Girl online
Ratings21
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings21
Average rating3.5
"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, her family whisks her away to New York, where she meets Noah, a gorgeous, guitar-strumming American. 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" --
Under the alias Girl Online, Penny blogs about her life, including her panic attacks, and when things get worse, her family take her to New York, where Penny falls for a boy who has a secret that might ruin her online cover and her closest friendship.
Reviews with the most likes.
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 [a:Sarah J. Maas 3433047 Sarah J. Maas https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1269281353p2/3433047.jpg], [a:Rick Riordan 15872 Rick Riordan https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1383677264p2/15872.jpg], or even [a:J.K. Rowling 1077326 J.K. Rowling https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1415945171p2/1077326.jpg].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.
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!
