"Okay. Fine. Annoyingly fine."
I expected tour porn. I didn't get it. This is a novel about systems - how power moves, - how pressure is applied, - how people are quietly positioned.
The competence is rare. No lectures. No flexing. Christina Nott notices structures and moves through them. While the band tours Tokyo and Los Angeles, a parallel plot tightens: a compromised businessman is eased toward politics. - Money becomes leverage. - Reputation becomes currency.
Titles start to sound permanent. There's a faintly Shakespearean thing going on - entrances and exits, - public performances masking private motives. Power mostly happens offstage. Tokyo is a system, not a spectacle.
The stadium sequence is brutal and precise. The ending barely cares whether you clap. Not flashy. Not manipulative. A modern power-caper that knows when to shut up. - CatGirlforChaos
