Tuesday, 7 July 2015

Girl Online Review

Yes I know, I'm officially the last person ever to read this book. Nevertheless, I thought it would be fun to review it and share my thoughts on it. Girl Online is the first novel by the world-loved YouTuber, Zoella (aka Zoe Sugg). The 25 year old has already had so much success, including reaching over 8 million subscribers and having a beauty range, but I'm sure releasing this book is one of her personal highlights. She's said many times that as a child she always dreamed of being an author, and you can simply see the satisfaction in her eyes when she held her book for the first time in one of her vlogs


Although I think this book's target audience was young teens, I still enjoyed reading it as a 17 year old. I must say that I thought it was a good read and I didn't put it down until I had basically finished the whole thing. It took me just under a week to read the whole thing, which is saying something because I'm literally the world's slowest reader. 

The plot of the story is that a shy girl, called Penny, has a secret blog. She can use it as an escape when things get too tough in her real life. Only her best friend knows about her secret. Then a magical trip to New York changes her online reputation, and her life, forever. I really liked the story line because its written in a way that almost every girl can relate to Penny. The poor girl suffers from anxiety and panic attacks and it actually gives quite good advice on how to cope in those situations. She also experiences major embarrassing moments which make you laugh but also sympathize with the character. 

One thing I feel I should address is the fact that the book is ghost written. I think she received an an unnecessary amount of criticism for it as she stated from the very beginning that she would be receiving a lot of help in the process. Zoe herself suffers from anxiety, and I can't imagine the pressure she must have been under writing a book that millions of people would be reading and judging. I feel like she wanted to give the best first impression as an author and wanted help in order to make that possible. I'm fairly certain for the sequel she will be writing the entire thing herself. Therefore I'm not angry or disappointed that she received help for the first one because it was only to give her a head start in the world of writing.  

I for one cannot wait for the sequel. This book was so much fun to read and I think it would make a fantastic movie (someone somewhere please make that happen). I think I will even re-read and that's coming from someone who's not really that interested in reading at all. I must say that I'm happy YouTubers are releasing books because its introducing me to a whole new world of reading. 

Usually with reviews, I rate them out of 10 but its fairly difficult with books because its personal preference. I was impressed with this book and it was one of the first books by a YouTuber that I really wanted to read. It most definitely lived up to my expectations. If you're a huge fan of Zoe I would recommend this book to you. What did you think about Girl Online? 

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