From Goodreads: Vera’s spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she’s kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything.
So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to?
Edgy and gripping, Please Ignore Vera Dietz is an unforgettable novel: smart, funny, dramatic, and always surprising.
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While I enjoyed the mystery behind this novel very much, I was less than pleased with the ending. King presents readers with the story of Vera and Charlie, two childhood friends who drift apart due to many different circumstances, but the main one, according to Vera, is his new set of friends and their drugs/alcohol. But there are so many different sides to Charlie and his life that it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what is it, and when he dies, there is much speculation. According to Vera, she knows the truth; she knows why Charlie died, what he was responsible for, and what others were responsible for. However, by the end, I felt it was still all a bit unclear.
I really enjoyed Vera’s voice, but I still feel like I don’t know anything, and I’m not really sure that the story itself made much sense. I lost all respect for Charlie as the story went on—he’s a real jerk—and I just can’t get over the end, which isn’t an end at all. Charlie is dead, but why? We’re given an idea of what might have happened, but I’m not sure I believe it, and therefore, everything is still up in the air in my mind, which is unfortunate because the whole reason I picked up this novel was due to the mystery. I wanted to know what happened to Charlie. Now, while I enjoyed the novel overall, Charlie’s character, his actions, and that of his friends, really left me with a sour taste in my mouth, which is fine, but it was the lack of a conclusion that really made me lose much of my gumption over the story. Maybe I missed some vital sentence somewhere that spelled it out for me, but since Vera claims to know the truth, I really expected the truth, and not just another speculation. Three stars.
I purchased this novel from Amazon.
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