Name: Victoria Grace's review of Girl Online by Zoe Sugg
Item: Girl Online
Rating: 4
Author: Victoria Grace

Zoe Sugg

Girl Online is the stunning debut romance novel by YouTube phenomenon Zoe Sugg, aka Zoella. I had no idea GirlOnline would take off the way it has - I can't believe I now have 5432 followers, thanks so much! - and the thought of opening up to you all about this is terrifying, but here goes . . . Penny has a secret. Under the alias GirlOnline, she blogs about school dramas, boys, her mad, whirlwind family - and the panic attacks she's suffered from lately. When things go from bad to worse, her family whisks her away to New York, where she meets the gorgeous, guitar-strumming Noah. Suddenly Penny is falling in love - and capturing every moment of it on her blog. But Noah has a secret too. One that threatens to ruin Penny's cover - and her closest friendship - forever. AWARDS FOR ZOELLA: 2012 Cosmopolitan Blog Award for the 'Best Beauty Vlogger' 2013 Winner BBC Radio 1 Teen Awards 'Best British Vlogger' 2014 Winner Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award for 'UK's Favourite Vlogger'

Girl Online

Victoria Grace

"Penny has a secret. Under the alias GirlOnline, she blogs about school dramas, boys, her mad, whirlwind family and the panic attacks she's suffered from lately. When things go from bad to worse, her family whisks her away to New York, where she meets the gorgeous, guitar-strumming Noah. Suddenly Penny is falling in love - and capturing every moment of it on her blog. But Noah has a secret too. One that threatens to ruin Penny's cover and her closest friendship forever."--Back cover.

Girl online

Wes Michaud

i liked this book but the story went from her coping with her panic attacks to being all about a boy it went back to more serous topics but that bit in the middl where it was all about brooklyn boy was just to quick of a topic change for me

Emily Mackey

A lot of people are saying they didn't like the book and that it was unoriginal but I do not agree at all. I think this book was refreshing and Zoe's way of writing was very beautiful. I think lot of people do not think what she is like in her videos shines through in her writing. When you write you are a totally different person than when you make YouTube videos or talk to your friends. People need to stop judging this book so much. It's amazing and I fell in love with Noah and Penny. This book was my Inciting Incident.

Zoe Sugg alias Zoella

Penny's life is back to normal. As Penny starts the school year she's ready to face the world - alone. Noah has gone off the radar after ending his world tour early and no one, including Penny, knows where he is. So when she accepts Megan's invitation to visit her performing arts school it seems like an opportunity to make some new friends. Helping everyone else seems to be the right remedy. Elliot needs her friendship more than ever, and she meets Posey - struggling with stage fright and in need of support. But is charming Scottish boy Callum the right kind of distraction? And can Penny truly move on when Noah's shadow seems to haunt her round every corner? Book three in the number-one bestselling Girl Online series.

Girl Online 03

Nina Verhaaff 

In the beginning I was struggling with reading the book because I wasn’t concentrated enough but it became better. I enjoyed the story and I had some little emotions with it. 
Thank you Zoe for bringing penny into the fictional world and introduce her and Noah, Elliot and Alex and the rest I’ve enjoyed this trilogy but it has come to an end.

Teodora Nagy

This is, officially, one of my comfort reads. It's just so SWEET!

From award-winning YouTube sensation Zoe Sugg, popularly known as Zoella, comes her New York Times bestselling debut young adult novel, which perfectly captures what it means to grow up and fall in love in today’s digital world. I have this dream that, secretly, all teenage girls feel exactly like me. And maybe one day, when we realize that we all feel the same, we can all stop pretending we’re something we’re not… But until that day, I’m going to keep it real on this blog and keep it unreal in real life. Penny has a secret. Under the alias GirlOnline, Penny blogs her hidden feelings about friendship, boys, high school drama, her crazy family, and the panic attacks that have begun to take over her life. When 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.

