Please Ignore Vera Dietz Book Review (FINAL)

Please Ignore Vera Dietz Book Review

            Please Ignore Vera Dietz was written by A. S. King. Vera, the main character, is a high school senior that lives with just her father. The reason that she only lives with her father is because her mother, who was a stripper, left Vera and Ken, her dad, when Vera was rather young and ran off with a foot doctor to Las Vegas. The Kahns live next to Vera and Ken and they have a son named Charlie that is around Vera’s age and in the same grade. They hang out and become best friends. This friendship lasts until the two of them get into high school when the cool kids known also as Detention Heads notice Charlie and take him under their wing. This leads Vera to being left to fend for herself in high school without the protection and guidance of Charlie. After some confrontations with Charlie and the Detention Heads, Vera is scared that Charlie will spread the information that her mom was a stripper around school. Because of this, Vera decides to simply do what the title of the book is, she ignores everybody at school and hopes that everybody else in her high school will do the same to her. This leads to a depressing life where all she does is go to high school and her job at Pagoda Pizza, but she is happy about it. That happiness lasts until Charlie dies under mysterious circumstances. After Charlie’s death, Vera starts to mend her situation and relationship with Ken. Vera knows all of the details about what happened but will she reveal them?

            Setting was very important in this book as it helped to create many different scenes in the book that were very suspenseful with very vivid descriptions that helped the reader to feel like they were actually in the novel. The description of Vera’s home along with the Kahn’s home and the other homes of the neighbors is a very good example of the intricate descriptions that King uses in this book. The description is as follows, “The order, starting at the hairpin curve, was the pagoda, the Ungers, us, the Kahns, and then the Millers way down the hill, on the other side of the road, and then the lake” (King 33-34). This description of the neighborhood that Charlie and Vera both live in makes the reader feel like they are actually there experiencing this exact scene with Vera as she is describing it. The visual quality that comes from King’s intricate description of the neighborhood is impeccable. The reason that this quote is intricate is that without the Kahns being so close it would have been harder for Charlie and Vera to get together and build a bond. That is not the only reason, but the layout of the neighborhood does help. The setting successfully sets up and explains how and why Charlie and Vera became such close friends. The reason was simply that their two houses were the closet to everything else in the entire neighborhood so they would naturally attract to each other. Besides the description of the setting of the neighborhood, the description of the pagoda as being a failure, also being seen as a symbol of the town is a very interesting visual quality in this novel that really helps to put the reader into the novel and experience what is happening. Setting adds many important visual qualities to Please Ignore Vera Dietz and King’s writing style really helps to immerse the reader into the story.

            The characters are also a very important in this novel as each individual character brings a different perspective to the table. Vera is the kid that slips under everybody’s radar. Charlie is the person that everybody knows but he only knows the people that matter to him. Jenny is the person that will use others in any way possible to get some sort of advantage over others. Bill Corso is the one kid that was pushed along by the school, he never learned how to properly read, and he is a senior. That is sad! In short, there is a lot of variety in the personalities of the characters that are in Please Ignore Vera Dietz. When Bill Corso tries to pretend to read is a superb description of his character as a whole. His attempt is, “‘You…are a silly little boy…said the…Lord of the Flies. Just an ig…igno…’” (King 277). While this description of Bill might be funny and that was probably one of the reasons that King included it in her novel, she is also getting to a very important point with Bill. There are people, like Bill that simply are moved along the pipeline from kindergarten to high school to graduation without knowing how to properly read, write, or do basic arithmetic. What King does by having the diversity in characters is that she shows how different personalities can work together to do good things; however, in this case they were bad things. King uses the characters to show that the traits that the characters exhibit in the book also exist in real life. That is how the characters in King’s novel are extremely important.

