I'll Love You Forever - by Giaae Kwon

Book Synopsis

Jia Tolentino's Trick Mirror meets Cathy Park Hong's Minor Feelings in a meditation that blends memoir and cultural criticism to explore how the author's love affair with K-pop has shaped her sense of self, charting K-pop's complex coming-of-age through some of its biggest idols.

I'll Love You Forever: Notes from a K-Pop Fan is a smart, poignant, constantly surprising essay collection that considers the collision between stratospherically popular music and our inescapably personal selves. Giaae Kwon delves into the global impact of K-pop artists, from H.O.T. to Taeyeon to IU to Suga of BTS, and reveals how each illuminated and shaped her own life.

In using intimate experiences to examine larger cultural topics, this singular work breaks new ground in its consideration of K-pop. Written from the perspective of a bilingual and bicultural Korean American, I'll Love You Forever blends the critical with the personal. Kwon interweaves profiles of different K-pop idols with ruminations on various aspects of Korean culture, from the country's attitude toward plastic surgery and female sexuality to its obsession with academia. Combining insightful critique and adoring analysis, I'll Love You Forever provides readers with a fuller picture of a culturally and socially complex industry and the machine and heart behind its popularity. Above all, Kwon offers up the passion of a superfan, finding joy in K-pop along the way.

Review Quotes

One of Vanity Fair's "6 New Books to Read in March"
One of Bustle's "Best New Books of Spring 2025"
One of the San Francisco Chronicle's "10 New Books that Illuminate the Lives of Women"
One of LitHub's "Most Anticipated Books of 2025"
Named a Most Anticipated Book of Winter 2025 by The Millions

"Come for the depictions of pubescent yearning; stay for the analysis of how South Korea's postwar sociopolitical conditions gave rise to the K-pop we know today."
--Chloe Joe, Bustle

"Debut author Giaae Kwon throws her whole heart into this essay collection . . . at once fun and deeply emotional."
--Hannah Bae, San Francisco Chronicle

"Intensely compelling, courageous, joyful, and illuminating, food and culture writer Kwon's first book grounds itself in the experience of being a bbasooni, a super fan of the musical genre K-pop. . . .This is truly razor-sharp cultural criticism that will give readers a more profound understanding of Korean history. The book combines a musicologist's researched, nuanced detail with the broad, big-picture analysis of a cultural historian."
--Booklist (starred review)

"A great resource to learn more about K-Pop whether you're a seasoned fan or a newbie. Kwon writes so sincerely and vulnerably about pop culture."
--McKayla Cole, LitHub

"Kwon folds piercing examinations of fandom and Korean pop culture into a candid self-portrait. . . .This entertaining blend of criticism and personal history will captivate even those who've never pressed play on a K-pop track."
--Publishers Weekly

"A front-seat look at K-pop fandom . . . a fun, colorful memoir of a global phenomenon."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Giaae Kwon has written a cultural history unlike any other I've ever known. This is a story of a dream of love bigger than the lover, the beloved, the country of Korea, Japanese colonization, the Korean War, the diaspora, America--K-pop at last gets the story it deserves. Intimate, intense, full of history and life, full of power--this is a triumph."
--Alexander Chee, author of How To Write An Autobiographical Novel

"With Giaae Kwon's I'll Love You Forever, K-pop fans interested in their legacy and outsiders interested in a primer will both find a rich, valuable resource. Kwon is a winning and frank narrator with a vast range of knowledge. She coolly assesses some of the thorniest aspects of pop-star idolatry, Korean and American culture, and the daunting challenge of being a girl in the 21st century. Her book fills a major gap in fan history."
--Kaitlyn Tiffany, author of Everything I Need I Get From You

"I'll Love You Forever is a love letter to K-pop stars and an insight into K-pop fandom. Giaae Kwon examines the history of K-pop and its growing popularity in deeply personal essays about the ways in which K-pop (sometimes literally) saved her life. This is the book that made me--a Korean American--understand why the whole world loves K-pop."
--Christine Hyung-Oak Lee, author of Tell Me Everything You Don't Remember

"I'll Love You Forever transcends the fandom of any genre, delivering a deeply personal journey that reverberates far beyond its origins in K-pop music. Kwon moves fluidly from intimate memories of being a Korean American in Los Angeles to keen social critique, touching on body-shaming, mental health, the weight of Korea's history, and the nuances of diaspora. Reading it, I felt as if I'd been given a fresh lens to understand not only a vibrant culture of music but also the resilience of those who live within and beyond its boundaries. This is a work that captures and edifies, moves the heart, and expands what it means to be a K-Pop fan."
--Esmé Weijun Wang, author of The Collected Schizophrenias

"Giaae Kwon's brilliant debut is so rich and multifarious that it's impossible to sum up in just a few words. She writes with restraint yet abandon, allowing us to experience what it's like to give all of oneself to something . . . I'll Love You Forever is an all-or-nothing love letter to her idols but also a nuanced reflection on the blurred lines that lie between participation and complicity. It's a collection that asks questions without pretending to know the answers, one that will leave readers grappling long after reaching the final page."
--Clare Richards, co-translator of Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

About the Author

Giaae Kwon is a food and culture writer whose work has appeared in Whetstone, Electric Literature, and Taste, among other publications. She wrote a column about K-pop for Catapult and attended the Tin House Summer Workshop in 2022. She divides her time between Los Angeles and Brooklyn, where she's working on her next project, which explores Korean food through the lens of the diaspora.