I got this book in my Quarterly subscription box otherwise I never would have picked it up.

Funny, sad, mysterious, upsetting, occasionally sweet, it really has a little but of everything.

A very enjoyable read despite the dark plot.

Bonus points for me personally because it takes place is an area about 30 minutes from where I live. Not too many pagodas in Pennsylvania! ( )

For my class I needed to choose a Printz Award Winner or Honor book. My choice was Please Forget Vera Dietz by A.S. King. I had absolutely no idea what this book was about when I chose it and will admit that I picked it because I loved the cover.

Vera’s best friend Charlie is dead but not quite gone. She sees him a lot, usually at really inconvenient times like when other people are around. He is trying to tell her something, but she doesn’t want to listen.

Vera’s dad’s motto - “Ignore it Vera.”

Ignore the fact that Charlie’s dad beats his wife; ignore Charlie’s weird relationship with a guy who tried to lure them into a car 6 years earlier; ignore what people say about you; ignore that your mom left; ignore everything. Vera’s attempt to ignore things does what it does to most people who don’t deal with things, it exacerbates (one of Vera’s vocabulary words) them.

Vera turns to drinking even though her dad is a recovering alcoholic and his dad was an alcoholic (and his dad too). Vera discovers that a couple of drinks make the pain more bearable. With a couple of drinks she can deal with her job delivering pizzas, her relationship with her dad, her failure to deal with Charlie’s death.

Watching Vera come to terms with Charlie’s death and deal with her own life is powerful. Like Melinda in Speak, Vera transforms from “invisible Vera Dietz” to “invincible Vera Dietz.” Vera finds her voice, her power, her confidence and herself. ( )

As brilliant but difficult to love as Charlie himself. ( )

I'm a big fan of A.S. King, and it is incredibly weird to read a book by her that is almost normal in its weirdness. Almost a straightforward narrative, but I guess it was an early book. I've often heard this book described as funny, and it wasn't that for me -- I liked it, and I thought it was true to itself and pleasingly sarcastic, but not overly so. It was good. ( )

Oh my God what a heartbreaker! I can't believe it took me this long to read this stunner. I will definitely recommend this to students strongly in the coming year. Vera is trying to live under the radar in her town of Mount Pitts, hoping no one will find out about her mother. Her best friend has just died under suspicious circumstances and details about something related to his death casts a pall over his memory. Even though Vera hadn't really spoken to him in a few months before his death, she keeps seeing thousands of Charlies imploring her to set things right. She had fallen in love with him even though her father warned her about getting involved with him, or any boy. Told in chapters from a variety of different perspectives, even the Pagoda's (it's a long story), this book mixes humor with heartbreaking details that bring true depth to all of the characters. ( )