Media Geeks Unite: Book Review: Girl Online

Book Review:

Girl Online

By: Zoe Sugg

General Info:

Title: Girl Online

Author: Zoe Sugg

Copyright Date: 2014

Genre: YA Contemporary

Pages: 344

Price: $17.99

ISBN: 9781476797458

Synopsis: "Penny has a secret. Under the alias Girl Online, Penny blogs her hidden feelings about friendship, boys, high school drama, her quirky family, and the panic attacks that have begun to take over her life. Wen things go from bad to worse at school, her parents accept an opportunity to whisk the family away for Christmas at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. There, Penny meets Noah, a gorgeous, guitar-strumming American. Suddenly she is falling in love - and capturing every moment she spends with 'Brooklyn Boy' on her blog. But Noah has a secret, too, one that threatens to ruin Penny's cover - and her closest friendship - forever."

Cover: The cover is very flirty and girly! If you know anything about Zoe Sugg then you would know the look of this book is so like her! The colors really make the book pop off the shelf. I also love the polka dots on the inside covers - its like a hidden surprise. While watching Zoella's YouTube videos you can tell she's very bubbly and hyper; that's basically what her book looks like. The actual hardback cover is just black with the title in silver on the spine - nothing special.

Theme: Much of this book is love or gossip so you would think that there is not really an underlying theme but there is. This book portrays that you should have faith in the person you love. If there is something wrong or something gets said; go to the person/s that said them instead of just going behind their back.

Point of view: The narration is as the main character Penny. It's kind of like her journal. Zoella has also added some of Penny's blogs throughout the book.

Intended Audience: It's YA contemporary so it is intended towards young girls to maybe mid 20's girls.

Author Style: There is nothing special about the writing in this book other than the blogs put throughout the book. Some of the writing was written as if you already knew things that are popular now. Like I said it's for young and teen girls because it's written for this upcoming generation.

Characters: The main character is Penny; she is your typical teen girl that has lots of drama in her life. It seems like every time she turned around something else was there to disrupt her life. I liked her because she was extremely relatable even though it seemed like she was not really thought out. None of the characters really developed - it was more about the drama than who the characters were.

Plot: Like I said before the characters were not really thought out so the plot had to make up for that. There was a lot going on. It seemed very relatable though. In a normal high school kids life there is drama around every corner and that's how it was in this book. Every time Penny paused or turned around it was something different. It seemed as if I was reading someone's journal. The plot did flow very well and nothing stuck out as being in the wrong place.

Setting: The setting was in two places. Penny was from the UK and then she goes to New York City.

My Opinion: I have many different feelings about this book. I love Zoella and her videos, which made me really want to pick this book up but it really irked me that she didn't write the book herself. I did really enjoy this book! I love drama and reading about other peoples lives, which is what this book is. I thought it was going to be something totally different but I was pleasantly surprised. I was not so into it that I couldn't put it down but I did have a few moments that were so interesting I had to read it through.

It seems like I am bashing this book because the characters were not thought out, the plot was lacking and it was somewhat dull but I'm not. It was not the most interesting page turner but if you like love stories and drama than this is the book for you!

Score: Image result for 4 out of 5 stars