Line #32 YMMV/TheClique


1	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Are Claire, Dylan and Kristen bullies or bully ''victims'' who play along with Massie and Alicia because they're so afraid of them? The final books in the series very strongly hint towards this.
2	%%** Alicia and her cousin Nina's implied promiscuousness and strange behavior is a result of sexual abuse. %%why? what is canon's stance on this? is there any evidence? etc.
3	%%** Massie is a sociopath and/or mentally ill. %% why?
4	%%** Dylan has a developing eating disorder. %%why?
5	* BrokenAesop: The story often flip flops between elaborating on the true meaning of friendship and how the concept of controlling, social hierarchies and cliques is inherently toxic, while at the same time allowing the titular clique that embodies these flaws never face any karma for their misdeeds, no matter how drastic or scarring they may be.
6	* CriticalDissonance: Meager critical respect did little to quell this series' popularity back in the day. Today, it's a different story.
7	%%* DesignatedHero: Due to ValuesDissonance, the entire Pretty Commmittee is this.
8	* DiagnosedByTheAudience:
9	** Massie shows several classic traits of [[TheSociopath sociopathy]], such as her reliance on emotional manipulation and bullying to get her way, viewing almost everyone around as merely pawns to her social status, and her obsession with always being on the top regardless of who she has to hurt to get there. There's a WMG detailing it, though it's unknown if she was intentionally written that way.
10	** Alicia trusts ''nobody'', is willing to backstab ''anyone'', and wants nothing more than to be the center of attention at all costs. And is also occasionally implied to be sexually active. At 12-13. %%What disorder?
11	%%* DracoInLeatherPants: Disturbingly, Massie and Alicia get a lot of this (mostly by younger fans). %%how are they perceived and how are they, actually?
12	%%* EnsembleDarkhorse:
13	%%** Layne, to many who dislike {{Alpha Bitch}}es in general.
14	%%** Claire, in the first couple books, before she [[BecomingTheMask became the mask]].
15	* EsotericHappyEnding: In the final book [[spoiler: Massie leaves The Pretty Committee behind due to her father getting a job in England, forcing her to start high school away from her initial clique. A BittersweeetEnding in some regards but this only drives the point home about the series KarmaHoudini ideology as moving to a new country with reinstated wealth isn't what one would call a punishment. Not to mention that Massie leaves [[TheStarscream Alicia]] of all people in charge of the clique now, whose probably the only one out of her group of friends who could qualify as legimiately evil.]]
16	* FriendlyFandoms: Many fans of the series became ''Literature/GossipGirl'' fans.
17	* GrowingTheBeard: Starting with ''These Boots are Made for Stalking'' and ''My Little Phony''. There's more meaningful character development (particularly with Claire, Massie, and Layne and Cam) compared to most of the other books and a lot of the {{Flanderization}} that was going on gets undone -- in particular, the characters actually start to ''mature'' and Claire finally grows out of letting Massie remold her into yet another PC clone and tries to stand up to her. In short, the series finally becomes the series people were actually expecting/hoping for. Unfortunately, it came too little too late, in the third-to-last and second-to-last books out of a nearly two-dozen long-running series most people want to forget.
18	* HardToAdaptWork: Despite its popularity in the 2000s, the premise and writing of the series makes it difficult to adapt. It's an IndecisiveParody told from the point-of-view of a ''middle school-aged'' AlphaBitch and her GirlPosse. The characters are unsympathetic and regularly exhibit TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior. It's not family-friendly enough for mainstream adaptations, so the only adaptation was a niche DirectToVideo film.
19	* HarsherInHindsight:
20	** The plastic surgery jokes are this now that preteens getting them has been revealed to sadly be TruthInTelevision.
21	** Nowadays, girls are dressing too old for their age and are being sexualized like the Pretty Committee.
22	** Now that more is known about eating disorders, nearly everything about Dylan has become this.
23	* HollywoodPudgy: Dylan. Even the girl portraying her in the official photos is incredibly skinny. Even the girls In-Universe point this out.
24	%% JerkassWoobie: Massie, with emphasis mostly on jerkass.
