Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

Last week the Printz Award winners were announced and Please Ignore Vera Dietz was one of the honor books. Last year I decided that since the Printz award is the teen award as a teen librarian I need to make sure that not only do I know who the award winners are and have read all of the books. Last year I managed to read all of 2010's winners and honor books and three previous award/honor books. (I have read more then that total but I want to read and review all of them so I have them on my goodreads and can call them up when I need to.) So here is my first Printz review of the year.

I love A.S. King, she is becoming one of my favorite authors. Vera's best friend Charlie died and she isn't really dealing. She is just trying to keep going with her life, good grades in school and her full time job delivering pizza. But Charlie knows that she can clear his name so he keeps trying to influence Vera into telling the truth.

The story alternates between Vera in the present, Vera and Charlie's history, Charlie in death, Vera's dad and the Pagoda, a structure built in t...moreI love A.S. King, she is becoming one of my favorite authors. Vera's best friend Charlie died and she isn't really dealing. She is just trying to keep going with her life, good grades in school and her full time job delivering pizza. But Charlie knows that she can clear his name so he keeps trying to influence Vera into telling the truth.

The story alternates between Vera in the present, Vera and Charlie's history, Charlie in death, Vera's dad and the Pagoda, a structure built in town that kind of presides over everything. Charlie and Vera both had difficult home lives for different reasons. I loved getting all the different points of view of the story. I liked being able to find out how Vera's dad felt about what was going on, what happened in the past and his wife Sindy. I also liked learning Charlie's thoughts on what you learn upon your death. The Pagoda also provided a few laughs in a fairly dark book. I love the language the author uses to describe everyone's feelings and thoughts, it just sounds so appealing. I also really liked Vera and her dad, it was nice to watch them become stronger and learn to pay attention to each other, themselves and others.

It's so easy to love King's characters. I loved Vera's quiet strength and she honestly sounded like a cute kid. She was so responsible but by being so responsible she was kind of missing out on the point of being in high school. I also really felt for Charlie. He had a very difficult life and did what he thought he needed to do to survive and protect Vera. But he allowed many people to manipulate him, from the man in the white car, to Jenny Flick, and to his father. Between Vera and Charlie I think that readers can easily find someone to relate to.

***Spoiler***
My only complaint is a little bit spoilery. We never find out what is in the envelope. We get Charlies notes on the napkin to Vera and we get an inkling of what's on the cd/dvd, but I never really figured out what it was that Charlie thought Vera could never forgive him for. I have a guess as to what it might have been but some confirmation would have been nice (I'm a little slow on the pick up sometimes.) Because what I thought it was I don't think is something that could really be blamed on Charlie so there is no reason for him not to be forgiven. Of course I read an arc and there is a chance that this part of the book was changed.
***Spoiler Ends***

It was a great read and I'm glad this won a Printz Honor book. While it was dark it also had an uplifting ending