Be More Chill

currently [re]reading: Jinx by Meg Cabot

Be More Chill
written by Ned Vizzini



Oh, Ned Vizzini. I had such high hopes for this. It's Kind of a Funny Story blew me away, and I expected much of the same from this. Maybe it's because of high hopes that the story fell flat? Good things first, the story was narrated in a very honest, teenage boy-ish perspective. The main character was funny in a subtle, sarcastic way, and the book reinforced that age old idea...that boys and their minds are absolutely gross. =P Jeremy, the main character, is your typical awkward gawky teenager, who lives a pretty ordinary life, no big traumatic drama going on, so naturally, the point of obsession for his self-fulfillment...is a girl. And in order to get that girl, Vizzini unfortunately falls back upon the old overdone in-crowd, fitting in story. He gives it a technological/supernatural twist with a device called the "squip", which can be inserted into human beings as a sort of guide to achieve coolness. From the point where Jeremy gives up his individuality, the story takes an immediate turn for the worse. It becomes the cliche predictable story that everyone else has already done to death. Everything about this story just feels annoyingly staged. It would have been interesting if the squip had been an actual dimensional character, but it's not, it's just a book about this clueless kid taking instructions from a machine. There are some interesting real-world parallels to be made here, but those parallels have been done before, there's nothing new here. Reading this book passed the time. The writing was good, I had nothing better to read, but it would definitely not be my immediate pick. I do have Teen Angst? Naaah... sitting on my bed right now, and I'm still really excited to read it, but I would pass on this book and read It's Kind of a Funny Story instead.

Rating: 2/5

I got this book from...:Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh