Status
Available
Collection
Series
Genres
Publication
Poppy (2002), Edition: 1, 199 pages
Description
Presents a world of jealousy and betrayal at an exclusive private school in Manhattan.
Subjects
Awards
Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (Top Ten — 2003)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2002-04-01
Physical description
199 p.; 8 inches
User reviews
LibraryThing member Phantasma
I have no idea how anyone can read these things. They're extremely popular at my library and I thought I'd see what the hype was about. I had hoped to be able to read enough of the series to give accurate information to patrons when they asked. I couldn't even get through chapter 2. The writing is
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hideous and the plot is laughable. The fact that these are so popular makes me want to cry. Is is just the shock value of teens who are richer than god having lots of sex, drinking lots of booze and doing drugs? What am I missing here? Show Less
LibraryThing member cmcvittie
This Adobe PDF e-book was perfectly suited to bring out the worst in teenage girls. It focused on drinking, boys, and consumerism. The characters were basically unlikeable from an adult point of view, but if you're a teen girl who enjoys the mastery of sarcastic put-downs, stealing the boy and
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backstabbing friends with an added side of on-line gossip and name-dropping of clothes, shoes and purses, then this book hits home. When Serena returns from boarding school in Europe, Blair's life is turned upside down. She loses her status as the "it" girl and has to work hard to regain both her friendship with Serena and her own level in her privileged world. While this has become a somewhat popular television series - think 90210 for this generation - it does nothing to reflect the lives of real teenagers, but perhaps the fantasy of being incredibly rich and doing whatever you want is the draw! Show Less
LibraryThing member faith42love
I have to begin with an admission, the tv series Gossip Girl is one of my many guilty pleasures. This book was classic Gossip Girl at it's best. It was full of scandal, heart break and all the juicy insider secrets you could want. The problem with that is the characters are teenagers and in my
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opinion, teenagers should not be allowed to run around the worlds "biggest urban playground" without some sort of consequences for there actions. In the television series, at least the parents are involved and seem at least a bit interested in the lives of there children. This book was shallow and devoid of any moral compass. The ending was left open, which I HATE. There should have been some sort of retribution, even if these people have all the money in the world, there has to be a price too high to pay. Maybe, just maybe that is the whole point but I had to reach so deep to find it, I doubt that it is true. I wouldn't want my teen reading this book. Show Less
LibraryThing member barefootlibrarian
Gossip Girl is high drama for young adults, as readers are give an insider’s view of the upper side world of New York City teens. The story of Serena’s return to high society from boarding school and the effect it has on all her friends (…or are they really?) is told by a seemingly omniscient
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and omnipresent narrator who runs a gossip blog about this group of teens. Serena, perhaps as she should be, is the character with the most presence. You feel for her even when you don’t know if all the rumors are true, unlike her so-called friends. For me, the characters are interesting because of their tumultuous relationships, but all of the drugs/alcohol are a turn off. I’m not convinced that all their parents don’t care that their children are drinking non-stop or buying drugs from people in front of the Met or in Central Park. That aside, the sprinkling of narrator commentary became an annoyance. I like the blog pieces at the beginning/end of some chapters, and the hook really is wanting to know who she is and how she fits into the group, but how is she commenting on internal dialogue? There are some things she just can’t know. The writing was okay and I’m sufficiently interested to try the second book. Show Less
LibraryThing member amathewson
88/199 pages read.
Gossip Girl was really stupid. I abonded it after i figured that nothing good or at least goo to me, would happen . It seemed like everyone was loving it and they all told me how good it was. Well, it really wasn't worth the time. It was about a bunch of rich girls cheating with
I think the kind of readers that would enjoy it are the ones that are extremely bored and have nothing else to do.
Gossip Girl was really stupid. I abonded it after i figured that nothing good or at least goo to me, would happen . It seemed like everyone was loving it and they all told me how good it was. Well, it really wasn't worth the time. It was about a bunch of rich girls cheating with
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eachothers boyfriends and making up rumors about pregnancy. All they wanted to do is go out and buy a 100 dollar purse for the party that evening and hopefully find a new boyfriend. Serena is probably the oe that got on my nerves the most. She was one of those girls that really don't care about her friends that much and her life revolves around men. I thought it was actually pretty sad, and i was heartbroken to read it. The thing that struck me tha hardest was that she was all over some guy she just met at her FAMILIES party. I thought that was really sad and disgustingI think the kind of readers that would enjoy it are the ones that are extremely bored and have nothing else to do.
