You Know You Love Me

Growing up is hard to do, but the kids on Gossip Girl sure made it look easy—and sexy, to boot. Set in the always-alluring penthouses and exclusive clubs of New York City, Gossip Girl followed, as its intro said, the “scandalous lives of Manhattan’s elite,” through the eyes of an omniscient narrator that had her eyes, ears, and hands in everything. Gossip Girl was enticing in a “lifestyles of the rich and famous” sort of way, but when you added on the fact that these pretty people had pretty problems and someone watching their every move, it was almost too good to resist.

In You Know You Love Me, Lindsay Denninger gives an unprecedented inside look at how this icon of ‘00s pop culture captured the hearts, minds, and eyes of millions of viewers; influenced the worlds of fashion and media; and continues to reverberate in the culture today. Weaving together oral history interviews with all of the show’s key personnel—performers, crew, writers, and showrunner Josh Safran—Denninger doesn’t just reveal behind-the-scenes drama. She shows how Gossip Girl was an early harbinger of the cultural landscape to come, spanning from the very dawn of social media to the fractious internet of today, and from the autumn years of broadcast television (it aired on the CW) to the streaming era.

Packed with juicy tidbits, unvarnished accounts, and unapologetic nostalgia, this is a thrilling behind-the-scenes look at the show that New York magazine, with a casual brio befitting its subject, dubbed “The Greatest Show of Our Time.”