugh, they're such awful characters. So many bad choices were made. They show up on screen because Phex's Band is better at brainwashing the masses than any band before them; the parents don't care about talking to Missit at all.

Because oh yeah. That's the other worldbuilding matter that is just Choices Were Made. After the end of the second book assuring us that, hey, the Divinity is just some stuff that the Dyesi middle-stage folks get up to, to pass the time, we discover that...

Every Dyesi (including those in all the bands) -- but likely none of the other people in any of these bands -- have known all the time that Dome Music Brainwashes Everyone Who Hears It to be non-violent and passive, etc etc etc.

Do characters have problems with this when they find it out? Eh, a couple, very briefly. But they all quickly decide that it's actually great and made their own lives better.

And, then, oops, they're on a planet with a recent civil war, and they've only brainwashed half the population, so the other side is now invading and going to kill Kagee's ex-lovers! Quick, let's pick the dome up on drones and play music on top of the invading army, to brainwash them into being less violent.

a;dslkfja;ldskfja;lsdkfj;lasfj;lakdsfas;oiefo;ajfs;lkjaf;lkjd

Oh and this plan works. They stop the army in its tracks, through the power of music.

No, sorry, my mistake. Through the power of brainwashing.

"Lanna, isn't mind control one of your favorite narrative kinks?"

YEAH BUT DON'T TRY TO CONVINCE ME IT'S THE ETHICAL CHOICE WHAT THE FUCK.

One thing I was waiting to happen -- which would have added complexity to the whole issue in-universe amongst everyone saying "no yeah this is fine" -- is if Kagee's lovers became the collateral damage.

Because remember the obsessive fans who try to attack the musicians, who have been such a problem all series? The Divinity knows about them and their assumption is that these people are "allergic" to the brainwashing, and so they focus all their aggression on the band members. These are a serious problem! Just hearing them practice causes the cook in book two to attack Phex and try to eat him!

This is a known problem and they think it's a percentage, so the more converted, the more fixed! And there's no way to cure the fixed, according to the Divinity, who may or may not actually care.

Sure would have added complexity to Kagee's opinion that the brainwashing is good, actually, for his lovers to attack him and then be imprisoned by the Divinity as dangerous and uncurable.

But of course, having consequences to characters we like would undercut the Low-Stakes Low-Stress Sci-Fi aspect! Oh well, should have thought of that before you made all your characters perfectly happy to keep going around brainwashing people. No ethical problems there!

Also all the worldbuilding around the three stages of the Dyesi alien lifeform was kinda cool in the previous book, but this book, they decided that when the third stage dies, their corpses become part of the caves they live in (...how?) and also panels of their corpses are used to make the domes. Only one panel, though! The rest are cloned from that one.

The Dyesi are all fine with this, of course. No one else knows about it. No one else knows most of what the Dyesi are doing. This is on purpose. They figure outsiders won't understand.

The fact that outsiders might have legitimate reasons to object is not considered.

Also, the fact that a large portion of every population isn't all going to listen to one specific kind of music???? This stuff is choral music with pretty changing colors and no instruments, performed by a band of six people, who do nine songs per performance. There's a niche for it.

Of course, they do also happen to be targeting teenagers on purpose. So that's also great. "This is music the youth like! Excellent!"

Of course squared, the music has to be under the dome or a mini-dome to be effective, so it's still only going to get a small portion of the population to be effectively brainwashed. But don't worry, it's fine, Phex has solved this problem by inventing a flying dome.

Along with the Dyesi superiority complex that is not considered as sinister as it actually is, is the reason they don't want Missit and Phex to be together. It is not to minimize drama, or prevent bands breaking up, or anything like that.

No.

The Dyesi don't allow romantic relationships because they're all at the asexual phase in their lifecycle, and so they think sex is icky. (Do not think about this too hard.) Therefore, no one is allowed to have it, even when it has nothing to do with them.

Phex only convinces them to stop micromanaging all of his and Missit's interactions -- to avoid them being caught having sex again -- by NON-CONSENSUALLY UNDERGOING A TRUTH SERUM THAT MIGHT KILL HIM, and through his stream of consciousness, convince the Dyesi that this relationship has emotions involved that are not all located in Having Sex.

Like. Phex and Missit are not allowed to interact at all after they get caught, and the Dyesi are confused at how this has a bad impact on their on-stage chemistry and ability to work together, because Phex is still pulling double duty and singing in two different bands, in back-to-back performances, as well as being the only person taking his band's security seriously, &etc etc etc etc.

