Below you will find the book information, a brief summary from Amazon and then the review. Enjoy!
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publish Date: October 12, 2010
ISBN: 978-0375865862
Pages: 336
Summary from Amazon: High-school senior Vera never expects her ex-best friend, Charlie, to haunt her after he dies and beg her to clear his name of a horrible accusation surrounding his death. But does Vera want to help him after what he did to her? Charlie’s risky, compulsive behavior and brand-new bad-news pals proved to be his undoing, while Vera’s mantra was always Please Ignore Vera Dietz, as she strives, with Charlie’s help, to maintain a low profile and keep her family life private. But after Charlie betrayed her, it became impossible to fend off her classmates’ cruel attacks or isolate herself any longer.
What Jess has to say: I wanted to like this book. Really I did. When I first received it, the jacket flap excited me right away; the reviews online even raved about it! However, the most positive thing I can say about the book is that the dust cover was green (which is my favorite color). I only made it 100 pages in before it frustrated me enough to put it down.
The main drawback to Please Ignore Vera Dietz was the story's structure. The chapters were ridiculously short and didn't really seem to flow together well. One minute, we're with Vera while she delivers pizzas (her full-time job while in high school), the next minute we're flashing back to when she was 7, and then we're flashing forward to when she was 13. It was so confusing and jumped around so quickly that it was difficult to follow the story, let alone enjoy it.
The characters, from what I read, were pretty well developed. There were a lot of qualities and attributes that would probably be discovered later on in the book. I wish the structuring had been more logical so that I could have gotten to know them a litle bit better.
King's writing was actually pretty good, so I wouldn't mind trying something else by this author. However, unless you can follow quick transitions and keep up with a book that jumps all over the main character's life, I don't recommend this read.
The main drawback to Please Ignore Vera Dietz was the story's structure. The chapters were ridiculously short and didn't really seem to flow together well. One minute, we're with Vera while she delivers pizzas (her full-time job while in high school), the next minute we're flashing back to when she was 7, and then we're flashing forward to when she was 13. It was so confusing and jumped around so quickly that it was difficult to follow the story, let alone enjoy it.
The characters, from what I read, were pretty well developed. There were a lot of qualities and attributes that would probably be discovered later on in the book. I wish the structuring had been more logical so that I could have gotten to know them a litle bit better.
King's writing was actually pretty good, so I wouldn't mind trying something else by this author. However, unless you can follow quick transitions and keep up with a book that jumps all over the main character's life, I don't recommend this read.
Aw, it's always a shame when a book doesn't live up to your expectations. :(
ReplyDeleteWe've heard wonderful this about this book too, but now we're second-guessing... Probably we will still read it, but from the library.
A nice, honest review - just the way I like it. You covered just what I wanted to know.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many YA novels with names in the title right now! It feels like some type of trend, but I think they just ran out of other interesting title options.