Izzy's Reviews > Gossip Girl

i honestly don't know how to rate this.

gossip girl was my favorite book series for the longest time. i started reading these books when i was 11 and i devoured the whole thing - 12 main books, plus two spin off series, plus a few titles in the main series which were released later, like this whacky gory horror version of this first book that's literally called "gossip girl: psycho killer".

so while i know they are not objectively good by any means, they mean so much to me. and it's crazy because i can't really separate my enjoyment, and even though it's 2021 and i'm a fully grown woman capable of noticing all of the things that are wrong with this, deep in my heart i can't help but feel these are actually... pretty good? at least when it comes to establishing character. something that stood out for me this time around (i honestly can't remember how many times i reread this, at least a dozen, but the last time was at least 6 years ago) is how the main cast of characters is actually well-developed? each one of them is made to fit a stereotype, yes, but the way their personality is crafted comes through by showing us how they act, and not telling. the little details to flesh them out are all here: blair sewing a gold heart on nate's sleeves, nate screwing with blair's big night because he didn't want to be an asshole and ending up being quite a bigger asshole by thinking only of himself, serena becoming a photography muse to french gay brothers, even vanessa gets her moment to shine - trying soso hard to not be like other girls when really all she wants is for dan to notice her red blouse and tell her she looks pretty. not all of the scenes are great feats of literature, i mean, most of them are over-the-top to say the least.

but that's what makes them so freaking fun to read.

initially i was going to highlight all the problematic shit i came across (there's a whole lot of fatphobia, dabbling a bit in a glamorization of eating disorders, slut shaming, attempted rape, blatant parental abandonment, etc), which is a fine idea. then i decided i also wanted to mark all of the things that were inappropriate for a 11 year old to read (mind you, the age i was when i picked up the first book. i actually got it as a first communion gift, which is ridiculously funny to me). i also wanted to highlight the actually funny/well-written lines i was coming across, and all of the things that impacted me throughout my life - fun fact, i refused to eat eggs for close to ten years because blair calls them chicken abortions in this book. i mean! it's definitely debatable whether it was healthy for me to read this at such an impressionable age (it wasn't) but you can't argue with the fact that i took the things in here to heart.

(i'm in therapy nowadays thank you very much)

anyway. all of this rambling to say that, as silly as it sounds, gossip girl actually means a lot to me. and it's hard for me to rate this as it objectively should be rated, given that there are things in here that are just plain bad. i had a shitload of fun reading it. i read it in a single day whereas finishing any other book is being really hard for me - you can look at my currently reading shelf with 7 other freaking books in there to see for yourself.

i am giving myself grace and not settling on a star rating, because it was kind of a journey to reread these words that basically guided me through my teenage years and being able to compare myself today to the girl i used to be over 10 years ago.

i am extremely excited to continue rerading this trash fire series. it's going to be a good time.