"Monster High Diaries: Lagoona Blue and the Big Sea Scarecation" is a licensed book in the "Monster High" franchise, a franchise I admit I do not know much about. The book lists "Nessi Monstrata" as the author, which is obviously part of the book's joke. The book's format is to alternate third person chapters with "diary entries" in the first person.
As mentioned, I don't know much about this franchise, but from what I can gather it is about a high school full of monsters, including vampires, werewolves and the focus of this book, a sea monster. Despite their "monstrosity", the figures involved have nothing horrific, instead having pretty generic high school issues to deal with. Mostly, they seem to use a lot of puns. They "fang out" and call things "clawsome". Since the titular character of this book is also a sea monster, she also says things are "fintastic". Haha. I mean, I read all of Homestuck, so I can enjoy fish puns, but some of these are really a stretch as far as the entire "monster pun" thing goes. The title uses "scarecation". How is "scarecation" a pun? "scare" doesn't even come close to rhyming with "vac". Anyway, after having established that this book is about monsters, we learn the plot: Lagoona Blue is going on a cruise with her family. Unfortunately, during her vacation, she finds that Toralei, a mean werecat from her high school, is also on vacation. Toralei engages in some low grade bullying, which Lagoona is too kind to return, stating the golden rule for explanation. "Treat others as you would be treated".
So how will this resolve? Will Toralei admit that she is just acting mean to avoid looking weak? Will Lagoona and Toralei decide to make up and be at least somewhat friendly? Hint: Yes.
One of the most surprising things about this book is how it contrasts usage of terms about fear with a sunny outlook where no fear is present. There is no violence or enmity in the Monster High Universe. The characters say "Look on the Fright Side", because "Fright" means good---but is totally separated from emotions of fear. At this point, the reader of my review might be thinking "A book for middle school girls that you bought at the Dollar Tree for $1.25 doesn't meet your standards for psychological suspense and horror? What a tragedy for a 42 year old man!". But even given the target market, I found this book lacking. Compared to the Goosebumps: Slappyworld: Fifth-Grade Zombies book I read the day previously, this book was thin. Even the expected psychological conflicts or anxieties that could be addressed were skipped over, other than the core plot. Lagoona has no conflicts with her parents, for example, even though such a thing could be expected.
In fact, this book helped me come to a revelation that books (and not just books for young adults) have to have a sum total of paranormality and real conflict. For example, a book I read recently with elements of magical realism also had more realistic elements of family dysfunction. However, in a book like this, where the supernatural and paranormal is just a matter-of-fact part of the universe that mostly leads to a few puns, there is absolutely no conflicts that could be seen as controversial in real-world terms.
Also, this book comes with 24 pages of "diary" at the end, lined paper that the reader can use to write whatever they want. I may use these pages to copy parts of this review before putting it in a Little Free Library. It also contains illustrations of our fintastic Lagoona Blue, who is quite fetching and kawaii for a monster, and like Dean Pelton, I hope it doesn't awaken anything in me.