Customer Reviews

Gossip Girl

5 star:		(156)
4 star:		(80)
3 star:		(31)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(53)

 

 

When I picked up this book I was eager for another Cruel Intentions. What I got was much different. Gossip Girl tells the story of teenagers living a privileged life in NYC. Blair Thinks she has a perfect life, she's rich, her boyfriend Nate is wonderful, and she's looking foreword to going to Yale next year. Unfortunatly for Blair, everything changes when Serena comes back to town. Serena is Blair's "best friend" and biggest rival. She's seemingly prefect in every way and out shadows all of her friends. But now that she's back, rumors are flying. She's gotten kicked out of boarding school and according to NYC's rumor mill she's done some pretty dirty things to get expelled.

Sound interesting? Well, it's not. Unlike other people I was not "shocked" or "appalled" at the dirty nature of this book. Personally I've read far worse and have not been offended. The thing that really got me about this book was the sheer bad writing. The characters, which should be the backbone of any novel, are shallow and far too two-dimensional. They're popular, dress in fabulous clothes (which the author can't help but describe, the only real detail you'll get in this book), get drunk, have sex, get high, and spread rumors. Each one of them are the stereotypes of every character you'll find in any trashy teen novels. We have the "popular girls" the "deep poet" the "former popular girl with the bad reputation" the "theater geek" and the infamous "shy naieve girl who wants to be popular."

Recent great YA novels like Speak, and Love and Four Letter words have shown the world that teen books don't have to be shallow. In fact they can have some heart. Gossip girl falls back on the stereotypes that all teens are shallow and have nothing better to do in life than to worry about popularity. I gave it 2 stars instead of one because I'm not naieve, I know that there are people that like books like this, but I'm not that kind of person. If you want a good YA novel read Sloppy Firsts or Feeling sorry for Celia, they focus on the lives of real teens of all different shapes and sizes and are much better written.

This series is a terrible, terrible thing. Girls should never pick up a book from this series. Teens have a hard enough time getting through school without being pressured by YA LITERATURE for goodness sakes! These books promote all the things that we should fight against in this world, and should try to overcome. The title of the series itself promotes a terrible thing, and something that ruins relationships--Gossip. Gossip is not a fun, innocent thing; it hurts people. I think people should be able to choose what they read, but sometimes teens will read what is popular, so it scares me, as a teacher and writer, that this is what they might pick up in their local bookstore. If parents only knew what their kids were reading, they'd be as concerned about literature today, as they are about tv programs. We should all be encouraging girls to be uniquely themselves, and not to deprive the world of their unique presence. Why be a "gossip girl" when you can be a unique, creative, ambitious, strong, intelligent YOU?

A friend of mine told me this book would be great so I dashed out to Borders and bought a copy. I read it in a few days and was absolutely disgusted by the end.

The characters in this book are horrible role models and examples for our youth. These kids seem to believe the law is beneath them (underage drinking, sex and drug use) and their parents don't seem to mind either.

This series may be a bestseller, but it has terribly graphic language that is just too inappropriate for teens. Books should encourage positives and teach morals, not shed light on the ups of being bad.

The Gossip Girl books are nothing but trash; it's worthless to invest any time or money into the stupid series.

This book is in the Young Adult Fiction section at the library. When I was a young adult, I was reading Tolkien, Piers Anthony and those books that you could pick what was going to happen next, these days young adults are being forced to become adults too fast. I heard about Gossip Girls from a talk show I listen to everyday. Glenn Beck the host, he was saying how he would never ever let his daughters read this book because it's not for children, and I do consider the 15-up age recommendation to include children. I read the book, and I have to agree, it's not anything a young girl should be reading because it has no lasting value whatsoever. It doesn't teach a lesson, the story has no point to it, and the impressions it leaves are hurtful to young psyches. PLUS it's the worst writing I have seen in awhile, I am talking 4th grade level grammar, sentences, and diction. The whole book is about rich spoiled teenagers, who have a lot of sex, shop a lot, gossip a lot and have no character what so ever, if I were a parent and knew my child was absorbing all this nonsense and thought that maybe this was an okay way to act I would blow my top. What kills me, is that the book has sequels...many of them...and people are either buying them for their children without knowing what they are about which is bad parenting, or their kids are buying them and parents are just turning a blind eye to what is in their children's lives. Either way let it be known that kids are influenced by Television, Movies, Music and what they Read...and although it's wonderful to have your children reading books, you as an Parent should know what they are reading. ANY doubt at all , read the book first, then make that decision. (seriously this is like soft soft porn)

