The novel Great, by Sara Benincasa, follows the life of teen Naomi Rye after her parent’s divorce. Her mother becomes a rich baker and her father lives off on a teacher’s salary. Every summer, Naomi flies up to the Hamptons from her father’s apartment in Brooklyn and spends the vacation hating her mother and her lifestyle. Naomi is studious, sarcastic, and humorous. She transitions from hating the teenage socialites, to dating one, and right back to square one. The novel’s pace picks up the when Naomi meets the  famous blogger Jacinta Trimalchio, a critique of socialite fashion.

This novel reminds me so much of the show, Gossip Girl. If you haven’t seen or heard of Gossip Girl, here’s a run-down: A group of socialite teens struggle with problems only the rich seem to have. At the same time, an anonymous blogger, Gossip Girl, spills all of of their secrets: good and bad. Moreover, Dan Humphrey, one of the main characters, is a teenage boy from Brooklyn, has divorced parents, and a developing relationship with all of the most popular teenage New York socialites. Sound familiar? I thought so too, and I decided to spend the rest of the book finding all of the comparisons to the show.

The first things I noticed were the location and character similarities. The show has a whole season set in the Hamptons during summer vacation, similar to the main character, Naomi, who lives with her mother in the Hamptons during the summer. The main difference, however, is the blogger character. Gossip Girl and her identity aren’t revealed until the last ten minutes of the last episode. In the novel, the identity of the anonymous blogger is revealed very early.

The novel by Sara Benincasa was meant to be a modern retelling of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but I saw more similarities to the 2012 show, Gossip Girl. Perhaps, it’s because I have only seen Gossip Girl and don’t remember reading or watching The Great Gatsby. However, I enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it to those who enjoy reading about awkward teenagers mingling with rich socialites. The novel contains 263 pages of teenage drama that I thoroughly enjoyed, and read in three days. For those of you who have watched Gossip Girl: XOXO!