Blurb:Penny has a secret.
Under the alias Girl Online, Penny blogs her hidden feelings about friendship, boys, her crazy family, and the panic attacks that have begun to take over her life. When things go from bad to worse, her family whisks her away to New York, where she meets Noah: a gorgeous, guitar-strumming American. 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.
My Review:
So as I sort of said in my half way review of this book, I absolutely fell in love with it. I knew that this book was going to be something really special about a chapter in. I just absolutely love the way that this book was written. Not just that it was in first person narration, but HOW the author, Zoe Sugg, used this first person narration.
So, without spoiling anything, the main character Penny has a secret blog where she writes under the alias of 'Girl Online'. So as the majority of the book was written in regular narration, seeing the world through Penny's eyes, there are about 6 or 7 parts of the book where it is written in Girl Onlines' blog. You get an incredible insight into Penny's way of thinking and the way that she perceives the world through this, as she says multiple times within the book that her blog is the only place where she feels as though she can truly be herself.
One more thing that I will add in here is that the description on page 12 of Penny's panic attack is amazing. It's so strong and vivid that it almost felt as though I myself was experiencing one as well. Explaining what it's like to have a mental illness to people who don't is a very difficult challenge for the best of us and the author here has done a superb job at accomplishing that.
Another thing that I loved that I thought I would quickly mention here is that there are multiple times within the book where Penny would have a small conversation with her friends, or her love interest over text message, which can be seen in the book in little text conversation bubbles. I really thought that this was a really interesting way to show that transpiring and emphasised the social media and internet aspect of this novel, which becomes incredibly important toward the end of the story. This can also be seen in the abbreviations and made up words that I talked about in my half way review, for anyone that didn't catch that, here's the link.
Okay so as much as I loved Penny to pieces, I also fell in love with both Elliot and Noah (who wouldn't be in love with Noah, lets be honest). I loved the way that the author gave Penny such a hilarious and lovable best friend in Elliot and that his best friendship was emphasised in the book almost more than her love with Noah. Elliot was such an important character and I'm so happy that I got to hear about his life almost as much as I got to hear about Penny's. I think it's really important in a lot of books, if you want the main character to be likable, is to make sure that she's chosen likable people to be around her.
This is also really strong with Penny's family, who are just so funny and adorable that I almost wish that I could experience Penny's Dad's Saturday breakfast every week alongside them all.
Clearly a main aspect of this book that I really enjoyed were all of the cute little quirks that were included like Penny's Dad's Saturday breakfast and Noah's tradition of watching a wonderful life on Christmas Eve. Family tradition was definitely a large theme that ran throughout the book and I love the idea of that. But one thing I wanted to make special mention of was Magical Mystery Day. Again, I don't want to say too much and spoil the book for anyone, but for anyone that's read it will understand just how adorable and beautiful this is, from the idea in general to what Noah and Penny do with it, I just love it. Love it to the point where it's definitely something that I want to implement for my future family.
One last thing that I wanted to say is about the ending. The ending.. I mean I loved it. I finished the book this morning and I think it's been about 5-6 hours since I read it and I still can't stop thinking about it. No spoilers and I'm not giving anything away but it was just beautiful.
However, I will say this about it. I found it awesome, but I know that it was quite blunt and abrupt. I knew whilst reading this book that there was a sequel, it was realised earlier this year. But if I had read this book when it first came out and didn't know that there was a sequel on the way, then I probably would have hated the ending as it seems a bit as though, there was about 2-3 chapters missing.
Overall I give Girl Online, 4 out of 5 stars.
Ps. I just remembered one more thing that I wanted to say about this book that made me smile is that, whilst I know I haven't been blogging for very long I'm sure by now you can get the idea that I'm a bit of a John Green nut. And they do make a The Fault In Our Stars reference towards the middle of this book and I'm not afraid to say that that made me giggle for a solid 20 minutes.
Favourite Quotes:
"As my fear of the panic attacks gets bigger and bigger it seems to be making my world feel smaller and smaller" - Narrator
"Sometimes you have to face up to your fears to realize that they aren't actually real" - Pegasus Girl
"I've found that life's a whole lot better if you get a little crazy sometimes" - Noah
Favourite Quotes:
"As my fear of the panic attacks gets bigger and bigger it seems to be making my world feel smaller and smaller" - Narrator
"Sometimes you have to face up to your fears to realize that they aren't actually real" - Pegasus Girl
"I've found that life's a whole lot better if you get a little crazy sometimes" - Noah
Read fast, die young
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