            Another important theme in Please Ignore Vera Dietz is the idea of forgiveness and how people can wait for a long time to finally forgive someone after they have been severely hurt by that person. This can be seen in the therapy sessions between Vera and Ken where they finally forgive each other about what happened to Vera’s mom, Cindy Sidny, which led them to finally remove all her possessions that were still in their house with the hope that she would come back and with the fear that if the items were removed, she would never come back. A more prominent scene of forgiveness is with Charlie and trying to save Vera from encountering the same fate that he ended up having. This is also, why he does things such as calling the cops when James and Vera were in the car together. He wants Vera to accept his forgiveness for him not being there for her when she needed him and for completely shunning her. Vera sees all of this happen through ghost of Charlie that appear and attempt to crowd and smother her. This happens her in the bathroom at school one day and it goes back on the pure genius that King has in creating a scene. Vera was in the bathroom when, “Through the thousand Charlies, …I walk slowly toward the sink, against the weight of them. …in Charli’s messy handwriting [on the mirror is] HELP ME” (King 275-276). Charlie’s ghosts write “help me” on the mirror because they want Vera to read the napkins that Charlie left for her so that she can fully understand what exactly happened the night Zimmerman’s Pet Store was burned down. The ghosts are in Vera’s life because they want Vera to find the letter. It is similar to ghosts that haunt certain buildings or similar places, the ghosts are haunting that certain area because they want something to change or be fixed. Charlie is the same way except that his ghosts are haunting Vera instead of a building. Eventually this haunting does end up paying off because Vera finds out what really happened with Zimmerman’s Pet Store. By doing this, she essentially put Charlie’s ghosts to rest. King through the use of the various forgiveness scenes in Please Ignore Vera Dietz shows how powerful forgiveness can truly be.

            All in all this was an OK book. King does a good job in the descriptions of the book but in my opinion that is about the only good thing that she does in this book. It was quite hard for me to write this other part of the Please Ignore Vera Dietz Book Review in a neutral manner but I was able to do that. King has no understanding of what a typical senior in high school’s class load is. Seriously, Vera just needs to study for Modern Social Thought and Vocabulary!! I understand that I go to a private school and Vera goes to a public school but in comparison, a private and public school are not that different. Besides that, there are a few other things that she does a pathetic job in portraying as serious problems for teenagers but not much. Besides that, overall it was an OK book. (2 stars out of 5.)

Vera Dietz Thus Far

A. S. King's Please Ignore Vera Dietz, many different things have happened within the 100 or so pages that we have read since the last test. The reader finally learns about why Vera's mother's name appears as Cidny Sidny since she changed her name after she left Ken and Vera and moved to Las Vegas. As Vera grows older and continues to hang out with Charlie she starts to view them someday as a potential couple. Ken becomes very frustrated with Vera for her continuation of drinking because he knows how he, himself, is affected by alcohol and he really does not want Vera to follow along the same path that he went down. Ken then allows Vera to attend the Pagoda Pizza Holiday party because he wants to trust her even though she was just drinking and Ken is still mad at her. However, when Vera is trying to leave the party after heavily drinking, she is pretty much mauled by Mike before she can actually leave. This all goes back on what Ken was warning Vera about. Vera also acts invisible in high school because she does not want people to know that her mother was a stripper and it goes hand in hand with the title of PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ. Vera also goes on a Valentines Day date with Charlie but it really does not turn out very well, since Jenny is there and Charlie is pretty much conflicted in regards to his feelings between Charlie and Vera. He pretty much ends up choosing Jenny while practically forcing Vera out of his life. The reading section then ends with Vera saying, "Of course, I was lying to both of us." Meaning that Charlie and Vera were pretty much never meant to be.

In regards to King's way of depicting teenagers in today's culture I feel that she does a very poor job. There are teenagers today that are affected by alcohol as well as drugs, but I feel that it is not as prevalent as King makes it seem like it is. Especially in regard to school and academics, she does a very poor job trying to write about a senior in high school that has only two classes that they need to study for. Vera is complaining about memorizing five vocabulary words and reading Lord of the Flies in class. Really??!! I understand that U of D is on a higher level than the school that Vera is going to but public schools in my community and that I know about are so much more rigorous than whatever school Vera is going to or that King makes it out to be. That is what is extremely frustrating about this novel is that King completely fails at what she is trying to accomplish in writing about a teenager's life. There are a few things that are true about people changing as they grow older, typical teenager stuff, but besides that she does a terrible job.


In regards to covering teen issues importantly, I feel that she tries to do so but does not really know exactly "how" to cover them without humor. She tries to cover them with the help of humor, I feel that she tries this so that people will be more comfortable talking about this controversial topics; however, I feel that she really waters the topics down too much for them to be taken seriously. It is because of this "watering down," that I personally do not feel that they are taken seriously enough for the novel. In regards to alcoholism and college as well as Vera's future, I feel that they are not taken seriously enough in this novel and because of it the message that King is trying to get across, simply is unable to be completely understood. Anything school related in this novel is covered as if Vera was in kindergarten or First Grade, NOT a senior in high school!! Again, if the humor was a little lighter, and not so overbearing throughout the novel, I feel that the messages that King was trying to get across would get across. I apologize for partially answering this question in the above paragraph.

Book Review of "The Night Circus

The Night Circus Book Review

            The Night Circus is written by Erin Morgenstern. In the book, there are two main characters, Celia and Marco. These two characters are in a completion against each other as a sort of game, and whoever dies first loses while the person that survives the completion is the winner. The book is a narration of what takes place between each member of the game and how each member of the game copes with not really being in control of their future. The members of the game are literally bound to each other, and this bind will not break until the game is finished. Where is there a mysterious man in grey that does not have a shadow? Why is there a man magician named Prospero after the main protagonist in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest? How about magic? Or better yet, the power of in visibility? What about love? These examples as well as many others help to make the story so much more interesting and keeps the reader on the edge of their seat.

The setting is very interesting in this book and really helps to create some suspense in the book with the vivid descriptions of the setting at different times in the novel. A place in the book that really brought setting home is with the vivid description of the circus, known as Les Cirque des Rêves. The description of the circus really helps to make it feel like the reader is actually there in the circus. The description of the circus is as follows, “Black-and-white stripes on grey sky; countless tents of varying shapes and sizes, elaborate wrought-iron fence, …what little ground is visible from outside is black or white, painted or powdered” (Morgenstern 3). The description of the circus is so vivid and real feeling that the reader feels like they are actually experiencing the circus for the first time, right along with the unnamed narrator in the beginning of The Night Circus. Without a good setting, there is no connection between the book and the reader. With a good setting there is a connection, this is why a good setting is so important. With the setting, many very intricate and impeccable visual qualities are seen through the strong use of the setting. Setting is able to successfully add many different visual qualities to the story that really tend to immerse the reader in The Night Circus mostly regarding the physical circus and Chandresh’s house.

            The characters play a very important role in this novel. Without the current cast of characters that are in The Night Circus, the story would not have been so appealing to the reader, and the overall tone of the story would probably have turned out completely different. There are many different types of characters in the story, and without the vast differences between all of them, the story would not have ended up as it did. From a mysterious man in grey, which the reader never learned his entire name, to a magician nicknamed Prospero, to Marco a poor orphan boy before he became an apprentice of the Man in Grey, and finally Celia who is the daughter of Prospero and the opponent of Marco in the game. The characters differ from each other, but there are also some similarities between the four that are listed. For one thing, all four of those characters are connected and affected in some way by the game. What is interesting about this game is that Marco did not know who his opponent was until Celia auditioned for Chandresh’s circus unexpectedly. Since the characters do things that the reader does not expect, this keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. The characters in The Night Circus are unpredictable as seen through Celia’s audition. The description that Morgenstern writes about Celia trying out for the circus, I feel that it really helps to show the vast differences that the characters have when compared to each other. Part of the description follows, “In the blink of an eye …the raven swoops over the [auditorium] …very slowly, her gown begins to change …the creeping black fade into snow-bright white …until all evidence that the gown was ever green are gone” (Morgenstern 96-98). So what is important about this scene? This scene helps to show that the characters in The Night Circus are unpredictable and do not necessarily do what the reader would expect. The scene also shows how it is Morgenstern’s writing style that really helps to have these characters in the novel emerge and it makes the reader feel that they are actually in the novel experiencing everything as well as the characters.  

            The final major theme of this novel is the game itself. While this might not seem to be very important, it is quite vital to bring to light so that the reader can understand how the story ended as it did. Between Marco and Celia’s learning styles, there are many differences that need to be brought to light. Marco learned and prepared for the game in solitude. He was left by himself and told to read book after book after book that the Man in Grey brought for him. There was never much practice when it came to preparing. Marco did pretty much everything by himself. On the other hand, Celia was also self-taught like Marco, but her teaching had a somewhat different trend then Marco’s did. Prospero would hurt Celia so that she would learn how to heal herself. In retrospect this was a good idea; however, when it was happening it was a little messed up. Some of the madness can be seen here, “Prospero the Enchanter uses a pocket knife to slit his daughter’s fingertips open, …her father gives her only a few moments to rest before slicing [them open again]” (Morgenstern 34). Through Morgenstern’s writing, the audience feels a little sick to their stomachs because it is an odd way of training. If Morgenstern was not the author of this book, then the book would probably not have turned out as it had, especially regarding the differences in training because Morgenstern did a great job of manipulating the characters to act and train as they should have. It is through her writing style, that the differences in the way Marco and Celia are trained comes to light.

            I would recommend this book if a person is really into magic or quirky things. If there was one word that I could use to describe this book, it would be quirky. Why? I just feel that the book fits in a very niche genre and would be unable to be there if it was not for the book’s quirkiness. Besides that, the book was very interesting and I enjoyed it pretty well. People that enjoy “traditional” romance novels or fictional stories might not enjoy this book; however, people that enjoy complex novels will because there is some serious plot in this novel. The different timelines in the book were a neat feature. In its entirety, it was a pretty good book. (3 stars out of 5.)

The Art of Racing in the Rain Book Review (FINAL)

The Art of Racing in the Rain Book Review

            The Art of Racing in the Rain was written by Garth Stein. Enzo, the main character that is a dog, narrates his life as it happens. From being born on a farm and remembering when he was adopted by Denny as a pet to helping Denny with Eve when she ends up getting sick. Maxwell and Trish, known as the Twins to Enzo, are Eve’s parents. After Eve gets sick, the Twins decide to have Zoë, Eve and Denny’s child, stay at their house with them since Eve is also staying there as she recuperates. This at first seems like a very warm and loving gesture, but as the story goes on the true intentions of the Twins begin to come to light. Was it a loving gesture? Or was it something entirely different? What makes this book even more interesting the besides the fact that it is told from a dog’s point of view is that, the dog has human qualities. It can think just like a human so the story has the quality of language similarly to that of a person. From riding along in an actual racecar to just sitting in next to Denny watching old racing tapes, Enzo’s life as a dog is nothing short of a roller-coaster ride as he goes from attacking a zebra, to riding in an actual racecar, and then getting hit by an actual car. Stein’s work will have the reader crying and laughing at the same time.

            Setting was very interesting in this book. It really helped to create suspense where it was needed in the book as well as make the book more enjoyable to read. Stein’s vivid description of the courthouse really shows the power of setting. Even though most of that certain part of the book was fabricated in Enzo’s head, it still shows the complexity of the setting. As narrated by Enzo, “The new Seattle courthouse: glass walls and metal beams” (294). From this description of the courthouse, the reader understands that there are many important decisions that happen in that building as well as it being a big part in Denny’s life. It is where Denny goes along with Mr. Lawrence, to help argue for Denny’s case in getting custody of Zoë back. While this description of the courtroom might be a little brief, the reader can visualize what the courtroom looks like. This is really just one example in the book where Stein’s writing really tends to encapsulate the reader with the description of various places in the book. It is with these very intricate details about various settings in The Art of Racing in the Rain that the reader is able to feel like they are actually in the book especially regarding places like the old house that Denny used to live in, as well as inside the racecar when Enzo is riding along with Denny. This shows how important setting is in general, especially in this book.

            Another element to The Art of Racing in the Rain that really helped to make the story interesting to read and follow were the characters and how the characters were really quite complex throughout the story. There are many different types of characters throughout the book. There is Denny who is a car mechanic and a race car driver. There is Eve who is Denny’s wife and has an art degree. Then at the same time, there is also the Twins who have a lot of money and want to make sure that Zoë does not necessarily follow down the path that Denny and Eve had gone down. This “path” could pretty much be referred to, by them as the “bad” path, since it was not in line with what the Twins wanted for Eve or Zoë. The characters that have been listed are the main characters; however, there are some minor characters that really do play a big role in the story. Mike and Tony are there for Denny in his time of need. Denny goes to them for support and insight and they in return watch Enzo when Denny is unable to. They are also there to fill in the necessarily silence with laughter which happens quite a lot. A perfect example of this is when Enzo tells Denny not to sign the release of custody papers and instead grabs them and jumps out the window. This is followed my Mike saying: “If we had a videotape of that, we could win ten thousand dollars on America’s Funniest Home Videos” (266.) There is Mike adding laughter into a situation that is a little too tense and gets Denny to lighten up considerably. Stein does a tremendous job of giving minor characters a really big part in this book. Normally, these characters would be left out and not really considered a big role in the book, Stein does the opposite. If it was not for the minor characters in the novel, such as Mike and Tony, a few major things would not have happened. The novel would not have been as funny and Denny would never have been at their house for support, he would have instead signed the custody papers and the story would be over. This is how important the minor characters are as well as just the variety of characters in The Art of Racing in the Rain and just how important of roles they fill.

            The writing style of Stein is something that really helps make the overall book flow really well. From the insight into the mind of Enzo, to just the overall story, the writing style of Stein is impeccable. The part of The Art of Racing in the Rain that really shows off his true writing style is when, Enzo is talking about what happened in court as well as the part where Enzo is “testifying” on Denny’s innocence with a device, similar to Stephen Hawking’s device, that makes Enzo’s voice audible to everybody present. As Mr. Lawrence explains to the judge, “We’ve borrowed a special voice synthesizer that was developed for Stephen Hawking… [It] reads the electrical pulses of the inner brain—” (300). This is an interesting concept and it is just one of the examples throughout the book that really exhibits Stein’s unique writing style. To come up with such a genius idea of having Enzo somehow talk to the people in the audience since Enzo was present during the alleged crime, is pure literary genius. Even though this interaction with Enzo in front of the judge did not actually happen since it was a dream; Stein still wrote about it and added some really interesting literary elements for something that in the broad range of the novel, really did not matter since it did not happen. This just shows how dedicated Stein was to this novel as well as how unique and interesting his writing style is as well. This is why in The Art of Racing in the Rain, Stein’s writing style does a very good job of portraying what the various characters are thinking and feeling.

            I would recommend this novel. All in all this was a decent novel. I normally do not necessarily like novels about animals because they can be all “mushy” and the animal normally doesn’t do anything that I would consider “impressive” in the novel. The Art of Racing in the Rain was different in a few ways. First, Enzo (the dog) was able to actually do many different things that were “impressive” such as helping Denny with his problems in court and simply just being there for Denny. Also, it wasn’t exactly “mushy.” Sure, there were times throughout the novel where it could have been, but Stein did a really good job of keeping the novel moving so that it did not become stagnate. In that aspect, I did enjoy the novel. It is for people that like to read stories about animals and for people that are open to new ideas about life as there are some philosophical elements to the novel as well. (3 stars out of 5.)