The 826 Quarterly, Volume 8 Book

I remember reading this book as a kid, and all I remembered was the bit about the underpants and the edited note. I picked it up at a used bookstore today and finished it in one afternoon.

For a book about secret clubs and petty teenagers and mean-spirited pranks, this wasn't bad. Actually, it was pretty good. I liked that Laura was a brat of a protag who did mean things but wasn't entirely unlikeable and you actually felt sorry for her when she got hurt and screwed over. I was sorry she didn't get to have her revenge on Sheila and Howard, but I was glad to see Gabriel put them in their place and get away with it due to the fact that them scalping Laura was infinitely worse. (Seriously, I read that part over at least five times, so satisfying.)

Sheila was definitely the most annoying character in the book. At least the other Monkey Town members had sympathetic qualities, but Sheila was just a jealous whiny bitch. I liked the accuracy in that some people are just dicks and assholes, but I still hated Sheila.

And of course it's only the heroine who has to learn a lesson in the end, but at least her friends and classmates are implied to have learned something as well since they made up with her offscreen and helped her with the dictionary assignments. And at least Sheila and Howard got suspended, and probably screamed at by their parents for what they did.

So overall, I actually liked this book. I was a little wary of it due to having a kneejerk hate for petty middle school bullshit (having been on both sides of that) but this one was well-handled.