The First Novel by Zoella

I suppose we should give credit to the ghostwriter for doing something with this, although I don't understand why Zoe couldn't have just...wrote it herself, considering she wanted to be an author so badly...?

The plot is okay, and it's not a terrible read for a young child or preteen, but it doesn't hold up well as you age, or at least for me. The first is better than the sequel, that's for sure.

Holly

I suppose we should give credit to the ghostwriter for doing something with this, although I don't understand why Zoe couldn't have just...wrote it herself, considering she wanted to be an author so badly...?

The plot is okay, and it's not a terrible read for a young child or preteen, but it doesn't hold up well as you age, or at least for me. The first is better than the sequel, that's for sure.

Manda

I'm all teary-eyed after finishing this one. Partly because I am ridiculously proud of Zoe and partly because this book was great! I definitely recommend this to anyone who loves cute YA romance.

Ivy X

Unfinished. 

This book is just so bad that I cannot even finish it. 
One pro of this book is that the cover is really cute. But everything else is just meh. 
It is exactly what another review said of this book. It sounds like someone who is an adult trying to write like a teenager and be relatable. It felt like I could've written this in middle school. It just had such an immature and awkward vibe about it. 

Would not recommend. Just look at the cover and enjoy that.

I AM NOT EVEN GOING TO GIVE THIS SHITTY BOOK A REVIEW

Kelsey Joëlle

I had the idea that this book wasn't me, at all. But I wanted to read it, just because i wanted to. I don't know how i could be so wrong. I loved the book, it was just so adorable and sweet! It took me just one evening to finish it. On to the next book in this series!

Sophie

i forgot i read that book a few years ago. i think i liked it back then. but probably wouldn't read again.

jess

My expectations for this wasn't that high, which is good, because it pretty much met them. 

I think my favourite thing about this book was the portrayal of anxiety. I found it quite realistic and I'm glad it's part of this book. I could relate to Penny's struggles with anxiety and it definitely gave her some depth that the other characters lacked. 

The writing was frustrating because it felt quite juvenile and the characters were pretty all stock characters - flamboyant gay best friend, bitchy popular girl, hot bad boy rock star. The romance wasn't really anything special either; it was the same instalove/falling apart/easy forgiveness tropes. Noah seemed too perfect to be real, which, well.

Nicki

Meh. There's nothing spectacular about this book. Truth be told, I basically glazed over everything. Nothing stood out. Everything felt forced. Waste of my time really.

Emi Gilmore 

2.75/5 stars  

Before I start this review, please understand two things,
 
  1. Most of this review is a rant I wrote about halfway through this book.

 2. I am entitled to my own opinion and my opinion might be a little rude and I might make you mad, but so be it 

I don’t know where to start, so perhaps let me start with saying that there were things I did enjoy about this book. I loved the plot, I loved the character development, I loved the settings. I also loved how anxiety and panic attacks were a major issue in this book, and I applaud Zoe for including them. But other than that, things go way way south. I didn’t hate this book,  in fact I’m probably going to pick the second book up after I finish this review, but I had many faults with it, mainly:

Instalove. 

"I'm so plain and clumsy and awkward, but this boy says I'm beautiful so..." protagonist. 

Gay best friend that's a poor LGBTQ representation. 

Bland characters.

Not so shocking plot twist.

It never goes into detail? Like ever. A tiny thing, but I love to know everything...

Juvenile writing. 

  INSTALOVE   

Here’s the entire book in four sentences:  Girl goes to New York for week. Girl meets Singer Boy. Girl and Singer Boy fall in love. Girl goes home.  I felt no attachment to any of the characters, except maybe the brother who’s only in the book for like 10 pages. I saw the plot twist coming from miles away. There was LGBTQ character, but his representation fell flat for me. And the writing. Don’t even get me started. The writing would be perfect for a early Middle Grade book, not a Young Adult novel. There was one part when she was explaining the concept of Father Time and I felt 6 years old again. 

But anyways, let’s just get started into my rant. 

