Book Review: Please Ignore Vera Dietz-A.S. King

"Is it okay to hate a dead kid? Even if you loved him once? Even if he was my best friend? Is it okay to hate him for being dead?”

This is going to be a ramble-y review(though I never seem to do non ramble-y reviews...) This book made me FEEL. It was one of those rare reads that consumed me from the start to the very end.

It broke my heart. It made me angry. It filled me with the memory of teenage angst and longing and all that horrible stuff.

Vera. Vera Dietz is definitely one of my characters of the year(along with Liesel from The Book Thief, Lola from LATBND and Enzo from TAORITR). She had such a unique voice that it was absolutely refreshing. It gets old reading about characters who are dull and have no personality.

Vera Dietz is a teenage girl who is dealing with the death of her "best friend", Charlie. It could've been so different. I didn't expect to read about how angry Vera was at Charlie. I wasn't expecting to read "I hate him". That's why it was so brilliant. It is refreshing and real.

Reading this book reminded me of the first time I read Speak by Laurie Anderson. Vera's voice reminded me of Melinda. Honest, raw, clever, witty, interesting, unforgettable.

Charlie was a complex character, as well. The thing was, the book made me hate him and love him, so I completely understood how Vera felt about him. A.S King wrote the character so perfectly. At times, I honestly did hate him quite a lot for hurting Vera but I hated that he had died. It hurt knowing that those two characters would never get the chance to repair their beautiful friendship.

The fact that you knew Charlie was dead from the beginning was interesting. You read about memories Vera has of him and sometimes the memories make you feel so much loss and sometimes they make you angry.

There were so many moments where I felt like the story just wasn't fair. It gets under your skin.

I adored the writing. I loved the characters. The book was incredibly complex and it's hard to sort through my thoughts and feelings about it.

I will probably think of other things to say but I'm kind of blanking. It was just so intense and full of personality. I really recommend it and I'm giving it 5 stars because it made me feel so much.

“I mean, I ignore plenty of stuff, like school spirit days and the dirty looks i get from the Detentionheads while I try to slink through the halls unnoticed. But there's something about telling other people what to ignore that just doesn't work for me. Especially things we shouldn't be ignoring.

Hear that girl in your class is being abused by her stepfather and had to go to the clinic? Hear she's bringing her mother's pills to school and selling them to pay for it? Ignore. Ignore. Ignore. Mind your own business. Don't make waves. Fly under the radar. It's just one of those things, Vera.

I'm sorry, but I don't get it. If we're supposed to ignore everything that's wrong in our lives, then I can't see how we'll ever make things right.”