Be More Chill was an interesting novel. There were parts I liked, and parts I didn’t like about the story, writing, characters, events etc. So lets start with the stuff I didn’t like.One of the things that jumped out to me almost immediately upon reading it was some of the crazy verbs used for dialogue attribution. I recently finished Stephen King’s On Writing and one of the things he suggests that, as writers, that we never do, is to use superfluous adverbs when attributing dialoge. However, “Some writers try to evade the no-adverb rule by shooting the attribution verb full of steroids,” King writes. And that is exactly what Vizini does throughout the novel, leaving us with phrases like “I pontificate,” and “she chortles” which can be found on pages 50 and 51 respectively. King tells us “Don’t do these things. Please oh please.” and I have to agree with him. I don’t know any high school kid that would ever use those two verbs in speech or writing. So why use them in the novel? Vizini should have been able to unpack those verbs into context around the dialogue, so he could have told us without those crazy verbs.Next up is the actual story, which centers around Jeremy Heere. Jeremy supposedly leads a typical high school life, which is then injected with sex, drugs, lust and yearnings for new friends. While I agree with some of that stuff to some extent, I would have to argue that Jeremy’s life is pretty atypical of anything I encountered in High School. The pervasive mentions and allusions to sex, masturbation, and pornography leave me at a point where I don’t think that I would ever be able to recommend this book to any of my future students. While the overall theme of the book may tie the content together, I don’t think it is a big enough pay off to warrant exposing a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds to this kind of smut. Sure you can have your character have a sexual encounter, but I don’t think explaining every detail is necessary. We as readers have imaginations, let us use them every once in a while, that way you can get away with putting that stuff in books without actually putting that in there. (On a side note, the level of sexual interactions in ‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story were just right, toned down just enough for the reader.)The novel didn’t really get that interesting for me until part 2, and without giving too much away, that is where the action actually starts to climb, and stuff starts to happen. Up unto that point it is really just the establishment of Jeremy’s place in the social hierarchy of the school, which gets kind of boring.On to the good stuff.One of my favorite parts of Jeremy’s character was when he would say something, but then the dialogue attribution was something like “okay, I didn’t say that, I said this:” because when I read that I thought he was actually growing some balls to say what he thought, only to realize that he backed out. A problem that will be later remedied. But I thought that was well done, and when I was in the pace of reading I got fooled a few times until I came across that attribution.I also liked the dialogue between Jeremy and his squip. There was no need for quotations or new paragraphs and all that other baggage which dialogue brings. But, because his squip was like his second subconscious the small point caps really portrayed that nicely. The voice and tone of the squip was well done too. I like how Vizini threw in that the voice was Keanu Reeves, a voice that we should all be familiar with. With that name alone Vizini illustrated a huge amount of information about the squip’s voice; brevity, when required, is something I appreciate as a reader.Tossing in the Shakespeare play throughout the story was neat too. It gives readers slivers of knowledge about A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which they might not know anything about. It could also be a good transition into reading the actual play in the classroom.But, overall I am going to have to settle with a three of five stars. I enjoyed the story; the actual reading of it. But some parts were too distracting, or too unnecessary that those things detracted from this being a great book. It also had many similarities with M.T. Anderson’s Feed. I also feel like the ending was an afterthought, like Vizini got to the end of Be More Chill and tacked on that last section and did a few revisions in the body of the story. The ending was good, don’t get me wrong; just not enough to salvage the ship which was already over-perforated with holes.Is this something I would suggest to others to read? Sure, if you want to, and have no other books lined up.Is this a book that I would ever teach in a classroom? No, unfortunately.