When you read, you are able to compare books in your head. You are able to know what you love in a book, and what you don’t. I have always enjoyed reading, and throughout my life I’ve come to learn that I enjoy Night Court Lords over paranormal creatures or kick ass assassins over heroines who can’t defend themselves. In contemporary romances, I love French guys by the name of Etienne St. Clair who grow to love the protagonist over a course of a few months. As opposed to a 15 year old girl and a 18 year old guy who confess their love after knowing each other less than a week. 

The thing with Zoe Sugg, I figure, and this stereotypical book, is simple.

   She doesn’t read, so she doesn’t know.   

Zoe is not known for being a reader. Instead, she is an internet personality. When you think of her, you don’t think of books, but instead of videos. She makes videos. She hangs out with people who make videos. Millions of people watch her videos. I understand that she doesn’t have time to read, (she didn't even have time to write an entire book by herself), but if you want to create a well-written book, you need to read. 

To be honest, I haven’t watched Zoe’s channel in over a year, and I don’t know what is going on in her life, but when I did watch it religiously a few years back, I don’t recall any mention of books or reading. And it’s okay to not be a reader, sometimes I’m envious of people who aren’t, but why write a book?

So here’s a new hypothesis of mine   PEOPLE WHO DON’T READ BOOKS ON A SEMI-REGULAR BASIS SHOULDN’T WRITE BOOKS.  

Please note, once again, this is my own opinion, and in all honestly I have no way of backing up Zoe Sugg as evidence towards my statement, as I never met her and have no idea what her life behind camera’s is like. She may be a total bookworm, I may be totally wrong, and maybe I should just shut up. But my mind is already tightened itself around this opinion, and I just can’t seem to let it go. 

  But take a second and just consider the fact that you’ll never see Zoe Sugg’s name, followed by  New York Time’s Best Selling Author Of….  blurbing another YA book, unlike many popular authors such as Sarah J. Maas, Rick Riordan, or even J.K. Rowling.

I imagine Zoe wrote this book because why the hell not? Her name is already well-known to many teenagers, so obviously smacking it on the cover of a book and selling it at Target, the book is going to sell and she’s going to make money. She didn’t even have to write the entire thing, just come up with a plot and hire someone to do the rest for her. 

I love Zoe, I really do. I used to wait impatiently for her next video. Her personality is beautiful, and she is great with what she does on YouTube, but perhaps being an author is just not for her.

Reyna Wren

I'm not entirely sure of this rating yet... I may adjust it when I come back to update the review later. :)

Update: review changed from four stars to three, on reflection of my overall impression of the book.

Disclaimer: I think Zoe is a very sweet girl, and I have no problem with her personally, though I don't really follow her videos. I will not be writing about the ghostwriting issues surrounding this novel, as I don't feel that I have enough information to do the topic justice.

REVIEW:
This book is written in three distinct sections: Stereotypical middle-grade contemporary novel, Christmas fairytale romance in New York, and EVERYTHING IS DESTROYED. As such, I’m going to mention each section separately, then finish with my overall thoughts (if this is tl;dr, just skip to the last paragraph.)

Stereotypical Middle-Grade Contemporary Novel:
Pages: 1-94
Rating: 1/5 (Yes, I do have reasoning for this rating.)
I was very disappointed in the beginning of this novel, to be honest, if I hadn’t paid full price for a hardback of the book, I would have stopped reading. This section includes every stupid middle-grade trope out there. We have: 
- Popular girl who is mean because every popular/talented girl is always mean (bonus points for the dramatic actress stereotype); 
- Hot boy who hasn’t noticed the MC, yet the MC is pining after him, even though they don’t seem to have any common interests or even are really compatible at all, aka, she only likes him because he’s good looking; 
- Silent characters who follow the popular girl like sheep (bonus points for being silent twins); 
- Gay best friend, who is every harmful stereotype for a gay teen boy out there, (he’s stylish, displays traditionally feminine traits such as empathy and sensitivity, etc.); 
- MC embarrasses herself in a completely unbelievable way that wouldn’t happen in real life.
This section is rather horrific, and should really have been edited down to about 20 pages, instead of almost 100. You’d think, given the articles about Zoe having a ghost writer and extensive editing, that this would have been picked up on before publishing. This is the weakest point of the novel, which is a shame, as it gives the first impression to readers. I’d actually suggest skipping/skimming this section, reading the middle section, and then either stopping or possibly skimming the ending.

