My Original Post Warning: SPOILERS!Hello Dear Readers! And Happy Lazy Sunday!I'm at Scruff's this weekend but I thought I would break up the monotony of my weekend with one of the book reviews I promised you in this post. As most of you know, I was a huge fan of the Gossip Girl television series and I had been wanting to read the books. Well, I finally got a hold of them and started reading them at the end of January. I finished up book 11 recently and am finally ready to write out the review. As a fan of the show let me start by saying that the artistic license taken by the WB was wonderfully applied. I found the books to be severely.... Lacking. In everything that the show was about. For a series that is touted to be about spoiled rick kids who drink, do drugs, have sex and betray each other over and over - all before noon! - I felt like this series could have been written about the MHS class of 2000. Honestly, I'm no Upper East Sider but my friends and I accomplished just about as much as the main characters in the book series did. We just didn't do it at Barney's or on our own private sail boat. Let me explain:Blair Waldorf, Nate Archibald, Vanessa Abrams, Dan & Jenny Humphrey & Serena van der Woodson all live in posh houses in the equally post Upper East Side of Manhattan, NY. They all attend private schools an they all have parents they wish would just leave them alone. Focusing on the senior year for each of them and the summer prior to heading off to their respective Ivy League colleges, we learn what it is to be a snob as seen through the eyes of an anonymous blogger calling herself "Gossip Girl". Despite the television portrayal of these high school (into college and then post college) kids as ego eccentric, rich snobs doesn't come close to the cigarette smoking, fashion unconscious (unless it's for a party), rude and undeveloped characters. Although we are told a small bit about each main characters background, the truth is that each is vapid, clumsily written and underwhelming. I won't outright call it a waste of time to read, but at least go into expecting the series to defy all your expectations. If you are a fan of the show, don't read the books.And then there is Chuck Bass... Oh Chuck. What did they do to you in transition from book to TV heartthrob? I honestly don't know but somewhere down the road Chuck became a leading man and not just a secondary character who had absolutely no character development other than his acquisition of a per snow monkey. Straight? Gay? Rapist? High School flunkie? Ms. von Ziegsesar certainly can not be held accountable for the Chuck Bass we all fell in love with. Her version of chuck was more underwhelming than the character of Dan Humphrey. I don't know. Maybe it was simply that I fell in love with the actors playing the characters or that the show had a six season run but I honestly felt that in 11 books, she could have created an environment that would suck the reader in an not push them away. Unfortunately, if you read the books before starting on old reruns of the show, you will probably hate the show. Which is unfortunate because it really was a well written television drama. WTF?All in all I have to label this series as read at your own risk. It only took me a week to finish all 11 books and that was with having a life and reading other things as well. It didn't grasp my attention the way The Clique (Lisi Harrison) did. And those books are aimed at YA readers with a splash of snobbery as well. But at least the characters weren't one dimensional. The show will go down as one of my favorites with Chuck Bass being one of my favorite leading men. It's such a disappointment I couldn't fall in love with the books the same way.
The character of Lord Marcus Beaton-Rhodes is introduced in Nothing Can Keep Us Together. He becomes the new boyfriend of Blair and is often described as a “hotter, taller, more refined, better-bred, British version of Nate…”. Lord Marcus is a Yale graduate and comes from a wealthy background. He even refers to designer Oscar de la Renta as “Uncle Oscar”. A filmmaker, Ken Mogul is back as he is directing a modernized version of Breakfast At Tiffanys entitled Breakfast At Fred’s set at the restaurant in Barneys of the same name. Both Blair and Serena audition, but Serena gets the part. When Blair discovers she reflects “Serena may well have gotten the part, but Blair lived it, every day."Even though throughout the book there is tension between Blair and Serena (on account of Serena being Nate’s new girlfriend and snagging the role in Breakfast At Fred’s) the book ends with the two of them kissing on the lips, murmuring “You know you love me” at Blair’s graduation party held at the Yale Club.Nate & Serena act like they're together because they don't want Blair to notice that it's just about sex, but both are unhappy. Nate cries the whole book because he loves and wants Blair and in the end he gives her the green pullover back. My connection to this book is how I really want to go to Yale for college too! I was thinking of being a lawyer or a fashion magazine editor. I want to go to Yale and have for a pretty long time just like Blair. Hopefully I'll be as lucky as her. It's really hard to get into that hard of a school.I give this book 4 stars because it keep me interested throughout the whole book and it was interesting to read and learn about each character more. My favorite character is still Blair! ****
