Hey everyone. So Girl Online- a controversial yet adored book written by famous Youtuber Zoe Sugg aka Zoella. Here are my thoughts and feelings about this teen novel, and I hope you enjoy reading them.
I got given this from my parents as one of my Christmas
presents last year. Like many of Zoe’s subscribers, I was excited to see it in
the shop and eager to read her work. However, later in that month and the
following ones came the controversy about the authenticity of Zoe’s book, Girl
Online, and the fact that she seemingly hide the ghost-writer from her
audience.
To be honest, hearing the news about the ghost-writer did
put me off. I felt a little like I’d been ripped off, believing the book was
something that it was not. However, I know see it differently. Hundreds of
celebrities have books and they too are mostly ghost-written. But people don’t have
such a problem with this somehow. Zoe isn’t a writer, she’s a beauty blogger.
Expecting her to write an award winning fiction novel without experience would
be stupid. Yes she has a blog, but it’s a completely alternative side to
writing a fiction story. It was a dream of Zoe’s to do this, and she did. She
was obviously still involved hugely- probably to the most she could without
actually writing it- so maybe people shouldn’t have made such a fuss. I do
think Zoe should’ve shared the fact that a ghost-writer was involved, but it
was her choice not to. Look at it this way, Tanya Burr has a line of cosmetics
that she has been working so hard on. Yet, she has obviously needed help to get
it to where it is. Tanya may have picked the names, products and shades but she
didn’t go into a lab and make each one all by herself.
Anyway, I’m going to try and review this book regardless to
its controversy or author. In the end of the day it’s a book, so I’ll give it a
fair trial.
The first thing I would say is this book is clearly targeted
at young teens. I am fifteen, soon to be sixteen, and I still felt that this
story was intended for under my age group. That’s fine, obviously, so I didn’t love
the book like a younger person might, but I did still like it a bit.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the book from start to finish if I’m truly
honest. I thought the plot touched on some interesting ideas- I liked how they
wrote about dealing with anxiety and how it wrote in the life of a blogger, but
a lot of the plot was silly and out-of-this-world-ish.
I won’t spoil the story but it is a romance that is
completely ridiculous and the chances of it actually happening are so slight
that I could barely relate to the characters. I did find it cheesy and it was a
little like watching a Disney channel program- but I guess that is suited to
the age it was targeted to.
However this wasn’t my biggest problem. I am a huge lover of
description authors, I like to have a lot of words so that I get a better
feeling for the character and what’s happening. Girl Online was written very
matter-of-factly. There was some description, for example around the season or
whatnot, but it just lacked something. When Penny, the main character, had
something happen to her, it seemed quite blunt to me- which didn’t make me want
to read on much.
But I’ve finished it, and although the plot was sickly
sweet, I did like the fact I felt like a young girl again. It was nice to have
a happy ending and for everything to seem so perfect- but it’s also fair to say
that it’s not my favourite novel and not one I’d read again.
Everyone likes different things, so if you fancy reading a
teen romance that discusses friendship, school life, living with anxiety,
blogging and a lot more- especially if you are 10-13ish, then I’d say give it
ago and let me know what you though!