25	%%* LoveToHate: Massie and Alicia were presumably meant to be this.
26	* NauseaFuel:
27	** The author's CostumePorn is described as if the Pretty Committee are in their twenties when they are much younger, which makes it feel like paedophilia and can be very off-putting.
28	** 12-13 year old girls with ''breast implants''.
29	* NightmareFuel: The implication that Alicia was forced by her parents to get breast implants stands out due to how upsetting it is.
30	%%* ParodyRetcon: When the series suffered major backlash in TheNewTens, the author made several posts about it online that ''strongly'' come across as this trope. %%explain how??
31	* PortmanteauCoupleName: Among the genuine fans, Massington (Massie/Derrington); Clam (Claire/Cam); Dolert (Dylan/Plovert); Jalicia (Josh/Alicia); Closh (Claire/Josh).
32	* ReplacementScrappy:
33	** Alicia tries to bring in In-Universe examples when she tries to form her own clique: "Strawberry" for Dylan, Kori for Kristen, "Faux-Livia" for herself and herself for Massie. It ends up failing miserably, partly because Alicia can't help but think of them as Replacement Scrappies for her real friends (and partly because the "knockoffs" are TooDumbToLive)
34	** Ironically enough these same "knockoffs" form [[spoiler:''Claire's'' own (very short-lived) "anti-"clique]] in ''My Little Phony''.
35	** When Alicia starts yet ''another'' clique (this time by stealing away the originals) Massie is desperate enough to outright hire her own Replacement Scrappies from a talent agency, this time handpicked based on ''not'' resembling the people they replace (though she can't help herself on some points, picking a girl known for starring in commercials as a soccer player ala Kristen who also co-starred with Claire on ''Dial L for Loser''). It doesn't end well, for the exact same reasons why Alicia's first attempt failed.
36	* RetroactiveRecognition:
37	** Hey look, [[Music/BridgitMendler Teddy]] and [[Series/HowToRock Molly]] [[Series/GoodLuckCharlie are still friends]]!
38	** [[Series/SwitchedAtBirth Vanessa Marano]] and Creator/ElizabethGillies too!
39	* TheScrappy:
40	** Cam tends to fall towards this, if nothing else dragging Claire down with him through her constant obsession with him.
41	** Alicia due to the nightmarish amounts of {{squick}} she tends to cause in most readers. Even back in the series' heyday there were many fans who geniunely disliked her.
42	* {{Squick}}:
43	%%** Nina, especially when you [[FridgeHorror think about her a bit]].
44	** Todd ''putting hidden cameras in Massie's shower. The same shower his sister uses.''
45	** The sexualization of middle school aged girls ''really'' hasn't fared well with most readers. Some reviewers have even compared this to ''child porn''.
46	** As well as the fact that a lot of the preteen characters have had ''plastic surgery''.
47	** The implication that Alicia's breasts are implants. As well as the hints that she might be sexually active. Some find the idea of a preteen girl with a chest that large in general to be this.
48	** Cam is rightfully grossed out when he finds out Alicia (a fellow seventh grader) wants to go out with his older brother, Harris, who is in his junior year of high school.
49	%%* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Some people's reaction to ''Kristen'' in the Summer Collection.
50	%%* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Some think this could've worked better as a straight {{Deconstruction}} or a BlackComedy.
51	* TooBleakStoppedCaring: A common complaint about the series, mostly due to the ChronicBackstabbingDisorder and unsympathetic characters. The fact that [[KarmaHoudini nobody suffered in the end]] apparently angered quite a few readers. And anything even ''remotely'' resembling CharacterDevelopment happens so late in the series you wonder why the author even bothered.
52	%%* ToyShip: They're 11-13, all of the ships are like this.
53	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: It's ''very'' clear this series was envisioned before [[TurnOfTheMillennium The Great Recession]] came along. Pretty much everything about it displays the materialistic excesses of 2000s pop culture.
54	%%* {{Wangst}}: Dylan and her weight.
55	%%* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: Believe it or not, the target audience for this was preteen girls. ...yeah.
56	%% TheWoobie: Claire, Dylan and Kristen.
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Context YMMV / TheClique