Gossip Girl is a series of novels written for teenagers by Cecily von Ziegesar. Gossip Girl is also the nom de plume of the narrator, and the title of the first novel in the series. It has also been adapted into a TV series airing on The CW and CTV. It spawned two spin-off book series, The It Girl and Gossip Girl: The Carlyles.

Plot summary

The Gossip Girl series revolves around a group of teenagers, four of whom live in the opulent Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The teenagers deal with sex and relationship problems while attending elite private single-sex schools, where their lives are watched by the unseen title character who writes a blog about them. The main characters are Serena van der Woodsen, Blair Waldorf, Nate Archibald, Jenny Humphrey, Dan Humphrey, Chuck Bass and Vanessa Abrams. Throughout the books, the characters deal with problems that stem from the Upper East Side lifestyle. At the beginning of the series, Serena returns from boarding school for an unknown reason. She resumes her "best friends forever" status with Blair and her "normal" life filled with designer clothing and wild parties. The private girls' school of the series, Constance Billard School for Girls, is an exaggerated version of the author's alma mater, the Nightingale-Bamford School.

Books

The books are published by Alloy Entertainment and distributed by Little, Brown and Company and Bloomsbury Publishing. The complete series has been published in paperback with the last book, a prequel, It Had To Be You, published in hardcover. Books nine, ten and eleven of the main series were ghostwritten.

1. Gossip Girl
2. You Know You Love Me
3. All I Want Is Everything
4. Because I'm Worth It
5. I Like It Like That
6. You're the One That I Want
7. Nobody Does It Better
8. Nothing Can Keep Us Together
9. Only in Your Dreams
10. Would I Lie to You?
11. Don't You Forget About Me

Prequel

1. It Had To Be You

The series has two spinoffs, The It Girl and Gossip Girl: The Carlyles. There is also a television series based on the books.

Central characters

Blair Waldorf:The series' main character, Blair Cornelia Waldorf is described as 5'2" and slender with brilliant blue eyes and a fox-like face. She is involved in extracurricular activities and is very intelligent and determined. For the first three books, she had long, chestnut hair, but chopped it into a pixie cut in Because I'm Worth It, before having it extended in Don't You Forget About Me. She is a hopeless romantic who idolizes Audrey Hepburn and has a sensitive side that contrasts her tendency to be bitchy and controlling. She loves to pretend her life is a movie and watches Breakfast at Tiffany's often. She is vain, although her friendship with it-girl Serena van der Woodsen causes her to be insecure at times. In the first book, when Serena returns, Blair is extremely reluctant to let her back into her life because it would mean giving up the "queen bee" position she held in Serena's absence. She also fears losing Nate to Serena since they slept together before Serena left. Blair uses her charm, money and social clout to get what she wants. Her father, once an uptight lawyer, now lives in a French chateau with his boyfriend, Giles, and their adopted Cambodian twins, Ping and Pong. He shares a love of shoes with Blair. He raised Blair under the impression that she deserves everything she wants. Her mother, Eleanor Waldorf-Rose, is a flaky society-hostess who married Cyrus Rose. She has a younger brother, Tyler; a stepbrother, Aaron, and a baby half-sister, Yale (named after the college Blair hoped to attend, making her a good luck charm). She has a turbulent relationship with Nate Archibald throughout the series, losing him to other girls several times, including Jenny Humphrey and Serena van der Woodsen. Blair now attends Yale University. She is portrayed by Leighton Meester in the TV series.