Please Don’t Ignore Vera Dietz

Released: October 12, 2010

Please Ignore Vera Dietz
A.S. King
Knopf Books
Hardcover; 336 pages

Vera’s spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she’s kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything.

So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to?

Edgy and gripping, Please Ignore Vera Dietz is an unforgettable novel: smart, funny, dramatic, and always surprising.

Brent’s opinion of the novel:
      Please Ignore Vera Dietz opens up with a death. And a funeral. Vera Dietz, entering her senior year of high school, has to attend her best friend’s funeral. Her best friend who she loved once. Her best friend who she hates now. Her best friend who screwed her over. Her best friend who died. Her best friend who’s secrets she always kept, who she secretly loved, who ruined everything for her.  Charlie, the “best friend,” died under dark circumstances, and Vera knows a lot more than everyone who’s making assumptions about his death. Vera knows that she should clear his  name… But does she even want to?
     Vera Dietz has got to be one of my favorite books of 2010. Because everything about it was perfect. The characters, the writing, the plot, the emotion. I felt it all. And loved it all. Vera Dietz and I would be best friends. I think anyone could be best friends with Vera, just because she’s so relatable, and real. And sarcastic. And emotional. And funny. Which goes with the sarcastic. And she’s outcasted from those snobby small-town I-Suck-That-Football-Player’s-Dick  girls. Which goes with the emotional. I don’t know. I just really, really, really, really loved Vera. Not in a Omigod-I’m-So-Fake-I-Love-You-Bffs-Forever-Girl kinda way, but in a I-Admire-Her-So-Much kinda way. You know, I think I really got Vera. She had all this anger and hurt and beauty shoved up inside of her.
      And Charlie, her best friend! Omg, y’all. I know it says “best friend” a lot in the description, but I like to look at Charlie as Vera’s boyfriend. Because that’s what they basically were. They just didn’t actually consider themselves as in a relationship because they were scared. Of all that a relationship entails. (Off-topic, but I wouldn’t know!!!! Because I’ve been single for soooo freakin’ long. Ugh.)  It kept me on the edge, seeing Vera and Charlie interact with each other. I mean, yeah, he’s dead, but there’re flash-backs and such. I also really loved how, in some chapters, Charlie—in all his deadness—will be the narrator, and get some words out to the reader.  It added a whole lotta depth to the story. A.S. King also wove dating violence and abuse into the story, and as you guys alreayd know, I'm a haa-uuuuuge women's rights person. I loved seeing those undertones in the story.
      I was equally in love with Amy King’s writing. It was beautiful, poetic, beautiful, poetic, oh, and beautiful and poetic. Did I mention beautiful and poetic? <—That is all.
       Despite the title’s request, don’t ignore Vera Dietz. Because her story is beautiful, and should not be ignored. I didn’t ignore Vera Dietz, I gave her attention. And I’m so (damn!) glad I did, because, as I said, her story is beautiful, and should not be ignored.

(In other words: BYE! GO, LEAVE, GET OFF MY BLOG AND GO READ THIS BOOK.)

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