What do you think?
Rate this book
Principals: A post-K-pop novel
As the teenage Agati struggles to feed her adopted sister in a poverty-stricken dictatorship, a mysterious figure arrives to offer them a way out. Taken to a competitive pop-star academy they only know from whispered rumour, Agati and Jün-Fi find that the life of stardom is not what it seems.
And nor is the iron hand of the government.
In the struggle to become idols, Agati must adapt to survive in an environment more punishing than life on the streets. But other forces are abroad in the Democratic People's Republic of Ibban, forces which threaten to throw the entire country into anarchy. The two girls have a lot to learn, and some hard choices to make. Choices which will change the course of history.
This is a story about resilience under oppression and what, based on real-life sources, can be done to fight back.
This, the second and “low-carb” edition of Principals - A post-K-Pop novel is set to be published in the month of August 2025 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey, August 1st 1975, a novel to which it owes a great deal.
The plot still intact, the manuscript has been greatly tidied up, reformatted, given minor edits and a new cover. Many thanks to all those who contributed in spotting errors in the original edition.
And nor is the iron hand of the government.
In the struggle to become idols, Agati must adapt to survive in an environment more punishing than life on the streets. But other forces are abroad in the Democratic People's Republic of Ibban, forces which threaten to throw the entire country into anarchy. The two girls have a lot to learn, and some hard choices to make. Choices which will change the course of history.
This is a story about resilience under oppression and what, based on real-life sources, can be done to fight back.
This, the second and “low-carb” edition of Principals - A post-K-Pop novel is set to be published in the month of August 2025 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey, August 1st 1975, a novel to which it owes a great deal.
The plot still intact, the manuscript has been greatly tidied up, reformatted, given minor edits and a new cover. Many thanks to all those who contributed in spotting errors in the original edition.
- GenresFiction
259 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 5, 2024
3 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 10, 2025
Principals is a story set in a Korea-like country called Ibban (I think we can assume North rather than South Korea, not that this is important). It is a dystopia where the rich live luxurious and comfortable lives, and the poor, well, don’t. Our main characters, Jűn-Fi and Agati, are friends that live like sisters with Agati’s mother, who barely earns enough money from her job in an Amazon-style warehouse to keep them alive.
It’s a proper hell-hole. Breaking even the simples of rules can mean death, and executions are public and brutal. On one occasion our heroes queue for food for half a day only to find the vendor closes suddenly because the Government (the Nosan Gando) have decided to re-route the supplies to an event they are running. It turns out to be an event to obtain new recruits for a school that promises to make you the next I-pop idol - the only dream that the poor children of the city can aspire to.
I won’t go into more detail about the plot, but as you can imagine our heroes end up going to the school and training to be the next Debut sensation, and naturally everything is not as it appears. It’s more like slave labour and the consequences for breaking the rules are as severe as you would expect.
This story is interwoven with the tale of a European song writer who has been invited back to Ibban for an award, and he goes, against his better judgement. On top of that there are occasionally tales about a dissident faction that are planning… something.
You just know that human life has no meaning in Ibban. When the girls are taken from their home whilst their mother works, they are told that she knows where they have left and is okay with it. You immediately suspect that this is a lie, and that she will get home, find the girls missing, and never get an answer about what has happened to them.
The story keeps you hooked from start to finish, especially once the girls get to the school. It’s cruel and horrible but not in an over-the-top exploitative kind of way, and once you’re on the journey, you really want to find out what happens. The story keeps you guessing until the last page, and indeed there is some ambiguity about the ending, although I like to believe I know what happened immediately after the final scene in the recording studio, and indeed subsequently to the suppressed peoples of Ibban.
I really enjoyed the book - it contains a world that you think you might recognise but made just a little worse, and characters that you absolutely root for. Recommended.
It’s a proper hell-hole. Breaking even the simples of rules can mean death, and executions are public and brutal. On one occasion our heroes queue for food for half a day only to find the vendor closes suddenly because the Government (the Nosan Gando) have decided to re-route the supplies to an event they are running. It turns out to be an event to obtain new recruits for a school that promises to make you the next I-pop idol - the only dream that the poor children of the city can aspire to.
I won’t go into more detail about the plot, but as you can imagine our heroes end up going to the school and training to be the next Debut sensation, and naturally everything is not as it appears. It’s more like slave labour and the consequences for breaking the rules are as severe as you would expect.
This story is interwoven with the tale of a European song writer who has been invited back to Ibban for an award, and he goes, against his better judgement. On top of that there are occasionally tales about a dissident faction that are planning… something.
