Or I may have appreciated this better if I hadn’t already consumed 10 hours of Bangtan content every day for 3 months, at the peak of my fanhood. While reading this book, I couldn't stop the tears from rolling down my face because I kept being reminded of all the emotions I've felt while stanning BTS.

In addition, portrait photos that show BTS as individuals and artists open the book, and throughout there are concept photos, tracklists of all previous albums, and over 330 QR codes. I'm more than willing to wait for them and I promise to be there for them and cheer louder than any person on earth when they all eventually come back to us. SUGA’s thoughts, RM’s words, Jimin’s actions, V’s unique style, Jin’s cheerfulness, j-hope’s optimisim. Nevertheless, will doubtless be taking the book down from my shelf again and again just because it makes me smile. A lot of quotes from the band members gave me deja vu, like I'd heard them in lives or interviews before.In the book, BTS share stories of their journey so far through more than three years of in-depth coverage and interviews conducted by journalist Myeongseok Kang, an expert in the K-pop and Korean pop culture arena. I figured I'd be able to have a variety of experiences if I were an idol and an actor at the same time. All of these would have been fascinating subjects to dive into, even for a subchapter's length, but the book seems afraid of revealing anything too vulnerable, which wouldn't fit this hero narrative it has decided to structure itself around. If you don't know much about BTS as a band and are curious about them, this could be a great place to start.

I think it's no surprise to anyone that I finished this in one sitting, not even leaving my room to eat or drink water. Beyond The Story is finally out and as promised it is an astounding record that delves deeply into Bangtan's active years before and after their debut in 2013. It was nice getting to hear their thoughts about their craft and more details about the times the book is recounting through their eyes. BTS and ARMYs went through so much struggles together and every achievement took a lot of hard work, but we are not done yet, ARMY.

I don't want to go into much detail about what was going on in my life back then because it involves personal things about me and my family that still haunt me every single day, but let's just say that I was so close to completely giving up.

I liked the music and the video, but what really cemented my becoming an ARMY was reading the translations of the lyrics to their songs. The many quotes from the members themselves work well to support and legitimize the narrative, but what's really intriguing here is how the book navigates the K-Pop-typical adoration of the fandom (here: ARMY) and the downsides of this very fan service and superstardom in general: Often, the members talk about loneliness, exhaustion, depression, pain (both physical and mental), they address relentless bullying online and the loss of privacy which leads to alienation (also a huge topic of the book). Let's not kid ourselves: This oral history was put together by the editor-in-chief of Weverse Magazine and officially published through the gates of HYBE, so it won't pull a Bob Woodward and expose the cruel inner workings of the K-Pop industry, or take a turn and suddenly talk about the personal lives behind the personas of the members, or go full postcolonial studies on the marketing of Korean culture - it's not what the book aims to do. It’s a book for fans, as a non-fan is not likely to read 400 pages with hyper-details (exact dates, times, number of album units sold not rounded up) that distracted often from the narrative. Some of them are in the military, some of them are touring the world and some of them are working on their solo albums, but I constantly feel like they're right beside me, just like I've always felt since the moment I met them in 2014.

I'm so grateful they're in my life and I'm so grateful for the comfort and the happiness they've brought to my super mundane, miserable and lonely days. Firstly, am not gonna lie, I thought the book will be more on the individualistic level, an indepth analysis of them as a person. So being that I love books, I always hoped that one day we’d get an official book discussing their career and journey as a band. This is because the whole book feels hopelessly surface-level, only sometimes dipping down into something interesting in the quotes from the members.