History YMMV / TheClique

*** As well as the fact that a lot of the preteen characters have had ''plastic surgery''.

* HarsherInHindsight: Recent events having to do with bullying have made this series incredibly hard to enjoy. The treatment of Claire in the first few books goes from DudeNotFunny to downright ''horrifying''.

** 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.

* HollywoodPudgy: Dylan. Even the girl portraying her in the offical photos is incredibly skinny.
** Even the girls In-Universe point this out.

* NauseaFuel: 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 {{Lolicon}} and can be very off-putting.

* {{Squick}}: Nina, especially when you [[FridgeHorror think about her a bit]].
** Todd ''putting hidden cameras in Massie's shower.''
*** ''The same shower his sister uses.''

* HollywoodPudgy: Dylan. Even the girl portraying her in the offical photos is incredibly skinny, to the point of anorexic.

** The sexualization of middle school aged girls ''really'' hasn't fared well with most readers. Some have even called this {{Lolicon}}.

* HollywoodPudgy: Dylan. Even the girl portraying her in the offical photos is incredibly skinny.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Is Massie a sociopath or somebody who acts cool and distant due to her relationship with her parents?
** Is Alicia a horrible person who doesn't understand friendship or somebody who has been overshadowed her whole life by her cousins (and Massie for that matter)?
** Does Dylan have an eating disorder or is she just a normal teenager with body issues?

* LoveItOrHateIt

** The implication that Alicia's breasts are implants.

* WereStillRelevantDammit: Which is why this series probably won't get a revival anytime soon.

* CritcialDissonance: Meager critical respect did little to quell this series' popularity back in the day. Today, it's a different story.

* ToyShip: They're 11-13, all of the ships are like this.

** The Dylan subplots have been accused of mocking people with eating disorders, something which many people feel is no laughing matter.

** The implication that Alicia's breasts are implants. (She's ''twelve'')

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: A common complaint about the series, mostly due to the ChronicBackstabbingDisorder and unsympathetic characters. The fact that nobody suffered in the end apparently angered quite a few readers.

* {{Flanderization}}: With each book Dylan becomes a bigger BigEater and gets more disgusting.
** And Kristen gets more paranoid and uptight about grades and getting grounded.
** And Claire obsesses more over her relationship status with Cam.
** And Layne becomes more and more of a GranolaGirl - and ''then'' further Flanderized into an outright NewAgeRetroHippie SoapboxSadie.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: It's a series told from the AlphaBitch's point of view. If you don't like that character type there's a good chance you won't be interested.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: A common complaint about the series, mostly due to the ChronicBackstabbingDisorder and unsympathetic characters.

** The Dylan subplots have been accused of mocking people with eating disorders.

* WereStillRelevantDammit

** The sexualization of middle school aged girls ''really'' hasn't fared well with most readers. It's MostWritersAreAdults taken to an extreme.

* HarsherInHindsight: Recent events having to do with bullying have made this series incredibly hard to enjoy. The treatment of Claire in the first few books goes from DudeNotFunny to ''horrifying''.

** The sexualization of middle school aged girls ''really'' hasn't fared well with most readers.

* HarsherInHindsight: Recent events having to do with bullying have made this series incredibly hard to enjoy.

** The Dylan subplots have been accused of mocking and making fun of girls with body issues and/or eating disorders.

** 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. It doesn't end well, for the exact same reasons why Alicia's first attempt failed.

* 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 - 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.

* DeaderThanDisco: Seems to have become this in recent years, for several different reasons (the pop culture references aging badly, society frowning on ''anything'' bullying related, etc.).