Girl Online by Zoe Sugg (aka you tuber Zoella)

Man oh man oh man. I have not written on this blog for a super long time.

I just finished this really great book called Girl Online. It was written by Zoe Sugg, also known as you tube sensation, Zoella.

This book was really great. I loved it and it was just a cute, light read. I loved the characters and the storyline. Very cute.

It is about a girl named Penny Porter, who writes on a blog, anonymously, and she calls herself Girl Online. She is 16 years old and suffers from anxiety, the result of a car accident. Her parents design themed weddings, and they were asked to create a Downton Abbey themed wedding in New York, so Penny, her parents and Penny's best friend Elliot (male) travel to NYC.

While they are staying in a grand hotel, Penny comes across a mysterious young man playing a the guitar. The 18 year olds' name is Noah, and he shows Penny around New York, as well as places like Brooklyn. They  start to fall in love.

However, Noah has a huge secret he has been hiding from Penny. And when Penny finds, out, she is absolutely devastated.....

I am not going to spoil anything in this discussion.

I loved Penny. She was such a relatable character. She's funny, socially awkward and peer pressured immensely by her ex-best friend Megan, you typical 'I'm so popular and perfect and everyone loves me' girl. Penny gets panic attacks when she gets nervous or she does something she is not comfortable doing.
I loved how she didn't have a group of girlfriends. I think, with a lot of stories like these, the main character has a girl as her bestie, but I liked how she just had Elliot.

Moving on. I also loved Elliot, Penny's best friend. He is quirky, funny, but insecure at times because he hates his homelife and has come to terms with being gay. His parents do not accept/notice this, and he is not loved as much as he should be. He wears unusual clothes, and is a very stylish person.

Lastly, Noah was not my favourite character, I have to admit. I really liked him, and I liked how nice and sensitive and generous he was, it's just I don't know. Something was not quite right about him. For those who have read the book, he turns out fine, but I still feel a bit off about him.

But, as hard as I tried, I could not stop imagining the main characters as Youtubers. I kept seeing Penny as Zoe Sugg, her brother as a mix of Joe Sugg and someone that my brain conjured up, Elliot as Connor Franta and Noah as, like, a mixture between Dan Howell and a punk dude. I dunno.

*Skink!* (AmazingPhil reference. Just ignore that if you don't know what that means.) This book has been confirmed that it was partly ghostwritten. There is some speculation about whether a massive part of the book was ghostwritten or just small parts. Anyway, DO NOT WORRY AND IGNORE THAT. This book is fantastic anyway and overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.



Zobo!