You just know that human life has no meaning in Ibban. When the girls are taken from their home whilst their mother works, they are told that she knows where they have left and is okay with it. You immediately suspect that this is a lie, and that she will get home, find the girls missing, and never get an answer about what has happened to them.
The story keeps you hooked from start to finish, especially once the girls get to the school. It’s cruel and horrible but not in an over-the-top exploitative kind of way, and once you’re on the journey, you really want to find out what happens. The story keeps you guessing until the last page, and indeed there is some ambiguity about the ending, although I like to believe I know what happened immediately after the final scene in the recording studio, and indeed subsequently to the suppressed peoples of Ibban.
I really enjoyed the book - it contains a world that you think you might recognise but made just a little worse, and characters that you absolutely root for. Recommended.
November 1, 2024
A really interesting and out of the box approach to pop culture that many do not see in the form of a dystopian novel. It was very easy to read and kept me interested until the end.
November 5, 2024
I received a copy of this book from Voracious Readers Only. This is my honest review.
While this is a good story I found some of the chapter introductions (for want of a better term) to be somewhat confusing and not really necessary.
The story follows along two separate threads that only come together towards the end of the last chapter. It felt at times that I was reading two books at the same time. I knew that they would make sense eventually but, in my opinion, it took too long to do so.
Having said all that I did enjoy the book and would read more by this author.
While this is a good story I found some of the chapter introductions (for want of a better term) to be somewhat confusing and not really necessary.
The story follows along two separate threads that only come together towards the end of the last chapter. It felt at times that I was reading two books at the same time. I knew that they would make sense eventually but, in my opinion, it took too long to do so.
Having said all that I did enjoy the book and would read more by this author.
October 21, 2025
Principals follows Agati and Jun-Fi, best friends who find themselves plucked from their home in a war torn, post-apocalyptic city full of poverty and tossed into the world of training to become idols. Sounds glamorous, right? I mean just days of Singing, dancing, obeying orders, starving and receiving beatings whenever they are not perfect. Not so glamorous. Outside their walls, a revolution is stirring. What could go wrong?
The secondary plot line in this story is Johan, an incredibly self-centered song writer who has been very privileged and as such could not imagine the government or the police treating anyone unfairly, let alone him. He is a law-abiding citizen, after all. He is summoned to another city to receive an award and in spite of warnings from his daughter and ex wife, he decides to go anyway. His plans aren’t the only thing that starts to unravel as his beliefs and his very life are threatened again and again.
I think this is a debut novel for this author or perhaps one of only a couple and overall, it was well done. I enjoyed the writing and the concepts. The story felt very real too given the state of the world at the moment. She kind of lost me in the last third of the story a bit though. It started to feel disjointed as the story ramped up and maybe that was the author’s intent but it was frustrating to me as a reader. I felt the ending was too abrupt and left many questions unanswered. Things also didn’t really tie together like I had hoped they would. I think standard chapter breaks would have helped me out immensely too. The best parts in my opinion were the short bursts of perspective from operatives in the resistance, I would have liked more of those to give the reader a bigger picture perspective on this world throughout.
Overall a very creative idea that just needed a bit more finessing in the last 75 pages for me to feel like it worked well.
Huge thanks to No Shelter books for offering this title for review via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
The secondary plot line in this story is Johan, an incredibly self-centered song writer who has been very privileged and as such could not imagine the government or the police treating anyone unfairly, let alone him. He is a law-abiding citizen, after all. He is summoned to another city to receive an award and in spite of warnings from his daughter and ex wife, he decides to go anyway. His plans aren’t the only thing that starts to unravel as his beliefs and his very life are threatened again and again.
I think this is a debut novel for this author or perhaps one of only a couple and overall, it was well done. I enjoyed the writing and the concepts. The story felt very real too given the state of the world at the moment. She kind of lost me in the last third of the story a bit though. It started to feel disjointed as the story ramped up and maybe that was the author’s intent but it was frustrating to me as a reader. I felt the ending was too abrupt and left many questions unanswered. Things also didn’t really tie together like I had hoped they would. I think standard chapter breaks would have helped me out immensely too. The best parts in my opinion were the short bursts of perspective from operatives in the resistance, I would have liked more of those to give the reader a bigger picture perspective on this world throughout.
Overall a very creative idea that just needed a bit more finessing in the last 75 pages for me to feel like it worked well.
