Don’t You Forget About Me
by Cecily von Ziegesar
A Gossip Girl novel
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The Gossip Girls series has been a guilty pleasure of mine for a while, although lately I have become a little tired of the story line and characters. The characters seem to go through the same things over and over. Not to mention, there is so much designer label name-dropping throughout the story that there is barely a plot to begin with. But overall this series has been an enjoyable, naughty treat, with this latest one being no exception.

Don’t You Forget About Me generally concludes the stories of the five main characters: Serena, Blair, Nate, Dan and Vanessa. Serena, who becomes a movie star overnight, can’t decide if she should stay in NYC and shoot the squeal to her hit movie, or go to Yale with Nate and Blair. At the same time, she fights her feelings of love for Nate. Nate meanwhile realizes he is in love with both Serena and Blair and can’t choose between them. Unbeknownst to Blair, he also discovers that he will need to return to high school.

Blair happily plans her and Nate’s future at Yale while getting upset over the fact that Nate is becoming more and more distant. Her family also drops a major bomb on her when they announce they are moving to Los Angeles. Dan meanwhile struggles with his “coming out” to his family friends, with the help of his mother, who flies in from Europe to throw him a coming out party. But he’s beginning to wonder why he is still attracted to Vanessa if he’s supposed to be gay. Lastly, Vanessa pines away for Dan and helps her sister with her upcoming nuptials.

This was a solid read that managed to wrap up this particular group of stories, with plenty of twists and turns along the way and a surprising outcome. The only downfall of this story was Dan’s particular story line, which seemed extremely drawn out and boring this time around. It took him an entire novel to figure out what we basically knew in the first chapter. But other than that, I highly recommend this book to all Gossip Girl fans - you have to read this in order to find out what happens to your favorite characters!

Reviewed by Rian
4/5 Stars

Nothing Can Keep us Together
by Cecily von Ziegesar
A Gossip Girl Novel
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As a devoted reader of the Gossip Girl novels, I’ve begun to notice a trend with them starting from about Novel #6 on. Each book since has gotten racier, naughtier, and more outrageous. The latest one, “Nothing Can Keep Us Apart” (#8) is the naughtiest of them all. And although this quality grabbed me in the first book and kept me reading, it’s begun to wear thin.

Forget what you read on the back of the book - it has little, if anything, to do with the actual story. Blair did find her “devoted” boyfriend Nate in the shower with Serena in the previous book. But she doesn’t vow revenge. Meanwhile, Serena decides to pretend Nate and her are meant to be. Too bad Nate cannot stop neither his constant crying or stealing the coach’s stash of viagra. Meanwhile Jenny Humphrey is searching for a new boarding school. She wants to find a party school, but so far is having little luck. Blair has decided she doesn’t need Nate, and hooks up with one of the most eligible young men from England. And the other characters? Up to their usual snarky, bad behavior.

And Gossip Girl manages to catch it all in her online journal, as always.

I have to admit I was disappointed with Nothing Can Keep Us Apart. For one, the story line is just unbelievably outrageous, and so far-fetched to the point of being ridiculous. Blair hooking up so easily with the British guy? Nate suddenly turning into a crybaby because he is in love with Blair? Vanessa turning into a sex maniac, among other things? I know this series started out deliciously “bad” with plenty of twists and turns, but it’s gotten way out of hand. There was more sex in this book then there is in most adult chick lit!

The entire time I read this novel, I kept raising my eyebrows higher and higher, and actually found it hard to continue reading. The parts that were bad were too bad, and the parts that weren’t were boring. Jenny’s quest failed to interest me too much, although I’m interested in reading the spinoff series “The It Girl”.

It was the ending that made me decide to not bother reading the next book in this series. The author manages to leave it where the next book will undoubtedly be R-rated. But we may find out who “gossip girl” is.

Overall, I’d have to say pass on this unless you are a die-hard, devoted fan of this series. Anyone who has steadily become disappointed with the past few books probably won’t like this one either.

Reviewed by Rian
2/5 Stars