Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini

Jeremy Heere is your average high school dork. Day after day, he stares at beautiful Christine, the girl he can never have, and dryly notes the small humiliations that come his way. Until the day he learns about the "squip." A pill-sized supercomputer that you swallow, the squip is guaranteed to bring you whatever you most desire in life. By instructing him on everything from what to wear, to how to talk and walk, the squip transforms Jeremy from Supergeek to superchic

It was OK. I liked “Its kind of a funny story” by this same author better though. But It seemed to me to be more of a guy book.

HMM. I picked this up because I'm seeing the musical in a few months and wanted to check out the source material (tho I know changes have been made and this is and older book). This book is...gross, in a way that is intentional. I have read a few other YA books that are focused on like, a graphically realistic Teenage Boy POV, and since I have never been a teenage boy I cannot speak to the realism of it. I can say it's gross to read the POV of someone who so completely objectifies women (even if he does so to a lesser degree than some of his gross male peers).

That said–I think the SQUIP idea is very interesting and compelling, and I think Jeremy's arc is interesting and moves toward growth/understanding Women Are People. That said, I mean, this book is 15 years old and in a lot of ways feels very dated. I wouldn't recommend it to teens now.

It's also odd because I think Vizzini's other books are so full of empathy that it's odd to find that quality lacking here :/

dnfed at page 136 worst book i've read in a long while don't read this i hate teenage boys go watch the musical and don't put urself thru this absolute torture