It's a bit messy. The point of the story (how do you survive losing the center of your life?) was to be found in one of the six afterwords. In the author's acknowledgments, we learn dyslexia was inspired by the author's brother's difficulties in school; the life of a fan by hers. The translator note explains the ending (the cotton swabs she picks up right at the end look like bones in ashes: she is picking up her life at least), and the designer notes explain some choices (it has illustrations).

Although this felt more like young adult literature (it received the Akutagawa Prize in 2020, which celebrates first-time authors), and a lot seems to be lost in translation, it has documentary value and some nice pieces.

I didn't know how blatantly exploitative was the idol-fan business. Idol, burning gets interesting when it tells the tale and details of conscious, exploitative consumerism (“I’m still getting sucked dry by Maza-Maza’s management, but I love every minute of it”) used as a social ritual for modern life. In her case, a ritual to avoid her own life she can't manage (“My osh’is sign, Leo, was ranked fourth for the day, and his lucky item was a pen, so I grabbed a ball-point with a blue rubber strap and shoved it into an inside pocket. I left without checking my own star sign, it wasn’t important.”).

It was okayish. It just added to my mental pile of "Japan is weird".