Book Review: Girl Online - Zoe Sugg

Synopsis: 

Penny has a secret, Under the alias Girl Online, Penny blogs her hidden feelings about friendship, boys, 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.

Review: 

I was so excited when I saw Zoe Suggs new novel on the shelves and I had to get it immediately. I have been watching Zoe’s YouTube videos and vlogs for years now and I thought that because I live in Australia, I wouldn't be able to get the book for weeks! So as soon as I got home I read the whole novel in just four hours. It is such a nice and easy book to read and it reminded me so much of the Cathy Cassidy books I used to read when I was 10. I also found that the book was very relatable as I have always had an issue with anxiety and I heavily related to the panic attacks the main character, Penny experienced.

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this book recently because it turns out that this book was partly ghost written but one or two people. I had read this book before the whole uprising of the whole ‘ghost writing’ thing came up so I went into it not expecting much as it was written by a full time YouTube with not much writing experience. However, I was very pleasantly surprised to how much I really loved the novel. I do feel really sorry about the rubbish she has had to put iup with after releasing this novel as I know that she would have out in a lot of effort and time into this novel and people are just pushing it all right back at her.

Anyway I’ll actually get into the review.

The main character of this book is Penny who lives in Brighton and has has a blog where she is completely anonymous and she writes about what happens in her life. Somehow she has a lot of followers who gives her a lot of support and confidence. Her best friend is her next door neighbor, Elliot. He is gay who has parents, or at least his father who does not approve of his sexuality. They attend the same school where here other friends Megan and Ollie attend as well. Megan has been one if Penny’s closest friends since she was 7 but they drift apart when Megan starts getting minor acting jobs and constantly put Penny down and makes her feel unworthy of her presence. Ollie is Penny’s crush who is the typical self-obsessed boy who likes his photo taken and blah blah blah.

Penny’s parents are wedding planners and one day these two people from the US need them to organize their wedding in a matter of days. So Penny’s parents are going to US and they want to take Penny but she doesn't want to go because of her fear of flights and she is scared of another panic attack.  To calm her Penny’s parents invite Elliot. When they get there Penny meets this ‘perfect’ guy who has tattoos, a guitar and a wardrobe of black and grey. That’s probably all I can say about him without spoiling the whole story because he is pretty much the story.

I really enjoyed having a nice and easy read instead of the usual action packed dramatic novels I’m usually into. The book covered many deep issues such as sexuality, anxiety, death and lies but it didn't make you think much of it. Like I said, this novel really reminded me of the Cathy Cassidy novels. This because the story didn't have much death of metaphorical meaning, it was simple and pure. It was also of course about romance but not the difficult and traumatic ones like a John Green novel but more of an easy, happy relationship.

As much as I enjoyed this novel, I found the ending a bit too dramatic and implausible but I was able to overlook. I will also say that you shouldn't go into this book expecting it to be beautifully written with lots of metaphors and descriptive writing. It is simply written but that’s what made me like it so much. Zoe’s personality really shines through in this book and as a viewer; many of the locations were familiar, such as the lanes and Brighton’s pier and beach. I overall, would recommend this novel, particularly to Zoe’s viewers as it is so easy to identify her as the author and it very uncomplicated to read.

Thanks for reading,

Ally xo