andreiala 's review for:

Girl Online by Zoe Sugg
5.0

Just finished!! Love it 4.5stars
Review to come » http://a-hopeless-soul.blogspot.com

******

This one was my Christmas gift from me, I really wanted to read Girl Online. For so long that I watch Zoe on her channel, and when I got the news that she was releasing a book it got strait to my wishlist, after reading the synopsis. Some people didn't like it because she had help from a ghost writer, and so what? If you read it and like the story, what it has to do with who wrote it?

So basically this is a story about a girl, Penny, that writes an anonymous blog, by a pen name Girl Online (see what I did there? Penny - Pen? yeah never mind). She writes about her problems, things that happened to her, awkward moments and all that stuff that everyone of us, for sure, has been through.

"I'm going to say what I want to say, and it would be really cool if you (whoever you might be) join me.
This can be our very own corner of the Internet, where we can talk about what it truly feels like to be a teenage girl - without having to pretend to be something we're not."


Penny is a girl with some insecurities, she likes to be behind the camera and out of the spotlight, that's why an anonymous blog works just fine for her, it's a place where she can be herself without worrying about being judged. No one knows about her secret with the exception of her best friend Elliot.
It's a good thing her mom has to do a work thing in New York and she gets to go with her and her best friend. A girl from Brighton on a trip to New York with her best friend, let the adventure begin. In New York, Penny meets Noah and thinks he is part of a band that will sing at the wedding reception her mom is organizing. But fast she learns that's not the case and gets to spend a day with him. Noah is mysterious, lovely, hot from head to toe, with cute dimples, makes her laugh and helps her with her panic attacks. With so little time he shows her a little of New York and makes her forget about the problems she left behind. With him she can be herself and feels good about it.

" 'Let's go get some food from Sadie Lee. But first - ' he stares right at me - 'can you please say ''tomato''?'
'What?'
' ''Tomato''. Please, can you say it for me?'
I grin and shake my head; he is definitely crazy, but good crazy. 'OK then: tomato.'
'Ha!' He claps his hands together with glee. 'Tom-ah-to,' he mimics. 'I love the way you Brits say that. Come on.' And, with that, he strides off in the direction of the kitchen."

But not everything are roses, after spending a happy time with him she needs to get back home. They fell in love but they are far away from each other, Elliot is jealous of Penny, and then everything comes crashing down.
It's a lovely reading, I laugh at some parts, it's a little cliché but it's a great book. What I liked the most about this story is that I could relate with some things, it talks about friends that are not really your friends anymore, awkward situations (everyone has been through them, right?). Bullying, especially online bullying that in nowadays is a big thing with all tech and people just judge you but they never meet you. It shows that you need to be carefull of what you put online, it can get back to you some day.

"Every time you post something online you have a choice.
You can either make it something that adds to the happiness levels in the world - or you can make it something that takes away from them"


One character that I really liked was Elliot, his homosexuality, his relationship with his parents, and c'mon everytime I read about Elliot I thought about Tyler Oakley (a friend of Zoe), it's something that for some people is still a taboo, it was a great thing in this book.
You can't be afraid of who you are, sometimes when you think you are alone and are the only one that has a problem (like the one you have), you can see that that's not the case at all.

This is the first book of the author, there'll be a second book sometime this year, it doesn't have a title yet, but I can't wait to read it.