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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess is the 19th book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series which released on October 22nd, 2024. The cover was revealed on January 26th, 2024.[1] The cover shows Greg in a giant plate with a pile of spaghetti and meatballs.
Main Characters
- Greg Heffley
- Gramma (Main antagonist)
- Aunt Cakey
- Dazzle
- Vincent
- Rodrick Heffley
- Susan Heffley
- Manny Heffley
- Frank Heffley
See minor characters
Synopsis
In Hot Mess, book 19 of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series from #1 international bestselling author Jeff Kinney, Greg Heffley is in for a particularly awkward summer with his whole family.
The pressure is building for Greg Heffley, who discovers that when you mix heaps of family, a tiny beach house, and sweltering heat, it's a recipe for disaster.
Speaking of recipes--the secret ingredients behind Gramma's famous meatballs have been closely guarded for years. Can Greg unpack all of his family's mysteries before their vacation is over? Or will he just stir the pot?
This sidesplittingly relatable summer story is the funniest Wimpy Kid book yet!
Plot
June
Greg starts off by stating that the first thing that kids pick up on, when they are born, is that grownups are the ones in charge but they also have family members who are supervising them. After Meemaw passed away, Gramma took charge as the head of the family by cooking a delicious pot of meatballs that everyone deemed as excellent. Since then, everyone has been attempting to overtake her as head of the family wherever its from creating a new recipe or trying to steal it. Greg hopes that Gramma reveals the recipe soon as she is just starting to age and has moved into a retirement home a couple of days ago.
For her 75th birthday, Gramma wants her family to revisit Ruttyneck Island to retake a picture of them relaxing on the beach which she still keeps with her to this day. Greg is not excited for this trip as the family has grown a lot since then and Susan’s sisters have a ton of animosity between each other.
Susan tries hyping up the trip by displaying her old photo albums but there was often times, a picture where something was cut off; Susan explained that Gramma would exclude old dates from the photo albums after they had dispersed which explained some of Greg's past memories of playing with an envelope full of random cutout teenagers. Eventually, Gramma got fed up of excluding them and so she established a rule where others aren't allowed to be in photos unless they are a family member. This is pretty awkward for Vincent who has been dating Aunt Cakey for about six years. Vincent seems to have been planning a proposal to Aunt Cakey for a while now, but he requires Gramma's permission, who Greg deduces is just going to maintain it for as long as possible.
After onboarding a bumpy ferry ride to Ruttyneck Island, Greg's family entered their old beach house which Aunt Gretchen and her two boys had already occupied. The two biggest bedrooms are already in use by them along with Aunt Veronica and her dog, Dazzle. Greg is surprised that she arrived early since she has been unable to depart her apartment ever since her dog got famous.
After her social media followers became only interested in her dog during her money investing livestreams, Aunt Veronica capitalized off it by converting it into her entire brand. Within a year, Dazzle had gained over 3.7 million followers and a line of products themed around them. Since social media came with a lot of strain for Aunt Veronica, she decided to employ a team to assist her. However fame has only continued to trouble her and recently she had to move to a new apartment, across the city, for better security. Just prior to the trip, Aunt Veronica uploaded a picture of Dazzle in front of the Eiffel Tower, to divert her follower's attention away from her; however this has only caused it to attract more interest due to a sloppy editing mistake of the dog having five paws.
Half an hour later, the last two sisters, Aunt Audra and Aunt Cakey arrive and they both occupy the last two single beds. Greg notices that Susan and Cakey seem to be in conflict with each other and the only person Cakey treats worse is Frank so he believes he might’ve upset her at one point. Frank and Susan use up the remaining bunk bed and the rest of the family is left to scramble for some sleeping arrangement; Greg avoids the couch due to its stench, leaving him sleeping on the floor and being disturbed by his family for the rest of the night.
The next morning, Greg intended to get a few more hours of rest but Susan forces everyone to get prepared for a day at the beach. After being forced to haul all of their gear through a plover nesting area, the family gets fully settled at it. Susan tries to encourage everyone to go for a swim however Greg avoids it due to his fear of what could be inside and his lack of confidence in lifeguards. Greg feels bad for Frank as Aunt Cakey deceives him into going back and forth to gather up missing supplies. After Greg realizes that some strangers were purloining their drinks, he writes "human organs" on it to deter anyone else from doing so. Susan forces Greg and his brothers to play with her old beach toys but after he accidentally irritates people while drifting a kite, Greg decides to just tie it onto the cooler.
After dozing off for a few hours, Greg awakens to the tide passing through his family’s belongings, forcing him to recollect them. After fretting that a jellyfish had grasped him from a clump of seaweed, Greg tries absconding a hunk of sand from his bathing suit, causing a lifeguard to drag him away. When the cooler starts drifting away with the kite due to its reserve being removed, Greg discontinues trying to fetch it after it enters the plover nesting area.
