Be More Chill

Product Information

End verdict: I think I (kind of) enjoyed this book because I love the musical. Had it not been for the musical, I probably would not have finished, let alone enjoyed, the book.

Like the first part when it's just Jeremy it's illustrated in a western art style, and it seems like it's gonna be a superhero origin story. Then the SQUIP comes along and he's like an anime character brought to life. Surprise! You're reading a shonen-style manga! You've been reading a manga this whole time! Okay, this review isn't formal in any way, so bear with me. For those not aware, this book has a corresponding musical of the same name. Here's what I'm going to do: I'm doing a whole Musical vs. Book segment at the end of my review, so if you just want to know what I think about the book itself, just ignore the last part of my review. If you only care about my thoughts on how the musical differs from the book, feel free to skip to the end. That being said, here are my thoughts on the book. This venue has additional Covid-19 safety measures in place to ensure the health and well-being of the staff, performers, and guests.At the end of the novel, as you might expect, the boy sheds the chip/pill from his system and feels regretful of his actions. However, this isn't brought on by the realization of his terrible treatment of girls or his old friends, but by a freak accident that injures his new friends. And, he regrets the decision of taking the chip because his crush ultimately rejects him. Every character in this book "slutshames" or shames girls for being sexually active or having multiple partners -- this is a serious matter. As stated before, I love the musical. These characters have an actual personality, for one thing. There is much more development of the friendship between Jeremy and Michael, and it makes a WORLD of a difference. Michael is my favorite character in the musical because of his role and my emotional attachment to what he goes through. As for the book, I don't think it would make much of a difference if Michael was never a character in the first place. It is INCREDIBLE how much of an improvement there is when the narrative is told in more than one point of view (though, I understand why the book was in Jeremy's POV to work for the ending). The Squip Song” RICH FRESHMAN YEAR DIDN'T HAVE A GIRLFRIEND OR A CLUE GOOD TIMES WOULD ONLY SOAR BY I WAS GROSS AS EVERY FEMALE WOULD ATTEST MY SEXTING WAS A FUTILE QUEST MY LITTLE PENIS WAS DEPRESSED IT WAS SO LONELY POOR GUY I WAS HOPELESS, HOPELESS I WAS HELPLESS, HELPLESS EVERY TIME I'D WALK THE HALLWAY I WOULD TRIP I WAS STAGNANT AND IDLE I WAS SO SUICIDAL AND THEN, THEN, THEN THEN, THEN, THEN, THEN, THEN THEN, THEN, THEN, THEN THEN I GOT A SQUIP. JEREMY

Jake Dillinger: Christine's love interest at the beginning of the book, constantly having sex with hot people. The first complaint I have to say is that the book doesn't age very well. There are words and ideas that are very outdated. This mostly applies to what's considered "cool" and even more with what's considered acceptable. The reader is supposed to sympathize with Jeremy (and to a lesser extent, Michael). I had a hard time doing so. Both of these boys (and all of the boys in the novel, in complete honesty) are such insufferable douchebags, I don't feel bad about them not having friends. They are all incredibly misogynistic, as pointed out by many other reviewers. Michael even has a specific interest in Asian girls, which was off-putting. The ladies in the novel are reduced to nothing more than walking sex dolls. The only girl given a hint of personality is Christine, who clearly doesn't like Jeremy and explains to him that she'd like to stay friends with him. But Jeremy isn't satisfied with that, no no, because he's a cool man and goes out of his way to make unwanted advances toward Christine, even making her cry in front of 300 people, (but it's okay because the SQUIP told him to! More on that later). Along with the misogyny, there's subtle homophobia mixed in, too. Basically, what it comes down to is the fact that this book was published in 2004. This stuff was a lot more accepted in literature over 10 years ago than it is now. It's disgusting, yes, but this is how teenage boys acted, and some still do act this way. Don't even get me started on what is considered cool in this book. It's basically all of the aforementioned misogyny and homophobia, but with Eminem thrown in a little bit. This book ages like a bottle of fine milk. The Broadway musical Be More Chill was based on a YA novel of the same name by the late Ned Vizzini. Why is Jeremy so mean to Michael? And why did Michael just accept all of Jeremy’s crap? At some point Jeremy should have realised that the Squip is just a piece of technology and Michael has been his best friend for many years and treating him like dirt is just going to make him leave. Of course, it’s all explained that Michael realised what was going on, and there were no hard feelings, but that just takes the onus off of Jeremy completely. Jeremy wasn’t a bystander, he chose to do what the Squip told him, but the book ends up treating him like he was a bystander. So here’s the premise: teenage boy is awkward, nerdy, uncool. He hears about a pill, a “squip,” that is a microcomputer that will give him instructions on how to be cool (or “more chill”). He gets a squip, becomes cool, and eventually the squip fails - its technology isn’t perfect yet.RICH shoves JEREMY against a wall—) BUT IF YOU TAKE MY ADVICE AND IF YOU PAY THE LISTED PRICE, WELL THEN YOU GO FROM SAD TO INTERESTING TO HIP YEAH, YOUR WHOLE LIFE WILL FLIP YEAH, WHEN YOU BUY A SQUIP RICH