who shine’s nine-member girl group is: a thread based on the first 30 pages

this is just my theory, i could be wrong. will contain spoilers from the book, so tread lightly i guess, and don’t read the thread if you don’t want spoilers.

shine begins with an interview of a nine-member girl group. this is the sneak peek that was released months and months ago that had everyone on the edge of their seats bc ppl had a pretty good idea what nine member girl group jessica was talking about.

after reading the first 30 pages of shine (which i know is nothing in comparison to the actual length of the book, so this theory could be very off) who is this nine member gg?

short answer: not snsd.

long answer: when the sneak peek was released months ago without any context or more information, it’s possible that the sneak peek was meant to make ppl believe that the interview was taking place after rachel and her group had already debuted and been active as idols.

but the first 30 pages of the book reveal that this interview was just a mock interview, and that the nine girls taking part in it (one of them being the main character, rachel) were all still trainees and just practicing being in front of the camera.

and what’s important to note is that among the nine girls, only five of them are named and interact with each other: rachel, mina, eunji, lizzie, and sumin. not once does shine even bother to introduce or even name the other 4 girls that were a part of this mock interview.

it’s possible that the remaining nameless girls that took part in the interview are probably not even meant to be a big part of the story. in other words, the group that rachel debuts in might not even be a nine member girl group at all.

the details & member line-up of this rumored girl group are not set in stone. basically, there is no information on this new girl group, and there’s no telling whether all or any of the girls that were in the mock interview are going to be a part of it.

my theory is basically that the marketing team of shine probably wanted to trick the reader into thinking that they were going to be reading a story about a 9 member gg, but then turn it around on them and not make it so predictable.

the sneak peek was probably just playing into the reader’s expectations of “of course this gg is going to be based on snsd, jessica will spill all the tea”. but the reality might be that it’s not going to be as predictable as you once thought.

for all we know, the book may not even mention a nine member girl group at all after the first 30 pages. and the five girls that were introduced could be based off of anyone bc it’s not even known whether any of them (aside from rachel) are going to be in the group.

this is where i say: stop saying that jess is out to get snsd or that she’s gonna ruin them. stop basing your opinions of snsd members based on fictional characters that you don’t even know much about yet. stop saying that snsd hates jess.

if readers generalize & speculate much like so many ppl are right now, that’s not on jessica, it’s on them. shine is a fictional story with fictional characters that take place in the idol world & jess is simply drawing from her past experiences as an idol. that’s it.

if u seriously think that 1 fiction novel has the power to tarnish snsd’s record-breaking, trend-setting, 13-year long legacy then i’m thinking that’s more ur problem than it is snsd’s or jessica’s. ur talking like snsd have been crying themselves to sleep since shine was teased.

stan snsd & jessica, and stop projecting ur own fears of this book onto snsd to justify why you don’t want shine to be released. jessica doesn’t need anyone’s permission to write a book about her past experiences as an idol. snsd are untouchable. end of thread.

#readSHINE