June 10, 2026

On Suffering Sheila

Selections from one-star Goodreads reviews of Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great:

• The kids really wanted another Fudge book, so I picked this one up because it was listed as the next book in the Fudge “series.” Waste of time – Fudge is not in this book at all, and Sheila is not a main character I could root for.
• One thing I normally like about books is that the main character has an arc…they grow and change throughout the book. Sheila is as rude and annoying at the end as she is at the beginning.
• Listen, I understand kids come in all shapes and sizes, and some are a little messier and more complicated than others, that doesn’t necessarily make them bad protagonists. But when they’re so utterly unlikeable, and there’s no redemption at the end of the book? No thanks.
• Everything about this book annoyed me. I could not find one character that was redeeming–except for maybe the dog, Jennifer.
• The main character is an insufferable liar, know-it-all and lacks self-awareness…
• What a horribly selfish girl. At no stage did I find her redeemable or even likeable.
• I was really hoping she would have some kind of character arc by the end of the book, but she didn’t… Don’t let your kids read this one.
• I was hoping her behavior would be confronted as the story went along, but was disappointed. My children did not like the book either.
• Her attitude was terrible throughout the book and no repentance for the rudeness she portrayed her family. Not a good example of how I want my children to be reacting to the world around them.
• This was hard to get through. Sheila was a spoiled brat.
• We didn’t finish this one. Sheila is insufferable.
• stupid

As creator of a fleet of supposedly unlikeable female characters, I found these reviews clarifying, thinking about what readers demand of protagonists (main characters we can root for), and they also made me realize that this is Judy Blume’s bravest novel, even more than Forever, about a character who is undeniably flawed (we are all Sheila Tubman) and who never changes, and also can you IMAGINE the audacity of being somebody who’d give ACTUAL JUDY BLUME a one-star review?