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marwafarrukh's review
the feeling i get while reading these books is like no other
cassidylynnereads's review
1.0
It pains me so much to do this, but Dork Diaries #14 has officially earned my second ever one star rating. It has also officially driven me away from this series. It hurts so much to say that. I vividly remember the first time I was introduced to the Dork Diaries series. I was in middle school and the librarian showed a video, a book trailer for the Dork Diaries series. It looked like such an awesome book I had to read it right away! I was right, the books were spectacular and easily one of my favorite book series at the time. I loved the books so much that I continued reading them through high school. Finally, I ended up in college and my love for this series started to wane. I wondered if it was simply because I had grown up and moved on to books more appropriate for my age range, but I still adore the middle grade Warriors and Survivors series from my childhood. Despite the decreasing quality of the Dork Diaries books, I clung to the nostalgia they stirred up in me and found that there were a few books worth sticking around for. I was so excited to read this entry in the series that I had it on my Christmas list, then when I didn’t get it as a gift I bought the book myself. I rushed through the most recent book I was reading because I wanted so badly to fall back into the cutesy world of Nikki Maxwell. I was sorely disappointed. This book seemed to have no cohesive plot at all. It was obvious that the focus of the book would be on the Bad Boyz tour, so I was confused as to why there were nearly eighty pages of what seemed like filler before Nikki’s band even began to practice for the tour. I know there was the whole drama of missing the phone call with Trevor, but that felt like such an artificial conflict that was cooked up to make the page count higher. Then the tour was under way and because Nikki can never get into any kind of trouble without the narcissistic (potentially sociopathic) MacKenzie Hollister being the source of every one of her problems, MacKenzie was clumsily shoehorned into the story. As usual, she lords her wealth and influence over Nikki, but this time none of her threats actually seem to matter. Yes, Nikki does freak out at first (she freaks out over everything in this book instead of going with the obvious solution, which she should have learned to stop doing 14 books into the series), but nothing ever comes of MacKenzie’s threats. The Boyz are hardly even characters themselves, and the quizzes about them seem to be both filler (again, to up the page count) and redundant ways of reinforcing that these Boyz do, in fact, have personalities even though they appear for only about five minutes worth of book content. The “conflict” that only seemed to exist to beat the dead horse of proving that MacKenzie is such a totally evil monster was resolved in one poorly written sequence of tell-not-show descriptions. Also can I stop for a moment and talk about how stereotypical and harmful MacKenzie’s character is? Sure, she was meant to represent the typical mean girl, but in the past few books it seems more like her only purpose is to show readers how horrible it is to pretty and like makeup and be popular. Because only the dorks have good personalities and the popular people are always evil yet somehow have the whole school worshipping them (although at this point Nikki has way more friends than MacKenzie and is arguably much more popular than her). Picking at MacKenzie for her vanity seems mean spirited at this point. Where was the depth we saw in her for all of two books? It made her character so much better.
This ended up being a much longer ramble than I thought it would be considering it’s 3 am. I guess that just goes to show how bitter of a taste this book left in my mouth. I had such high hopes for it and I wanted to hold onto the Dork Diaries series until its end. But at this point there seems to be no end in sight even though the people who work on the books have clearly run out of ideas. So I will be taking my leave from Nikki Maxwell. It truly saddens me to let go of one of my most beloved childhood series.
This ended up being a much longer ramble than I thought it would be considering it’s 3 am. I guess that just goes to show how bitter of a taste this book left in my mouth. I had such high hopes for it and I wanted to hold onto the Dork Diaries series until its end. But at this point there seems to be no end in sight even though the people who work on the books have clearly run out of ideas. So I will be taking my leave from Nikki Maxwell. It truly saddens me to let go of one of my most beloved childhood series.
lina_vc_'s review
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
nuriabuu's review
1.0
I keep reading these books due to nostalgia and because my younger sister keeps buying them for herself. To be honest I feel the series has strayed far from its original charm of it being a story of a regular girl entering middle school and how it affects her. Now its more and more goofy every single book that comes out. Even with the nostalgia I can´t bring myself to enjoy the newer additions to the series; I'm curious of where the heck this series is going now that nikki is a international pop star, that's not relatable to young kids!!
audreyisawesome's review
1.0
When I was younger I LOVED this series. Its great for beginners. My mom really hates nicki because she called her mom brain dead in the first book. I just thought I would read something easy.
