braincircus 's review for:

Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini

1.0

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It's really as grossly misogynistic and repulsive as other reviews claim it to be. This was my second time reading Be More Chill, and it was somehow even worse than I remember. Its only redeeming qualities are a somewhat potentially-interesting plot and the squip's personality, though it uses homophobic rhetoric to criticize Jeremy Heere's anxieties. There is little character development and the flattest personalities you can encounter in writing (every single girl in the book is written as a sex-addicted airhead, except for Christine, who exists to suffer repeatedly from Jeremy's unwanted advances). Michael fetishizes Asian girls and is creepy in general but the reader is expected to feel pity(?) for him, and there's a manic pixie girl who self-harms because she thinks it's "pretty". Honestly, I'm not sure who the target audience was for this book. It's full of toxic mentalities that can harm youths, and it's not funny (at best there are outdated, bizarre pop culture references) or relatable enough for adults looking to reminisce. At least we got the musical, but even that is average at best (why are they making a film now?).