May I intervene? I've read many reviews blasting Gossip Girl for its unrealistic portrayal of teen life. This is all nice and good, except for that in many respects, it's dead on. I go to an Upper East Side private school in the heart of what I like to call the Pleated Skirt District, and while I'm not exactly the hard-paryin' type, I still know what goes on around me, and Gossip Girl is not that far off. Anyway, Gossip Girl is the bible of many girls in my high school, but I found it ridiculous. I only gave it the extra star for its all-too-accurate portrayal of its subject matter (mind you, its subject matter, which is not all teens by any stretch of the imagination). I have never been impressed with these hotbeds of sin and debauchery, and maybe that is why I was so unimpressed with Gossip Girl. I have to give the author, along with the writers of the OC, credit for making so many people care about the plight of these poor little rich kids. On the other hand, there is a group noticeably missing from these books that can be found even in the worst of the Pleated Skirts- the innocents. Jenny, the closest thing you'll get, it patently dumb and by the end is on the verge of being intiated into the Club. They must exist, so I suppose that the author simply doesn't care about anyone who doesn't look like a model and have dysfunctional CEO parents. After a while, these people just get old. They have no interests other than drinking, drugs and sex, and after a while the envy/disgust wears off and it just gets old. These books could potentially be really interesting, as it's quite a fascinating sector of life in an ohthatssoawfultellmemore tabloid sort of way, but rather than mine opportunities for emotional exposition or character growth, the author simply goes into another story of who slept with whom and who everyone's getting their drugs from. This book and the second one are better than the ones following it- I read up to the third one, by which point Serena and Blair have made up and any pretense of a premise is gone. Oh, sorry, did I just give everything away? Lucky you, now you won't have to waste your time reading this trash.

Cecily Von Ziegesar must be credited with this much: She never pretends that "Gossip Girl" is anything but vapid, vitriolic fluff with no real plotline and no real end. It is possible to produce books like that that are also funny and even enlightening, but "Gossip Girl" is essentially a plodding, repetitive attempt at a "real" teen book.

The beautiful Serena has returned from a sojourn in a ritzy private school and some time in France. Pretty bulimic Blair is dismayed by this, as Serena has unconsciously usurped the position that Blair had been occupying. Even worse, Blair's boyfriend Nate once slept with Serena and is still interested in her, but Serena is not really interested in Nate. Dan is besotted with her, and Jenny looks up to her.

Rumors begin to fly about Serena -- that she's slutty, that she has enough STDs for several people, that she had a baby in France, that she was thrown out of her boarding school, that she's had several abortions, and just about every other kind of vicious rumor. And presiding over all of this is Gossip Girl, a mysterious omniscient observer who reports online about the tangled lives of her friends and peers.

It seems that readers will never tire of the antics of too-rich Manhattanites, especially if they live depraved, empty lives. Like Nick McDonell's "Twelve," this book is filled with shallow, obnoxious characters who do drugs, sex, alcohol, and mourn the problems of their privileged lives. The drugs, sex, alcohol, bulimia and angst serve no actual purpose in the plot; they are merely attempts to shock. The problem is that they are handled in such a haphazard manner that they don't shock at all -- they are merely diversions to spice up the lack of plot. Strip them away, and there's pretty much nothing left. And while McDonell managed some poignant moments and character insights, Von Ziegesar never makes any such attempt. We are never given a reason to react to anyone in this book, either to be interested or repelled by them. I, personally, was only bored by them.

