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Feb 08, 2012

Tatiana rated it:

As seen on The Readventurer

So, this novel just got awarded Printz Honor. I guess I wasn't hyping it for nothing. Please, fellow goodreaders, check this book out!

Let me just get this out of the way, I am glad I gave A.S. King another chance. I liked her debut novel (The Dust of 100 Dogs) OK, for its creativity and originality, but I wasn't wowed by it. Please Ignore Vera Dietz is a better, even though more mainstream, YA novel.

I don't know how it happened, but I've More...

23 comments like (36 people liked it)

Nov 08, 2011

Lisa O. rated it:

Talk about a heartbreak. I'll have to read at least TEN predictable, fluffy, instalovish, lovetrianglish light-hearted books to recover from this one.

The main voice is Vera's, an 18 y.o student/pizza deliverer who lives alone with her father and whose best friend Charlie has just died. We don't really know how or why, nor do we know why Vera seems to be so royally pissed at him:

"Let me tell you - if you think your best friend dying is a bitch, try your best friend d More...

18 comments like (27 people liked it)

Nov 10, 2011

Maja rated it:

3.5 stars

“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?”

Please Ignore Vera Dietz is a story about a 18-year-old girl faced with the loss of her best friend.
On one side, this novel is burdened with a scary amount of raw realism. It tells a story that hits too close to home, one that none of us want to hear. There are pedophiles, abusive husbands, drinking problems, runaway mothers and More...

148 comments like (18 people liked it)

Nov 09, 2011

Reynje rated it:

There was a reason Charlie was such a bright blazing sun. He came from endless cold, black space.

I couldn’t sleep after finishing Please Ignore Vera Dietz.

I gave up on trying to untangle my emotional reaction from my critical thoughts, all hopelessly snarled together with lingering question marks, and just lay staring into the dark. The story refused to seep quietly into my consciousness, to be filed away neatly into a mental catalogue: good writing, interesting characters, believabl More...

29 comments like (19 people liked it)

Dec 02, 2011

Annalisa rated it:

Some 20 pages into the book I thought to myself, "I don't really care what this book is about and honestly the subject matter hasn't grabbed me yet, but I don't care. I would follow this girl anywhere." I love a good voice.

Vera is a high school senior grieving over her best friend's death, only at the time of his death, Charlie was her frenemy. It makes the grieving process a little harder when you hate and love the person at the same time, when you have so many unresolved is More...

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2012

Lora rated it:

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

Vera's conflicting feelings toward Charlie after his death mirror mine over her story. I don't think I've ever been this conflicted over a book in all my years of reading.

Vera Dietz has secrets: she has a crush on a boy five years her senior; she's drinking vodka coolers under the radar; and, perhaps her biggest secret of all, she knows a whole hel More...

11 comments like (13 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2011

Flannery rated it:

Vera Dietz is a good person. This book is like watching Vera in the gallows being pelted with tomatoes until she is finally released to go on her way. Her lifelong best friend Charlie just passed away under somewhat mysterious circumstances, the town blames him for something which tarnishes his reputation, and Vera is being harassed by some of her schoolmates. The thing about Vera, and I absolutely loved her as a character, is that she just deals with it. She is angry with Charlie, she hates hi More...

18 comments like (36 people liked it)

May 05, 2011

Mark rated it:

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

I'm so glad I assigned this book for my class; great excuse to re-read it, and I like it even more this time around.

Original review:

Wow. With my schedule, I usually can't read books in a day, but I could not put this one aside for more than a few minutes at a time. This book is absolutely extraordinary, and I cannot wait More...

2 comments like (10 people liked it)

Nov 08, 2011

Shirley rated it:

Once, I had a colleague tell me about her high school-aged son who was acting "moody, unreasonable and ill-tempered". "Why?" I asked her and she said "It's over his proposed career choice". What had he told Mum? I wondered... that he wanted to become a tattoo artist? A drug lord? *shudders* A politician? "He said he wants to become a vet..." she said. I sighed in relief. "...and I said NO because I told him - if he wants to become a doctor More...

19 comments like (25 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2012

Ari rated it:

Once upon a time there were a boy and a girl.
They've been friends since forever, they cared for each other, they played and went to school together, they were inseparable.
They fell in love.
...Until they grew up.
Until things got complicated.
Until there was no longer a boy and a girl.
But only a girl, only Vera..
...Please ignore Vera Dietz.