_lizzz_'s review
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
yusra_should_be_reading_rn's review
1.0
If these characters just have one damn conversation-
I can't.. I hate this... I just wanted to read a short book..
I can't.. I hate this... I just wanted to read a short book..
teebles's review against another edition
5.0
This book was actually pretty good. I've had a bit of an off relationship with the last couple of instalments as I've found some of them a bit more boring, however, this one really stepped up.
I think that all of the pre-tour stuff was actually really funny. I really loved the scenes where Nikki went peddle-boating with her dad and sister because it was utterly hilarious and a great example of the humour in this book series. It was also really relatable because I feel like most people have been paddle-boating at least once in their life and it almost always turns into a nightmare.
I actually also loved the amount of Brianna that we got in this book as, because it was marketed as Nikki's band on tour, I was worried that we weren't going to see a lot of her. However, I would say that about half of the book takes place before the tour, so we got a great amount of Brianna, and once again, she was hilarious.
I also really loved the actual tour sections. As someone who loves music, I have loved all of the books with Nikki's band in, and this was no exception. I found it all so interesting and loved Nikki's take on going on tour. It was awesome to see her get to interact with her bandmates again, although there was a surprising lack of Theo and Marcus.
The actual Bad Boyz were also really interesting characters. It was really cool to see the media's interpretation of them in comparison with how they act around each other and how they act around Nikki. Actually, I wish that we'd gotten to se more of the other band members interacting with them, as opposed to just Nikki because I think it would have been really interesting.
The only thing that I didn't really like were the magazine articles at the end of some of the diary entries. I just felt like they really distanced you from the story and are pretty unnecessary. Some of them, like getting to know the band, are useful, but others, like the quizzes, were not at all. Honestly, it just felt like this were added to just make the book longer.
Oh, one more thing that I didn't like (spoiler warning for book 13, Birthday drama), was that wee didn't actually find out how Brandon got out of his tutoring position in France that he had booked at the end of the last book. I was really interested to see who would replace him, but it never came up again. :-(
However, all in all, I really recommend this book to fans of the series and I am excited to see where it goes from there.
I think that all of the pre-tour stuff was actually really funny. I really loved the scenes where Nikki went peddle-boating with her dad and sister because it was utterly hilarious and a great example of the humour in this book series. It was also really relatable because I feel like most people have been paddle-boating at least once in their life and it almost always turns into a nightmare.
I actually also loved the amount of Brianna that we got in this book as, because it was marketed as Nikki's band on tour, I was worried that we weren't going to see a lot of her. However, I would say that about half of the book takes place before the tour, so we got a great amount of Brianna, and once again, she was hilarious.
I also really loved the actual tour sections. As someone who loves music, I have loved all of the books with Nikki's band in, and this was no exception. I found it all so interesting and loved Nikki's take on going on tour. It was awesome to see her get to interact with her bandmates again, although there was a surprising lack of Theo and Marcus.
The actual Bad Boyz were also really interesting characters. It was really cool to see the media's interpretation of them in comparison with how they act around each other and how they act around Nikki. Actually, I wish that we'd gotten to se more of the other band members interacting with them, as opposed to just Nikki because I think it would have been really interesting.
The only thing that I didn't really like were the magazine articles at the end of some of the diary entries. I just felt like they really distanced you from the story and are pretty unnecessary. Some of them, like getting to know the band, are useful, but others, like the quizzes, were not at all. Honestly, it just felt like this were added to just make the book longer.
Oh, one more thing that I didn't like (spoiler warning for book 13, Birthday drama), was that wee didn't actually find out how Brandon got out of his tutoring position in France that he had booked at the end of the last book. I was really interested to see who would replace him, but it never came up again. :-(
However, all in all, I really recommend this book to fans of the series and I am excited to see where it goes from there.