This book starts with the very first line, “Sometimes I think my mom is BRAIN DEAD. Then there are days when I know she is”. Yes, you read that right. Unfortunately, this type of negative behavior continues through the entire book (outside of a few quick pages of relatively “happy ending”). Keep in mind when you read below that this is a graphic novel so all of this is spread across a relatively short book.
Things don’t get better with her mom. Nikki, the main character, zones out while her mom is talking to her. She calls a gift her mom gives her ‘stupid’ and proof she is “CLINICALLY BRAIN DEAD” (caps is used throughout for emphasis). She complains about her mom and dad ‘barging in’ to her room, which irritates her because she says she has a constitutional right to privacy. A friend complains that life can be mentally exhausting with two overbearing mother figures (one is a step mother). At one point Nikki hopes her parents will take a hint and get lost.
She calls her dads idea ‘STUPID’ and says she thinks his extermination chemicals are killing his brain cells. She later says she wants to die for having to ride in her dad’s work truck.
She is completely self-centered. Several times Nikki comments that “MY LIFE TOTALLY SUCKS!” or that her pathetic life is so unfair that it makes her want to scream. At one point she says someone “totally trashed her life” by being mean to her. The solution she seems nearly obsessed over is getting in with the popular girls, the main girl of which is shown to be even worse than Nikki herself. In her interactions with this crowd we see a lot of additional rude comments, such as ‘Do you need a license to be that ugly?’ and wanting to ‘slap the blonde highlights out of her hair’. But after all this Nikki’s response is still to be desperate to go to their parties and be a part of that group. At one point she is ready to burn her wardrobe to better fit in with them. In fact she comes across as obsessed with what others think of her and just Mackenzie, the mean leader of this crew, herself.
Nikki tells young readers that a cool new cell phone is a necessity of life, second only to maybe oxygen. Even worse she hopes to use it to gain access to the cute, cool, popular (CCP) group at school. She goes further, telling us that she has learned having a cruddy phone or not phone can ruin your social life, that a cell phone can change your social status overnight, and that millions of kids wouldn’t be caught dead without their cell phone. She describes herself as ‘addicted’ to drawing. She tells young readers that a blog is where you are supposed to post ‘juicy stuff’ like secrets and gossip. She calls clothes from department stores as not nearly as cool as those from the mall and then says it is a huge inconvenience and a definite ‘turnoff’ in those stores to have to walk through the “old ladies”, pregnant ladies and “fat ladies” sections.
She describes a cute habit or twirling your hair that drives guys wild. She reads “That’s so Hot” magazine, which tells her that the secret to happiness is friends, fun, fashion and flirting. One of her new friends says she has picked up a lot about boys and kissing that she plans to use next year in high school. She talks of having a crush and a secret love of her life. A caption showing people says “it must be mating season or something”. Her friend has read hundreds of teen romance novels. Several boys are shown/mentioned, each given a precise 1 to 10 cuteness score. At one point she wonders if her pen will melt from all of the hotness”. At one point Nikki says that an honest friend is nice, but an “I can hook you up with really cute guys” friend is far better.
There is plenty more negativity young readers learn from this young teen main character. She refers to her school as a “stupid prep school”, says school lunch normally smells like a lot of rotting flesh, refers to “boring library books and says she wanders school around all day like a zombie. She says very clearly a couple times she absolutely hates this ‘stupid school’. She refers to a mental health hospital as a “psycho ward”. We also see an image a couple times that implies Nikki is cursing in her mind (words not shown, once this is simply because her parents and sister are trying to hang out with her in her room). She tells us that there’s at least one seriously mentally ill weirdo in every middle school across America. Gossiping is shown. Nikki starts praying out of nowhere when she is taking a test she didn’t study for because she was too busy sulking (asks for test answers, promises to be nice to her sister and such). Her and her classmates refer to Mr. Snodgrass as Mr. Snot “followed by a not-so-nice word. She refers to having a pimple as being disfigured. Nikki fakes sickness to avoid school, giving kids a fake vomit recipe (the book shows this completely working). At one points she says she is not lying, but instead overembellishing some fabricated truth. She asks the mean girl, “If I flush, will you go away”. She makes the comment, “too many freaks, not enough circuses”.
The terms “butt naked”, stupid people, Harry Potter, “Crump Daddy”, “IQ of lint”, “you idiot”, freak, zombie are used. “OMG” is used many times. Refers to santa, the easter bunny and the tooth fairy. Stereotypes are used (e.g., Jocks). Refers to the Michael Jackson thriller video. We also see an image of a dead teacher from her imagination. At one point friends plot to run away. A comment is referred to as so rude, so wickedly funny… so true.
Maybe the saddest thing about the book is how she treats her little sister. Her sister is shown doing cute, sweet thigs, often to connect with Nikki, who consistently responds in disgust. When we meet her little sister Chloe, Nikki comments that she personally thinks she has the IQ of a box of crayons. We are told that Chloe has a deep fear of something and that it is because Nikki tricked her into it. When Chloe tries to include Nikki in her game during breakfast she is incredibly rude to her and insults her sisters singing voice. She gets annoyed and angry when her sister is terrified by a movie, from a fear she originally caused. At one point she asks why she couldn’t have just been an only child.