Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar

Instead of starting with the book, I decided to start with the TV show. Gossip Girl (Wednesday nights on the CW) is officially my newest guilty pleasure. It has replaced The OC as the teen soap that I love (Ok, that's a lie. Nothing will ever replace The OC, but it has helped fill the void).

I first tuned into Gossip Girl because I heard it originated as a book. I like books (duh), so I decided to check it out. I wasn't entirely in love in the first episode, but I am now. I am so addicted, mostly because of the actors that play Serena and Dan (both far left in the pic). Looove them.

I decided to check out the book to see how they compare. I thought it would be cool, because it gave me a mental image of all of the characters.


Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar
201 pages
Finished 10/19/07












So, how does the book compare to the TV show? Well, I think I'd be more hooked on the books if I hadn't seen the TV show first. The show's first episode (or two, I can't remember), followed the book in many ways (Serena showing up at a party, Blair having no idea she was coming back, the Kiss on the Lips party, etc). However, there are some pretty different things between the two as well, including the fact that in the book, Serena's brother Eric is older and at college, versus the show, where he is younger and suffering from depression.

Other things didn't really match up, including the description of Dan in the book, plus spoilers I've read about the book's series (which, thankfully, the TV doesn't seem to be going in that direction...yet).

Overall, for a young adult book, I did think it was pretty interesting. I'll probably pick up the rest of the series eventually, just to see how the original author intended it to go. I have heard that von Ziegesar wrote around 8 or 9 books in the series, and the rest of them are now being ghost written. That should be interesting.

Distancing my complete adoration with the TV show from this book, I give it three stars.