Title: Would I lie to you - a Gossip Girl novel
Author: Cecily von Ziegesar
# of pages: 192
Summary:
It is the summer after their graduation from secondary school, and every teenager in New York's Upper East Side is celebrating their accomplishments and their future entry into college. They live lives of luxury, from bikinis by Eres, Missoni, and Gucci... to their BMWs and Mercedes' as graduation presents.
Blair and Serena, two very best friends (and the main characters), stay at Bailey Winter's house in the Hamptons to act as muses for the anorexic models for Bailey Winter's newest collection. Realizing the sadistic intentions for Blair and Serena, of the models, the muses eventually leave Bailey's house to go on several road trips with Nate (another friend). As Nate declares his love for Blair, she and Serena begin to continue the bitterness and jealousy that looms over which one of them has his affection.
Meanwhile... Vanessa continues her nannying job with Ms Morgan, but becomes so irritated over her nearly inhumane work conditions that she abandons the position.
Dan is confused over his sexual orientation, after the unexpected results of a literary salon, and remains so by the end of the novel.
Opinion:
As with the other Gossip Girl novels, I found this one interesting to read, but I would not feel any urge to re-read it as I would for certain other novels. The story has little originality, mostly retelling the true stories of wealthy teenagers. There are few changes made over the course of the storyline; for example, the way Blair and Serena are, once again, secretly fighting over Nate. I would prefer reading the novel to gain awareness of other lifestyles in modern society as opposed to reading for the sake of the actual tale being told.
Cecily von Ziegesar frequently includes coarse language, mainly in the dialogue. The remainder of the vocabulary used, however, is basic and easily understood by any elementary school student. Combined with the sexual content involved in the story, I would advise only mature teenagers to consider reading this, or any other Gossip Girl novel. Being the tenth novel in the series, reading the previous novels in the Gossip Girl series is essential to fully understand the entire situation.
With a lack of originality on the part of the author, and no evidence of thoughtful language being used, I merely found Would I lie to you as a fair attempt by Cecily von Ziegesar to tell a story of social elites.
Main themes and subjects:
- Romance: Blair and Nate are together again; Serena reunites with Henry; Dan meets Greg (a fellow employee at the Strand and one he isn't sure whether he loves)
- Luxury life: almost all of the characters are wealthy social elites
- Everyone has a natural tendency to enjoy gossip, particularly that based on people from higher social classes
Genre: Chick lit
Rating: 3/5
Book review by Fiona T.
* 9 hours so far
* Can be published in the Teen Newsletter
1 comment:
Fiona:
You have done another wonderful job of reviewing the story.
Obivously, you read it in short order as well.
I don't know many people like the gossip girls, except on t.v. I think it is a lifestyle many people could understand but not easily relate, to, from their own experience.
Von Zieg generally does a good job of weaving her stories but she also manages to hit what the reader wants.
I cannot think of the title but there was one book I read this summer where I thought the writer was patronizing the reader who we would assume would be a teen.
Someone compared this writer to the writer of the sex and the city tv series. she knew the plot people wanted and delivered.
I always love your insights.
catherine
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