Please Ignore Vera Dietz, by A. S. King.

This book evoked mixed feelings in several friends, but overall, I liked it.  Vera seemed pretty realistic in terms of not wanting to/not being able to talk about her feelings about her mom leaving, her dad withdrawing and especially her best friend's abandonment and then death.  She also seemed realistic in her self-destructive behavior, needing an outlet for the things she couldn't figure out how to express otherwise.  My main quibble is that Vera seemed to get over her dabbling with alcohol pretty easily - maybe she wasn't a full-fledged alcoholic, but she was definitely using it as a crutch, and that need seemed to evaporate after getting blotto and beaten up at the work Christmas party.  That struck me as a pat way of dealing with her developing problem.


Although the book is dealing with sensitive subjects like parental abandonment, death of a friend, ignoring domestic abuse, a budding psychopath and alcoholism, the more disturbing subplot, in opinion, revolved around Charlie's dealings with "John" - an adult male who paid Charlie for years for his dirty underwear and, subtext seems to indicate, for sexual favors, either direct or vicariously as Charlie got a little older.  John is referred to as a pervert but the book doesn't really address how Charlie was victimized or how that victimization effected him.  That could be triggering to someone with sexual abuse in their life.

I found the occasional asides from her father, Charlie and the Pyramid to be amusing, and it was an interesting way to get some of her dad's perspective.  Charlie's insertions certainly cleared up some of his pre-death motivations, but it was kind of an odd mechanism, same as with the Pyramid's comments - was it to add to the idea that Vera might be having some delusions?  Or to just give more perspectives that Vera couldn't possibly know about?  And if that's the reason, why were there only a couple of them from the Pyramid?  Having said that, they didn't take me out of the book, and I actually enjoyed those passages because they fleshed out characters otherwise only seen through Vera's eyes.  My sister found it depressing, but I didn't think so, any more than real life is depressing (and the argument for that CAN be made).    I'd recommend this to teens looking for books about family issues, death, alcoholism, depression, darkly amusing things and even realistic fiction. 

Booktalk:   Vera Dietz has perfected the art of being ignored.  Her mom ignored her enough to leave.  Her Dad likes to avoid confrontation, so he ignores things until she has a real problem.  Her teachers and schoolmates ignore her because her grades aren’t good enough or bad enough to get attention.  Pretty much everyone has ignored her for a long time, except for Charlie.  Vera and Charlie were best friends from the time they were kids until just a few months ago.  They shared everything ...until Charlie turned into a jerk...and they stopped talking... and Charlie died.  Now all kinds of secrets are swirling around, some waiting to be discovered, some wanting to stay buried.  And one of those secrets is that Vera sees Charlie, thousands of Charlies, sometimes in the house, sometimes in the car, sometimes when she’s sober, sometimes when she’s drunk.  Maybe telling the truth about Charlie and what happened the night he died will stop his postmortem appearances in Vera's life.   Because either is Vera being haunted by her dead best friend or she going crazy.