After returning to the beach house, Greg waits in line for a shower however when he enters, it is a mess from those who previously occupied it. Since everyone is frustrated from how long each person took, Susan organizes a bathroom timetable for everyone. Following the family tradition of cooking home-made meals on vacations, everyone focuses on preparing their own spaghetti for the meatballs that Gramma sent. But since everyone has different approaches to cooking, it results in them starting huge fusses over how to handle it. Once the spaghetti is finally ready, Gramma's individual bags of meatballs are distributed, indicating to how favored people are over others. Greg feels sorry for Vincent since he didn’t receive a bag due to not officially being part of the family yet and Aunt Cakey not being willing to share.
When Aunt Gretchen begins discussing politics, Susan establishes a list of "safe topics" that wouldn’t cause any arguments. However, Aunt Cakey launches into a quarrel about Susan stealing her boyfriend last vacation to Ruttyneck Island, causing everyone else to feel uncomfortable and clean up. Later that night, Greg answers the door to Uncle Gary, who tracked them down after failing to apply for Wild William in Skullduggery Cove due to it rebranding itself as a butterfly sanctuary. Uncle Gary joins in on the trip which Frank isn’t pleased about, providing him money to try to convince him to book a ferry ticket home.
The next morning, everyone starts proposing activities to do, but Susan shuts them all down in favor of ones the whole family could enjoy. After narrowing it down to mini golf and a Lighthouse tour, the family settles on the latter after the lighthouse people persuade Rodrick to vote on their side with half a bag of chips. Once they arrive, Susan manages to cut in line by snagging the last 10am tickets online which everyone else isn't too pleased about. Rodrick vends his ticket off to someone at the end, but before Greg could, Susan ends up thwarting him. During the tour, the guy is extremely interested about the lighthouse and he drags it out by asking multiple questions to the guide. After ascending the stairs which was congested by the 9:30 group, Greg has to be transported out of the lighthouse due to him dreading going through that again.
After eating leftovers, Greg participates in multiple board games with his family where they have to guess a drawing, and insinuate a secret word without using certain ones that were related. After Aunt Cakey again brings up Susan stealing her boyfriend as an allude to one of the words, Susan retrieves another game from the cabinet called the Boardwalk Baron, where the aim was to purchase properties while in turn, bankrupting the other players. Frank is excited because he grew up playing this, yet Susan rejects it as she thinks it teaches people how to be greedy. But after she gets overruled, she decides to take a break. Everyone agrees that there should be a penalty for losing the game, and so they eventually settled on them having to sing on the boardwalk until they gather 20 dollars.
However, this penalty makes the game extremely competitive and everyone argues for a while over if certain actions counted. Everyone agrees that landing in jail should be more punishing, and so they convert the beach house's portable crib into a jail. After a while, everyone starts becoming worn out besides for Manny, who is winning the game by filling up a whole column with properties. People start purposely landing themselves in jail to avoid losing by landing on any of Manny's properties, until Frank and a handful of people are left in the game. Frank tries persuading Manny to allow him to precede safely through his column of properties, but Manny refuses, resulting in Frank losing the game by landing on them. Susan wakes up to the others cheering about not losing, and while they begin discussing further punishments to give to a second-place loser, Susan concludes the game by shoving it into the trash.
The following morning, Susan takes a break from starting family arrangements, allowing Greg to traverse the island by himself. Susan grants Greg her phone and he visits multiple places with air conditioning to escape Frank singing on the boardwalk and the hot weather from outside. While attending an author's book talk, Greg receives a notification from Susan's phone, on the family group chat, opening him up to the corny messages his family has sent. Greg gets the idea to start up his own social media account and he bases it around one lick ice cream reviews since it was a unique gimmick that nobody has thought of. After Greg uploads his first review to minimal success, he converts his profile to a picture of him and Dazzle for some free publicity. Shortly after, Greg gets blasted by a hose for trespassing on someone's property, resulting in Susan's phone malfunctioning.
To get the phone functioning again, Susan places into a rice bag so it can absorb the water. Since everyone forgot to transport white clothes for their family picture, Aunt Gretchen decides that the adults should go clothes shopping while the rest cook dinner. However the kitchen quickly dwindles into a mess from them cooking different recipes at once, resulting in everyone starting to propose different restaurants instead. However, Palazzo Pomodoro is the only restaurant that is available and Susan and her sisters refuse to eat there since Gramma believes that the food is unauthentic. But with no further options left, they end up reserving a table and dressing up for their family picture scheduled for later.
Once the Heffleys arrive, the hostress couldn't find their registration on the system, leading to them impersonating a large party who hadn't yet attended. Conversation circulates around the table and Aunt Cakey is finally ready to excuse Susan for stealing her boyfriend but just then, Uncle Gary reveals that Frank was her date. He divulges that Cakey met Frank while he was a lifeguard but he quickly fell for Susan, resulting in Gramma forcing her to compromise by giving up her favorite belongings.
