Gossip Girl is the first book in the bestselling Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar. It was released by Little, Brown and Bloomsbury in 2002.
In this book we get introduced to Blair Waldorf, Serena van der Woodsen, Nate Archibald, Dan Humphrey, Jenny Humphrey and Vanessa Abrams whose lives make up Gossip Girl's popular gossip blog.

Plot summary

The story begins with Blair Waldorf attending a party at her house with her friends Kati Farkas and Isabel Coates. Soon after, Blair Waldorf sneaks away from the party to her room in order to have sex with her boyfriend, Nate Archibald. However, they are interrupted by the arrival of Serena van der Woodsen, Blair's old friend who left one year ago to attend boarding school. When Serena was around, Blair was always left in her shadow, so when she returned Blair was not particularly thrilled to see her, especially when Blair finds out that Serena and Nate had sex the summer before Serena left. Serena does not understand why she is being ignored by all of her friends, but the reader knows that Blair had something to do with that. Also all throughout the book, Gossip Girl, a popular blog site, which many visit, spreads around rumors, or gossip, about this group.
The Constance Billard School for Girls is based on the Nightingale-Bamford School, the author's prep school: "The school is completely based on Nightingale," von Ziegesar told ABC News, "But I exaggerated to make it more entertaining."