Where do the books in the "Gossip Girl" series take place?

The books in the Gossip Girl series take place in New York City, especially Manhattan's affluent Upper East Side. The novels follow privileged teenagers whose friendships, romances, rivalries, and secrets are reported by the anonymous blogger known as Gossip Girl.

Written by Cecily von Ziegesar, the original young-adult novel series began publication in 2002. Its fictional Constance Billard School for Girls is located on the Upper East Side, where the central characters—Blair Waldorf, Serena van der Woodsen, Nate Archibald, Dan Humphrey, and others—move through an elite social world.

The setting is closely tied to the author's own experiences. Von Ziegesar attended the Nightingale-Bamford School, a private girls' school in Manhattan, and drew on that environment when creating the books' characters and high-society atmosphere.

Readers sometimes answer “the Upper East Side” because it is the most recognizable location in the story. That is a more specific neighborhood answer, but New York City is the broader canonical setting. The later television adaptation also uses Manhattan, though its storylines and characterization differ substantially from the novels.