A review by geofroggatt
Because I'm Worth It by Cecily Von Ziegesar

3.0

This is the fourth book in the Gossip Girl book series. Vanessa and Dan’s romance comes to a halt when he turns into an overnight literary superstar with her help. Serena makes her modeling debut during Fashion Week, inadvertently pushing away her boyfriend Aaron. Nate is sent to rehab where he meets Georgina. After feeling disappointed with the previous book, I was glad that I was immediately more interested in the characters’ storylines in this book. I was surprised by how vapid and air headed Serena’s character was acting during the beginning of this book, with her excuse being that she was deeply head over heels for her current boyfriend and couldn’t talk about much else. When it came to the television show, I was always a low-key Serena apologist, but in this book she started off on the wrong foot for me, especially since she derailed a discussion on body image in the girls’ peer support program right in front of her best friend Blair who has an eating disorder. I like how Nate’s character ends up in rehab. I relate to abusing substances and losing control of moderation when doing drugs, and I liked how we got to see different characters with different addictions in rehab. I was never a huge fan of Nate’s character in the television show and any of the previous books, but I was slightly more interested in his character arc in this storyline. I loved seeing the version of Georgina from the books, she was one of my favorite characters from the television show. I was never a huge fan of Blair from the television show, but I’m surpassingly attached to Blair in the books, especially in this book. We see Blair’s more vulnerable side here and I liked seeing that side of her. Dan and Vanessa both discovering success so early in their lives was a bit unrealistic but I liked how the author explored how each character navigates fame and success in different ways and how it brings out the best and worst of both of them. Dan and Vanessa’s storyline in this book made me realize we don’t know everything there is to know about these characters and there can still be much to unravel with each character in future books. I like how Jenny’s character had her own storyline outside of the other main characters and I loved how Blair was kind to her in this book. I liked seeing Georgina write in to Gossip Girl from rehab. I liked that Aaron realized that he had to let Serena go. This book furthers certains plot points introduced in previous books, but the story and characters don’t have any profound or big changes that deviate from the normal formula. I like that we had a small scene where the characters speculate on Gossip Girl’s identity. As with all these books, this is not a masterful piece of literature, but I rated it three stars because I did enjoy it. I liked this book much better than the previous one and I liked the storylines in this one.