Review of “Gossip Girl #1”

“Oh, don't be a spoilsport. Gossip is sexy. Gossip is good. Not everybody does it, but everybody should!"

von Ziegesar, Cecily. Gossip Girl #1: A Novel. Poppy, New York, 2002. ISBN: 978-0316910330

Teenager Blair Waldorf sneaks away from a party to have sex with her boyfriend Nate Archibald, however they are interrupted by the return of Blair's old friend Serena van der Woodsen, who was away at boarding school. When Serena was around, Blair felt as if she were lost in the blue, so she is not thrilled that Serena has returned. She is also unhappy to find out that Nate and Serena had sex the summer before Serena left. She tries to keep Serena out of the loop and encourages others to ignore her. Not understanding why she is getting the cold shoulder, Serena decides to try new activities and tries out for the school play, and is rejected. Later she tries out for Vanessa Abrams' short film being in Central Park, however Vanessa grows jealous over her best friend, and secret crush, Dan Humphrey's reaction to Serena and chooses someone else. Undeterred, Serena decides to make her own film and enlists the help of Jenny Humphrey, Dan's younger sister. Throughout the story, the various characters regularly visit "Gossip Girl," a popular, anonymous blog that spreads rumours and gossip about them. [Wikipedia]

What this book reminded me of, was a less edgy version of Less Than Zero. However, in Gossip Girl, all the kids are basically interested in doing the same things without any kind of reflection or remorse. The girls do discuss having to prepare to get into college, but being in a school play is not going to be a big deal if you’ve been kicked out of boarding school, would it? I don’t know.

This is just the poor little rich girl story retold. None of the kids are supervised so they run around New York City drinking and smoking pot and having parties. Because, you know, that’s fun! There’s a lot of mention of dancing in their underwear and partying that involved all the characters. It’s their way of life, which, as many people pointed out on Goodreads is just not something that young girls should aspire to.

But there are worse books out there and at least Serena isn’t planning her life around a boy. She’s an interesting character that I’m sure becomes a little more rounded as the series goes on. Anyway, the book is quick and easy to read but there’s not a lot of meat to it. I can see girls loving to read about a perfect girl (Serena) being admired and hated by the rest of her former friends. But that’s about it. I mean, the clash between Blair and Serena is good and I’m sure that’s going to be the main tension throughout the series and the rest of the characters will all develop more. I would go as far as to read the two GG novels that I own already but I’m into them like I was/am the Pretty Little Liars series.

My rating: (3/5)