There’s Gossip Girl Books? Any Relation?
Meet book version of Serena Vanderwoodson: She’s returned from boarding school because of her inability to make it to key classes when, somehow, partying and education managed to cross paths. Mention of Erik’s suicide is a no-show in the books because it doesn’t even seem to be a part of the original story line. Serena’s kicked out and returns to the Upper East side, but she’s no hero. She continues nights of blackouts, drugs, and clubs even when flying home to Lily’s nest.
He edits poems? Really? Rufus Humphrey is certainly not a man with notes in the book series of Gossip Girl. He’s a retired editor of up incoming writers or, more likely, writers that will never make a name for themselves. Rufus is certainly no forgotten Rock Star who still lives out his dreams on smaller stages.
Dan Humphrey starts off in the books as Emo outsider of the popular kids in school. What’s one memorable difference between Dan and The Crew in the show? He lives in Brooklyn, a far walk from the cocktail parties and scones served on the Upper East Side. In the books, Dan doesn’t even live in Brooklyn, he lives in the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Erik Vanderwoodson: Depressed, Suicidal and Self-Destructive? I don’t think so. Erik who plays Serena’s little brother on the show, is her older brother in the book series. A bright, popular, confident man who is away at at school when Serena returns.
Dan’s guardian angel, Vanessa makes an appearance on the show as attractive, witty, arty gal pal who still crushes on her best friend. Of her looks Blair even blurts out in the first season, “You didn’t tell me she looked like that,” as she fears a relationship between Vanessa and bestie Serena’s boyfriend. In the books, Vanessa is bald, unattractive, and though smart, she doesn’t hold a candle to Serena.
In the series, Blair and Nate have been holding hands and running around the playground pecking since Kindergarten. In the books, it’s clear that Blair and Nate have always been friends, but they just recently started dating for the past year.
Big chested, curly brown hair? No show. Directors of the series decided to scale up Jenny Humphries status as they scaled-down her rather large chest known throughout the book series.
Here you have it..”Your one and only source to the guide of Manhattan’s elite.” The Gossip Girl Crew has spoken and those changes won’t ever be undone. We know the glitz and glamour of young Hollywood is something directors will never be able to tear themselves apart from. The stories are mended for beautiful actors and actresses who make us sit at the edge of our seats as we watch our TV’s with mouth open angst and excitement. The drama is reconstructed for a different audience. What can we say? It certainly got us hooked. Of the differences the creator says:
“I think that one’s a book and one’s a TV show — you have to write for the medium you are in. In television, a lot of the stories need to be more emotionally grounded…I think Cecily went to school in the ’80s, and the books were written in the early 2000s, and there’s certain things that might have worked in the books that maybe don’t feel like they’re going to work now.”
