Gossip Girl

Serena van der Woodsen was the It Girl of New York City's Upper East Side but her departure for boarding school without a word to her friends has left its mark. Her return is fraught with bitchiness, backstabbing and rumours. But the quintessential It Girl knows how to be nothing else and Serena weathers the storm by finding new friends, new hobbies and new drama.

Meanwhile, Blair Waldorf has to adjust to her new normal.

Well.

I can't say this has aged well at all. And was I ever that young at seventeen? This was sort of entertaining? But also not really at all?

There's an odd mix of youth, sex and swearing - which is probably more to do with how much I've aged in the last decade - but I felt it worth noting at least. All the characters show more are either drunk or high, most of them seem to have eating disorders and there's more than one instance of sexual assault. I think most problematic was the way in which the sexual assault was treated so casually. A few instances were barely even commented on and the worst one with Jenny and Chuck was dealt with by Serena telling Chuck to fk off? Just reading the name Chuck had me wanting to take a shower and no one seemed to recognise the seriousness or disgustingness of his behaviour and it was terrible.

From when this was published, I do think we've come a long way as a society regarding attitudes and acceptable behaviors towards and about women. The casual slut shaming, derogatory comments and even sexual touches are no longer left to linger silently - I won't deny it still happens but I definitely think we're more likely to speak up and out about it than we were. So while I recognise it was the norm, it still doesn't sit right, reading it now.

Regarding the book itself - any love I have for the characters is more to do with lingering nostalgia over the television show rather than the book - because frankly none of them were particularly likeable. They were whiny, self-centered and kind of flat. All of them needed therapy. The television show has doubtlessly also not aged well but it's also very different to the book series. Plus I'm a Chuck/Blair fan - I never liked Nate on the show and I absolutely hate him in the book. I don't get what Blair even kind of sees in him.

The confessional tone makes easy reading and the inclusion of the gossip girl blogs breaks up the story and adds drama to the narrative. I liked the style, I just found the plot a bit young for my taste.

When I first read this I rated 3 stars but upon rereading I can't go higher than 2 stars - there's just not enough depth to the characters or the plot to warrant more. show less

This book is some seriously trashy fun (though the voices for the characters in the audiobook I listened to were super annoying). Great writing. The narration is pretty cool- a third person that gets deep into the characters heads, with witty interjections from a birds eye view narrator every now and again. A perfect expression of teen (insanely wealthy teen) drama. The right tone of earnestness and mockery, down-to-earth and over-the-top.

I've read some negative reviews that were horrified by the book's lack of morality, but that is entirely the point. This isn't the book for 12 year old girls. The characters are about 17, and I think readers that age are old enough not to see the characters as role models. Still, there is a lot of show more casual drug use & a case of a serious eating disorder dealt with lightly, so if your young teen is reading this you might need to discuss those things first.

Although there are lots of scenes replicated in some way in the start of the TV series, they really are different beasts. The show is more serious, with the characters more fleshed out, more sympathetic. Think of the cast of War & Peace. The book is sort of devil-may-care, love me or hate me, with compelling but less respectable characters. Think Scarlett O'Hara. I loved both approaches. (Note: both these books were references in Gossip Girl, which gives it extra brownie points). show less

This Adobe PDF e-book was perfectly suited to bring out the worst in teenage girls. It focused on drinking, boys, and consumerism. The characters were basically unlikeable from an adult point of view, but if you're a teen girl who enjoys the mastery of sarcastic put-downs, stealing the boy and backstabbing friends with an added side of on-line gossip and name-dropping of clothes, shoes and purses, then this book hits home. When Serena returns from boarding school in Europe, Blair's life is turned upside down. She loses her status as the "it" girl and has to work hard to regain both her friendship with Serena and her own level in her privileged world. While this has become a somewhat popular television series - think 90210 for this show more generation - it does nothing to reflect the lives of real teenagers, but perhaps the fantasy of being incredibly rich and doing whatever you want is the draw! show less

There are some books that we’re obsessed with in high school that stand the test of time and remain part of our permanent internal library, but there are others which don’t quite hold their gleam when raised to the light of an adult understanding. I hate to say it, because Gossip Girl was so iconic in the history of YA publishing (and television), but this book is part of the latter category and isn’t quite as pith-ily amusing as I wish it was. The television series stands on its own because of the styling and brilliant actors, but without the verbal intonation and New York visuals the book falls a touch flat. In this first book, we’re introduced to all of the main characters: Serena and Blair, Chuck and Nate, and Dan and Jenny, show more and we get touches of their adolescent personas, but I felt like von Ziegesar’s dialogue didn’t jump off the page and her constant asides don’t work nearly as well in written form as they do verbally. I can definitely see how this book would have shaken the YA market back in the day, since it was a unique setting, set of characters, and tone for the time, but somehow it seems lacking when reflected on 20 years later. I’m glad that they saw the brilliant spark in these novels though, since the world shouldn’t have to live without Leighton Meester’s and Blake Lively’s Blair and Serena! show less

I've been in need of some easy, superficial, low commitment reading lately (yup, guilty pleasure time!), and Gossip Girl fit the bill. The characters and story lines are pretty much the same as what you see on the show: rich, consumerist, high school kids causing drama and partying their way around NYC. I didn't grow up in the ritzy Upper East Side, but I did attend a private prep school with a bunch of very wealthy teens, and the story, with its excess underage drinking and complete lack of parenting seems way over the top. It's entertaining though, so I'll probably find myself reading another Gossip Girl installment at some point.

How close to reality is this book? At times I was sickened by the superficiality of the characters’ lives, appalled by their petty and mean behavior and what they could get away with, and pitied their pathetic existences. However, by the end, von Ziegesar manages to bring out their humanity, and I developed some empathy for their teenage angst. As one might guess, this book is more likely to appeal to teen girls, especially those who want to read about the lives of superrich NY girls.

I wanted to read this before I put it on my library shelves. It's very trashy, as expected, but it has surprisingly entertaining Austenesque moments--observations of "civil" society--only from within rather than without. I confess I don't have much of a taste for it, and I won't be surprised if I get complaints. It's definitely a test of the 'freedom to read.'