Product Description

'Welcome to New York City's Upper East Side, where my friends and I live and go to school and play and sleep - sometimes with each other. We're smart, we've inherited classic good looks, and we know how to party. It's a luxe life, but someone's got to live it.' "The Gossip Girl" series is the ultimate in glamour and cool - set in New York's glamorous Upper East Side, the narrative follows the thrills and spills (with Jimmy Choo shoes and shopping at Barneys mixed in along the way) of its richest and most beautiful teenage residents.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17539 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Review
'Gossip Girl has the effect of gossip itself - once you enter it's hard to extract yourself; teens will devour this whole.' Publisher's Weekly

About the Author
Cecily von Zeigesar attended herself one of the smart private schools in Manhatten, New York, and much of the tales told in 'Gossip Girl' as a result ring with great authenticity. She is currently writing further titles in the Gossip Girl series. Bloomsbury will be publishing the series at regular intervals throughout 2003 with a high profile, energetic and suitably cutting-edge marketing campaign. This deliciously catty and engrossing series will be the spicy vanguard for Bloomsbury pushing the boundaries into young adult fiction.

Customer Reviews

Definitely worth 4 Stars
Just like all the other good reviews I have to agree that this book is bitchy, disgraceful, superficial and just amazing.

At first you're introduced to Blair Waldorf who is portrayed as a young, snivelling bitchy kind of girl but you see underneath that cold demeanour she really is just a young girl trying to make her life as smooth as possible and wanting to keep her boyfriend Nate away from the seductive Serena.

Serena on the other hand is then shown as a very beautiful girl, who likes to have fun, be with her friends and is a nice girl in general who is the main focus of all the rumours after returning to her former school Constance due to being kicked out from her new boarding school... people throughout the book make up numerous rumours but the truth in fact is not so scandalous.

Blair and Serena were best friends before Serena went off to boarding school but when she returns all she's greeted with is one cold shoulder after another and no-ones seems to want to talk to her or party like the good old times. I found the break-up in Blair/Serena's relationship kind of sad as we saw that Serena isn't really how everyone makes her out to be and Blair keeps misunderstanding Serena's real motives.

However the book is absolutely wonderful to read with interesting characters such as Dan [obsessed with Serena] Nate [stuck over who he wants to be with -- Serena or Blair] Jenny [the girl with the enormous boobs!] and Chuck [the disgusting hormonally charged pervert] making a great plot.

HOW GREAT!!!
This book is amazing. The story of teenagers living in New York; some so rich that they don't know how to spend their money, some so much in debt just so they can behave like the little rich kids. A book that captures you right in the middle, leaving you unable to let go. A book that understands the mind of teenagers, especially girls, in their trials and tribulations that obtrude their lives everyday. And don't forget to read all of the others in the series - they are just as spectacular!

1st a PSA...
I am not entirely clear as to what type of world considers this a "teen book". While it deals with young people and some relevant situations, it deals with all of them in a fairly adult way. I do not think that the subject matter is too mature for a teen of sixteen or seventeen, however, I strongly suspect that this series biggest followers are a tad bit younger than that. So if you are a parent interested in buying this book for someone younger than sixteen I suggest you wait a year or two. Okay...that was my PSA.

Now, onto my actual review.

'GOSSIP GIRL' started off a little slow, much to my surprise, but toward the middle it picked up and sucked me right into the high class world of these privileged young girls. I think Cecily Von Ziegesar has created a series with a very honest look into the world and the minds of not only upper class teenagers but teenagers in general. It highlighted how even the most apparently put together and well polished girls can be insecure, and most importantly, human.

'GOSSIP GIRL' is also chock-full of juicy tidbits referring to it's main characters that will keep you wanting more. Von Ziegesar will surely have readers of all ages coming back for more. Definitely a very guilty pleasure!