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LibraryThing member mattsya
Some girls will love this, and we'll just have to deal with that. Von Ziegesar switches point of view at a dizzying pace, but for a teen soap opera in book form, that can be expected. The characters are as stock as stock can be and the brand name references can get tiring. The formula is put to
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better effect in the A-List series, but Gossip Girl is the one that started it all. And with a TV series now on the air, interest in this series will be especially high. It is what it is. Show Less
LibraryThing member littleton_pace
Another one of those book to series novels that I read after I got into the show; but this one didn't grab me, and the fact that I'm kinda going off season 4 of Gossip Girl anyway; probably not the best time for me to read it; but it was half-read and sitting on my beside so they're the books I'm
Good things and bad things about the book. One thing I didn't like was the constant switch of characters POV mid chapter or even paragraph. At first you're reading Serena, and then Nate, and then Blair, etc. It's tiresome when all you want is a good read.
The characters aren't exactly likable, which I suppose they're not meant to be. But even hated characters should have something about them that makes me want to read them. Serena's a whore, Blair's a bad friend, Nate's a pothead, Jenny's a try-hard, Chuck's just weird, and Dan (who is my favourite in the TV show) is just bland and boring.
It's a series; I don't own any of the other books so it's highly unlikely I'll be reading them.
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trying to get through.Good things and bad things about the book. One thing I didn't like was the constant switch of characters POV mid chapter or even paragraph. At first you're reading Serena, and then Nate, and then Blair, etc. It's tiresome when all you want is a good read.
The characters aren't exactly likable, which I suppose they're not meant to be. But even hated characters should have something about them that makes me want to read them. Serena's a whore, Blair's a bad friend, Nate's a pothead, Jenny's a try-hard, Chuck's just weird, and Dan (who is my favourite in the TV show) is just bland and boring.
It's a series; I don't own any of the other books so it's highly unlikely I'll be reading them.
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LibraryThing member EuronerdLibrarian
It reads like a TV show. There's not really an arc of story, it just feels like an episode in series. Trashy but has the same kind of appeal as gossip itself. The writing is funny--kind of sarcastic and self-aware.
LibraryThing member live2sk8
I actually watched the show before reading this and I was really disappointed. I sympathize with TV show Blair, TV show Chuck, and even TV show Serena. I wanted to smack all three of them in the book. The characters in the book as sooooo vapid. At least the TV show characters had thoughts in their
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heads. The only thoughts in the book characters' heads include and ONLY include shopping, partying, drinking, keeping their boyfriend, and staying as Queen Bee. And, this is the girl who wants to get into Yale. We get paragraphs and paragraphs of von Ziegesar describing their clothes. And, I'm sure no one has gone to party where they have designer bags as party favors. At least no one I know. The annoying part was that the characters all acted as if their lives were falling apart if they couldn't find the perfect dress or lost their Queen Bee status. Blair makes herself throw up because she feels that her best friend is prettier and is going to steal her boyfriend, and spreads obnoxious rumors about her. I think part of what makes Serena's character so sympathetic in the show, is that her younger brother was suicidal and she has to deal with her self-obsessed mom who insists on pretending he's vising aunt Carol in Miami instead of in a rehab center. She takes the public bullet for him, pretending she was the one who spent time in rehab when a rumor goes around. And the book Chuck is just dark and depressed and sleeping around because he can, not because he has a reason like in the show. And, of course, the stereotypes. Serena is a bubbly, blonde Barbie whom every guy has a crush on. Vanessa is a film maker that shaves her head and wears black. Dan is a poet with an unrequited crush, on Serena. Unfortunately, this was a 200 page book filled with pretty much nothing. Show Less
LibraryThing member klarusu
I saw the author of this book (heinously priviledged ... no wonder she got published!) talking about how much she based it on her own experiences as a teen in the oddly rich set of New York's Upper East Side and I was intrigued enough to give it a try. It was a snappily written teen novel that was
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easily disposed of in an evening and was surprisingly entertaining. I think that partially came from flashbacks to events of my teenage years - OK, so we weren't as rich but believe me, sometimes it was pretty close to the mark .... for 'sometimes' read 'often'! Would an adult from a background dissimilar to the story find it as entertaining? I'm not sure. Although it has to be said that 'Sex and the City' did well enough so there is certainly a market out there for the shallow! There is a sharp edge to it which stops it from coming over all 'Sweet Valley High' and let's face it, 'The O.C.' was a hit and this is just like a re-run in a new venue. What amused me is how grown up we thought we were living the same kind of black tie, hedonistic, hungover at school life. I could give the game away and tell you which one I was like .... but I think not! Show Less
LibraryThing member lorabear
Why I chose this book: I have heard a lot about the show (although I have never watched it), and thought that I would give the book a chance before I started enjoying the t.v. series. What I thought: Was a little difficult to keep all of the characters seperate at first.....but once I started I
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couldn't stop...and can't wait to read the rest of the series. Show Less
LibraryThing member PigOfHappiness
Trashy literature at its best. The characters are evil to one another while still, somehow, maintaining personal dignity. If you like spiteful gossip, you'll love this. Recommended for upper high school and beyond...
