The Humiliations of Pipi McGee

Pipi is a realistic teenager: self-centered at times, but with a good heart. I liked her blended family and diverse group of friends, and wanted more Tasha in the story. I do wish Kara would have been given a bit more nuance, but considering the audience I think it's fine.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this to tween and younger teen patrons, so while my actual personal-enjoyment rating is probably closer to a 3, I will go ahead and round this 3.5 up to 4 humiliations out of 5.

OK, so this book is such a mixed bag, seriously it has many topics that it touches and a lot of representation. It felt so YA. Basically, the main topic is Pipi and the humiliations she had over the years and now in the last year of middle school, she decided to change, redeem herself and get revenge. It touches on her bullying years and now she starts to be the bully. Hurt people hurt people
The characters were so real and believable. Her family was definitely different. Her parents were divorced and her mom got remarried and later gets pregnant again. Her parents are still friends and her dad is friends with Pipi's mom's new husband. Pipi's older sister is a single teen mother of a very gifted and adorable preschooler, Annie. Pipi's only friends, in the beginning, were Tasha a black dyslexic girl with a love for audiobooks especially Crow Reavers, and Ricky a guy Spoilerwho had a crush on her but the feelings aren't mutual and it doesn't lead anywhere, which I liked! I hated when Pipi never acknowledged Tasha and how she felt to be left out. Tasha struggling with reading her fave series was painful to me. Pipi gets so self-obsessed and turns out she has always been like that. Feeling pity for herself instead of looking at the bright sides. It's true that her humiliations were pretty bad but she did have friends on her side, always. She becomes friends with Sarah and Jackson. She keeps lying, keeping secrets, and just trying to get revenge all the time. She hurts a lot of people along the way, even those who did nothing to her. Kara was a very 2-dimensional character... bleh. Sarah's story was touching SpoilerI knew she is gonna be gay. She was a good friend and had her struggles especially living with her mom who is a twin and her annoying cousin. They were pretty homophobic but thankfully her parents were supportive. And her friends too. It was a sweet book and it touched many things. I recommend, Pipi really developed in the end, in her confidence and kindness. We just never see her apologizing to Tasha for real though. Good for middle grade and young adult admirers! I'd say I loved the references and that no romance develops with the main characters at all!