Those characters are also stereotypes, in a fictional world where the elite rich are all gorgeous. The scheming insecure girl, the mystery beauty, the shy naive girl, the weak handsome guy, the promiscuous guy, and dozens of others are devoid of any originality. They are part of the stereotype that teenagers are intrinsically shallow and can't be bothered with anyone who is not of interest to them.

Admittedly, the "Gossip Girl" website extracts are amusing. There's a certain wit to them, and they are also the only parts of the book that show some genuine originality. I only wish there had been more of them, and fewer repetitive rumors about Serena's past. The writing style lacks detail or any sort of wit or spiciness. And, like, the dialogue is so, you know, like, stupid, right?

Perhaps the worst part of the book is the finale, which fails to produce a climax or wrap up any loose threads. The book simply stops. Perhaps this is an effort to get readers to read "You Know You Love Me," if they aren't too disgusted by the plodding storyline and grating characters. Not recommended for anyone whose IQ is higher than their dog's.

It's going to be a very, very sad day when the only books teens will pick up are Gossip Girls. A series of soap opera-type tragedies concerning drunk boyfriends, designer clothes and Mean Girl attitudes make up this disappointing, sick bunch of reads. Some extremely rich girls with manicured lawns, fingers, and flirtation go to school at a Ritz-type place and struggle with questions such as: He's drinking, he's slept with someone else, and he's ignoring me. Should I dump him? Nah, he's too hot.

Furthermore, the descriptions get way too flowery for the emaciated storyline. When a new person comes into the room, we get a two-paragraph description of what they're wearing, what company it's from, how their hair is arranged, what their countenance looks like, how they walk, what their voice sounds like when they speak, etc. Another spurt of inspiration could have led this author to go on describing whether their eyes were too far apart, if one shoe had a lopsided tie, and if a button had a speck of dirt on it.

The characters are the biggest disgrace of all. Sluts, drunks and flimsy boyfriends compose the sorry cast. Blair, Serena, Jenny--basically, all of the girls--lead nearly flawless lives ruined just a bit by the fact that they can't find the perfect dress for that party...The boys are cliche, and aggresive drinkers who cheat, snub and befuddle their unsuspecting girlfiends. The author is too busy matching up him with her and her with him and divorcing random couples to remember that this is indeed a book and not high school reminiscing. All of this, by the way, is being recorded on some strange site by some stange, annonymous writer who conducts a strange series of initials and expects everybody to guess whom they're referring to by them; this writer also has an uncanny ability to conduct witty humor that simply falls flat on its face (or in yours).

I cannot discourage this any further. It's a shriveled plot with flat characters, set against a backdrop of wilting comedy. Read a real book instead.

There are so many girls who read these books at my school, and I have no clue how they can actually like it. The writing was on a fourth grade level and the content was on a tenth grade level. The mature content didn't bother me so much, but how the author tried to make it seem like it was soooo outrageous when it wasn't that bad, now that irked me. I tried to find a character I liked, but it was too hard and so I gave up. The characters were too shallow to identify with, even the ones that would be considered the deep outsiders. The plot was too dry and to me it was also very predictable. The only thing that I liked about this book was the idea of an anonymous GossipGirl devulging details. I may have lost brain cells in the process of reading this book. Caution: Read at your own risk, people!!!

The characters in Gossip Girl are like real people. When you get to know them you realize there's still a lot to learn, so you want to keep reading about them.

These kids drink a lot and some of them smoke pot, but the story isn't about alcohol or drugs, it's about growing up. These teenagers could be your friends.

The best part of the book is how well-written it is. It's about teenagers, but it isn't "written down" to their level. The author obviously knows what she's talking about. Is she the Gossip Girl?

This book is completely unrealistic. The teenagers live reckless, irresponsible lifestyles that are without consequence. The author is redundant and cliche. These books are often labled as "guilty pleasure novels", but I found no enjoyment in these bland books whatsoever. Reading it was a waste of my time. I enjoyed reading a 500some-page book on the United Nations and international politics TEN times more than this book. And I'm fourteen years old. That should tell you something.