Hook-up. Breakup. Shop. Name drop. Lose friends. Hook-up. Sex. Drugs. Breakup. Cheating. Cheating. Drugs. Hookup. Friends again. Not friends. Name drop. Sex. Breakup. Cheating. Shop. Cuss. And that is how you summarize a Gossip Girl book. Seriously, though, can a couple not stay together for longer than a book length!? JesusHow did you manage to throw words together to make twelve of these books!? Stop beating that dead horse. And speaking of words, fire your editor. I find so many grammatical errors in each book, and not to mention the fact that the story line is starting to not line up with the past books (i.e. Vanessa didn't win the film contest, Serena did; How could Nate gone to a party at Serena's house "two years ago" when Serena was at boarding school?). I honestly read these books in monotone in my head because NOTHING ever happens. And NOTHING is realistic. The only reason I'm still reading them is because I hate not finishing a series once started. - Jenny annoys the shit out of me with her wanna-be ways. - Serena is a horrible friend and is so ditsy, yet it's claimed she's super smart (I mean she got into all the ivy-league schools after all - yeah right)- Nate is a horrible human being who only thinks of himself, besides when he's thinking of which girl he can use to cheat with at the time (also hard to believe he got into all the colleges). - I don't mind Blair. Although she needs to stop living in the clouds. Also, she needs to think more about herself (when it comes to relationships, that is). She keeps taking Nate back, and honestly, how stupid can you be? HE CHEATS ON YOU EVERY CHANCE HE GETS. Use that "straight-A" brain of yours. And as far as colleges go, she didn't get into any good colleges? Really!?... - Dan and Vanessa I don't mind, although they both kind of bore me. - Chapter titles: dead spoil alerts - I cover them up and don't read them. - The Narrator. IS IT REALLY NECESSARY TO THROW IN ONE LINERS EVERY OTHER LINE?! Saying "oh, yeah" "okay" and just repeating whatever the character said before it will eventually drive me batshit crazy. I cannot stand it. I roll my eyes at how stupid and corny it is, not to mention completing unnecessary, which leads me to believe... Cecily tries to live vicariously through her "characters" (I use that term loosely). It's time to grow up and write something remotely interesting. Rant over.
—Kaliegh Wheeler
After the not-so-shocking dramatic end to Nobody Does It Better, Gossip Girl heats up as high school graduation approaches, their futures now closer than ever, new and old romances ignite, long standing friendships fall apart and Jenny looks into various boarding school options.And word on the street is that a certain filmmaker is looking to remake Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Any guesses as to who is one of the many, beautiful, hopeful young actresses? Breakfast at Fred’s seems to be generating a ton of buzz and this serves as a central plot point along with graduation.With Nate and Serena as a couple, Blair decides to take her life into her own hands and start fresh. Yale has accepted her and she finally feels as though she’s gotten back into her groove; although it’s clear that she feels the sting of Nate and Serena’s newfound couple status.Nobody likes to see their two best friends date, especially when one of those best friends is the love of her life. But luckily for B, Nate is just as devastated by this turn of events as she is. He so clearly misses Blair. Surprisingly, the same could be said for Serena. In fact, their so-called romance is built more on the point that both want to prove to Blair that their surprise hookup in the last book was more than just a hookup between two friends. For my full review of Nothing Can Keep Us Together by Cecily von Ziegesar, please continue to BOOKEDJ.
—Jessica
http://lola-kiss.blog.cz/1409/nic-nas...A máme tady devátý díl. Řekla bych, že se bude historie opakovat, ale to bych předbíhala.Nate má krizi, ale není to proto, že by mu došla tráva. Je smutný a ubrečený, neboť končí střední, všichni se rozutečou do různých koutů země. A jestli chodí se Serenou? Ano, ne, kdo se v tom má vyznat?Vanessa a Dan se sešli u ní v bytě na pokec a kafe. Nakonec skončili na střeše domu, a moc toho nenamluvili, snad kromě: "Ach, ano!". A co Aaron?V den předávání vysvědčení dál Aaron Vanesse kopačky, věděl o ní a Danovi.Blair se rozhodla, že musí z Williamsburgu pryč, málem si vybrala nevkusné šaty od nikoho. Propána! Dostat se pryč jí pomohl Chuck.A Jenny? S Rufusem hledají internátní školu, kde by Jenny tolerovali její průšvihy zlobivé holky. Vlastně, tuhle školu hledá Jenny. A našla ji - Waverly Prep.Blair randí s lordem Marcusem, který ji pozval do Anglie, seznámit se s jeho rodinou. Uvidíme, co bude.Jenny vyrazila společně s Danem na večírek maturantů. Bude nastupovat na internát, a nechce tam jít jako panna. A kdo je ten vyvolený? Nate.Dan odmítl nastoupit na vysokou, ale Rufus to zařídil a navíc mu koupil auto.Serena dostala roli v novém filmu, který by měla točit Vanessa s opravdovým režisérem. S Blair se udobřily, spojil je právě Nate.Vanessa a Dan? Mají rádi sex, ale jeden druhého? Mají rádi vůbec sami sebe?
—Lucy Sisk
