Be more chill By Ned Vizzini (SPOILER ALERT!!!)

  

            I have just recently finished reading a great book called “Be more chill” by Ned Vizzini. In this book, Vizzini takes a look at the American high school life of Jeremy Heere. Jeremy is a social failure, not having many friends, being humiliated on many occasions and plainly put, he’s just not cool. Jeremy always stares at a girl named Christine, wanting her, even though he knows that with his current social standing, he’d never get her. So Jeremy decides that he’d do anything it took to get her. So of course he jumped at the mention of something called a “squip”, which is supposed to be a kind of micro computer that you swallow. After swallowed, it’s supposed to make its way up your brain, and give you advice to help you achieve your goals. And what does Jeremy do after hearing this? He pays seven hundred dollars that he got from selling rare dolls he stole from his grandma, to get his hands on one.

            While I was reading this book, I thought a lot about how the book was looking at social ranking. At first I interpreted Vizzinis writing to say that high social standing was something that must be achieved, in the case of Jeremy. But towards the end of the book, (SPOILER ALERT!!!) Jeremy throws away his “squip” because even though it was making him very popular, it was making him hated by his real and original best friends. So after finishing the book, I realized that Vizzini was actually telling us that friends  are only friends if they really like you for who they are, and they’re not just your friends because you (“ehemm”*clearing throat sound inserted here) “f _ _ ked” the hottest girl in school (pardon my language please). So basically, just “stay with people like you, and don’t try to be someone you’re not” was the moral of this story.

            All in all I definitely recommend this book to everyone looking for fun, relaxing read. Vizzini does a great job steering away from the stereotypes of an American teenager, and focusing on very real scenarios in a teen’s life.

The Reformed Vampire Support Group

            I am currently reading a suspenseful horror book called The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine jinks. I have not yet completed this book, but here is a brief summary and what I know so far; vampires do exist. At least, they do in the world of 73 year old Nina Harrison. Nina is a vampire, so she still looks like a 15-year old, which was when she was bitten and infected. She is also part of a group called the “Reformed Vampire Support Group”, a group of vampires that promise not to ever infect anyone, and feed off a human. However, the vampires in this book are very different from the vampires in our imagination. They don’t have any superpowers, they must constantly remember to wear sunglasses when looking at light, if they don’t want blood pouring out of their tear glands, and worst of all… they can barely ever go outside and experience new thrills because they will either scare off humans, or burn to ashes.

            While reading this book, a very important theme that I was thinking about a lot is acceptance. This group of vampires is not accepted by society because society is afraid of these vampires. But that is completely human. We are scared of what we cannot make sense of, and do not know. Books and movies have played their part in forming what a vampire or werewolf is in our imagination. What if a werewolf were to appear in time square right now? He may even just be standing there, but our primary instinct would either be to shoot it with a twelve gauge shotgun, or run. Not try to befriend it. Same with a pit bull.  We would probably head the other way if we saw one, because we’ve all seen guard pit bulls in movies that rip off your leg if you come too close. We humans tend to blindly follow the media in what something is or isn’t. We hang onto it as a lifeline, so we can make sense of things.

            All in all, so far I would definitely recommend this to readers looking for a good horror book. However, one thing you must know is that this book is kind of slow (it felt like that to me anyway). It takes a while to get to the point. But all in all, a great book.