User:Woodchuckmeadow

Awful Literature: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The High Life (Woodchuckmeadow)
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The High Life" was a graphic novel/comic book hybrid that was the 20th book of the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series and was released on October 15th, 2026. In this novel, author Jeff Kinney decided to end the apparent time warp that the main characters were living in; before this, it seemed like Greg was in middle school, Rodrick was in high school, and Manny was in preschool for at least a decade, based on loose estimates of the series' chronology. Instead, Kinney decides to set the novel much closer to the present day, aging the characters up by around 15 years. This was done in an attempt to "revive" the series by appealing to an older reading audience, as sales of the previous novels were extremely low. The novel centers around Greg, who is a super wealthy billionaire, in addition to his wife Holly Hills, his 4 children, his aging parents, his older brother Rodrick, and his younger brother Manny.

The novel was met with mixed to negative reviews, most of which criticized the plot for being geared towards adults despite the previous 19 books being aimed at children. Critics largely focused on the repeated drug references, as well as the novel trying to cater to the "woke culture" in society. Despite Kinney repeatedly insisting that this was meant to be a book for teens and adults, many parents bought it for their young children, which resulted in several unsuccessful lawsuits.

Why it sucks

 * 1) # As already mentioned, it was a really bad idea for the novel to be written to appeal to an older audience given that kids had been enjoying the previous novels for 20 years. This makes the title very misleading, as Greg is no longer a kid and he can't be characterized as "wimpy" by any stretch of the imagination. As such, most of the characters were so unrecognizable in terms of their motivations that they became unlikable.
 * 2) # The novel centers around Greg being a billionaire who lives in an enormous mansion, but it's never mentioned how or when Greg acquired so much money. Greg is never seen actually running any business or even doing any work at all. This was a bad message for any target audience, as it suggested that you could just be lazy and do nothing for the rest of your life if you have tons of money.
 * 3) # The main plot line is Greg being forced to go shopping to buy his family Christmas presents, even though he doesn't want to. The entire concept was based around Greg being reintroduced to normal society after spending an unspecified amount of time only being in his mansion or at fancy events. In this regard, Greg is extremely unlikable, as he is seen as a selfish and greedy man who only cares about himself. Even while in public, Greg is shown to be rude to almost everyone around him.
 * 4) Most characters were completely butchered compared to how they were in the previous novels:                                                                                                                               #*Greg becomes a greedy, self-centered, and borderline sociopathic billionaire. Although he was greedy and dishonest at times in the previous novels, it wasn't this extreme.                                                                            #*Holly Hills is revealed to be an exotic dancer, although she is shown to be a loving parent to her children, unlike Greg.                                                                                                                                              #*Rodrick is a homeless drug addict who has no job and no future whatsoever. He also follows Greg around everywhere and begs him for money.                                                                                                                                                                                                             #*Manny is a nerdy and very unpopular high schooler who is constantly bullied.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  #*Frank and Susan are lazy retirees who have stopped caring about their children completely and spend most of their time watching TV and smoking weed.                                                                                                                                                                                           #*Rowley became a drag queen named " Miss Rowleena"
 * 5) Dovetailing off this previous point, Greg is shown to be a very uncaring father and family member. He always is annoyed by his kids and treats them like nuisances. He also refuses on multiple occasions to help Rodrick despite him being homeless. He's even disrespectful to his parents, as he shows up at their house unannounced a bunch of times and takes stuff from them.
 * 6) Greg's kids have almost no character development at all and are mostly just used for filler. Their names aren't even mentioned.
 * 7) There is a part where Greg unsuccessfully tries to steal a television set from a store, but doesn't get arrested because of his status.
 * 8) Greg also visits a marijuana dispensary and a gun store to find Christmas presents, which makes no sense as his kids are very little.
 * 9) There are multiple instances of stereotyping, such as                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           #*A tech store being run by Indian people
 * 10) *A gun store being filled with hillbillies                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    #*A coffee shop where the employees are mostly inattentive LGBTQ hippies                                                                                                                                                                                                                                #*A fast food restaurant where the workers are all Latinos who can barely speak English
 * 11) There also are many instances of drug use, most of which involve marijuana but there is a part where Rodrick is seen holding what is a crack pipe. There also is a part where Rodrick is having wild hallucinations, which means he is on meth.

Redeeming factors

 * 1) Holly is shown to be a loving and caring wife and mother and comes across as very likable.
 * 2) *Other old characters are seen again, such as Chirag Gupta working at the tech store, Fregley working at the marijuana dispensary, Albert Sandy working at the gun store, Bryce Anderson being a TV show host, Ruby Bird working as a janitor, Vice Principal Roy having retired and working at the coffee shop, and a bunch of other examples.
 * 3) There are some amusing parts, such as                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     #*Greg getting lost in the middle of the night, which results in him wandering into the back of a seemingly random building, only for him to end up on the runway of a fashion show.                                                           #*Rowley's dad also cross-dressing and performing with him during his "Miss Rowleena" routine at a drag show.                                                                                                                                                                       #*Greg trying to use a rickety port-a-potty, only for the wind to blow down the walls and roof while Greg is in the middle of taking a shit.
 * 4) *Greg punching a mugger who tried to steal his wallet.
 * 5) The illustrations, as always, are very well done and are an improvement from the previous 20 novels.
 * 6) Greg does sort of redeem himself at the end when he claims to have realized the importance of family.