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; prior to 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. In fact, 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. This includes-                                                                                                                                                                                     - Greg becoming 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 being revealed to be an exotic dancer, although she is shown to be a loving parent to her children, unlike Greg.                                                                                                                                           -   - Rodrick being a homeless drug addict who has no job and no future whatsoever.                                                                                                                                                                                                      -         - Manny being a nerdy and very unpopular high schooler who is constantly bullied.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  - Frank and Susan being lazy retirees who have stopped caring about their children completely and spend most of their time watching TV.                                                                                                                                                                                           - Rowley having turned into a transgender woman named "Rowleena"
 * 5) Dovetailing off this previous point, Greg is shown to be a very uncaring father and family members. 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 own parents, as he shows up to 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.