Scandalous stories

So recently I've delved back into 2005 by re-reading Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar. And wow, thirteen years will really change your perspective.

This book series shaped an era of young adult fiction. Before vampires and dystopian fiction, catty girl cliques and obnoxiously rich teenagers were the tenets of what made a best-seller. Gossip Girl topped the list as being the most popular and the most racy.

As an adult, I can honestly say that I find these books wildly inappropriate for young people. Yes, the actual writing is simple and to the point, but like, the CONTENT. It's so bad! There's so much of teens engaging in drinking, sex, partying, smoking, and drugs that it seems not only normal, but acceptable.

I get it, the point of the scandal is that the crazy lives the characters are living are the opposites of our normal lives. That's what makes the books so fun. But to expose middle school girls and up to this seems like an over-saturation to things they shouldn't begin to think are normal.

Also, I feel like the writer is a bit...perverted? She just makes a lot of unnecessary references to the girls' boobs or how aroused the guys are and how they are all constantly checking each other out. At one point in the first book, a guy even comments on the size of his own sister's chest. Like, these are teenagers she's writing about. So, I find that quite disturbing.

The books relate themselves to gossip in the sense that once it sucks you in, you can't stop. That's exactly how I feel about this series. Why can't I stop reading it??

I would very hesitantly recommend these books to a mature young person who has a support network of positive influences. Or an adult like myself, interested in a mindless, scandalous guilty pleasure read ;)

XOXO