I wanted to know more, to understand the characters better, to see what made them do the mistakes they did, to understand why there was no return point for them. I took the book in my hand and couldn’t put it down. There are many things I liked about this story. Two gulps of vodka later, my eyes are watering and my throat automatically grumbles “Ahhhhh” to get rid of the burning. Until there’s no mystery, until there are no more secrets, until there is nothing left to do. Would it have made any difference at all? I still wonder if the ending would have been different if Vera did something. Also it gives us some good lessons about being human, about making mistakes, about trying to change what’s wrong, about what-if ‘s, about being too late, about deciding to do something while you still can… Because we can learn from their errors, we could be so much better, we could do so much more.

“Please Ignore Vera Dietz” is a story that deals with some complex subjects. If we’re supposed to ignore everything that’s wrong with our lives, then I can’t see how we’ll make things right What do you do when the secret is not yours to tell? What you do when you know someone else’s secret?

To ignore the kids that were mean, her mother than never cared, her father that was unhappy, the screams from the next door, the bruise on the boy’s skin.Īnd all she wanted was to be ignored as well. Like one hand clappingĪll her life Vera’s been thought to ‘ignore’. “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” Until there was no longer a boy and a girl. They’ve been friends since forever, they cared for each other, they played and went to school together, they were inseparable. Ages 13 up.Once upon a time there was a boy and a girl. The book is deeply suspenseful and profoundly human as Vera, haunted by memories of Charlie and how their friendship disintegrated, struggles to find the courage to combat destructive forces, save herself, and bring justice to light. Vera is the primary narrator, though her father, Charlie (posthumously), and even the town's landmark pagoda contribute interludes as King (The Dust of 100 Dogs) shows how shame and silence can have risky sometimes deadly consequences. But first she has to face her fractured relationship with her father, a recovering alcoholic who worries about her drinking the absence of her mother, who left six years earlier and the knowledge that she could clear Charlie's suspected guilt in a crime. Though Charlie's death hangs heavily over Vera, she has the road ahead mapped out: pay her way through community college with her job delivering pizza while living 'cheap' in her father's house. Beginning with the funeral of Charlie Kahn, high school senior Vera's neighbor and former best friend, this chilling and darkly comedic novel offers a gradual unfolding of secrets about the troubled teenagers, their families, and their town.

Please excuse vera dietz