Be More Chill
Be More Chill is a science fiction novel published in 2004 by American author Ned Vizzini. It features a fictional pill named the "squip". This story is set around 2010 to 2015, about 10 years in the future after the novel was published. In 2013, a musical adaptation, with a score by Joe Iconis ran at the Two River Playhouse in New Jersey.
Plot
Be More Chill is written in the first person, from the perspective of high school student Jeremy Heere. Jeremy is considered a teenage loser. This is prevalent because girls have no interest in Jeremy, and he is frequently tormented by bullies,the major bully being Rich. Rich is short-statured, but well-built and part of the popular teen group. Jeremy is tired of being a loser so he is looking for anything to change this and after hearing from Rich about the "squip"—a quantum computer in the form of a pill that can communicate directly with your brain after being ingested. This pill is used to become cooler, and comes in different voices such as Sean Connery, Keanu Reeves, etc.—Jeremy purchases the pill in hopes of transforming him from a klutzy loser to a member of the social elite.
Characters
- Jeremy: The protagonist. In the beginning of the novel, Jeremy is bullied by the "cooler" kids at school, but after purchasing a squip he becomes one of the most popular teenagers in school and has the attention of the most attractive girls. Jeremy acts for the most part like a normal teenager, and is inherently a nice guy.
- Rich: Rich used to be a loser like Jeremy, but after getting a squip, he became cool.
- Christine: Jeremy's love interest. Unlike most of the girls in the novel, Christine has a more intellectual personality and favors confidence and kindness over looks and social status. Christine is the only girl that Jeremy has a crush on, although he goes out with two others.
- The Squip: A supercomputer that resides in Jeremy's mind. It speaks to him telepathically with Keanu Reeves' voice, and gives him real-time social advice. It can be "very soothing" when it wants to, and is very persuasive when it is telling Jeremy to do something he doesn't want to do.
- Chloe: Although Christine is Jeremy's love interest, Chloe is the main girl that Jeremy is involved with. After he gets the squip and acts differently around her, Chloe becomes attracted to Jeremy. She is best friends with Katrina and Stephanie.
- Michael: Michael is Jeremy's longtime best friend. He tells Jeremy a false name for the squip, knowing that Jeremy would want one. At the party, Michael gets a girlfriend named Nicole. He knows what the squip is all along without telling Jeremy because of his brother, who is paranoid and delusional, thanks to a defective squip that helped him ace his SAT's.
- Jake: Christine's boyfriend at the beginning of the story,but when he is in a room with a girl called Katrina, Christine realizes she has to dump him.
Reviews
"A fresh, spontaneous, and original voice . . . It's fun, wacky, outrageous. I just couldn't stop reading."—Judy Blume
"Quirky, funny and dead-on . . . imagine Holden Caulfield with Internet access."—New York Post
"Vizzini anatomizes high school lust and social scheming without any condescending reassurance."—The New York Times Book Review [1]
Sarcastic, sexy (well, Jeremy wishes there was sex) and hilarious, this thought-provoking book is not to be missed by anyone who has ever wanted the impossible. The larger-than-life characters fit in perfectly with the idea of a pill-sized computer running Jeremy's life at Leni Lenape High School. This book, however, is far from fluffy. It raises some important questions as to how far one person will go to impress another and the depth of honesty needed in human relationships. -- Reviewed by Carlie Webber at "Teenreads", October 18, 2011 [2]