Please Ignore Vera Dietz [Hardcover]

A.S. King (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 2010

Vera’s spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she’s kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything.
 
So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to?
 
Edgy and gripping, Please Ignore Vera Dietz is an unforgettable novel: smart, funny, dramatic, and always surprising.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up–Vera Dietz and her troubled neighbor, Charlie, were best friends since childhood until they started to fall for one another junior year and everything broke apart. Evil Jenny Flick decides that she wants Charlie and that Vera is in the way. When Jenny offers Charlie oral sex and he refuses, she broadcasts his secret about his father's domestic abuse to the whole school and blames Vera. In “retaliation,” Charlie reveals the fact that Vera's mother was a stripper before she deserted the family and then starts a perilous relationship with Jenny. In chapters that alternate scenes in the present with “history,” plus various points of view, Vera's story begins at Charlie's funeral where she hides the truth about Jenny's part in his death. It seesaws through her full-time job delivering pizzas while maintaining “A” grades, her upsetting relationship with Charlie, her conflicts with Jenny as well as her father, her romance with a 23-year-old coworker, and other complications. This oddly compelling page-turner is unfortunately rather flawed. When circumstances call for Vera to end her heavy drinking, she surprisingly just stops. Charlie's ghostly presence manifests itself through hard-to-imagine replications. The perspectives of Vera's father, dead Charlie, and the pagoda atop the town (yes, the pagoda speaks) minimally click. Vera's father's “flow charts” about dealing with life circumstances seem out of place. Yet, Vera is a strong character whom readers will root for throughout her ups and downs. Ultimately, this will be read by teens who like edgy contemporary books dealing with untimely teen death, such as Brooke Taylor's Undone (Walker, 2008) or Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why (Razorbill, 2007).–Diane P. Tuccillo, Poudre River Public Library District, Fort Collins, CO. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* 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. Vera’s struggle to put Charlie and his besmirched name behind her are at the crux of this witty, thought-provoking novel, but most memorable is the gorgeous unfurling of Vera’s relationship with her father. Chapters titled A Brief Word from Ken Dietz (Vera’s Dad) are surprising, heartfelt, and tragic; it’s through Ken that readers see how quickly alcohol and compromised decision making are destroying Vera’s carefully constructed existence. Father and daughter wade gingerly through long-concealed emotions about Vera’s mother’s leaving the family, creating the most powerful redemption story of the many found in King’s arresting tale. Although King’s characters turn into the people they’ve long fought to avoid becoming, they ultimately rise above their challenges, reflect, and move on. A worthy, well-crafted addition to any YA collection. Grades 10-12. --Courtney Jones

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (October 12, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375865861
• ISBN-13: 978-0375865862
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1.2 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,197 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A.S. King is the author of EVERYBODY SEES THE ANTS and the Edgar Award nominated, Michael L. Printz Honor Book PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ, described as "deeply suspenseful and profoundly human" by Publishers Weekly and picked as one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books for Teens 2010. She is also the author of THE DUST OF 100 DOGS, described as "undeniably original" by Booklist and picked as an ALA Best Books for Young Adults.

Recently returned from Ireland, where she spent over a decade living off the land, teaching adult literacy, and writing novels, King now lives deep in the Pennsylvania woods with her husband and children. Her next YA novel, ASK THE PASSENGERS, about acceptance, small town gossip and airplanes, is due in Fall 2012. Learn more at www.as-king.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ignore Vera Dietz at your peril, October 18, 2010

By 

E.O. French - See all my reviews

This review is from: Please Ignore Vera Dietz (Hardcover)

I'll keep this short.

I'm a middle-aged man who gave up on YA literature when he was a YA. Which was a long, long time ago.

But PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ is the real deal. No glittery vampires. No baloney. Just real, live people with real, live problems. Like the ones I had when I was a YA myself. And like the ones you might have right now.

It's a book with heart, a book with soul.

It's a book that will endure.

Buy a copy right this minute, and help make sure that that happens.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blew Me Away!, October 16, 2010

By 

Lori Lawson (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Please Ignore Vera Dietz (Hardcover)

I don't even know where to begin. Have you ever read a book that completely blew you away, but you knew you would never be able to put it into words? That's what this book did to me. I will never be able to do it justice with my measly little review. The entire time I was reading it I was trying to come up with words to use in my review, but I never had any! So what to say, what to say?...

Did you read The Dust of 100 Dogs? If you didn't, drop everything you are doing right now and go buy it! It was incredible. You have never read anything like it before, trust me! How does an author write a follow up that lives up to the extremely high expectations set by 100 Dogs? We should ask A.S. King, because she definitely did it.

Please Ignore Vera Dietz is about Vera Dietz, obviously. She's a little odd, but in a good way. She's dealing with the death of her ex-best friend, Charlie. She loved him. She hated him. She knows what happened the night he died, but can she find it in her to forgive him and clear his name?

Vera was such a fantastic protagonist! She was witty and smart, but she still did dumb things. She is a teenager so she is allowed a few dumb things. I connected with her instantly. My heart broke for her but she was unbelievable strong. She definitely held her own.
Her best friend Charlie is dead from the very beginning of the book, but you get glimpses of their relationship in the History chapters. I loved Charlie, and hated him. Just like Vera did. I wanted things to turn out differently for them, but obviously it couldn't because he was dead from page 1!

What makes this book so special? The writing! A.S. King has a way of telling you a story that will make you turn pages faster than you ever have before. The story is beautifully complex without being over done. She weaves the mystery and questions in flawlessly, but you don't get impatient for answers because the path to get there is so engaging. None of it was predictable and I never lost interest. Not even for a few seconds. The chores went undone while reading this book!

I must reiterate that this review doesn't do this book justice. Please, just read it and find out for yourself! Be prepared to read it in one sitting because it is addicting!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Original, heartbreaking, hilarious...absolutely brilliant, January 17, 2011

By 

Danielle Younge-Ullman (Toronto) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Please Ignore Vera Dietz (Hardcover)

Please Ignore Vera Dietz is a phenomenal book. The writing is gorgeous--gritty, honest and raw and at the same time quirky, poetic and hilarious--and Vera herself is a bright and beautifully complicated character whose story will break your heart in the best possible way. A brilliant and powerful story about love, loss, betrayal, forgiveness, redemption...and of course, pizza delivery.