LibraryThing member sierra.tolbert
This prequel was pretty good actually, really got me in the story. I kind of new what was going on in the first book. It had tons of drama, and really showed me a little something extra of each character.
LibraryThing member ajramsden
I selected this title to read from yalsa's "Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers" because I knew of its popularity from the television show, which I have never seen. Labeled as "Sex and the City for the younger set," I would probably agree with that description, though I felt that show at
I can understand its appeal for teen readers who enjoy the TV program or who might like to see how the other side supposedly lives but this book is heavy on the gossip involving the casual sex, drug, and drinking lives of its superficial characters; bursting at the seams with product placement details; and little on anything else. If anything I am glad that when I was a teen the most expensive thing to worry about was designer jeans and not much attention was paid to the label names of shoes, bags, sunglasses, cosmetics, and various waxings! Von Ziegesar is certainly laughing all the way to the bank.
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least tried to inject some humanity into its characters. This the first book in the series Gossip Girl introduces us to Blair, a spoiled rich girl living on the upper east side whose parents have little involvement in her life as she makes plans to seduce her annoyingly moronic and constantly stoned boyfriend, Nate. Blair's plans are quickly dashed when she receives news that her former best friend Serena is back in town from a year away at boarding school and ready to re-establish her role as top social butterfly and competition for Nate's heart. Instead of welcoming Serena home, Blair and her catty classmates participate in an old fashioned shunning, complete with nasty gossip involving rumors about school-wide orgies, a secret pregnancy, and animal sacrifice voodoo. By the end the author tries to show that the characters have some heart, but, at least for me, it was too little, too late.I can understand its appeal for teen readers who enjoy the TV program or who might like to see how the other side supposedly lives but this book is heavy on the gossip involving the casual sex, drug, and drinking lives of its superficial characters; bursting at the seams with product placement details; and little on anything else. If anything I am glad that when I was a teen the most expensive thing to worry about was designer jeans and not much attention was paid to the label names of shoes, bags, sunglasses, cosmetics, and various waxings! Von Ziegesar is certainly laughing all the way to the bank.
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LibraryThing member TZacek
I figured on this book being simple, mindless fun. I didn't count on quite so much mindless, with an emphasis on the simple. But, I must admit, Ziegasar's debut Gossip Girl novel was kind of fun. At least the dialogue was believable... mostly. The cattiness, the foul mouths, the passing notes, the
Head socialite, Blair, is finally, FINALLY, going to give it up to her handsome (and somewhat brainless) boyfriend, Nate, while her mother throws one of her many parties downstairs. Ah, but what is any good YA novel without some conflct? Moments before the consummation, Blair's (former) best friend shows up, and the announcement of her arrival leaves Nate a little... distracted? So, instead of accepting Serena back into the fold of upper-crust Manhattan society, petty Blair and her petty friends turn on the oh-so-perfect Serena. Woven through this deep plot-line is the gossip blog of some as-yet-unnamed author who seems to have eyes and ears everywhere. Could she perhaps be one of the characters we are reading about!? Dum dum DUUUUUM!
We get some sort of resolution at the end but not much. Hey, Cecily has to have something left for the rest of the series. Can't get all her gems out in one book! Touted as the Sex in the City for the high school sect, Gossip Girl won't shake any foundations. But, if you don't take yourself too seriously, the book has its moments and is a quick read. And we really can't fault it for trying to be any more than what it is: simple. mindless. fun.
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thought that this guy, right NOW!, is the be all and end all of your universe. Yeah, we've been there. Head socialite, Blair, is finally, FINALLY, going to give it up to her handsome (and somewhat brainless) boyfriend, Nate, while her mother throws one of her many parties downstairs. Ah, but what is any good YA novel without some conflct? Moments before the consummation, Blair's (former) best friend shows up, and the announcement of her arrival leaves Nate a little... distracted? So, instead of accepting Serena back into the fold of upper-crust Manhattan society, petty Blair and her petty friends turn on the oh-so-perfect Serena. Woven through this deep plot-line is the gossip blog of some as-yet-unnamed author who seems to have eyes and ears everywhere. Could she perhaps be one of the characters we are reading about!? Dum dum DUUUUUM!
We get some sort of resolution at the end but not much. Hey, Cecily has to have something left for the rest of the series. Can't get all her gems out in one book! Touted as the Sex in the City for the high school sect, Gossip Girl won't shake any foundations. But, if you don't take yourself too seriously, the book has its moments and is a quick read. And we really can't fault it for trying to be any more than what it is: simple. mindless. fun.
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LibraryThing member gretagarbo
Every couple of chapters of this book begins with a blog post from our narrator, Gossip Girl, a mysterious figure famous to New York's teenagers for sighting and revealing all the latest gossip. Her website follows the lives of several teenagers, and chronicles their adventures for all of New York
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to see. Gossip Girl is an addiction, a guilty pleasure; the pages are loaded with vivid descriptions and catty gossip. Perfect for a teenager. Show Less
LibraryThing member RGQuimby
Delightfully dishy. Once readers get used to the tone and the occasionally not-so-smooth narration, they will enjoy the book's dishy characters and naughty plot. A fun read with no moral in sight. Should appeal to fans of the show as well as teens who enjoy controversial fiction. It is gleefully
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amoral and not at all good for you. Show Less
LibraryThing member sntorrejon
This book is told by several different girls in a private high school. They are your typical rich stuck up high school girls. They talk about boys sex and drugs. It did not have any parental involvement. It did not have a very good ending and I don't think it was a great book for high school
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students. Show Less
LibraryThing member EmScape
This is a quick and fun YA novel, the first in the series the hit TV show is based on. While it is interesting and entertaining to read, I find it hard to identify with these rich, privileged, city-dwelling party kids. I suppose it's a vicarious thrill, but I wonder how realistic it is. Maybe it
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isn't supposed to be realistic; it is fiction after all. I wonder what kind of message this is sending to the young readers and viewers, because I worry about things like that. However, that does not detract from how much (guilty) pleasure I took from reading it. If it sounds like this is a mixed review, it is. I haven't seen the show, but I'm interested enough after reading this to put it on my Netflix queue. Update to this review is forthcoming once I view it. Show Less
LibraryThing member twothumbsdown
It's a guily pleasure, but Serena annoys me.
LibraryThing member bleached
A story told from the eyes of several different girls about boys, backstabbing, drugs, sex, and the other things you'd expect from rich girls at a private school. I found it wasn't really my taste because of the stereotypical catty rick kid characters. It is too close to real life, which makes gg
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almost scary. Show Less
LibraryThing member lvelazqu2000
Gossip Girl certainly does read as juicy gossip and keeps you interested and wanting more gossip. There is backstabbing, rumors, breakups, boy crushes, oh and rich and not so rich characters. The culture among teenage girls isn't always great but you can relate only because it is similar to what
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may have occurred when you were a teenager minus the socialite style of living. It sort of feeds the fantasy stories that may go on in teen girls' heads. This is definitely a high interest book for girls. Show Less
LibraryThing member smohri
This book was no Sweet Valley High. The SWV I read was G-rated in comparison. I'm sure this book makes for a much better TV show, because it was very dialogue heavy. Even though this not a book I would necessarily recommend for high literature, it has a lot of teen appeal. This is what I consider
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beach reading, and if I was still in high school I am sure I would have read the entire series by now, beach or no beach. Show Less
LibraryThing member supermanlver
Another East Side New York snooty girls compete over friends and boys book. I find these books to be very interesting though. They show events from different perspectives so that the reader can get a more in depth analysis of a situation. They're funny as well, because it's hard to imagine that
i reccommend this book for ages high school and up because it does have some content that i dont think is very appropriate for ages younger than that.
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people are really this rich and living in apartments where they can bathe in champagne and do drugs without their parents caring, as long as they don't ruin their reputations. These girls act horribly towards one another and are very materialistic as well, so it's ridiculous to read at times, but it is all around a good book. I read through it pretty fast because it was so luring. i reccommend this book for ages high school and up because it does have some content that i dont think is very appropriate for ages younger than that.
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LibraryThing member mobryan
In this book, Blair has the good life. A hot boyfriend, big house, most popular girl. Everything is hers. Until her old best friend Serina moves back into town after going away to boarding school. Everything is different and their friendship isn't the same. Also, everyone treats her different.
I
I recommend this book to teenage girls who love drama.
I
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read 200 pages of this book.I recommend this book to teenage girls who love drama.
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Lexile
820L
Pages
199