The subtitle of this book series could be "In which Phex gets exploited by everyone in a position of power over him" and that remains true through the end.

So much of this book is so so so frustrating.

I must stress how on-purpose all this brainwashing is. Kagee comes from a planet torn apart by civil war! Because he's color-blind, he was sterilized without his knowledge and was never informed of this, he was forced to live his life as a bodyguard, he ran away from home and joined Space KPop, and then when the Divinity tell him they're going to build a dome on his planet, he tells them this is a terrible idea. They do not listen. They do not care. They say a dome has never been attacked. They cannot conceive of it as a possibility. They come across as naive and recklessly endangering everyone because, fundamentally, they think Space KPop bands are disposable.

Then they land on the planet and discover everyone in Kagee's family has been murdered (Kagee is allowed about half a sentence of reaction to this news), Kagee's ex-lovers, who do not consider themselves to be "ex" at all, are now running the planet, they have a baby, they all think the polycule is still a go, and Kagee is fine with that. It's a whiplash between "why aren't they listening to the expert?" and then "huh, I guess we must learn that the Dyesi are always right, and the person from that planet must be wrong".

So the dome is fine! Okay wait no, the dome gets bombed and collapses on top of them because they're all in it at the time, and Phex is injured (Phex always gets injured). So why are they on this planet?

It is at this point we discover the brainwashing.

So. Yeah. They went there on purpose. They went there to brainwash. And by "they" I mean the Dyesi, and the band has to go where they're told to go. Kagee is allowed to log a protest about going to his planet; he is not allowed to just not go, and stay on the ship the entire time.

(Yes, they were invited, by Kagee's Ex-Lovers Who Rule The Planet. They could have... not gone. They could have listened to Kagee telling them it was dangerous and why. Considering the Dyesi worldbuilding, if at any point before they landed they had told Kagee the names of the people who invited them, and if Kagee had said those were his exes, they might not have gone to that planet; the Dyesi squick for sex seems to be that strong, and it's a controlling squick, everyone else must comply.)

Probably it's meant to say something about The Beauty Of Music, but when we discover that all Dyesi are tone-deaf -- and yet have created this massive pop music enterprise -- my reaction was just "oh, come on." They apparently can't really hear or appreciate music! They're doing the music business anyway!

It has been strange from the beginning that this Dyesi Music Form must have 2 Dyesi in it, because their skin makes pretty pictures when singers sing in a certain way, but it's only two, they can't do anything else in the band.

So, they somehow discovered that Everyone Else In The Universe is subject to brainwashing when sung to in Dyesi caves. They then figure out how to create artificial caves, which are the domes, and import singers from all over to sing this brainwashing music, all the while changing everyone's bodies to fit the Dyesi aesthetic requirements, while forcing them all to live as per the Dyesi cultural mores, even when those cultural mores don't map nicely onto other species. It's said flat out that the Dyesi are in their development stage where sex is repulsive, so... somehow they think every other species is that way as well? And everyone in all their bands is in that stage? This makes no sense even in universe.

And so in the last 10 or so years (the timeline, it is not clear), they've been brainwashing the universe through the power of music. Which they call "enlightenment". Fuck no.

Who else knows about this other than All The Dyesi And Also Missit's Parents? Good question. No one cares.

They literally made it so that everyone who listens to their music is unable to defend themselves. This is why their bodyguards wear noise-cancelling headphones and why the worldbuilding required them to somehow make all the Space KPop Idols immune to the brainwashing (what, is this somehow retroactive?) and so Phex can learn self-defense and constantly defend everyone from threats the Dyesi don't think are serious but happen anyway.

There is a certain irony of terminology here. Experiencing transcendence while watching a dome performance is called "godfix". The fans who are violent toward the bands are called "fixed". It seemed from the first book that that was short for "fixated".

But now we get that the Divinity think that Dome music is "fixing" things, and thus the ones who are "allergic" to it getting called "fixed" is very very strange. They are the ones resisting being "fixed".

Or, to lean heavily into the divine terminology that this book series has been using with endless glee: they are the ones who are resisting being forcibly converted by attacking the ones who are trying to do it.