Huge thanks to No Shelter books for offering this title for review via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
December 29, 2024
I received a copy of the book from Voracious Readers Only. It is a unique take on a dystopian tale. Agati and her adopted younger sister Jun-fi live in extreme poverty. Their mother works in an Amazon style warehouse and only earns enough to pay for a tiny apartment. They don’t attend school because Mom doesn’t earn enough to pay for it. She works long hours and the girls are left on their own. They line up to obtain food but never seem to get there early enough to get the decent, affordable items. The girls love IPop and they practice singing/dancing along with their favourite tunes. They both dream of becoming IPop stars, so they can become wealthy enough to live in comfort. A man they’ve never met before offers both girls to come with him, so he can make them Idols but they refuse. The next day they are taken away by armed men to the Tong’l Conservatoire. This is frequently done with poor or homeless children that aren’t likely to be missed. When they arrive at the place they’ve longed to be in, things are not as they seem. There’s also a side story that isn’t necessary because it doesn’t really tie in with the girl’s storyline. There were some spelling and grammatical errors but I imagine they were corrected before publication. If you enjoy reading YA dystopia, then you’ll enjoy this book. It’s got a unique twist, with the music/dance industry as the oppressor.
November 11, 2024
I received an advance review copy from BookSirens for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This is an incredible story. Dystopian fiction has been trending for a while, and I feel at some point many ideas become copies of each other. And a lot of times that's not even anything negative, yet as a reader who gets bored easily I do appreciate when the concepts are as imaginative as possible.
In this book, there is a new spin on dictatorships - why not make entertainment industry the crux of the oppression. Or more like a tyranny's tool that is consciously used to keeping the oppression going.
The entertainment here is based on the concept of K-pop and therefore provides a specific perspective, no doubt this is also a critique towards the harsh conditions that actual idols are exposed to.
The story is told from 3 main viewpoints, and each one is crucial to understanding the masterpiece that this book is.
In between the chapters, we also get a glimpse into the mind of the dictator and the rules created to keep people submissive.
It took me a while to finish this book because it's so heavy. But I cannot describe just how much I loved it. I hope there are more books in the making by this author.
This is an incredible story. Dystopian fiction has been trending for a while, and I feel at some point many ideas become copies of each other. And a lot of times that's not even anything negative, yet as a reader who gets bored easily I do appreciate when the concepts are as imaginative as possible.
In this book, there is a new spin on dictatorships - why not make entertainment industry the crux of the oppression. Or more like a tyranny's tool that is consciously used to keeping the oppression going.
The entertainment here is based on the concept of K-pop and therefore provides a specific perspective, no doubt this is also a critique towards the harsh conditions that actual idols are exposed to.
The story is told from 3 main viewpoints, and each one is crucial to understanding the masterpiece that this book is.
In between the chapters, we also get a glimpse into the mind of the dictator and the rules created to keep people submissive.
It took me a while to finish this book because it's so heavy. But I cannot describe just how much I loved it. I hope there are more books in the making by this author.
September 28, 2025
Principals is a dark, inventive dystopia set in Ibban, a Korea-like country where poverty means constant danger and even small rule-breaking can cost your life. The story follows Jűn-Fi and Agati, two girls swept into a government-run idol school that promises fame but operates like slave labor. The entertainment industry itself becomes a tool of tyranny, echoing the harsh realities of K-pop culture while pushing them into dystopian extremes.
Once the girls enter the school, the novel is bleak, tense, and full of characters you desperately root for. The world feels chillingly close to our own, just a shade darker.
Not everything worked for me. The long chapter introductions (inspired by Parable of the Sower maybe?) bogged things down, and Johan’s side story felt unnecessary, especially after asking readers to invest in his daughter only to abandon her. The girls’ journey was the real heart of the novel, and I wanted the focus to stay there.
Principals is an original dystopia. It’s dark, tense, and unflinching without being gratuitous, and it leaves just enough ambiguity at the end to keep you thinking long after you’ve turned the last page.
Once the girls enter the school, the novel is bleak, tense, and full of characters you desperately root for. The world feels chillingly close to our own, just a shade darker.
Not everything worked for me. The long chapter introductions (inspired by Parable of the Sower maybe?) bogged things down, and Johan’s side story felt unnecessary, especially after asking readers to invest in his daughter only to abandon her. The girls’ journey was the real heart of the novel, and I wanted the focus to stay there.
Principals is an original dystopia. It’s dark, tense, and unflinching without being gratuitous, and it leaves just enough ambiguity at the end to keep you thinking long after you’ve turned the last page.
November 16, 2024
Dienw Neb does a fantastic job in writing about a scifi novel with K-Pop. The element worked well overall and was engaged with the feel of this world and story. The characters had that feel that I was looking for and was enjoying the overall feel of this. I was hooked from the first page and was glad I got to read this.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
September 24, 2024
Interesting take on a dystopian near-future culture war fueled by pop music and idols, with some international political satire thrown in. A fast paced and entertaining read!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews