Girl Online: Book Review

Heya guys,

This year so far has started awesome for me. I've already read one of the books on my list and I'm super excited to read the rest. 

I decided to set myself a goal of 15 this year (I know this isn't much compared to some who aim for 30's and 50's but I cannot lie to myself and pretend that I'll be able to squish in all the study, reading and writing altogether this year- curse upon Junior Cert!) and I also thought that it would be fun to write a book review after every book I've read so this way I will be keeping up with the numbers, and you guys might find some ideas if you're stuck for reads :)

Let's get started ^^


Girl Online by Zoe Sugg

 

Number of pages: 352
Genre: Romance/ Teen Fiction 
Main Characters: Penny (15), Noah (18), Elliot 

Intro: For those who don't know, Zoe Sugg aka Zoella, is a famous British blogger and youtuber since 2009. This is her first novel which was published on the 25th November 2014 and has become a major success in just one week.

I'm sure most of you also know about the controversy going on about the fact that it was a ghostwriten , but I'm not going to go into that, there has been already too much people discussing it and I'm just here to review the book :)

Brief Summary:  Penny Porter is a 15 year old girl from Brighton that has a secret blog under the name ''Girl Online.'' No one besides her best friend Elliot knows about it and as the story progresses, she gains more and more followers. Anyway, it is close to the winter holidays and Penny's parents get a job proposition (they're wedding planners) in New York. So all of them (including Elliot) fly to New York for four days and blah blah blah. There, Penny meets a guy called Noah, who, according to her thoughts, is super cute, funny, a bit of a rocker and is all perfect and stuff. So you can kinda picture what that leads to---

Likes: The best thing that I probably enjoyed about it was the whole love story in it. I think it was very addictive- basically a relationship anybody would love to have (both friend and boy/girl -friend)- so reading was a pleasure.
            Another thing would be the length of the chapters and word spacing, they really made the book fast to read and easier to understand. 
            One of the things that really draws me in is a dramatic twist of events which did not lack in Girl Online however I think it should've happened a bit earlier and not in the actual last 50 pages.
            Lastly, in my opinion, the involvement of issues like panic attacks, anxiety, friendships & family made it a bit more realistic and relatable so it's always nicer to read.

Dislikes: At the very beginning, I'm afraid to say, I thought this was going to be a total fail. Basically the style of writing was very hard to read (written in first person and present tense), and I didn't quite feel as if it really pulled me in. I guess there wasn't much of cliffhangers involved hehe, but soon you do get used to it and becomes really enjoyable.
                At some point, closer to the end, I felt like- it was all too simple! Basically everything was going so smoothly and easily for Penny that I had to beg for something unexpected to happen. You know how you sometimes read a book, and somehow the main character can never achieve it's main goal/purpose because something is always interrupting and you just wish for a book that goes without all this drama? Well believe me, this is necessary to make the ending more memorable and exciting! Unfortunately I lacked it in Girl Online :( If not the ending I wouldn't be quite satisfied. 


Overall I would say that this is an easy read if you're just trying to relax. Probably in the likes of 12-17 year old girls. I did actually like it, I would recommend it and will definitely remember it.

My overall rate: 7/10

My cover rate: 10/10

What about you guys? What are yours ''first reads'' of 2015? Have you read girl online yet? 
Please share all your thoughts in the comments below and have a happy 2015! :) 

Love Loads,

-k.

P.S I did feel a terrible urge to stick that key ring penguin into the picture somewhere- I just found it too cute ^^ Christmas gift from my godmother :)