Christmas Fairytale Romance in New York
Pages: 94-269
Rating: 4/5 (Wow! What a change, huh?)
The novel really picks up in this section, not necessarily due to the writing improving, or the plot and character arcs becoming more mature and involved, but simply because the book becomes happier, and is fun to read. Noah and Penny’s Christmas romance is adorable, and despite the small dramas with Elliot, this section is toothache sweet. I really enjoyed this section, especially as it is mid-December and almost Christmas time (!!!), so I was especially open to cute Christmas fluff. Honestly, I’d recommend reading only this section, as the rest of the book is a bit of a train wreck.

EVERYTHING IS DESTROYED
Pages: 269-344/end
Rating: 2.5/5
This section was almost unbearable to read, as the contrived conflict that had been missing for almost the entire novel finally comes to light. Also, it included my pet peeve of an author causing conflict by making her characters communicate poorly. Ugh. (view spoiler)[ Give us some real issues please, as I had realized that Noah was faking the celebrity romance from the start of this section. In addition to this frustration, Penny has amazingly supportive, loving, and still-alive-and-in-love parents, a rarity in many fictional novels, and yet she doesn’t feel that she can share her problems with them. What kind of a message does this send to the young, impressionable girls reading this book? “Don’t talk about your issues with your parents, instead bottle them up inside until you have a panic attack”? :(
Elliot’s whole running away thing was also stupid. His parent’s issues with his sexuality are never really explored, it’s just a given that they hate him for liking boys, and don’t believe that he is gay. Homophobia is horrible, and a real-life issue, but it isn’t explored very well in this novel. Given how street-smart and resourceful the average real-life teen is these days, Elliot could have probably thought of a better plan for his running away. And then, a few hours later, Eliot’s father agrees to go to consoling for his issues with his son’s sexuality, and his entire persecutive is changed, which is highly unbelievable. For a character with such a big impact on Elliot, you’d think that we’d see some of him in the novel, yet he is only featured in one scene, apart from being talked about secondhand. This whole story arc was just so disappointing.
Lastly, when Penny and Noah finally make up, I wanted some sort of denouncement from the past 40-some pages of Noah-hatred, yet they literally spend seven (Seven!) pages on this, then end the novel. Seven pages isn’t enough to provide the adequate conclusion to Noah and Penny’s fight, and definitely isn’t enough to change the reader’s feelings of Noah-hatred that have been perpetuated for the past forty-some pages.  (hide spoiler)] A very disappointing and frustrating end to an all-round disappointing book. I extremely advise you to please stop reading on page 269, as everything just goes terribly downhill from there, and there is no conclusive denouncement from the random conflicts that jump in at this point. :(

Overall:
Horrible beginning, super cute and fluffy middle, and really-bad-but-not-as-bad-as-the-beginning ending. If the book is tl;dr, just read pages 94-269, as this is the best section of the novel, imo.

