It’s been forever since I blogged anything. But I am back to start a new review series on the Gossip Girl spin-off book series called the It Girl. This series follows Little Jenny Humphrey as she leaves her old life in NYC and attends boarding school.
So I don’t really remember a lot about the Gossip Girl book series other than I feel like Jenny wasn’t actually mentioned that much. Also that the series was quite unserious and there wasn’t really a plot it was just rich people doing scandalous and frivolous things just because.
This book series however has more of a plot which I am enjoying and I had some thoughts about reading that I thought I’d stick in a blog post instead of my usual Goodreads reviews. Plus I do want to try to get back into blogging a bit more so why not start with something easy?
First of all, one thing I was surprised about was all the things Jenny had gotten up to in the Gossip Girl series because I certainly didn’t remember any of it lol. It was also weird to read Jenny as this naive freshman who was just always in the wrong place at the wrong time and got herself into these crazy situations that lead to her expulsion from Constance. Like that is not the Jenny Humphrey I know and love.
The Jenny Humphrey I know and love will always be the TV show adaptation Jenny. Early seasons Jenny vs Blair had my full attention back when I watched the Gossip Girl TV show and to this day, one of my all time favourite episodes is Blair’s sleepover from season one. So to see Jenny being this shy and awkward girl trying to make a new start at a boarding school was weird.
So let’s dive into Jenny and her new life at Waverly shall we?
As always with a new book series there was a bunch of new characters thrown at me and it took me a while to figure out who mattered and who did not. As this book series is a spin-off we do not have Gossip Girl commentary between chapters, instead we have snippets of IM chats between students so lots of names and gossip are thrown around early on.
But I sussed the main people we care about are:
- Callie and Brett – Jenny’s new roommates and supposed best friends. Though an incident last year saw their third best friend, Tinsley, expelled while those two got off scot-free.
- Easy – Callie’s boyfriend but also Jenny’s new love interest? Drama.
- Brandon – Callie’s ex who is bitter because Easy stole Callie from him (supposedly)
- Eric Dalton – new teacher and someone Brett is definitely interested in
- Heath – basically the Chuck Bass of the school
Everyone else was just noise and names of people who kind of blended together in my head while reading lol
In terms of the storylines this book I thought they were good. A nice dip into this new world we are in and the dynamics. I gotta say I wasn’t so much interested in Jenny as I was everyone else lol. Like Jenny’s story is fine, new girl at a new school trying to make an impression and falling for her rooommate’s boyfriend Easy like…fine.
But I wanted to know more about Brett and Callie and what happened with Tinsley. Basically Brett and Callie are fighting the whole book but like not fighting? More like ignoring each other and being weird because they both think the other ratted on Tinsley and got her expelled. Turns out neither of them said anything about Tinsley and so they end up becoming friends again lol.
I’m not going to lie, I think the author did a great job at portraying the thoughts these girl’s had about one another and just about teenage girl life in general. We’ve all had those times where you want to be normal with your friend but she’s acting weird so you act weird etc. it happens. Also you just start and stop being friends over the dumbest things. It’s so real.
As for the boy drama – well, I don’t think Easy and Callie should be together – they give off very Nate and Blair vibes. In that Easy doesn’t really wanna be with Callie and starts flirting with Jenny and liking it. Meanwhile Callie told Easy she loved him over the summer and he didn’t say it back. And that’s very similar to how Nate and Blair were in Gossip Girl – moreso on TV than in the books but yeah that’s what I get. And so I am waiting for that to just stop being a thing.
I’m still not sure what the vibes with Brandon are other than he’s still in love with Callie. He seems like the nicest and most normal guy around to be honest. Don’t know how much he will be around but he was friendly enough with Jenny and seems open to getting back together with Callie so we see what happens.
And then there’s the Brett and Eric thing which you know gives me the ick because it’s another teacher/student relationship and we frown upon those. Like especially in this one because Eric clearly points out the age difference and then tries to justify it by saying when they’re older it won’t matter as much. Ick. Brett thankfully doesn’t have sex with him but she almost did and who’s to say she won’t? I hope she doesn’t.
But overall, I enjoyed this a lot. It’s easy to read – despite all the outdated designer and fashion references that go over my head. Plus I do enjoy petty teenage rich kid drama. It’s the basis of most of my TV show loves lol. So I am looking forward to seeing what happens next, especially because this mysterious Tinsley has reappeared after her expulsion. She’s already giving Serena van der Woodsen vibes and we haven’t even met her yet.
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