Except we don't even get that, since the fixed aren't really "allergic". From what we've seen in previous books, the fixed love the band members. They show it in violent ways of attacking them and wanting to consume them, but this is not that the "fixing" isn't working; this is "fixing" working too well. Stop! Stop! Be converted in the manner I want you to be, not in a way that focuses all the feelings we want to destroy on the missionaries instead!

Like. I don't think the book acknowledges that the fixed have also been brainwashed. They experience godfix like everyone else.

So, how many people become "enlightened" versus "fixed"? Oh, Missit's parents estimate about 3 people per every 10,000. There's no real good scientific study of this, of course, so that number is certainly a massive under-estimate; they are, probably, only counting the fixed who actually manage to get their attention, i.e. attack the band members.

This is a galaxy-wide entertainment program. I don't know if this is a case of the author or the people in the book not understanding percentages. We're at least not at the level of "this thing is so rare, it's only in 1% of the population" kind of bullshit.

But.

If your magical solution has that large of an error rate, and that error rate is turned back at you in terms of hard to your missionaries... maybe, perhaps, you should consider the fact that you've fucked up here.

One criticism that I think it's fair to make about this book, but I actually don't hold by, is that Phex, after discovering found family, is happy to throw it away to pursue a romantic relationship instead; that if he can only have one, he picks Missit.

I don't have this problem with this for a few reasons. The first of which is that this is such a bad situation for Phex. Even before we get into the whole... brainwashing missionaries... thing, he is still being constantly exploited and run ragged. He likes specific parts of this job, but not most of it; he likes hanging out with his friends and he likes performing. TPTB constantly underrate the amount of danger they're in, and while the book has forgotten, I have not: Phex didn't pick this. He got forced into this career and went along with it because it paid better than being a barista. He's locked into a very controlling contract* and has very limited access to Space Internet and communicating with people outside the people he interacts with on a day to day level.

It's like "which should you pick, a hell job that pays well, or a healthy relationship and being able to go get another job somewhere else". (Another complicated matter which the book ignores completely most of the time is that Phex, by becoming a band member, gained Dyesi citizenship, because he'd had no citizenship prior to that.)

The second matter is just how forgettable everyone in the book other than Missit and Kagee are. There's Berril, who is Cheerful and Hugs and Flies Around. There's, uh, the two Dyesi, one of who is nicknamed Jin, and Jin likes to answer questions, and the other one is, uh, leadership potential? Then there's the one who is the sister to someone in Missit's band but that's her main character trait. Then there's Missit's band, which has Missit, poor doomed Fortew (yes, yes, 42, we get it), uh, the brother of the woman in Phex's band, there has to be one other grace somewhere, two Dyesi who don't like Phex...

They're Phex's coworkers that he shares a bedroom with (every band likes in one dorm room together). They're the only friends he's ever had. If the band breaks up, will he remain friends with them? Phex seems to think so, when he thinks of it at all. He does not, himself, consider band breaking up = Phex never speaks to them again.

So while it's presented in the book that Phex choosing Missit means he risks not being in the band anymore, the book's not presenting it as Phex choosing Missit means he loses his friendships. He just may lose his job.

And losing his job means the band dissolves, right? It means bad consequences for the rest of his band, right? They can't just easily replace him in the band, because band cohesion is so important, right?

Except for how it seems like the Dyesi will expect either that Phex continue to sing in both bands forever, or that Phex will be forced to leave his band and join Missit's band instead, because Missit's band is more important and are "major gods", while Phex's band are "demigods".

Of course, in the end, Missit's band is the one that dissolves, and Missit joins Phex's band.

Which leads to the asterisk above:

*Yeah, a note on that whole contract thing: when the Narrative Required Kagee to leave to rejoin his partnership, suddenly that was super easy for him to do, and for Missit to step right into a band that didn't like him and didn't mesh with him, even though supposedly band unity is a supremely important factor.

Although to be fair, Kagee has just switched to a different kind of working for the Divinity, and they definitely wanted him out of the band anyway so they could replace him with Missit.

Also, we discover in, like, the last three pages of the book that Missit's band would need to dissolve soon anyway, because one of the Dyesi is about to move to the third stage of their lifecycle, which requires returning home, and has, it seems, been pushing it off for longer than is wise, medically? That was such a bizarre thing to toss in at the end. Talk about things that should have come up earlier, especially if you can tell the beginning of the third-stage by colorization of the eyes or skin... in a character... whose entire job is having colors play out on their skin...

