Series Review: Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar

FUN FACT: This is my blog’s 100th post! Thanks for reading everyone!

Series: Gossip Girl
Author: Cecily von Ziegesar
# of Books: 12 — See the Full list here!

There is also a prequel novella, #0.5 It Had to be You and a serial killer retelling of Gossip Girl, #13 Gossip Girl, Psycho Killer

Complete?: Yes
Genre: Young Adult, Drama, Romance
Heat Rating: warm

Thoughts:

NOTE: I only read the first 5 books of the series (last read book was I Like it Like That). At this time I have no plans to finish the series–find out below:

I started reading Gossip Girl just before the TV show debuted in 2007. I mostly read them because I knew the show was coming and I wanted to see if it would be worth checking out. Funny thing is, I stuck with the show and dropped the books soon after.

The books started off great; especially book 1, Gossip Girl. They were interesting and edgy. The characters were intriguing and dramatic so it caught my attention and kept it. Around this time The O.C. had ended so I was looking for that dash of the over-the-top antics of the rich and famous and I found that in the Gossip Girl Series.

So all was good in the Gossip Girl world until 1) the characters started to go a little crazy and 2) I discovered the TV show was 20x better.

Now one can argue that the characters had always been crazy. Part of their charm was that they were over-the-top, extremely selfish and super dramatic and that’s what made the books and plots so interesting and worth reading. But I just couldn’t get past Chuck Bass with his pet monkey or Dan and his tormented poet life. They just freaked me out and bored me to tears.

It especially got worse once the TV show started and they revamped that characters. Gone was the monkey toting Chuck Bass and here was a suave, manipulative and cunning young man who still had a love of bizarre suits but now played a more crucial role in the plot. I love the Chuck Bass of the TV version–I even like Dan in the TV show. I also find that when you watch the show, you see another side to the characters. They aren’t always selfish–though most of the time they are–but sometimes you see that they do have a heart and you don’t really get that with the books. Once I became hooked to the TV show, I forgot about the books.

I’m not sure how the rest of the series goes, but based on the synopsises I read, it looks like it might get a bit better. I do know that by book 9, Only in Your Dreams, a ghost writer replaces Cecily von Ziegesar to continue the story. I’m not sure what affect that has on the rest of the books, but I would love to hear your comments!

Conclusion:

This is a series I would skip. Watch the TV show if you are looking for a dramatic insight into the lives of the Upper East Side. The TV show has better characters, stories and is just so much more interesting than what we get here.

Rating: 2.5/5

Similar Reads: none come to mind at this moment

Synopsis for Gossip Girl (from Goodreads):
Welcome to New York City’s Upper East Side, where my friends and I live, go to school, play, and sleep–sometimes with each other.

S is back from boarding school, and if we aren’t careful, she’s going to win over our teachers, wear that dress we couldn’t fit into, steal our boyfriends’ hearts, and basically ruin our lives in a major way. I’ll be watching closely…

You know you love me,
gossip girl