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Hot Mess

Hot Mess

HumorMiddle Grade
Pages
224
Published
2024
Language
English

Synopsis

One enormous family plus one beach house equals a recipe for disaster for Greg Heffley. In book 19 of Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Greg's cool summer vacation is feeling a lot more like a meltdown.

The Heffleys decamp to a cramped beach house for Gramma's birthday, and Greg quickly discovers that when you mix heaps of relatives, sweltering heat, and no air conditioning, something is going to boil over. There's no privacy, nowhere to hide, and way too many family secrets rising to the surface — not least the closely guarded ingredients behind Gramma's famous meatballs, a recipe the family has protected for years.

Between beach mishaps, warring aunts and uncles, and his own scheme to make it big online, Greg has one summer to unpack his family's mysteries before the vacation ends. A sun-soaked, laugh-out-loud story of family chaos and heatwave-level awkwardness, told in the cartoons-and-diary-entries format that made the series a global hit — for readers aged 8 to 12.

Prose complexity
1/10

Vibe

FunnyLighthearted

Genres

Humor Middle Grade Children's Books Comic Fiction

About the author

J
Jeff Kinney

Jeffrey Patrick "Jeff" Kinney (born February 19, 1971, in Fort Washington, Maryland) is an American cartoonist, game designer and author of children's books, best known for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series. He is also the creator of the children-oriented website Poptropica. Kinney attended Bishop McNamara High School and graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park. He now lives in Plainville, Massachusetts, with his wife, Julie, and their two sons, Will and Grant, where the fami...

Characters

Greg HeffleyProtagonist

Stuck in a cramped beach house with his whole extended family for the summer.

GrammaSupporting

Greg's grandmother, whose birthday the family has gathered for — and whose famous meatball recipe is a closely guarded secret.

MannySupporting

Greg's younger brother.

SusanSupporting

Greg's mother.

Aunt GretchenSupporting

One of the relatives crowded into the beach house.

All characters in Hot Mess

Frequently asked questions

  • Do I need to read the previous books in the series to understand this one?

    The series is designed so that each installment functions as a standalone story, meaning you can jump into this book without having read any of the earlier entries.

  • How does the format of this book compare to others in the series?

    Like the rest of the series, this book maintains the signature hybrid format consisting of approximately fifty percent text and fifty percent hand-drawn cartoons.