After that shocking revelation, the table suddenly turns silent until their food is delivered as everyone discovers that the meatballs taste identical to Grammas. Everyone starts accusing each other of selling the recipe and they interrogate the kitchen where the manager dismisses them. After the Heffleys start skirmishing against the family they impersonated, the manager notifies the cops where Vincent retreats, denying any involvement with them. After the cops survey each family, they transport the Heffleys to the station over the "human organs" cooler message until Greg clarifies it not to be true. The police feel pity for the Heffleys not being able to capture the family picture they desire and so they decide to volunteer the best they can.
Early next morning, Greg awakens to crowds of people lingering around their porch due to Dazzle's fans locating her through his profile picture. The Heffleys decide to abbreviate their vacation and they flee through the back window, disguising Dazzle. After onboarding a boat to shore, the Heffleys realise that Dazzle has retreated and Aunt Veronica reports her departure to the police. The Heffleys decide to surprise Gramma for her 75th birthday but after they get denied by security, they trespass from out back. Gramma's apartment room transpires to be locked and the Heffleys discover that she is instead hosting a party inside of the rec center without them. Once the party diminishes, Gramma apologies, explaining that she just didn’t want to deal with any family drama this year. Gramma asks everyone to assist in tidying the rec center and Vincent transpires to be doing just alright, texting a picture of him now residing on the island alongside Dazzle.
Gramma asks Greg to transfer the waste to the dumpster but it is too laden causing him to burst it open, discovering an empty bag of Palazzo Pomodoro meatballs. Greg realises that Gramma has been buying them the whole time and when she encounters Greg clutching the plastic bag, neither of them know how to respond. Greg contemplates disclosing to the rest that Gramma's meatballs are store-brought but he visualises a reality in which he retains Gramma's secret to himself and becomes the new head of the Heffley family. Greg decides to promise Gramma that he will retain her secret to himself and even though he feels pity for cutting in line, he reflects that sometimes things can get a little messy.
Sneak Peek
Trivia
- This is the first book since The Meltdown to have Jeff Kinney's name in the bottom-center of the cover.
- This is the first book to include Greg's updated design in the character order.
- This is the first book since Wrecking Ball to have Greg in a pile of something in the cover, with Wrecking Ball having Greg in a pile of debris, this book has him in a pile of spaghetti.
- This is the third book to focus on Greg's extended family, with the first being The Ugly Truth and the second being Hard Luck.
- According to Jeff Kinney's Instagram, the developmental titles for the book were "Short Fuse", "Boiling Point", "Pressure Cooker" and "The Wringer" until he eventually landed on Hot Mess.[2]
- "The Wringer" apparently was a really close second.
- If "The Wringer" was chosen, it would be the eighth book with the word "the" in the title.
- This is the first book to have lowercase letters in the book title.
- This is the third book with a red cover. The first was Diary of a Wimpy Kid and the second was Double Down.
- Greg makes a nod to the Odyssey which he believes makes it evident that the Greek gods don’t like people interfering with places they don’t belong.
- Vincent, Malvin and Malcom watch Survivor on TV with Jeff Probst as host.
- "The Great Cake Fakeout" is a reference to the Netflix show "Is it Cake"?
- The board game, Boardwalk Baron, is a parody of Monopoly.
- On page 147, the family appears to be playing Telestrations.
- The game "Mmph" is a parody of the game Taboo.
- According to Jeff, the book cover process usually takes months to pull off but this one only took a week and a half.[3]
- This is the second book to have the cover revealed in any month other than May. The first is Dog Days.
- This is the first book to have the entire cover process showcased online.[4]
- This book is the fifth book released in the 2020s, following The Deep End, Big Shot, Diper Överlöde and No Brainer.
- This is the fourth book where the Heffleys went on vacation. The first one was The Long Haul, second is The Getaway and the third one is The Deep End.
- This is the fifth book where Greg makes peace with the main antagonist of the book preceding Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rodrick Rules, the Last Straw and Hard Luck.
- Greg notes how the Jeffersons are members of the local country club -- this book reveals that Rowley and his parents eat at their country club at least once a week, with the menu being entirely in French.
- Rowley's shown to know French, or at least well enough to make an order at the country club.
Mistakes/Errors
- Greg mentions that Gramma is 75 years old[5] and is the youngest of 4 sisters[6]—meaning that her sisters are in their late seventies/early eighties at least. However, in Hard Luck, Gramma’s father Peepaw was said to be alive at 93. This would mean Peepaw was 18 when he had Gramma, and only around 12 years old at most when he had Gramma’s oldest sister (Misconception).
- On page 164, a person's eyebrows are not connected.
Gallery
See Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess/Gallery
