Gossip Girl: The Second Collection

Gossip Girl #4-6

by Cecily von Ziegesar

This second collection of the "New York Times" bestselling series about New York's wealthiest private school young adults includes books 4-6: "Because I'm Worth It, I Like It Like That," and "You're the One That I Want."

250 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2004

About the author

Cecily von Ziegesar is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Gossip Girl novels, upon which the hit television show is based.

Cecily von Ziegesar was born in New York City. Her childhood dream was to grow up to be a ballerina; she began lessons at age 3 and auditioned for the School of American Ballet at age 8, but was rejected.

As a teenager, von Ziegesar commuted to Manhattan at 6 a.m. to attend the Nightingale-Bamford School. After graduating from Nightingale, von Ziegesar attended Colby College before spending a year in Budapest working for a local radio station.

Von Ziegesar returned to the United States to study creative writing at the University of Arizona, but dropped out shortly thereafter.

Back in New York, while working at book-packaging firm Alloy Entertainment, von Ziegesar became inspired to create the Gossip Girl series, which follows the lives of privileged teenagers in New York. The series climbed to the top of The New York Times best-sellers list in 2002. A spin-off series, The It Girl, made the list in 2005.

The Constance Billard School for Girls in Gossip Girl is based upon an exaggerated version of von Ziegesar's alma mater, Nightingale. She also culled events from the book from the lives of her extremely wealthy friends, as well as her own life as a perpetual gossip.

She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her family.

Reviews

[nαомι αndιno · Rating 3 out of 5]

To make things simple: if I had read the books before I saw the show, I actually wouldn’t have watched the show.

Cecily von Ziegesar is amazing at creating plots but I just don’t like the execution. Despite seeing things from the POVs of many different characters, they are all so shallow and even the icon that is Blair Waldorf seems very pathetic in the books. To quote Kourtney Kardashian, everything they do is embarrassing for their lives and for their souls and it’s getting really hard to care about any of the characters. I love their general dramas bon’t I don’t love the excessive smoking and drinking (since they’re minors) and the drugs which is inexcusable at any age.I don’t know, I wasn’t a teenager when this was released, maybe teens acted like that back then? Either way, I enjoy rereading this, but if I had a teenage daughter, I’d keep this series stored under lock and key.

I did enjoy Jenny exploring her sexuality and making out with a girl friend, which is something we didn’t really see in the show (excluding Eric since he was gay and Vanessa since she doesn’t really count as a MC). The college acceptance waiting and receiving the letters was also pretty exciting to read. I do want to finish the series since I’m halfway through with it but I will be needing a short break to regain braincells.

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

Check out my reviews on the main versions of each book.

[Katya · Rating 5 out of 5]

sbenernya gw lbii xkka vilmnya coz iiank maendt tuch leighton meester.. crittanya rame koq..