In the world of high school, popular students rule. It’s like a binding agreement granted by no headmaster or principal in a certain school. And their power alone lies on their complete dominion over their classmates and every student in general through different corridors and four corners of a room. You have to obey them though and deal with whatever shit they may bring you along the way, because if you do not, there’s always a huge chance they are going to lambast and humiliate you in front of everyone else. And you wouldn’t want that, not especially if you have no one to back you up, so you have to keep your mouth shut and make everything appear as if you just do not exist after all.In Ned Vizzini’s Be More Chill, An unpopular, teenage dork by the name of Jeremy Heere is presented. Jeremy is an authentic presentation of a bullying victim from every popular student in his school. He belongs in the lowest structure of the high school hierarchy which classifies him as one of the infamous, dork and every popular student’s source of humor and entertainment. Every day he makes his way through the hellhole that is high school and the only reason he is still attending his classes is because of the beautiful girl by the name of Christine. These all changed though, the moment he acquired a Squip –a supercomputer in a form of a pill that can be ingested like an over the counter drug in a random pharmacy. Jeremy had then been transformed into a cool guy he had long needed to be.He became as popular as everybody else. He started to hook up with girls and gone are the days when he was one of the most eccentric, bizarre students in his school. He became the literal presentation of a cool guy in high school, with even his appearance and sense of fashion changing into certain distinction of coolness. It didn’t last that long though and soon he realized that the pill he ingested was almost taking the entirety of his life and he had to face the consequence along the way. He started to question the real significance of the pill to his life and the changes it has brought him through different aspects of his life.This book really is a sincere and honest presentation of life in high school and the discovery of one’s self along the way. I admit, I was bullied many times in the past and I didn’t have that much friends back in high school. I was one of the geeks, the wallflower, or even the outcasts. Name it all and I’ll probably fall into it. I also loathe the popular students because they have this sense of dominion that I simply find stupid. I believe that nobody is granted the power of humiliating or bullying in high school. And this whole idea of being the center of attention is just dumb to begin with since it gives you nothing. Ask these popular students in a game of IQ and they would probably quit right away.I believe, this book also depicts the acknowledgement of one’s self despite certain differences from people around you. Of course, we cannot deny that sometimes we want to be somebody we are not or never going to be. But reading this book will make us understand and realize that none of it matters. That as long as we stay true to ourselves and we act as nonchalant as we can with people trying to put us down and makes us feel low of ourselves along the way; we can always find the sense of belonging amidst of it all. It was almost cliché but I agree that we have to be true to ourselves and accept for how we’re just made. And if you want to rekindle your high school memories, and live the moments once again, then this funny, enjoyable and easy read book is the right one for you.
What do You think about Be More Chill (2005)?
I don't get to read a lot of YA novels written from a male's point of view so this was really fun for me. I like how Ned Vizzini's mind works. While he's dealing with real-life experiences about boys being hang up on being Cool, on girls, masturbation and etc., he didn't make his story so cliched and ordinary - he put a bit of sci-fi-like action into it in the form of the pill called "squip," which basically ran the whole exciting course of the story.Also, this book reminded me that boys also have their share (w/c is more than fair, maybe) of awkward moments, that contrary to girls' popular belief, they do not think, believe and feel they are the epitome of coolness, that they actually WORK their way to be Cool. Which is consoling, in many levels. So make it to the last page, in spite of its numerous outdated Cool things references i.e. MTV, Eminem and hip hop slang. It will be worth it.
—kb
Are you popular? Well, are you? Because, like, there's this pill. Yeah, it'll make you act, look, seem, sound, make, break, buy, sell, find, invent, STINK of coolness. And... get this, you'll be able to touch boobiesNawww, dawg! I ain't playin' ya! You won't need no frizzy black wig or alter ego! No beaded curtains or orange hair! ('cuse my Brady Bunch flashbacks... I'm showing my age, yo.)You just swallow this pill and then you like get this really hip computer chip embedded in your brain that tells you how to act and what to say and argues with you until you are da bomb. But, wait... are you really? I mean... do you really want to be THAT guy? Is stealing your mom's car and almost losing your nerdy, but wicked awesome, bff worth it? Will it really get you the girl of your dreams or just that hot chick that will go down on anyone? Who the fuck cares?I was hoping that this would break that formula. I was hoping that the attempts of hipness would be, idk, groundbreaking. I didn't want a freakin' modern day after school special. But, whatever.. I'm used to disappointment. If you want a slightly more original conspiracy based YA book about microchips, you might want to check out Feed.
—Kim
Jeremy is a dorky, hypersensitive teenage boy. He’s got a crush on a girl in his class (Christine), he spends way too much time online, and he keeps track of the myriad ways other kids pick on him on his specially formatted “humiliation sheets.” Everything changes when Jeremy gets a “squip” – a nano-computer that tells him what to do in order to be cool, get with girls, and increase his popularity. Jeremy’s squip has a voice like Keanu Reeves and generally its advice gets results - but not with Christine. And Jeremy still wants to be with her more than anything. Social skills are something that lots of kids struggle with, and Jeremy is no exception. The squip gives him a mini-makeover and makes it possible for him to actually talk to people without stumbling over his words. These little bursts of success build up Jeremy’s confidence in himself, and occasionally he feels confident enough to act on his own. Everyone wishes it could be this easy. But Jeremy’s absolute trust in the squip is betrayed when it gives him what it claims is a sure-fire way to win Christine’s affections. The squip’s plan backfires and Jeremy is basically back to square one – unbelievably dorky reject. This story is Jeremy’s attempt to explain to Christine why he did what he did. Squips are the kind of technology you can easily imagine being available to us now, or in the near future, and depending on your feelings about that sort of thing, you might be excited or horrified. Jeremy’s foibles were painfully adolescent – you just know that the squip is going to get him into all kinds of trouble. But he’s also a likeable character who makes you laugh, so stick with him and see what happens. The audio edition’s reader makes the squip sound like the kid who impersonates god’s voice in the movie Real Genius. It’s an excellent juxtaposition.
—Arminzerella
