YouTube star and blogger, Zoe Sugg, also known as ‘Zoella’ on
the internet, is the author of this brilliant novel, Girl Online. This is Zoe
Sugg’s very first novel taking place by the coast in Brighton and it surrounds
a girl called Penny who too is a blogger like Sugg herself. However, the main
protagonist, Penny, is hiding her online journal away from her friends and
family as it holds her most secreted emotions about almost everything that
occurs in her life. In surprise, Penny soon receives and gains followers who
comment on her blog posts making her amazed about how people understand her
making her feel as if she isn't alone.
Girl Online is targeted at teenagers as it portrays the
aspects of growing up in the modern world of using social media. It also
asserts people about those individuals who suffer from panic attacks, which is
an anxiety disorder occurring only when people feel anxious or nervous when
confronted with a dilemma. This is a very important factor incorporated in this
novel because there is an insufficient amount of books like Girl Online where
people can easily relate to about this condition.
After Penny makes a huge fool of herself by tripping over,
flashing her knickers and making it all the way to the internet, her and her
parents fly over to New York to help out for a costumers Downtown Abbey themed wedding as part of their family business,
which associates in helping people with their weddings. This trip turns Penny’s
worsts days into her most cherished as she meets the boy of her dreams, Noah.
Nevertheless, he also has a secret that can threat Penny as well as her closest
friends, but you may not notice this due to his ‘Rock-God-Tastic’ charms.
Released on November 25th 2014, the book became
the UK's fastest-selling novel and aside from the many controversies concerning
how Zoe Sugg put her name on a ‘ghost written’ book, the story line was well
written and easy to read. It talked about topics which will catch the sight of
people who are tackling the issue with confronting teenage life, facing those
who envy items or specific traits of someone and expressing this through anger
and harassment through social media.
We get our first impressions of the book when we see its
front appearance and with Girl Online’s bold, blocked and bright colours of
light blue, red and with a tint of rose gold combined together, represent how
the story will be very uplifting to the readers. Snapshots of pictures on the
cover show relation to social media as this generation has been driven to a
root where they take pictures of their life style, for example the social
medias that have been popularly used, using this feature is called Instagram.
Overall, I would say that although the book gained most of its popularity through Zoe Sugg’s subscribers and had many debates about whether the book deserved its place as a bestselling book, it sustained a reputation of a well written novel because the plot line introduced themes which are not well known to our modern society. An example of this is with Penny and her gay best friend who is not bullied but is accepted instead. I would recommend this book to anyone who is suffering from anxiety attacks/ teenagers who like a bit of romance or anyone who likes to read books with a positive moral in the end.
See you soon
xoxo
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