And not for nothing, but since all the Dyesi in the band do is stand there and change colors, swapping out the Dyesi members should be really really easy. I'm just saying.

But did I mention the whole brainwashing missionaries thing? With the whole "no IRB approval" aspect tied in with "no, we didn't test this at all" and a healthy dose of "we're very sure we're in the right" and also "we deliberately brainwashed the army and then were surprised when that meant no one protected us from getting bombed by the unbrainwashed".

"Lanna, I understand you hated this plot development, but perhaps calling them missionaries is being a little harsh?"

No. No it's not.

On the one hand, we can take the worldbuilding quite literally. The Dyesi think they're creating gods and that this is a divine project. We ignore that religion otherwise is unmentioned in this series, and that no one seems to take this literally. Perhaps the Dyesi do. In this case, they are inarguably missionaries.

But let's not take it straightforward and literally. No one thinks this is a religion. No one thinks we're dealing with actual gods. They are still forcibly spreading and converting people to The Right Way of being. They're simply calling it enlightenment instead of the gospel.

Some other kind of book: I have been working so hard to my goal of being in a Space KPop Band with my friends and touring around with my boyfriend! But oh no, I have just discovered that our music hurts people, and that TPTB have known all along it will do that, along with 1/3rd of my band! We must work together to take down the Space KPop Industry and deal with my feelings of betrayal that people I thought were my friends were letting me be used to hurt people without my knowledge, and they kept it from me because they knew I wouldn't like it.

Another kind of book: I have discovered that my entire music career is for a harmful purpose! However, I really like this career and I really like my friends, and so I will wrestle with the moral choice, and compromise ethically, and decide that it doesn't matter who I hurt, or how many people I hurt, or what impact my career will have. I have wrestled and compromised my ethics on this subject, I am not a hero, I am Just A Guy, trying to have my Just A Guy Life, now that I'm finally happy. Aren't I allowed to want things? After all I've been through, this is something that I want. And, really, it doesn't hurt everyone who listens to it. Just some of them. Just someone I thought was my friend, who then attacked me.

This book: ethical questions and concerns about the sudden ethical quandary are out of scope for this light fluffy book about Space KPop That Features Someone Dying On Stage. The fact that the author chose to introduce an ethical quandary and then ignore it should not be taken seriously.

But. Because. But.

So, not to get all victim-blamey, but Phex is now directly responsible for the Cook in Book 2 attacking him. He did not know this at the time, but he knows it now, and has accepted that he will keep doing it.

Because Phex's music was created and crafted for brainwashing, with the knowledge that there is a large percentage of people who will then attack the people making that music. Phex brainwashed Cook, who then attacked Phex.

I know the book really wants to say "oh, the fixed are a small percentage", but Phex and his band are constantly being attacked by the fixed in this book series. From the very start, they got acid thrown on them before they even had an official band name!

You cannot say "the fixed are not a problem with the brainwashing" and then show them being a problem over and over again.

And now, with this revelation, it has the unfortunate side-effect of making them responsible for the violence against them.

Somehow, this book series turned from "just like in the real world, there are stalkers and fans who try to attack the musical artist, but it's not the artist's fault for the actions of their fans" to "it is a known and direct result of the band's actions that gets them attacked; they created this and are responsible for it". Two members of every band are Dyesi. All Dyesi know about this. We don't know in how many other bands the Dyesi have told the rest of the band members about it, but honestly, considering that the Dyesi members of this band were a focus of an attack, maybe then they might... have second thoughts... about creating brainwashing music that will get them attacked? Because their security is terrible, and over and over again Phex and the non-Dyesi members of his band reiterate how bad the security is, and are constantly ignored.

Sorry you get attacked, Phex! It's your own fault and also you're disposable and easily replaceable. Enjoy your Space KPop Career!

Also, sorry, Phex, but you actually are responsible for every single fixed in that army you had the bright idea to forcibly brainwash, and for ruining the lives of everyone else you do it to after you know you are doing it.

Although I suppose it's very realistic for people who claim to be spreading "enlightenment" not caring who they hurt along the way, and if their target population even desires it.

Do I think this was the author's intention? No.

Why did the author have to add this complexity? Was there no other plot ideas for the third book of the trilogy? Just say it's BTS fic and Kagee has to go home to serve in the military, ffs. Then you can get in Kagee's exes, and have Kagee choose to stay behind with them, thus opening the door for Missit.

