Bay Ann, the main character, and her mother have a terrible relationship with each other. Her mother is cold and strict and Bay Ann is disrespectful and unkind (and at times dishonest). At one point she says that her dad is so lucky she divorced him. There is also an unfortunate dynamic between her mom and dad, who are divorced. Things like dad calling mom for permission on things. Mom is shown as being the one really in charge (a common dynamic the world displays for men in our culture). Bay Ann is also very disrespectful to a school guidance counselor. At one point she tells this adult, “you seem annoying”. She also mocks her and sticker her tongue out at her. At one point Bay Ann flips a table in anger. She is just not a character to put in front of young readers (especially the young readers who are drawn to the ‘pretty pictures’ of graphic novels.
There is a ton of content around going viral, becoming famous. This comes up over and over. There is also a decent amount around getting vengeance against someone Bay Ann feels has wronged her. This turns into obsessing over beating them. Unfortunately, we saw little to no effort to show this as wrong. In fact, at one point dad joins in and agrees to “take down that clown”, encouraging her. In fact, the ending just encourages this focus on popularity as a video goes viral and gets millions of clicks.
We see multiple references and examples to Bay Ann “playing the disability card” to get something she wants (for example, to win the science fair). This is really sad. At one point she says, “I played the disability card hard. Turned on the waterworks”.
There is a decent amount of references to darker items. The school holds a “Halloween Idol” (like an American Idol). In planning out her performance we hear references and see images such as zombie bride and bridesmaids, walking dead dog, zombie apocalypse, halloween decorations, etc. Eventually we see odd drawings of zombie characters. A comment is made that a character has “never seen a bloodier bridesmaid”. Later we see a witch and devil costume and are told it is a “good witch”.
There are quite a few references to the Muslim faith of the main family. These are woven in throughout. At one point we read someone swear on the Quran and later call out to “Allah”.
A few other items to be aware of:
Something that is just odd. Out of nowhere the cat starts talking. Throughout the book it has conversations with the main character. There is no explanation or indication this is her imagination.
Several of the drawings are odd.
Main character shares a short kiss with the boy she likes.
See sneaking out at night.
We also see a totally checked out teacher (another unfortunate caricature we see often).
A few words and phrase to be aware of: “Handwriting of a serial killer”, verbal diarrhea, screwing around, scratch their eyeballs out, losers, basic, hack. At one point Bay Ann says she “could get kidnapped, chopped into pieces, and fed to a pet hyena”.