Book Review | Girl Online by Zoe Sugg.

I received this book for Christmas and couldn't wait to read it. I had highly anticipated it and made myself wait for Christmas day rather than go out and buy it myself. I fell ill over the holidays and so I was given perfect opportunity to read it!

 The book is about a young girl who suffers from anxiety attacks after being in a car accident. The story follows her journey as she copes with her anxiety by documenting it on a blog much like this one. It is nicely rounded up after she falls in love and ends up being exposed from her anonymous blog. The book has a very powerful but clear message about the way bloggers and YouTubers can be treated by their viewers which, as we all know, is a subject very close to Zoe's heart. 

 There was a lot of bad press received by Zoe herself after the book was released. People claimed that she didn't write the book herself and that she had 'lied' to her fans. This made me very angry right from the start because people have such little empathy for somebody who has given them so much. Of course Zoe received help with structuring and writing her book. She makes YouTube videos and writes a fantastic blog but she's never written a novel before! It angered me that people really expected her to just know how to write a best selling book right from the word go. I'm pretty sure that nobody on this earth could write their first novel completely by themselves without any help from outsiders at all given the fact that they have never written anything like that before in their entire lives. 


 The main issue covered by the book were that of suffering from anxiety which some of you will know is something I have suffered from and am suffering from now. Reading the story of this girl who I strongly believe is based on Zoe herself really helped me even though I thought I had come to terms with having panic attacks a very long time ago. The book subtly exposes the reader to some strategies to do with coping with anxiety and minimizing your chances of anxiety attacks even when they have already started. This for me was an incredible guide and I paid attention to every single word. It comforts me to know that this book is out there for people who are just begging to suffer from anxiety and that they can know right from the off how to deal with it and who to get help from. I think it was very brave of Zoe to give such a personal aspect to the character 'Penny' especially when Zoe finds it so hard to illustrate her anxiety to the public. This is one of the many reasons I was so defensive of Zoe when people claimed it 'wasn't her book' 

 Zoe wrote a blog post shortly after the book was released about being kind to people online and some of the horrible comments herself and her friends receive on a daily bases. I read this blog post before I read the book and was certain it had been written as a response to the hateful comments people had been making about Zoe using a Ghost Writer. After finishing the book and read the ending I realised it was so much deeper than that. The character 'Penny' is exposed to the public after writing an anonymous blog for years due to being romantically   involved with an up and coming musician without knowing his celebrity status. Penny is attacked constantly over a few day period online via her blog and celebrity gossip sites. I really feel like this book was a way for Zoe to stand up, not only for herself and her YouTube friends, but for every single person that is bullied online. The message is a powerful one that I didn't anticipate at all. When reading it I no longer felt like I was reading from the point of view of a fictional character; I felt very strongly that Zoe and Penny are the same person and that message was coming straight from Zoe herself. Again, proof that she, of course, wrote her book. I am so thankful that she included that message in her book because it really bothers me how rude and arrogant people can be to the people that sacrifice their privacy and security to give us videos and medium that we enjoy and don't always appreciate. I again think it was extremely brave of Zoe to make such a statement. 

 The book is written very coherently. It was very easy to read, there wasn't any jumping backwards and forwards in time which I always enjoy because it's simpler to understand. Zoe paid key attention to developing characters and I loved how she inserted the blog posts into the book. Each one was necessary to the story line which helped the story move on a lot quicker. It's one of those books that is constantly moving forward and so you never get bored of reading it. It's the kind of book I could and definitely will read over and over again because it is just so powerful and so touching. I know Zoe is making plans for a sequel which I cannot wait for!

 If you haven't read 'Girl Online' yet I seriously urge you to get a copy. It is appropriate for younger readers but thoroughly enjoyed by a 16 year old too;)
 I hope you're enjoying the beginning of 2015. I know I am. Make sure to follow my blog on google+ for more product reviews and a January Online Shopping Haul coming very soon!
Goodnight, Chloe x.