Vera Dietz Book Report

 William McConico 

Mr. Davidson

12/15/23

2nd Hour

AMDG 

Vera Dietz Book Review

Please Ignore Vera Dietz is an amazing contemporary novel that has a complex narrative and mystery. The story follows the titular Vera Dietz throughout her whole life, but most of the narrative takes place during her senior year. The main conflict is over the mysterious death of her former best friend and love intrest Charlie, as she is being urged by his ghost to “clear his name”. The novel goes into excruciating detail of every single impactful interaction that Vera and Charlie have, from when the first meet as small children and all the way up until their split. The novel also delves deep into many of Vera’s other complex relationships; to list a few these include her seemingly overbearing dad, her mother who ran away when Vera was just thirteen years old, and her twenty three year old boyfriend. 

The relationship between Vera and Ken was very relatable and resolved in a very real way. They both had very valid reasons to have problems with each other. Ken saw his daughter turning into her mother, and he saw her drinking knowing that he himself is an alcoholic. He saw her potential, and just wanted to see his daughter shine, even if he displayed that in a really mean way. Vera loved her dad, but just wanted to have her own freedom and have her own way of coping. She knew what she was doing was wrong, but thought that it was what was best for her at that time. At the end of the novel, Vera feels as though “we’re in this together” and exclaimed that she was “glad for that” (323). This is an exponential growth from when in the first chapter she didn’t even want to really talk to her dad, and now they have a remarkably healthy relationship. Their reconciliation was beautiful, took time, and was realistic. These definite tough topics of alcoholism, abandonment, and self expression were all handled in a very mature way for a teenage novel.

The flashbacks were a surprising and seemingly lame addition, but turned out to be one of the best parts of the novel. The flashbacks are primarily in the novel to add an extra layer of exposition, but they add much more than that truly. They really serve as the lifeline of the novel, and make you care more about the characters you previously knew little about. The flashbacks were most imperative in the relationship of Vera and Charlie, as it goes through seemingly every conversation they’ve ever had. These can give us happy memories, like when they built the tree house and had their first kiss, and also very sad ones like when Charlie “hit her” which basically ended their relationship (240). They might not have all been needed or have all even been interesting, but the inclusion of all of these flashbacks makes the characters seem far more human. I can truly say it feels like I know Vera Dietz and Charlie Kahn, which is a huge feather in this book's hat.

This novel at first seemed to be a regular boring edgy teenage novel, but it was far more than that. It was a novel that shows how truly hard the healing process can be when processing trauma, and how healthy and unhealthy methods can easily manifest. It is a novel that can be used as a cautionary tale that if one doesn’t work on themselves, they will inherit the most unfavorable traits of their parents. Most of all though, it is just a very entertaining and captivating novel that I believe anyone should read. ⅘ stars.


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