Review: The Humiliations of Pipi McGee

The Humiliations of Pipi McGee by Beth Vrabel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.5 Stars bumped because I just really enjoy Beth Vrabel's writing and her well-rendered characters.

In something of a sequel to The Reckless Club, author Beth Vrabel explores the horrors of middle school bullying that get a kid into a Reckless Club situation while offering hope to middle graders that "it gets better."

Pipi McGee is a thirteen-year-old girl who has been picked on since kindergarten. Every school year has brought her new humiliations. From her kindergarten drawing of her future self as a slice of bacon with boobs to the vomitathon she caused in a school bus to the stuck zipper event that got her that dreadful nickname (even her family calls her Pipi) to the event that shall not be named in seventh grade, Pipi has a reputation so awful that its been called the Pipi Touch. Pipi has a plan to save her eighth grade and rehabilitate her reputation. It's called The List. Her one friend, her best friend Tasha, is one of the popular kids and she is having a hard time with Pipi's plan. Her other friend, the one she hasn't really noticed as her friend, Ricky, is also a bit odd about The List, and wishes she'd just let it go. Sarah, one half of the Sarah and Kara cousins twosome, seems like she might be a friend. And then there's Jackson, a friend of Sarah's, who Pipi's been crushing on since sixth grade. Frau Jacobs is a sad teacher who is Pipi's nemesis after seventh grades "that which must not be talked about" event. Rounding out her family situation there is her sister Eliza, a teenage mom who had her daughter Annie when she was in high school, and who took the GRE to start college early and will soon graduate, and Pipi's mom, dad, and stepdad. Eighth grade is a transition point and change is swirling all around Pipi but what she wants most is to change herself in the eyes of others.

At first I have to say that I really didn't like Pipi which made me feel bad because she's had some really bad stuff happen to her. She still lives in all those bad moments and while it certainly doesn't make her a bad person, she isn't a very pleasant one. As time went on, though, I was equally frustrated by Tasha, who seemed a little too fond of her role as rescuer of Pipi, and as Pipi started to have success and more independence, Tasha didn't just seem like she was being neglected, but as if she wasn't liking a less needy Pipi. Pipi starts harboring secrets, some pretty mean, but some about her new friends. Ricky and Sarah have their own secrets to hide, and even Frau Jacobs has a secret backstory that Pipi has to make a choice about sharing. She despises Frau Jacobs, but should she share information that could really hurt her? She's been that hurt and embarrassed person. What did it teach her?

Over time, Vrabel manages to win the reader over, and toward the middle of the book, the more frequent cameo appearances of Reckless Club members like Jason, Lilith, Ally, and Rex (now all high schoolers), keys readers of her earlier novel as to the arc of this one. "Hurt people hurt people" as one teacher says and Jason is on hand to tell Pipi at key moments that there's always a way out of the cycle of hurting. Even her stepdad is on hand to point out that if Pipi has a problem she can't fix, there's a lesson there about her. I ended up really enjoying Pipi's growth in the novel, along with that of Ricky, Sarah, and Eliza.

This is another great middle grade book, for every kid that has thought about "going dark" on those who have bullied them. The only way to stop a cycle of bullying is... to say "enough!" But how you do it matters. Here's to Pip or Pippa, on her way to ninth grade with a pack of new friends.

I received a Digital Review Copy from Hachette via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews