Dork Diaries: Spectacular Superstar

Dork Diaries #14

by Rachel Renée Russell

Nikki und ihre Bandkollegen freuen sich auf einen fantastischen Sommer auf Tour als Vorgruppe der weltberühmten Bad Boyz!
Aber auch ihre beste Feindin, MacKenzie, schafft es irgendwie die Tour zu begleiten.
Entwickelt sich der Traum zu einem Alptraum?
Dann folgt auch noch die absolute Katastrophe: MacKenzie wird ihre Mitbewohnerin!
Das Drama geht weiter in DORK DIARIES Band 14.

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Young Adult

320 pages, Hardcover

Published October 31, 2019

About the author

Rachel Renee Russell is the #1 New York Times Best Selling author of the book series, DORK DIARIES, and the upcoming, THE MISADVENTURES OF MAX CRUMBLY to be released on June 7, 2016.

For more about Nikki's world visit www.DorkDiaries.com

For more about Max's world visit www.MaxCrumbly.com

Reviews

[Schizanthus Nerd · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need to just CHILLAX and stop WHINING about how AWFUL my life is (when in reality I’m actually very lucky)!

Exactly. Nikki has a loving family, two incredibly supportive best friends, a crush (who’s a sweetheart) who likes her back, and her band is going on tour as the opening act for a boy band. Life’s pretty sweet, right?

Okay, so maybe not …

Nikki is essentially the queen of catastrophic thinking at this point. Everything is the end of the world … until it suddenly all works out. I decided while reading the last book that I was done with this series but caved when I saw my library had purchased this one. I’m really done now. There’s still no character development and the sweet dork I met in the beginning of the series now only irritates me each time she complains about her charmed life.

There are plenty of quizzes scattered through this book to help you figure out which of the boy band members is for you. I loved these types of quizzes growing up and imagine a lot of readers will be marking their answers in the book. I’m not exactly sure why you’d want a boy band member choosing your prom dress or the colour of your lip gloss, but each to their own, I guess.

This series has a really passionate fan base and if it had been published when I was growing up I probably would still be part of the hype. Unfortunately it’s not the series I initially loved, and hasn’t been for a few books now, so it’s time for Nikki and I to part ways. I mean it this time! I’m rounding up from 2.5 stars.

And OMG! I’ve been through SO much DRAMA, it feels like my HEAD is going to EXPLODE into a glittery shower of FIREWORKS!!

[winnie m.]

Why am I strangely invested in this series?

[Trinity Prather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love dork diaries i hope the series never end .or people should make a movie about these 📚

[Scottsdale Public Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Tales from a not-so-best friend forever, Nikki's band named "Actually, I'm Not Really Sure Yet," goes on tour which is like a dream come true for Nikki. Her dream becomes a nightmare when her worst enemy becomes her roommate!
This book is filled with funny backstage drama about friendship and surviving your worst enemy. It's a great read filled with misadventure that Dork Diaries fans will love. – Yuvika A. (SPL Teen Volunteer)

[Nuria Pairó · Rating 1 out of 5]

I keep reading these books due to nostalgia and because my younger sister keeps buying them for herself. To be honest I feel the series has strayed far from its original charm of it being a story of a regular girl entering middle school and how it affects her. Now its more and more goofy every single book that comes out. Even with the nostalgia I can´t bring myself to enjoy the newer additions to the series; I'm curious of where the heck this series is going now that nikki is a international pop star, that's not relatable to young kids!!

[Yusra ❥ · Rating 1 out of 5]

If these characters just have one damn conversation-

I can't.. I hate this... I just wanted to read a short book..

[Cassidy · Rating 1 out of 5]

It pains me so much to do this, but Dork Diaries #14 has officially earned my second ever one star rating. It has also officially driven me away from this series. It hurts so much to say that. I vividly remember the first time I was introduced to the Dork Diaries series. I was in middle school and the librarian showed a video, a book trailer for the Dork Diaries series. It looked like such an awesome book I had to read it right away! I was right, the books were spectacular and easily one of my favorite book series at the time. I loved the books so much that I continued reading them through high school. Finally, I ended up in college and my love for this series started to wane. I wondered if it was simply because I had grown up and moved on to books more appropriate for my age range, but I still adore the middle grade Warriors and Survivors series from my childhood. Despite the decreasing quality of the Dork Diaries books, I clung to the nostalgia they stirred up in me and found that there were a few books worth sticking around for. I was so excited to read this entry in the series that I had it on my Christmas list, then when I didn’t get it as a gift I bought the book myself. I rushed through the most recent book I was reading because I wanted so badly to fall back into the cutesy world of Nikki Maxwell. I was sorely disappointed. This book seemed to have no cohesive plot at all. It was obvious that the focus of the book would be on the Bad Boyz tour, so I was confused as to why there were nearly eighty pages of what seemed like filler before Nikki’s band even began to practice for the tour. I know there was the whole drama of missing the phone call with Trevor, but that felt like such an artificial conflict that was cooked up to make the page count higher. Then the tour was under way and because Nikki can never get into any kind of trouble without the narcissistic (potentially sociopathic) MacKenzie Hollister being the source of every one of her problems, MacKenzie was clumsily shoehorned into the story. As usual, she lords her wealth and influence over Nikki, but this time none of her threats actually seem to matter. Yes, Nikki does freak out at first (she freaks out over everything in this book instead of going with the obvious solution, which she should have learned to stop doing 14 books into the series), but nothing ever comes of MacKenzie’s threats. The Boyz are hardly even characters themselves, and the quizzes about them seem to be both filler (again, to up the page count) and redundant ways of reinforcing that these Boyz do, in fact, have personalities even though they appear for only about five minutes worth of book content. The “conflict” that only seemed to exist to beat the dead horse of proving that MacKenzie is such a totally evil monster was resolved in one poorly written sequence of tell-not-show descriptions. Also can I stop for a moment and talk about how stereotypical and harmful MacKenzie’s character is? Sure, she was meant to represent the typical mean girl, but in the past few books it seems more like her only purpose is to show readers how horrible it is to pretty and like makeup and be popular. Because only the dorks have good personalities and the popular people are always evil yet somehow have the whole school worshipping them (although at this point Nikki has way more friends than MacKenzie and is arguably much more popular than her). Picking at MacKenzie for her vanity seems mean spirited at this point. Where was the depth we saw in her for all of two books? It made her character so much better.

This ended up being a much longer ramble than I thought it would be considering it’s 3 am. I guess that just goes to show how bitter of a taste this book left in my mouth. I had such high hopes for it and I wanted to hold onto the Dork Diaries series until its end. But at this point there seems to be no end in sight even though the people who work on the books have clearly run out of ideas. So I will be taking my leave from Nikki Maxwell. It truly saddens me to let go of one of my most beloved childhood series.

[Sophia]

THIS COVER AHAHAHAHA I HATE IT

**
post seeing this book irl
—
EW ITS EVEN WORSE IN PERSON

[Yeoyu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Series has gone completely downhill, instead of creating new events and trials for the characters it just builds and takes from previous ones which made it rediculously tedious and repetitive.

I loved the development of the lead's confidence over time, I like that she's gotten a lot more comfortable standing up for herself but this one defeats her back to where she was at book one. I simply don't think our lead is that stupid to let a mean girl blackmail her for something that is 10 times more of a threat the the blackmailer.

I also feel like the author has taken too much of a liking to the antagonist because 3 of the last 7 books (#8-14: the less good ones) have been named after her, and now she has a bigger role than every other side character. I think this weird obsession with the antagonist that the books have turned to has just disrespected key characters and relationships in the story. I'm pretty sure besides Chloe and Zoey, nobody else in the entire band (which this volume supposedly revolves around) had a single line. Actually looking back Violet had 1. BUT WUT ABOUT BRANDON THE LITERAL CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE FOR THE LEAD?? HE DIDNT HAVE ANY LINES OR EVEN SHOW UP IN THE PLOT IN THIS VOLUME EVEN THOUGH HE WAS THERE THE WHOLE TIME. WHAT ABOUT THE TWO GUYS THAT PLAY GUITAR AND BASE THAT I DONT EVEN REMEMBER THE NAMES OF BECAUSE YOU COMPLETELY NEGLECTED THEM EXCEPT TO FILL UP SPACE IN THE ILLUSTRATIONS?

My recommendation - books 1-7 are great and perfect for both middle graders and adults looking for middle grade antics but 7 is the best conclusion to the series, and anyone wanting to end on a high note should stop there. 7 is a great climax to the story and I feel like everything after that was just oh let's jump back in after it's all tied up to make some more money by using half-done plots.

I have grown with this series and cherished it since book one - which I first read when I was also a 7th grader so it hurts me to say that I've finally found a stopping point.

