Vera Dietz Book Review

  Toxic Family Relations in Please Ignore Vera Dietz 

A.S King’s Please Ignore Vera Dietz Is a wonderful depiction of the hardships many families struggle with, and how they often get handled. The book follows the story of a girl named Vera Dietz, a highschooler whose father is a recovering alcoholic and whose mother abandoned her family. The audience follows her journey as a high school student working a job at a pizza place as she deals with the trauma of losing her best friend Charlie, and the fallback of the events that occurred before he died. All the events that occur throughout the story push her to frequently rely on alcohol as a way of numbing the pain. But she ends up hating herself for it, because she fears she’s going down the path that led her father to becoming an addict. As if all of this wasn’t enough to handle, she is also dealing with withholding the knowledge of how Charlie died, and the fact that he was framed for burning down a building.  

The overall realistic feel of this story is one of the biggest highlights of the book. From the abuse Mrs. Kahn goes through, to Vera’s struggles of alcohol and want to make her family proud, each one of these topics hits the reader even harder than they could possibly imagine. This story gets the message that “Sometimes the greatest strength lies in vulnerability” across in the most blunt, yet sensitive way possible ( ). In this case, for Vera it means being open with her father about her life and everything she’s been going through for the past few months. Having those hard conversations most high schoolers dread having with their parents. Through all of her hardships, it becomes apparent that Vera is just like the readers. She’s arguably the most relatable character in the entire book. Her struggle with grief and survivor’s guilt can be difficult for teenagers today to handle. Whether it be not knowing how to express your emotions when events like these occur, or not having emotions when they occur. The different perspectives and points of view within each tragic, happy, or confusing event, hit close to home with the reader at all times, because they live lives like this all the time. 

The strongest feature this book has to offer its readers is the characterization of characters like Vera, Charlie, and Ken. But the main focus of this will be Ken. Ken is a recovering alcoholic who struggled to raise Vera before Sindy left, but this struggle became even harder for him after she left. Because of this, he didn’t want Vera to go down the same route he did when she was younger. He could easily identify the signs of Vera’s growing drinking problem, and because of his experience, he knew how to handle it in the best way for a teenager. This shows his character growth and also his determination to be a better father after the incident. It’s almost as if Ken took to heart the quote; “If we’re supposed to ignore everything that’s wrong with our lives, then I can’t see how we’ll ever make things right” ( ). This quote means that in order to grow and actually make a better life for ourselves and others, we must first face our own faults.  

This book is one of the most realistic books I’ve read in a while. The way the story is told is done in a way that the readers can relate to most of the choices made by each character. I also applaud the Author for including such mature topics and themes in this book. These are things that people need to be made more aware of and the author did it in a way with such care. They were sensitive and aware of everything they said when describing or discussing each of these. And it’s obvious that they did their research because they speak so well on these topics. For example, when talking about Mrs. Kahn being abused, he includes the reasons why it can often be dangerous to call someone out or put them on the spot with things like these. Overall, I would say this is an amazing book. It may not be for everyone because of the strong themes that could be triggering to some people. But the story, characters, writing, and general feel of the book will truly keep you invested in the story. I would recommend this book to anyone who is at least 14 years old.