Gossip Girl

If you've been bold enough to come out from underneath that comfortable rock you've been living under in the past five years, then you know all about Gossip Girl, the TV series, currently airing on The CW (TV To Talk About).  But being as this is a book blog and not a TV blog, I'm going to talk about the book series written by Cecily von Ziegesar.

I think she's a great author. Her style of writing is borderline Bret Easton Ellis, but her books are targeted towards teens so she tones it down. As with all writing, authors use their life experience to inspire their writings.  I read in the back of one of the novels from the series that Cecily did that too. Which I think is amazing that she was exposed to that kind of world as a teenager. I never got the chance and I know Gossip Girl is an exaggeration, I still feel like I got to take a glimpse in the fabulous lives of Manhattan's elite.

I'm not going to lie and tell you that automatically I loved the Gossip Girl series because I didn't. I started reading it in eighth grade and I didn't even finish the one book I took out. I thought it was really weird and I didn't give it a chance; I couldn't get into it at that immature time in my life. But something happend between eighth grade and junior year in high school. That thing was I wanted to know spoilers for the next season of Gossip Girl! Yes, I watched the show before I read all the books. I did the same thing with Harry Potter and I still haven't read all the books.

Anyway, it was the Season 3 finale where Chuck gets shot, I desperately wanted to know what was going to happen to him so I Googled the shit out of Gossip Girl Season 4 spoilers (to no avail). I decided the next best thing was to read the books that started it all. Little did I know the show was the next best thing and the books were the best thing. It's kind of fuzzy if I read all the books over the summer or if I started to read them during junior year, but nonetheless I began the journey. I'm pretty sure I started with the first Gossip Girl novel and then from there, I read them out of order. But I know I read the last novel, the prequel and the final novel over the summer between junior and senior year. Those were my favorite out of all fourteen novels.

Now when I say the characters in the books are completely different from their portrayal in the series, I ain't lying. Although I think the casting directors who work on Gossip Girl got it right, the book was more realistic in terms of descriptions. If you've read the novels you know what I'm talking about. For example, in the books, Serena is way skinnier than on the show, Vanessa has no hair, Dan in a dirty writer who smokes and doesn't eat and his little sister Jenny has huge boobs and curly brown hair. But you know what, you can't expect them to get everything perfect. I think they did a stellar job casting the characters. I sometimes like to see a difference between books and the TV/Film interpretation. This is one of those times.

As I read more and more Gossip Girl novels, I found myself connecting to Blair Waldorf. We have some of the same tendencies. Like we both have to get our way, we have major freakouts when things don't go our way and we compare ourselves to people around us. And that's why I feel this current season of Gossip Girl (Season 5) is my favorite. I think this season is all about Blair and everyone else is her ensemble. She's the star!

This past year (2011), I read the new Gossip Girl novel entitled Psycho Killer and I did not like it at all. I expected it to tie into the series, but it was basically a carbon copy of the first novel with a few things changed to make it seem more psycho killer-y. I feel she could've done something different, but I'm not the one who's sold millions of copies of books much less even been published. Cecily von Ziegeasar can do as she pleases. She doesn't have to cater to me. But you know that one book could not compare to monumental aspect of the other thirteen. So I ain't even mad though.

I'm really sad that the (book) series is over and I look forward to Cecily writing new ones about my beloved characters whether I'll like them or not. Now I know she has a new series about the Carlyles, but I don't really care to get introduced to a new generation. I love Blair and Serena and Nate and Chuck and Jenny and Dan.

Like I said before, the TV series is way different from the book series; the book series is a lot more daring. Not to mention most of the episodes in the TV series have deferred from the plots of the book series. Which is great; I love seeing a different take on a series. I wonder how Cecily feels about it. I bet she finds it interesting too.

I don't want to spoil anything for anyone (if you haven't read the series) so I don't want to say much more about it. But if you have any questions, feel free to email me!

To sum it up, Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar > Gossip Girl by Josh Schwartz & Stephanie Savage.

And now since the book series is over, I look forward to Mondays nights to see Gossip Girl come to life. I've loved it since 2007 and I'll probably cry when it ends. Hopefully not anytime soon.

The Complete List of Gossip Girl novels by Cecily von Ziegesar (in order of publishing):

1. Gossip Girl
2. You Know You Love Me
3. All I Want Is Everything
4. Because I'm Worth It
5. I Like It Like That
6. You're The One That I Want 
7. Nobody Does It Better
8. Nothing Can Keep Us Together
9. Only In Your Dreams
10. Would I Lie To You
11. Don't Forget About Me
12. It Had To Be You (Prequel)
13. I Will Always Love You
14. Psycho Killer

I would recommend (if you can) get the original novels not the novels with the actors faces on them. It's better when you can think of your own visuals for the characters than seeing someone else's. I know even though I started reading the series after watching the show I was still able to visualize the characters completely different than what I saw on TV.

Did You Know that Gossip Girl was originally going to be a film staring Lindsay Lohan as Blair Waldorf?


Xoxo
Gossip Girl