"What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
That's how I feel without Charlie. Like one

More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Feb 26, 2011

Kristi (The Story Siren) added it

I loved King’s The Dust of 100 Dogs, so I couldn’t wait to read her new novel Please Ignore Vera Dietz. And although this novel is nothing like Dust of 100 Dogs... it is just as awesome. It may even be better.

Vera... oh Vera. Where to begin to describe such a unique character. Vera is weird. Vera is spunky, Vera is real. I would totally want to be friends with Vera. Vera made this novel for me. She was the reason that I couldn’t put it down.

After reading the premise of this More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 02, 2011

Catie rated it:

4 1/2 stars

I know that I really enjoyed this one because I kept sneaking off on the other two books that I’m currently reading to cheat with it. This enigmatic, clever story is told mainly by Vera Dietz, with guest spots for her dad, her recently dead best friend Charlie, and the Pagoda (an architectural oddity in her town). Vera’s very angry with Charlie at the beginning of this book, for reasons which the reader is slowly allowed to know through a series of flashbacks and hints. More...

10 comments like (14 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2011

Cassi aka Snow White rated it:

4.5 stars of brilliance.

This book could've gone so wrong.

Let's look at the teen melodrama checklist:
-Alcoholic father - Check
-Absentee mother - Check
-Dead friend - Check
-Unpopularity - Check
-Drinking Problem - Check
-Wife beating neighbor - Check

Doesn't that sound a little bit like a lifetime original movie? Or an ABC family TV show (only nobody is pregnant)? But this book is smart. Really really smart. It's not an "i More...

2 comments like (10 people liked it)

Sep 17, 2011

Reut (reutreads) rated it:

Oh, wow. I was so lucky to read Please Ignore Vera Dietz.

I read the Printz award winners and honorees because well, I feel like they know what they're talking about. Libba Bray, Melina Marchetta, and one of my idols--John Green--have all been awarded the Printz Award For Excellence in Young Adult Literature.

So even though PIVD sounded just the teensiest bit off-putting to me at first, I took a chance on it.

Wow.

A.S. King has written such a marvellou More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Sep 05, 2011

Alyssa rated it:

So, because no review I could ever write would do this book justice, I’ll just leave you with my somewhat crazy mental jot-notes. Don’t hate too much, my friends. Trust me that when you read this book you’ll have a hard time reviewing it, too.

My thoughts on page 7:

- Vera, you're freaking cool. You have a really realistic yet unique voice. I like that you talk to ~~yourself~~ Charlie out loud. And I like that you’re a pizza delivery ~~person~~ technician, because I love them. Sta More...

4 comments like (10 people liked it)

Nov 26, 2011

joє rated it:

3/5

you can love someone
without it being like that.
you keep them a stranger,
a stranger who's a friend.
- capote

please ignore vera dietz reminds me a little of this little french flick (love me if you dare/jeux d'enfants)

so near and yet so far

this is the kind of story where you hope that everything is going to turn out alright, except that there is no chance -- NO WAY -- that might happen. i am not counting the fact t More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 12, 2011

Pat rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2011

Kate rated it:

Truthfully, I read this book because of the reviews, and because of the printz honor. I had no idea what to expect. None

Maybe it had been TOO long since I read a book where everyone is a member of the human race. Maybe A.S King can play with my emotions like few authors can. Maybe it was my hormones the week I read it. But this book had an effect on me that a book hasn’t had in a very long time.

There were times I would lay in bed after reading and have to remind mys More...

4 comments like (12 people liked it)

Oct 01, 2011

Emily rated it:

To say my friend died is one thing.
To say my friend screwed me over and then died five months later is another.

Vera Dietz is 18 and dealing with the loss of her best friend, Charlie. This isn't your regular grief in YA narrative, though - Vera hates Charlie, she hates the people he was hanging around and the kind of person he became around them. But she also knows she needs to clear his name of the awful thing that happened the night he died.

