He is what he is: a dork aspiring to be cool with a crush on a beautiful, popular girl. He's used to recording his day-by-day embarrassments on his Humiliation Sheets and staring wistfully after Christine during classes.
One day, he receives word of a Squip - the answer to his prayers. Consume the Squip and you would revert from a socially dead dork to one of the coolest people on campus. Jeremy consumes said Squip, and his life changes almost instantly.
However, trading one's freedom in exchange for greatness isn't as great as it seems to be...
Good evening, Darlings! Tonight I'll be reviewing the late Ned Vizzini's 'Be More Chill' which was written way back in the year 2004.
As usual, I'll try to avoid spoilers. The Read More link is just down there if you wish to go on!
A little bit of background before we begin, yeah?
I remember reading his more recent book, It's Kind of a Funny Story, back in Christmas 2013. A close friend of mine asked for it as a Christmas gift. Being the curious person I was, I decided to (carefully) read the book before wrapping it up and give it to her. Ever since, I found myself curious about Mr. Vizzini's other writings, yet was never able to find the rest of them in the bookstores I frequently went to.
However, I was able to spot this when I went book shopping a month ago and decided to buy it! The premise got me interested, and though I was a little surprised at how short the book was (I was able to finish it while waiting at the dentist's), I managed to enjoy the book...despite how conflicted I felt while reading it.
See, though I personally found it interesting to begin with, I found myself not so attached as the plot went on. The character's motives are common: main character wishes to be cooler in order to gain acceptance from his/her peers and the attention as well as the affection from his/her crush. Said main character attempts to reach popularity through unconventional or morally ambiguous means. At the end of the book, main character realizes a number of truths and with that, abandons the means, learning to be comfortable within their own skin.
Almost.
Despite how cliche the plot seemed to be at the very start, what made the book unique was what made the whole 'disaster' happen in the first place.
The Squip.
 |
| "Dangerous and appealing." |
In honesty, I thought that the Squip would turn against Jeremy, the MC. Given the summary at the back, I even thought that the Squip would turn him into someone worse at the end of the book. But my cynicism brought me to a definite wrong side, which ended up with me surprised and pleased at how the book ended.
I'm gonna be real - at the last few pages, I could already detect the ending of the book. And once I got to the end, I was happy to confirm my suspicions, haha.
Overall? Plot's nearly cliche yet Mr. Vizzini puts a wonderful spin to it with his creation of the Squip. While a little bit predictable at some parts, he manages to surprise the reader during different pieces of the novel. It's left unclear if Jeremy does win the heart of Christine since, well...plot happens, and I salute Mr. Vizzini for not making it a total cliche.
Although not as big of an impact as It's Kind of a Funny Story, I found the book to be a short, amusing read. The concept is easy to understand and it doesn't actually tackle too much heavy themes...so anyone who's interested in light YA? I think you'll enjoy~
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