Reviews

The story is pretty easy to follow and digest, much like every book from this series. I just feel like this one has the same concept with The Long Haul, but the aforementioned book did the “road trip” concept better.

Also, I’m kinda confused as to why Greg keeps referencing the Bible all throughout? It seems to me that the author is running out of ideas for jokes.

galaxymutts's review against another edition

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4.0

The Heffley’s are tired of being cooped up in Gramma’s basement so they decide to travel across the land with an uncle’s RV. For maybe the first time ever, Greg is not an unbearable jerk face and his mom is getting to be a pretty annoying character. Overall, I throughly enjoyed their wacky, maybe predictable adventures.

tcgarback's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

⭐️⭐️⭐️
Critical Score: B-
Personal Score: B

I’m reading these super out of order, so I can’t speak on many of the books before this one, which is #15, but what stood out to me most is that this is a straight narrative, rather than the episodic norm. This structure actually hurts the humor a lot, as Kinney is great with anecdotes and tangents, and those are missing here.

So while The Deep End has a coherent and eventually super exciting singular plot-line, it is hugely lacking on the laughs. Also, he way overdoes the all caps. I don’t NEED every other WORD to be capitalized, especially when it doesn’t MAKE sense TO have it capitalized. So annoying.

And I feel like I’m ranting at this point, but I must say a lot of this just felt really juvenile and kiddish…obviously it’s a kids book, but the gags here lack a maturity I’ve seen in his other books.

Another thing lacking is the focus on character and Greg’s terrible personality. I’m realizing that’s part of what makes the other volumes so strong.

This sounds like a pan, but I didn’t hate the book. The storyline is really fun, and the final act is amusingly over the top.

But this is easily the worst of the four Whimpy’s I’ve read so far.

silverronin's review against another edition

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5.0

I thought it was going to turn out like a poor long haul, but it was really funny, especially the ending.

aura_34's review against another edition

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5.0

This was another story like the getaway where Heffley's head up for some "fun" family time which would turn out to be ironic. This time they gear up, take a camper van and head to many places for adventure. But eventually they would end up in some problem that would make them move to the next place. At last, they head to Campers' Eden a place for adventure. They have no fun for the first two days. And then Greg finds a group of people to play with and ends up in trouble. He tries to hide from the trouble and the a second trouble heads the Heffley's way - a thunderstorm. The thunderstorm breaks the bridge which brings goods to the place and people end up without food and water and many disasters started to happen. This is when the Heffley's have some REAL adventure! First they decide that they need to get out of this place as soon as possible, but the bridge is broken. So, Greg says that there was a shallow spot in the lake in Campers' Eden. He suggests that if they drove through the shallow spot in the lake MAYBE they can get out of this place. The family thinks that was a sensible idea and they head out to the lake all packed up. But again, unfortunately there was another storm and the lake started to flood. The first drawback was that the toilet started to flood into the camper van. So the family went up in the roof and the van started to float as no one was operating it! The second drawback was the bridge. They were floating towards the bridge and their heads could get chopped off! Greg noticed that a few seat cushions from the living room was floating in the water outside camper van. So, everyone jumped on it. Everyone except Manny. Manny was sitting in the DRIVER'S SEAT! And when he turned the steering wheel to a hard right, the camper van got stuck under the bridge. Guess what happened next! All camper vans copied Greg's idea and went past the bridge and escaped Campers' Eden until nobody was left except the Heffley's. The family decided to stay there. Soon enough the bridge was repaired and the goods started coming back again! The Heffley's ate like kings and left the place with an experience of awesome adventure!

ainay's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

dembury's review against another edition

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5.0

Still one of the best middle-grade book series out there today! The newest adventure has vibes very similar to book #9, "The Long Haul", but has enough fresh twists and takes that makes it a great addition to the series. This one also has a "happier" family ending than "Long Haul" which is nice to see. Dang, I love the Heffley family. :,)

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