This book is excellent in the More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2011

Robin rated it:

Possibly one of the best coming-of-age YA novels in the past five years, this was a story I couldn't put down. Vera is smart, has a good head on her shoulders, is a straight A student and works 40 hours a week delivering pizza. She also has a dead best friend who haunts her, an ex-stripper mother who abandoned her, and a bottle of vodka stashed under the seat of her car.
Vera's story is achingly real (and often funny) as she deals with Charlie's ghost who demands the truth be told, and also More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 01, 2011

Emily rated it:

I have been lucky enough to read a LOT of great books this year and up until now I had a clear I-shine-above-the-rest favourite: On the Jellicoe Road. Though I am actually going to be daring enough to say to all you Marchetta-obsessed bookaholics that for me Please Ignore Vera Dietz could compete with the sad and beautiful emotional turmoil I felt for On the Jellicoe Road.

There are two young adult topics that always make me think "oh, not again", and they are:

More...

23 comments like (19 people liked it)

Jan 06, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

Vera is well-drawn and very compelling character, and the story of how she finally deals with her best friend's betrayal and death, as well as her mother's abandonment, is carefully constructed to build the psychological tension and make the resolution feel earned. The fantasy elements (Vera's visions of her dead friend, narration from the town pagoda, etc.) are incorporated so skillfully that they never jar the realism of Vera's emotional experience. The realism of teen emotions and social dyna More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 08, 2011

Lisa rated it:

"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 More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 08, 2011

Haleema rated it:

I'm not sure how in the world I'm going to write a comprehensible review about this one. I'm going to try my best.

You know those books that give you that weird, awesome, tingly sensation in the pit of your stomach while you read the first few pages? Those books that make you want to read more? Those books that tear your heart out? Those books that make you mad as hell just because you finished it?

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King is that book.

I was depres More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 12, 2011

Terri rated it:

First off, if you haven't seen the book trailer for "Please Ignore Vera Dietz," check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1c4d5kSX... I used this with my students when I booktalked the book. It sets up the story up beautifully. All of our copies were checked out immediately.

Vera Dietz is mourning the loss of her (almost) lifetime best friend, Charlie Kahn, as "Please Ignore Vera Deitz" begins. Several months prior to his death, Charlie mysteriously deserted More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 08, 2011

Tammara added it

There aren't many novels that drag me in like this one did -- not by a fast-paced story or romantic entanglement, but by pure, perfect character development surrounding a tragic mystery. This thing builds steadily from the first chapter to the last sentence, and it dares you not to say, "Wow," when you close it.

Vera and Charlie have been best friends from childhood. Truth is, she's always loved him. But months before he died (under mysterious circumstances), he betrays thei More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 01, 2012

Jessica rated it:

From shutupimreading.blogspot.com

Everyone who's read this book has loved it, so I finally decided to give it a go.

And wow. I wasn't disappointed. Please Ignore Vera Dietz is unlike anything I've ever read in the best way possible and I don't know how my mere review could do it justice.

King's writing is powerful, gripping, funny, and real, as are her characters. I continuously wanted to smack them or hug them because they just felt so wonderfully real. I seriously co More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 09, 2011

Rae rated it:

Kaitlyn go read this book! (And I advice everyone else does too :D)

PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ is such a powerful book. Literally. I could not help myself but rip through the pages of this book (Of course my lovely job had to interfere with that, :/ ) But it was just amazing.

The base of the story is this: Vera Dietz best friend, Charlie Kahn died. In the beginning, I even thought it sounded kind of cliché, there have been a lot of books with this synopsis. But More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 25, 2010

Michelle rated it:

This is me using spectacular in a sentence. I actually finished reading Please Ignore Vera Dietz a while ago, but it's one of those books that says with you long after the last page has been turned. It's kind of quirky and the characters are interesting and quite memorable. I would recommend Vera to fans of John Green (Paper Towns, Looking For Alaska), it's that same kind of book, but A.S. King has a unique style that is definitely all her own. I love how the story is told, alternating between c More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 16, 2011

Jo rated it:

I'm always wary of books that get amazing reviews from everyone, I'm not sure why, but I gave this one a go.
And gee whizz, am I glad!
A combination of amazing story telling, heart-breaking plot, excellent characters and the most realistic (and hands-down awesome) heroine in the books I have (YA and Adult) read recently, Please Ignore Vera Dietz really ticked all the boxes.
'Please Ignore Vera Dietz' is definitley going to be added to the pile of books that I physically want to thro More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)