推し、燃ゆ

ruby's review already has an excellent synopsis, so I'll skip that here. I was really impressed by the author's depictions of Akari's thoughts and emotions through the whole book. Akari's mind often drifts during stressful times, and the imagery used in these moments is very meaningful and memorable. The book does a great job representing the emotions of idol fan culture, even before they're taken to the extreme.

Language wise, I found this book fairly challenging. I had to look up words more often than I usually do, and not just idol/otaku terms. The vocab used in the frequent extended metaphors describing Akari's feelings is quite extensive, and the structure of these segments also confused me several times. I often read a whole page to the end without really understanding it, then went back and slowly worked my way through until I could grasp the comparison being made. Once I got them, these parts were some of my favorite moments, but they also make the prose very challenging. At the same time, I think that makes for great experience from a language learning perspective if you're up for it!