A review by beholder
Gossip Girl by Cecily Von Ziegesar

funny relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Like, this is genuinely funny and well written. The characters are all believably, humanly flawed (Blair is petty, Serena is egocentric, Dan thinks Serena's the dream manic pixie girl to his normie guy, Chuck is Chuck, Nate is an Enneagram 9). I also liked the choice of tense -- past tense, with the occasional comment in present tense, as if the narrator was telling the story to you in real time.

I really liked losing myself into this world where there was both character types I recognized from real life, but also, such a complete lack of concern for mundane problems that it was escapist. Also, kudos to how well and subtly the narration made fun of all these people. Dan's parts were especially laugh-inducing.

To me personally, it lost a bit of steam around the 47% mark, which is why it's not rated higher.

But yes, to me, it's a genuinely fun, well written book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Drug use, and Sexual assault

Minor: Fatphobia and Vomit

Eating disorder: There's a detailed description of bulimic character's disordered eating behavior in the first two or so chapters. After that, her behavior is just implied throughout the book. She does not consider getting help or recovery or anything of the sort. Related/implied: there is disdain for fat people throughout the book.

Sexual harassment/assault: Chuck's character sexually harasses Serena in some of their scenes, and harasses and assaults Jenny at the end of the book, although

Spoiler

her brother Dan comes to her help before it can escalate further

. Chuck, to my understanding, was a criticism of that type of person: the narration says that, were their families not old money/powerful/so focused on appearances, a person like Chuck would have been shunned and properly dealt with a long time ago.

Drug use: Almost every scene involving the teenagers, except for ones at school, Barneys, and Jenny and Dan's house, involved alcohol consumption. Nate smokes weed more and more as the book goes along.