Be More Chill - Ned Vizzini

Well here is my first review. If you have any feed back about any changes you think I should make to my reviews just leave a comment :)

 

I just finished this book and over all I thought it was a really creative story. It starts out with Jeremy Heere who is the dorkiest guy in school and is also in love with an unattainable girl(aren't they always :P)named Christine and even though she isn't the prettiest or most popular girl in school he still fell for her hard. His life is full of humiliation and ridicule, in fact he can tell you exactly how many times a day he is publicly mortified.  He keeps track of this with his "Humiliation Sheets" which have categories for each of the following: Snicker, augh, Snotty Comment, Refusal to Return a Head Nod, Refusal to Return a Verbal Greeting, Refusal to Touch Hands,Public Denial of a Formerly Agreed-Upon Opinion, Refusal to Repeat a Joke and a Mortification Event. His friend tells him about a newly invented super-computer called a "Squip" which is basically a computer the size of a pill that you swallow and once it is ingested it goes through your blood stream and into your brain where it begins to tell you how to be better. It can tell you what T-Shirt to buy or what to say at an interview to get a new job. The Squip is not yet legal anywhere because there is still a few kinks but just like any other illegal product it is sold in the shadows. Jeremy is able to get ahold of one and after it is through his blood stream and in his brain, things start to get weird. All of a sudden there is a voice in his head -that sounds strangely like Keanu Reeves- telling him what to buy, how to get girls (and what to do once he's got them), how to drive, and even what to say. Within a few days he has completely reinvented himself. Now the prettiest and most popular girls are falling over themselves when he walks by but he still only wants Christine.  After a few parties, a school dance and a bad experience with Ecstasy he finally gets a chance to impress Christine, but he completely blows it because his Squip gives him some very bad advice ("be a jerk, it always impresses girls." says Keanu Reeves").  Remember those kinks I told you about earlier? Well apparently one of them is making bad calls about, well everything. The Squip explains to him that the only way to fix what happened is to stop the Squip with the fail-safe and try to patch things up with Christine. The fail-safe for a Squip is Mountain Dew Code Red. The Squip also says it can help Jeremy with Christine, but Jeremy is unsure about it since it messed everything up in the first place, but he gives it a shot to explain. The Squip's idea is to explain everything to Christine, including the Squip. Jeremy decides that it's a good idea and the squip suggests explaining it in a DVD but Jeremy thinks a novel would be a better idea. 

And the final chapter, chapter forty-nine consists of one single sentence "So here you go, Christine. It's not a letter it's a whole book. I hope you like it." 

I think this is a great read for anyone who needs a laugh but still want it to have some kind of story to it. I think anyone in High School or even Middle School can relate very easily to this book but it isn't so "teen angsty" (as my mom would say) that it is impossible for anyone over the age of 15 to read. It is a really creative story and I think Ned Vizzini is a great writer! (I will more than likely be reviewing his latest book "It's Kind Of A Funny Story")

Book Rating: ****