[K Whatsherface · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still a cute addictive series. I still think it's for a younger audience than middle schoolers

[Osaki]

Nice book

[Hayden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personally felt it was slow in the beginning and some of the drama was overused from past books but at the end of the book it finished nicely.

[rannveig]

nikkibrandon WHERE⁉️💔😐

[Roxy Moreno · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book “Tales from a Not-So-Best Friend'' by Rachel Renée Russell was an excellent book about a girl named Nikki going on tour with a famous boy band. Nikki and her band, “Actually, I’m Not Really Sure Yet” go on tour with the Bad Boyz. Nikki’s bully, Mackenzie ends up going on tour with them, even though she isn’t in their band. Nikki ends up roommates with Mackenzie on the whole tour, and Mackenzie makes Nikki clean up the room every time she makes a mess, and tries to ruin the tour for Nikki. This book is very exciting and full of drama, and overall, was a very good book. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys middle school drama. One thing I don’t like about this book and the whole series, is that after some crazy drama ends, something else happens?

[Cherie Blossom Okechukwu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dork Diaries books are so cool and good for middle school girls

[an_sunie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately this book just didn't live up to my expectations. I feel that the plot was not that entertaining (as it was in the previous books) and all the quizzes just felt like fillers.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all of the dork diary books so much this one is definitely the best out of all of them. she is THE best writer ever. if you are 8-12 you will love this book.

[Jasmine Gutierrez · Rating 2 out of 5]

It hurts to say but I don't think I can continue reading these series anymore. I really wish I could but maybe I'm just too old for these :'(
I couldn't even finish it tbh. It was too cheesy and predictable and I hate how every little thing that goes wrong means Nikki's life is a "giant bucket of puke". I think she lives a very fortunate life going on tour with a band and all that jazz. Plus these series are just dragging at this point. There's barely any character development for the main lead.
I gave it a generous 2 stars because these series mean a lot for me and I grew up in love with these books but now I think it's time to unfortunately let them go.

[Pashmina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finished in around an hour. Decent, but the plot wasn't as detailed nor dramatic as I expected, and after the climax, it just explained what happened afterward and bam, that was the end of the book... Definitely not the best Dork Diaries I've read...

[Emily Costa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like reading this book

[Ness · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me gustó bastante, pero creo que si Nikki hubiera revelado desde un principio el chantaje por parte de Mackenzie, se habría ahorrado muchos problemas.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

very very good. i know i said the last one might be my new favorite but i think this one was better. really enjoyed seeing nikki and her friends go on tour and so glad it all worked out for her and that mackenzie didn’t spoil it per usual.

[Kalayla Seehafer · Rating 4 out of 5]

OMG!! This was a really good book! Not my favorite of the Dork Diaries, but I finished it in just a few hours!
Nikki finally gets to go on her tour with Bad Boys-and MEET THEM!! SQUEEE!! But when McKenzie becomes the girl who posts about the trip AND Nikki's roomate will she survive? I love that she gets to meet this (extremely cute) boy band too. Also how they have quizzes throughout the book too!
SPOILER
I just don't like how Nikki barely even talks to McKenzie in the book. I think the title is a little misleading though. They don't become any closer as the cover (and back cover) make it seem.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nikki, Chloe, and Zoey and their band, Actually, I Don’t Really Know Yet are about to tour with the mega-star band, Bad Boyz...their dream come true. But, in true Dork Diaries fashion, problems arise (a missed phone call because of bratty little sister, Brianna), arch-enemies weasel their way into their lives ( MacKenzie Hollister), and Nikki gives some good, yet bad advice to the boy band.

Tales From a Not-So-Best-Friend Forever is the latest installment and will have those that love the series swooning and squeeee-ing with delight.

[Colleen Kirby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome! 👍🏻

I have been lovin’ it! I have been board out my mind, and now I have more reading material! I think 🤔 you should make a book that has Brandon’s point of view or other characters in Dork Diaries! Many even start a new series like that!
- Charlotte Nell Kolpak

[Diane Lynch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nikki and her friends get an opportunity to be the opening band for a popular rock group. Nothing goes as it should. Filled with drama and adventure.
This is written as a girls diary. Pictures and doodles included. My fourth grade niece requested it.

[Kiki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I recommend you to read this book, but I suggest that you should read the first 13 books. One aspect of the book that I liked was how the character never gave up. They kept their heads high and always found a way to reuse the situation or make it better.

[Nikoleta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for young girls that have fun reading and looking at cute illustrations!

[Chia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending was a little iffy and as compared to the other books of the series I honestly expected a little more drama