Dork Diaries: Drama Queen (Dork Diaries 9) by Rachel Renee Russell

Dork Diaries: Drama Queen (Dork Diaries 9) by Rachel Renee Russell
Buy Dork Diaries: Drama Queen (Dork Diaries 9) by Rachel Renee Russell at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Confident Readers
Reviewer: John Lloyd
Summary: For this series of slightly staid, standard reads for trainer bra wearers, what counts as a really left-field episode. The intriguing idea isn't perfect in execution, but certainly makes the book a talking-point amongst the franchise's fans.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 352	Date: June 2015
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Books
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 9781471117701
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Meet Mackenzie Hollister. She's a typical American tweenager – concerned in popularity, looks, the hot guys like Brandon, and getting one over on all those around her. That's made a lot more easy by her parents being spoilingly rich – if Mackenzie, say, wants a new cover for her diary she will just rip up a new $220 leopard print designer blouse and use that. But the problem is, what she's reading back over, and what she's writing in, isn't exactly her diary – it's the diary belonging to our beloved heroine, Nikki, and Mackenzie has managed to purloin it for evil deeds. Can Nikki get it back – or live at all without her beloved journal? And could there actually be something worse than her biggest enemy of, like, all time, being the person reading it?

This is certainly a stand-out entrant in this series, in that it just settles into Nikki being socially inept and managing to confuse the ongoing calamity that is her relationship with Brandon, then throws a complete curve-ball at proceedings. You know those Doctor Who episodes that are so unusual and freakily left-of-centre because the title character is mostly absent while the actor has a break? This is one of those. Just seeing Mackenzie's handwriting font is unusual enough, but here is a whole swathe of her being evil, manipulative, vindictive – and judged by her looks, talent, attitude, and faux-pas captured on camera phone.

What that does at times lead to is a whole recap of the interactions between Nikki and Mackenzie – the highlights of the previous eight (count 'em) novels, and key moments in their comedy of embarrassment together – and at times we almost get a double dose of that particular pill. It also, however, leads to the cessation of what was a pretty poor episode for Nikki being particularly daft, obtuse and adept at putting her foot in it, and so such an idea is more than welcome. I think there was more scope for seeing a more subtle slice of life on the other side of this social scale, but the complete volte-face switch in POV is definitely done for high drama.

The ending lessons about life, bullying, karma, communication and whatnot would be particularly clunky and poorly written if they weren't built around cliff-hanger chapter endings (not easy to do well in a diary format) and a ticking bomb deadline. The whole book also raises a question of 'well, if we're trying something new, as a welcome break in what's slowly becoming if not inferior then at least a small touch staid, just how long is the whole thing going to go on for??', which isn't answered by the conclusion. But for those with a soft spot for Nikki and her BFFs (and the evil Mackenzie) this book will be a stand-out entrant in the series. It's a great kink in the arc, and even if the books (all easy-on-the-eye line illustrations, smiley faces and multiple exclamation marks) didn't even need a pep of energy, this certainly gives them wings.

I must thank the publishers for my review copy.

The series started here. A similar sounding franchise, from one of the world's more popular authors, begins with Notebooks of a Middle-School Princess by Meg Cabot.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Dork Diaries: Drama Queen (Dork Diaries 9) by Rachel Renee Russell at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Dork Diaries: Drama Queen (Dork Diaries 9) by Rachel Renee Russell at Amazon.com.

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