Gossip Girl

In a March issue of The New Yorker there was a review of the YA Gossip Girl novels by Cecily von Ziegesar. I haven't read a YA book since I was a young adult myself -- I think it must have been one of the Sweet Valley High series -- so I was intrigued by this review because it made the books sound really good.

A few weeks later I happened to be at Border's with Zoë and while she was browsing the children's section I wandered over to the YA section and found book #1 in the Gossip Girl series. What the heck, I thought to myself, why not give it a try. The New Yorker piece really made it sound as if it were really written for adults at least on some level. The article says, "Her designated reader is an adolescent girl, but the reader she seems to have firmly in mind as she writes is a literate, even literary, adult."

So, I bought the book and I read it. It was a quick read. It was even an entertaining read. However, ultimately it did not transcend its YA status for me. Certainly it was a lot more racy than anything I had read as a teen, but it wasn't any deeper than Sweet Valley High. I didn't at all see what the author of The New Yorker piece saw even though I was primed to see it. Now I can't decide if I am just not a "literary adult" or if the review was reaching.