I borrowed this from the local library because there's been a lot of talk about the Gossip Girl series, especially since the telly show came out. Now, it is VERY rare that I won't finish a book if I start it, and even rarer that I won't at least give it a good chance, but this book? I wouldn't want to waste another minute on it. Seriously, the writing in here makes my beloved Sweet Valley High look like Shakespeare in comparison.

Want some examples?

"Nate dove on top of her, all five foot eleven inches of his perfect, golden-brown-haired, glittering-green-eyed, fifteen-year-old boyness."

"...Nate's snow-dampened, godlike curls..."

"He rolled onto his back and wriggled like Serena's long-dead golden retriever, Guppy..."

All from the very first page. And it doesn't get any better. Turn the page and you can read all about the time "Serena kicked off her baby blue Uggs and scuffed her bare, Urban Decay Piggy Bank Pink-toenailed feet down the long hall to the stately town house's enormous, barely used all-white Italian Modern kitchen." Better yet, you could just not bother.

I've read some pretty bad YA Fiction in my time, but this? Ugh.

I actually really loved this book. I liked reading the buds of what bloomed in the Gossip Girl series (which I am still working my way through, one out of order book at a time).

Because I was already familiar with the series, I had built some attachments to some of the characters. Blair is still my favorite, as difficult and complicated as she is. I feel like she's the most well-rounded and developed character, and I love reading her chapters.

I also like Jenny. Her innocence is preteen eagerness is so cool and kind of sad. She really does need a female figure in her life.

Anyway, the Gossip Girl books are definitely a guilty pleasure of mine, but I enjoy them, and this prequel was fun to read. ( )

In this prequel to the Gossip Girl series, we learn how Serena left Constance Billard School for Girls after falling in love with Nate; Blair's obsession with Audrey Hepburn; and how Nate came in between best friends Serena and Blair.

I actually read this before I started the series. It ave me totally false hope, the series sucks, but this is readable. Its easy to read and fairly inoffensive, at least to me, a person who really couldn't really care less about sex in books. ( )

This prequel takes us back before Vanessa moves to New York and shaves her head, before Jenny had boobs, before Dan started smoking and became a poet, and, most importantly, before Nate, Serena and Blair became the most messed up love triangle ever. In addition to how all those things began, the three watch Breakfast at Tiffany's for the first time, Blair begins her bout with bulimia, Blair's dad comes out of the closet, and Serena decides to go to boarding school.
It was a little obvious to anyone who's read even one other Gossip Girl book before that those things were going to happen. I wish that I could say that the interesting part was how they happened, but I really didn't find it all that interesting. I guess maybe I've read too many of these all in a row, but I've gotten to the point where I'm just tired of all of them, and glad the series is over so I can read more edifying books. ( )