Don't You Forget About Me (GG #11) created by Cecily von Ziegesar | Rating: ★★★★★

At last, summer is coming to an end for our kids but their exploits are far from over. Drama boils over as love triangles grow and decisions are made. We’re reunited for one final party in the city before everyone departs for college. Dan’s sexuality is explored and his mother makes a surprise appearance. Don't You Forget About Me is Gossip Girl in all its glory: pure fun and sarcasm and romance and fashion.

Although university is just around the corner; their changes are only just beginning and this summer is sure to end on a high note. Who will actually follow through with their plans for university? Can Blair, Nate and Serena work out their problems?

We start off with the return of Blair and Nate; they have spent the last few weeks of their summer together on a romantic getaway. Passion was high, the sun gave them that perfect tan others will surely envy and they are preparing to start at Yale together.

Or so Blair thinks. There’s that little matter of Nate not actually receiving his diploma…


Are they bound to fizzle out now that they are back in New York? And now that Blair knows Serena’s feelings for her boyfriend, will she claw the blonde beauties eyes out?

Will Nate ever know the depth of Serena’s feelings? Yes, yes he will. And when he and Serena explore these feelings, behind Blair’s back, will he regret it? Nate knows one thing is certain: he is in love with both girls.

He doesn’t know how to handle this and he certainly doesn’t know how to handle his future. When Blair pulls some strings to ensure Nate’s place at Yale with her for the following semester, he’s not so sure what he wants for his future after all and finds an unlikely mentor.

Their relationships are resolved on the day that Blair leaves for Yale; Serena and Nate were to send her off. Serena was under the impression that this would be the day that Nate breaks it off with Blair, the day that they could finally be together now that neither are taking up their place at Yale.

But Nate throws them for a loop by breaking both their hearts and telling him that he loves them both, but he plans to sail the world. Honestly, it’s all the right way to end this chapter of their triangle and while it breaks my heart as both a Nair and Serenate shipper, I couldn’t see it ending any other way.

That’s the end to the Nate-Serena-Blair triangle. For now.

Let’s head back to Dan and Vanessa’s lives. These two will always be up-and-down, I think.

In Don’t You Forget About Me, Dan struggles with his sexual orientation a bit more and is pushed out of the closet by his long-absent mother, who returns to bond and showers him with presents after “coming out” – to make matters more uncomfortable, his mother sets up a coming out party for Dan and invites his former classmates.

Love is in the air, as Vanessa’s older sister gets married. But Vanessa has a difficult time with this revelation of Dan’s due to her unresolved feelings for him, but still manages to be his best friend and openly is supportive of him. But the sparks fly on both ends and–surprise–Dan still loves Vanessa.

These two can never be just friends.

What I most liked about this final chapter is that we get a maybe-ending. They’re all off to university, to real life, some to places other than the UES. It’s perfectly shallow and juicy but it also leaves us with a bunch of possibilities to where they will each end up as adults.

They’re leaving their childhood behind ever so slightly and overall, the ending was fun and realistic for them all.