Elif Gültekin

2/5
 •Penny, Çevrimiçi Kız rumuzuyla arkadaşlık, erkekler, çılgın ailesi ve hayatını ele geçirmeye başlayan panik ataklarla ilgili hislerini blogunda paylaşmaktadır. İşler iyice sarpa sarınca, ailesi hava değişiminin Penny'ye iyi geleceğini düşünerek onu hemen New York'a götürür. Burada, muhteşem yakışıklı gitarist Noah'ya ilk görüşte aşık olan Penny, aralarında geçen her şeyi blogunda anlatmaya başlar...•
Çevrimiçi Kız iki gün önce bitti ve ben yeni bir kitaba başladım. Ama yorumu yazmaya bile vaktim olmadı. 
Çevrimiçi Kız'ı birkaç yıl önce okusam keyif alabilirdim fakat bu tarz kitaplar artık ilgimi çekmiyor. Bir daha bu tarz okuyacağımı da düşünmüyorum çünkü zevk alamıyorum okurken. Tatlı bir aşk öyküsü olabilir fakat kitap klişelerle dolu. Kitabı almamın nedeni yazarının youtube hesabını takip etmem ve sevmemdi. Çok büyük umutlarla başlamadım ama yine de sevemedim. Ve kitap daha çok Zoe Sugg'ın okuyucularını ne kadar sevdiğini ve değer verdiğini gösteren bir yazı gibi geldi bana. Kendisini takipçilerinin gözünde daha da yükseltmek için yazılmış gibi olan bölümler vardı. Önerebileceğim bir kitap değil maalesef.

Ella Bouic

I enjoyed this book it was a lovely ending to the series however I found parts of it quite predictable but it didn’t matter because the love you have for the characters distracts you.

Averi Hobbs

Okay, so this book I literally just finished after receiving it via UPS this morning and I have to say that it was insanely amazing! I loved everything about it! It was insanely relatable in the fact that the main character, Penny, is clumsy and awkward just like most of us teenagers or me at least and I just really really loved it!!!! I loved Sadie Lee and Bella and her parents and their fun loving personalities. AND ELLIOT! I loved him and his loyalty and don't get me started on Noah. I loved everything about this and how relatable it was and give it five stars heartedly!

Jordan Heustis

I definitely recommend this book if you are into Zoella and the YouTube world. I do feel like there is an added layer to enjoying the book when you know Zoe Sugg. 

On its own, I thought the book was good. It was a fairly simple and easy read. There was a point where I felt like it was dragging a little bit, but then it picked back up. For anybody who doesn’t know Zoe, she’s a Brit. It’s funny because when they are talking to American characters, they still use a lot of British phrases and speech patterns. The book wasn’t bad. I did enjoy it and I would recommend it, especially if you are looking for something easy to read, but it wasn’t the most amazing book in the world either.

Jelke Lenaerts

see my full review (and some extra's) here: http://jelkelenaerts.blogspot.be/2015...

FEVRONIA AVERI

Light and easy read!! Really enjoyed it!!

Elaine

it is fair to say that I am quite surprised by how much I liked it! and although I know all about the debate on ghostwriting going on right now, I was more fascinated by the story than by the writing. 

I bought my copy at the airport as I needed new reading material for the flight and was curious if I would like it or not. I follow zoe's path for a while now and must say that I have huge respect for her, but I never saw her as a writer. I wasn't surprised by the whole ghostwriter ordeal, so it didn't really bother me. 

in terms of the story and the plot: I have to say i liked it. Although it wasn't the best though out plot or had the most surprising plot twists I generally enjoyed the story and the different plot lines. However I also had a few issues such as that the ending was way to abrupt.
Oh, and did a mention the MAJOR spoiler for 'The Fault in Our Stars'? I don't know who decided to put this in the book, but I was shocked when I read this part. I know by now almost everybody as ether read, saw the movie or heard about TFIOS but I still find it inappropiate to use an ending of a novel as a conversation driver in another novel. 

but all in all I really liked this novel, especially the characters! they were not fully developed but still likeable. 

I know that this one is not the best of literature, but I enjoyed and liked reading it :)

Marisa Shibata

Absolutely adored this book ! Read it in one sitting ,which BTW doesn't happen all that often since I have a not-so.-long attention span (^_^;)

Victoria Grace &
Girl Online by Zoe Sugg

Reviews

Join the club

Victoria Grace &Girl Online by Zoe Sugg

Reviews

Join the club

Victoria Grace &
Girl Online by Zoe Sugg