Also. Also. Amongst my complaints of "how, exactly, much older than Phex is Missit, because I do not think it can possibly be more than two years", we have confusion of "...uh, how old are Kagee's lovers?" Because they were in a relationship with him while they were at boarding school where they started the Illicitly Listening To Dome Music Club, they were in a relationship at the time, they were older than him and graduated before him, Kagee then ran off from boarding school to go to Space KPop Boot Camp, and he comes back not that much longer later (timelines are not dealt with, it's probably between 1 and 2 years) and his exes are running the planet, the sole survivors of what sounds like several political parties (and Kagee's entire family is dead, let's not delve into that), and also they have a baby that Kagee didn't know about.

Who cares about timelines. We have fluffy space aliens scifi music industry and also forced conversions. Wheee!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Welp. That sure sounds like a thing, all right. Clearly I made the right choice by reading the preview and saying "...eh, whatever, not for me."

The back blurbs on these books is another pet peeve of mine.

The blurbs meaning the summaries/teasers? Or the "Praise" section?

How To Say You're Not Jewish Without Saying You're Not Jewish: "Saving the unwilling". I wonder if she was raised Mormon ...

Scanning the Goodreads reviews, pretty much no-one noticed the galaxy-wide brainwashing. Wow.

I mean the plot summaries. I didn't read the rest.

... wow.

Anyway. We get to this book, and Missit is so serious about this relationship that he's willing to torpedo his entire career over it. And meanwhile Phex thinks this is a short-term thing, and hey, Missit is capricious and flighty and not serious!

Are we supposed to get this and infer that Phex is being a wildly unreliable narrator (and presumably going to learn better at some point), or are we supposed to be going "yeah, Missit is totally capricious and flighty"? Because from that summary, I could see the former as one possible intention, but it sounds like it doesn't work.

Low-Stakes Low-Stress Sci-Fi

... yeah, I just don't find that compatible with galaxy-wide brainwashing to make people incapable of defending themselves (even aside from making a percentage of them incurably violent).

It feels like the author wants it to be a metaphor for pop fandom -- it's basically benign, even if a small minority get crazy about it in unhealthy and damaging ways! -- and then really, REALLY did not think through the horrifying implications of how she was literalizing it.

Are we supposed to get this and infer that Phex is being a wildly unreliable narrator (and presumably going to learn better at some point), or are we supposed to be going "yeah, Missit is totally capricious and flighty"? Because from that summary, I could see the former as one possible intention, but it sounds like it doesn't work.

I TRULY do not know. Truly. The problem is, in a gap this big between show vs. tell, it would be sensible for the author to expect the readers to do a little work (although as a fic author, I have noted that even in fics where I feel like I using an anvil of unsubtlety, some readers still do not notice), but ON THE OTHER HAND, every other member of Phex's band acts like Missit is being very annoying. Which, from their perspective, he is! Missit and Phex's relationship directly endangers the band's continued existence! It would make sense for them to not like Missit, and want him to hang out with his band instead of theirs.

Phex does have other moments of unreliable narrator but it's entirely on the "aww, the poor meow meow is too traumatized to realize people actually like him" stuff, or that he's so repressed emotionally that when he's having a lot of emotions about things, he wants to go to his comfort place, which is the kitchen. At one point he refers to his support ladle.

It feels like the author wants it to be a metaphor for pop fandom -- it's basically benign, even if a small minority get crazy about it in unhealthy and damaging ways! -- and then really, REALLY did not think through the horrifying implications of how she was literalizing it.

The one thing I can't get over in this book is that this author is a huge kpop fan, and has various rec posts on the official author blog, doing a huge deep dive into various techniques that the singers are doing.

And then writes a book where kpop brainwashes everyone who listens to it.

Uh.

Gosh, I read a very grim posthumously published thriller* by a writer I used to collect, set in a fictional Gulf state around the 1980s - pretty much all named characters die or are seriously messed up by the end - and honestly, this all sounds grimmer.

*Suspect he may have chosen not to publish at the time: it felt a little still needing working on.

One of the real problems is that it's not grim at all. It's all light and peppy and fun and happy, as if the actual topics are not grim. It's such a mood whiplash between what the author seems to expect (although maybe this is meant to be on purpose -- in which case, wow, what a strange book series to suddenly turn that way) and what the characters are doing, vs. the actual things they're discussing and treating as perfectly fine.

Dome 6 by Gail Carriger

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