Girl Online: The First Novel by Zoella - Zoe Sugg

4.5 stars. Let me just get this out of the way, I never heard of Zoe Sugg. I just read this book because it looked interesting. (Blogs? Cute guys? Some realism (with panic attacks)? Clumsy main girl?) Also I read this book in Dutch, so I hope all the names are correct, I just know how translators love to mess up the names.

 



And it turned out to be really really fun. Even so much fun that I am planning on buying this book in English to add to my (ever growing) collection of books.

The book is about Penny. Penny is a terrific and fun girl, but she has some problems. Her best friend Megan is turning out to be not so friendly any more. The love of her life is only interested in himself. She is quite clumsy (which leads to very hilarious (and embarrassing) situations, which due to this being the era of the internet escalate very much). But she has a blog, a blog where she can be herself, tell the world what she did in that day, what is going through her mind. Her blog becomes her place to find peace. I really loved the blog parts of the book, Penny really has a way with words. She is already amazing with photography, but I think she could also be a writer with what she writes.
Thanks to her blog she meets many people who are more than eager to respond to her posts, who are willing to help her out.
Most of the book takes place in her hometown Brighton, but another part plays in New York, the city where she meets one of my favourite (well, at least in this first book) guys. Noah.

It is kind of instalove, but also not. There is attraction, there is a click, but it didn’t feel weird or strange (OK, well sometimes at least). Unlike with instalove which causes me to often just roll my eyes. This relationship is truly sweet, adorable and cute. Noah is a real lovely boy, taking care of Penny, telling her about him, making sure he is there when stuff doesn’t go all to right. Well, OK, with the exception of what happens near the end of the book. But the whole time she is with him in New York it is all romance, all unicorns and rainbows. And I loved it. That was truly the best part of the book. I could just imagine them dancing under the snowflakes, sneaking kisses and romantic glances.

The last part of the book was equally bleh and good. I know, confusing, but what happens in there had me conflicted. I didn’t like Noah, I felt sorry for Penny, I hated Megan and Ollie (but oh well, I already didn’t like them, so that is OK). Everything escalated. I won’t tell you what happens, go find that out yourself.

The truth about Noah? I had my suspicions, but I wasn’t sure. So it was quite a nice twist.

Elliot. As of now, I am still not sure what to think of this guy. On the one hand he is a terrific friend, I loved how eccentric he was and silly. But I hated how he always seemed to know everything better, I hated how he treated Penny through a fair big chunk of the book. And sure, his home situation sucks, but that is no reason to bash someone for their happiness. Nor do you need to be so jealous.
So yeah, he was hit/miss. He has potential to be a fantastic character.

Penny’s parents + her brother. Wow, they were fantastic characters, and I loved Penny’s parents for the fact they cared so much about their kids, they were willing to do so much for them. Plus I loved that they were still so in love with each other. You don’t often see that in YA books, often the parents are arguing, in divorce, or one of the parents is dead, or both. So, I have to give plus points to that.
Tom was a wonderful brother. A typical older brother, teasing his younger sister, but if need be he will do anything and everything for her.

Sadie Lee and Bella. Great characters, I just laughed so much during the Bella parts, and Sadie Lee was just a sweet lady.

What more to say. Mm, I think I have everything I wanted to say in here, so all I will say is that I would recommend this book to everyone. Read this, laugh, cheer, cry, be amazed. This is truly a fun book with realistic themes.

Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/