Book Review – Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

The Summary : Vera is in love with her best friend, Charlie, and he loves her back. Only, She doesn’t know that. She does, however know, all of his secrets, and all of the details surrounding his untimely death. Vera now has to decide whether or not to share these secrets and clear his name, or to keep them to himself, all the while being haunted by Charlie’s ghosts.

 

The Characters :

Vera : I fully understand where Vera is coming from. Her best friend completely screwed her over, and then he died before they could fix their friendship. She is coping with Charlie’s death as best as she can. She starts drinking, which is a normal teenager thing to do to cope with tragedy, And that whole thing with James was also really normal and real, as well. All in all she is just a good depiction of a teenage girl who has been through hell and back, and has come out the other side.

Charlie : Charlie read very attractive to me. Like damn. Charlie was a typical “bad boy” YA character. He drove a motorcycle, smoked cigarettes, smoked pot and sold his underwear to an old man. Wait what? Yeah, that happens too. Charlie was right all along, Vera is too good for him. He spends most of their friendship fighting his feelings for her, to save her from him, which, while really depressing, it is very honorable.

Jenny Flick : Jenny Flick can go fuck herself for all I care. 

Vera’s Dad : Vera’s dad is a pretty cool guy. I liked all of his Zen Buddhist sayings that were thrown in around the book.

 

The Plot : I liked how the book flipped around from past to present, and between different perspectives. I think my favorite part was either “a brief word from the dead kid” from Charlie’s perspective, or “a brief word from the pagoda,” which is literally from the perspective of a pagoda. Please Ignore Vera Dietz has an amazing concept. The fact that Vera is being haunted by not one, but thousands of Charlie ghosts is really interesting to me. I liked the fact that the story wasn’t obvious, especially the end. I actually wasn’t expecting Vera to forgive Charlie in the end, or to make peace with her dad. I thought that was a great ending.

 

The Overall :  This book gets 5 out of 5 stars. This is extremely rare. I literally have zero complaints about this book. I loved the concept, I loved the characters, I loved the pacing, and I just definitely loved everything. I would recommend this for fans of contemporary YA fiction, who wouldn’t mind reading something a little bit on the darker side, without being too dark.

 

SUMMER BLOG OVERHAUL

Ok, I should really start by apologizing for disappearing for two whole months. There is really no excuse, but guess I just couldn’t find the motivation to write anything. Like literally, I wanted to have the novel that I’m working on finished by the end of the year, and if I keep going the way that April and May went, then I will never get it done.

But any way We aren’t going to talk about the past, and how I completely screwed up in March and April. Instead, we are going to look to the future, and focus on what is to come in the summer. Starting in June, I will be bringing back Fearless Literacy. I’ll be back on my two posts a week schedule, but I will be switching from Tuesdays and Fridays, to Mondays and Thursdays to accommodate my new work schedule.

I will be posting a ton of reviews for the books I’ve been reading in the past few months, and I also have a bunch of other posts on different topics. But, here is where you guys come in. I am going to need some requests for topics to write about. 

Thank you guys for sticking with me for the past few crappy months. I hope that y’all stick with me and enjoy this upcoming summer.

 

February Wrap Up… Goals for March?

Remember that time that I had all of these goals that I was going to accomplish in February? Well, I failed, and Failure is a part of life. 

My first goal was to save all of my tips from my job, and I managed to save EVERY PENNY except, maybe 15 dollars, and ended up with around $300. That’s not much, but It’s a start. The next goal was to put $20 from each paycheck into a separate bank account, and I did that, along with my tips. Those were the only two goals that I actually completed. I did not clean my room, I posted one youtube video a week, and only about 3 blog posts. I also didn’t get a second job, But I did however talk to my boss about giving me a raise, which will help.

I was incredibly sick this month, with the weather and working and everything. I typically work 26 – 28 hours a week, all over the course of three days a week. I also have a deviated septum, which causes me to have a cold or a sinus infection 50 weeks out of the year, so this month was super bad for me, to the point where I was throwing up at least once a week from post-nasal drip. Being sick, coupled with the shitty Pennsylvania weather, I could not walk anywhere and find a new job. These are all stupid excuses and none of you care, so I’m just going to be better.

I did finish Delirium, which I already posted the review on. I started Insurgent, and got farther into Starters, not far enough that I’m really really interested, but I am working on it. I do have some goals for March, so I will talk about them here.

My first goal is to finish Starters and Insurgent. I’m super into the Insurgent audiobook right now, so that one shouldn’t be too hard. I also want to finish Crossed. If I finish them, I will start Eve by Ana Carey.

My second goal is to save at least $500 towards my car. This shouldn’t be too hard, considering my raise, and the fact that I made $100 in tips this weekend alone. I would like to save more, but $500 is the goal.

My third goal is to actually post twice a week on here. I’m going to start writing posts in my down time again, so that I can have some extra posts.

My fourth goal is to get my eyebrows done. My eyebrows are insane right now, and I need to get them done. The spa that I used to get them done at recently closed, so I have to find somewhere else. I hate when nail salons do it, so I pay a little bit extra to get them done in a spa. Basically I’m difficult.

My fifth goal is to drink more smoothies, and find more healthy smoothie recipes.

I’m also going to clean my room, but that’s not a goal, it just needs to happen.

What are your goals for March?