Cecily Von Ziegesar

A Gossip Girl Novel (Gossip Girl)

Gossip Girl #11: Don't You Forget About Me

Geoffrey Froggatt

** spoiler alert **
           This is the eleventh book in the Gossip Girl book series. As summer winds down, Blair learns that her family is relocating to California. As his mother returns, Dan finally figures out whom his heart really belongs to. Nate is forced to choose between Blair and Serena. Dan’s character has finally become interesting, and I liked the return of Dan’s mother. It was funny seeing Dan’s mom give him a penis shaped cake to celebrate his coming out. I liked how Rufus’s free-spirited hippie past made him so casually accepting of Dan exploring his sexuality. I thought that it was interesting seeing Dan’s mom and the reveal that she’s been absent from their lives for over ten years, and it was strange hearing that she’s been travelling and brought Dan presents from Paris. I do feel like her character wasn’t utilized enough in this novel, she breezed into the story after being absent for so long then just faded away just as fast. I liked Dan exploring his sexuality, and I do think it was nice seeing a portrayal of a boy figuring himself out and trying new things, I just wish Dan settled on being bisexual rather than feeling like he went through a phase. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with people going through phases of their sexuality, I just think Dan being bisexual would have made the character more interesting overall. I liked the development of Blair’s family planning to move to California. I liked seeing Blair contend with moving from the upper crust world of the Upper East Side to somewhere more West Coast. I didn’t like that Blair ended up back with Nate, it felt like he character has been running in circles the past eleven books and ended up right back where she started. In some ways, it feels like all the characters have ended up right back where they started, with only one small plot development for certain characters to move forward in the story. I’ve never mentioned Vanessa’s sister Ruby in any of my previous reviews of this book series because I genuinely don’t see her character as anything more than “Vanessa’s sister”, and this book hasn’t changed that perception. I was glad to see Aaron again, I wish he was a main character, he’s so much more likable and interesting than Dan or Nate despite his small appearances. It was nice to see Jenny make an appearance in this book, but it also reminded me that she never got any good storylines in any of the main Gossip Girl books. These characters deserved better storylines and character development, I was so disappointed with how this book meandered instead of focusing on the end of this era of the characters lives and how impactful that should be for them. This book also briefly mentions some new characters and I think these are some of the main characters from the spin-off series Gossip Girl: The Carlyles, but the author only briefly mentions their names right before the ending and doesn’t actually introduce the characters, which didn’t make me excited or interested in any of them. At this point in the series, all the books feel like cash grabs capitalizing off the first book, and this small mention of the spin-off characters feels like a cheap way to advertise the spin-off to more readers. This book didn’t feel like the second last book in a twelve book series, and it reminded me that this book series has never lived up to the potential introduced in the first book, and I don’t expect it to suddenly get better in the next and final book in the series. Despite this, I have come this far and I intend to finish this series.

Gossip Girl #11: Don't You Forget About Me A Gossip Girl Novel (Gossip Girl)

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