Lets just be honest here, the entire reason I picked up this book was down to the simple fact it was written by Youtuber Zoe Sugg (otherwise known as Zoella) who I absolutely love. I was extremely surprised at giving this book 3.5 stars, as I honestly did not expect that much from it. Honestly, it was full of cliches and incredibly predictable but its the perfect book for breaking up a long series or during a mourning period.
I had no idea GirlOnline would take off the way it has - I can't believe I now have 5432 followers, thanks so much! - and the thought of opening up to you all about this is terrifying, but here goes...Penny has a secret.Under the alias GirlOnline, she blogs about school dramas, boys, her mad, whirlwind family - and the panic attacks she's suffered from lately. When things go from bad to worse, her family whisks her away to New York, where she meets the gorgeous, guitar-strumming Noah. Suddenly Penny is falling in love - and capturing every moment of it on her blog.But Noah has a secret too. One that threatens to ruin Penny's cover - and her closest friendship - forever.
You really need to look at this book for what it is, its a YA novel aimed at 13-17 year old girls, its not going to be amazingly profound. Once you get past that fact its easy to get sucked into the story. When I first started the book I was worried that I wouldn't like it, but its one of those books that takes time to get to the storyline as such. There was a lot of world-building to begin with which I found odd for a contemporary novel as its generally more common in fantasy but once you get past that you're good to go.
The character of Penny was extremely relatable. I think it probably goes without saying that Girl Online hit a little close to home for me. I mean the protagonist is a teenage Brit who suffers from anxiety, has next to no self esteem, is incapable of talking to members of the opposite sex and blogs. I mean honestly, if my name was in the dictionary that would be it's definition. I have very conflicting ideas of her character though, apart from these anxiety problems and low self esteem, she seems very 'perfect.' But yet on another level I quite like the fact that she has a stable home life, and no other apparent problems in her life as it just shows that you don't have to have led a traumatic life to be faced with these problems.
The romance between Penny and Noah, yes it was cheesy and yes it was predictable, but it was incredibly sweet and heartwarming. The biggest thing for me with their relationship was how when Penny did something incredibly awkward or embarrassing, Noah would play it off as nothing big or join in and do the same thing. And that is the thing that drew me to him the most. He was such a beautifully written character, more so than Penny in ways.
Girl Online, although a pretty light read, also deals with some more serious issues like bullying, growing up and anxiety; I think readers will really appreciate this added bit of depth that these issues bring to the story. In my personal opinion, this book is more of Zoe reaching out to her viewers to try and inspire them and help them through difficult times as opposed to telling a story. There is a particular part at the end of the book where, although still remaining very true to the character of Penny, it almost feels like Zoe trying to communicate with her viewers through the characters. I really commend Zoe for that, writing something aimed at young girls that tackles the issue of anxiety which is an issue I feel incredibly strongly about. I think its wonderful that she is reaching out to these girls not only in her videos, but has now been given the option to help them via another platform. This book is going to help a lot of teenagers, its going to make them realise that what they're going through isn't so uncommon and it's going to bring them together. I certainly could have done with a book like this when I was younger.
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