Being a teenager can be really hard sometimes. Especially if your mom is an ex stripper who ran away with another man to Las Vegas leaving your dad to be the only one to raise you. This is life of Vera Dietz who has just suffered the death of her best friend Charlie Kahn. Vera is desperately trying to stay away from anything that makes her similar to her mother, who was impregnated at a very young age, while also trying to stay below everyone's radar in school where she wants to be ignored. Vera loves her father very much but does not always see eye to eye with him. Being very stingy (probably for good reason), he made Vera start working at a pizza store for almost full time hours at a very young age. Without a mother, it was very hard for Ken (Vera's father) to raise her. Work was his way of making sure she grew up correctly. Ken loved Vera very much and his peculiar methods turned out to work because Vera turned out very nicely.
Please Ignore Vera Dietz is such a good book for teenagers because it shows all of the struggles that every teen will go through in their lives. It shows that teens are not alone in their struggle to grow up and amount to their parents standards. In Vera’s case, she does not want to become like her mother who does not communicate with her much aside from a fifty dollar bill that she sends every birthday. These are some struggles that many people can relate to. Vera says “I think of my mom. Is this how it started with her Are there baby steps toward complete loserdom, and if so, how many are there to go?” (King 132). Vera is obviously paranoid about the steps that her mother took to become the way that she is and would like to avoid this destiny at all costs. This relation that readers can experience can solely make the book worthwhile alone.
Another thing that makes this book a great one is the recurring theme of Charlie’s ghost coming back to Vera. It is a great representation of the conscience that every single person has. It is sort of a physical representation of that conscience. Whenever Vera is doing something that she knows she should not be doing, Charlie’s ghost shows up to suffocate her until she realizes that she is doing something wrong. Sometimes, just like any other teen, she does not pay any mind to Charlie (her conscience) and continues to do whatever she was doing wrong. For instance, when Vera is hooking up with a boy who is a lot older than her in his car while she is drunk, Charlie shows up. “They (Charlies) are squeezing him from every angle, but he can’t see them. They are not sucking the air out of his lungs. I open the door and stumble out onto the gravel.” (King 116). Here Charlie knows that this is something that Vera should definitely not be doing. Even Vera knows deep down that she should not be doing this. Charlie is speaking for himself, but also for Vera who is a little too afraid to come to grips with the facts.
The last thing that was really great in this novel is the theme of friendship. Charlie and Vera were best friends and nothing (not even death) could fully set them apart. Charlie only wanted the best for Vera (as seen with his ghosts) and although they did sort of end their friendship just before Charlie passed away, they always remained friends. This kind of book can really show someone who is a real friend and who isn’t. Charlie clearly cared about Vera. Once, when Charlie was starting to build a treehouse in the forest Vera finally realized how much she meant to Charlie. She says “Even though I knew Charlie wanted to do it himself, he called it our project and our tree house. I think it was his way of trying to help me through a hard time.” (King 162). Charlie always wanted Vera to feel good, and everyone needs a friend like that.
In conclusion, this book is great. It is not only very entertaining, but it also can teach some very important life lessons while showing teenagers that they are not alone in the problems that they are facing every day. I would totally recommend this book to any teenager that is looking for something to read. I would also recommend this to an adult, however, I do not think that they will gain as much from the book as a teenager would.
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