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A review by beeostrowsky
Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini
2.0
I really wanted to like this more. But then again, I really wanted it to do more. It's a classic setup for a Faustian cautionary tale about making bargains you shouldn't, but instead it's just a male-slanted Cyrano comedy with a gag ending (the only way I can explain is to write a book about it, which this book is).
There are so many more interesting plots that could start with "teenager allows a black-market AI to have an outpost in their head". The AI didn't even turn out to be evil, just amoral and imperfect. It was perfectly happy to tell its host how to kill it once it was no longer useful for helping him get with "target females".
It's not social science fiction, it's just a 1980s sex comedy with a light cyberspace overlay. Only I can't imagine William Gibson ever imagining anything so flimsy.
There are so many more interesting plots that could start with "teenager allows a black-market AI to have an outpost in their head". The AI didn't even turn out to be evil, just amoral and imperfect. It was perfectly happy to tell its host how to kill it once it was no longer useful for helping him get with "target females".
It's not social science fiction, it's just a 1980s sex comedy with a light cyberspace overlay. Only I can't imagine William Gibson ever imagining anything so flimsy.