Be More Chill

"Be More Chill" is a science fiction novel by American author Ned Vizzini. It features a fictional pill named the "squip". It is known to take place right now, in the fall of 2008.

Plot introduction

"Be More Chill" is written in the first person, from the perspective of high school student Jeremy Heere.Jeremy is a teenage loser, who can't get with any girls and is frequently tormented by bullies, usually Rich, a short-statured but well-built popular teen.After hearing from Rich about the "squip"--a quantum computer in pill form that can communicate directly with your brain once ingested--Jeremy purchases the pill at the back of a Payless Shoes, and transforms from a klutzy loser to a member of the social elite.

Plot summary

The book opens with Jeremy Heere sitting in math class. In the same class are three well-known teenagers: Christine Caniglia (whom Jeremy has a crush on), Anne (the "second-coolest" girl in class, and Jenna (the "coolest" girl in class). Jenna is telling Anne about her friend Elizabeth, who is apparently a huge slut. The conversation soon turns to Christine; Jenna tells Anne that Christine has a new stalker. This stalker is evidently none other than Jeremy, who, Jenna claims, sent Christine a letter. Mentally, Jeremy is freaking out; he rarely even talks to Christine, and is horrified by the chance that someone would tell Christine about the rumor. The girls also discuss Jeremy's "Humiliation Sheets" (more on those later), and they talk about how weird he is.

In math we learn about Jeremy's Humiliation Sheets: pieces of paper that Jeremy has divided into several categories (Snotty Comment, Refusal to Touch Hands, etc). Jeremy marks down the social defeats that come his way on these papers depending on their nature.

It's lunch time. Jeremy meets his best friend Michael Mell, who is as much of a dork as he is. They talk about Christine and Jeremy's plan to give her a Shakespeare figure made out of chocolate.

Jeremy's signed up for the A Midsummer Night's Dream school play, a production which Christine happens to be part of. Jeremy and Christine talk, and after a while, Jeremy tries to clear up the rumor. This only serves to get a rise off the teenage hottie, who asks cynically: "Is that your big accomplishment of the day? "Not" giving me something?" She stalks off muttering to herself about Jeremy's weirdness.

Jeremy has a run-in with Rich, a short, but very built, blond young man who frequently bullies our hero. After laughing at Jeremy and calling him a bitch, Rich goes home.

After a while, Jeremy goes to the school's Halloween Dance. Jeremy watches the three hottest girls in school--Chloe, Katrina, and Stephanie--dance, and after a while is approached by Rich (who is dressed as a giant marijuana leaf). Rich, unexpectedly and inexplicably, doesn't bully Jeremy, but treats him like a friend. Rich approaches a hot teen girl and, in front of Jeremy's eyes, starts making out with her, just like that. When he returns, he explains he has a "squip"--a computer in pill form that communicates with your brain and gives you real-time social advice. Rich has been tormenting Jeremy on the squip's advice, but recently Rich's squip has been telling Rich that Jeremy may be cool enough to want a squip of his own. Rich tells Jeremy to go to a bowling alley to get his own squip.

Jeremy goes to the bowling alley, where he meets a man. This man tells Jeremy to meet his cousin, Rack, in a Payless Shoes to get his squip. The squip, he says, will cost five to six hundred dollars.

Jeremy steals his aunt's rare Beanie Babies, and sells them on eBay. With the money he intends to buy his squip.

Jeremy buys the squip from Rack for five hundred dollars, and takes it. It immediately turns on (talking in Keanu Reeves' voice) and instructs Jeremy to buy a new T-Shirt and a new sweatshirt. After buying two new cool shirts, the squip tells Jeremy to meet Anne and Chloe at a frozen yogurt store. Jeremy does so and, with the squip's instructions, chats up the two girls. Michael rushes in, and asks Jeremy if he wants a ride home. Jeremy brushes him off and takes a ride home with the girls, getting Chloe's phone number in the process.

Jeremy begins his transformation into a cool kid the next day at school, smoking pot with Rich and his friends instead of going to class. After the pot-smoking is done, Jeremy hooks up with one of the girls, Brooke. The sexual shenanigans are cut short once Jeremy discovers Brooke' infected pierced nipple. Jeremy hastily excuses himself and heads to class.

Jeremy calls Chloe later and asks if she wants to chill sometime. She replies that Jason Finderman is having a party, and asks Jeremy if he wants to do ecstasy with her. He agrees, and, despite the squip's protests, and asks Michael to go with him. Michael agrees, although he is still mad at Jeremy for ditching him at the mall.

Jeremy steals his mom's car and drives with Michael to the party. Michael disappears into the pandemonium once they get inside, and Jeremy meets Chloe. After taking ecstasy, they go downstairs and start to hook up, but are interrupted by Chloe's boyfriend Brock. Brock chases the ecstasy-high Jeremy though the house, and, panicked, he starts up the squip. Unfortunately the ecstasy has interfered with the squip's programming and it can only speak in Spanish--a language that Jeremy sucks at (all he knows are the colors). Jeremy hides in a bathroom.

Once Jeremy comes out, he finds that the party has calmed down, and he meets Rich and Christine. Jeremy's ecstasy wears off, and he goes into the bathroom to talk to the squip, which is "back in English". Jeremy explains that he wants to reorganize his goals, and that his new goal--instead of being popular--is to gain the affection of Christine. The squip explains it has a plan.

Brock and Chloe enter come in. Brock has calmed down, and apologizes for chasing Jeremy. Jeremy finds Michael, who's met a girl named Nicole. Jeremy drives Michael, Nicole, Chloe and Brock home. Along the way they see two fire trucks.

The next day, the squip starts up by telling Jeremy that there was a fire at the Finderman house, and Rich has suffered from extremely bad burns. Jeremy and the squip agree on the theory that Rich was drunk with the squip on, and it malfunctioned. Jeremy's mom and dad confront Jeremy about his aunt's missing Beanie Babies, what happened at the party, why his mom's car was parked differently last night, and how Jeremy took ecstasy. The squip tells Jeremy the only way to get out of this is to tell Jeremy's mom about the squip. He does, but his parents think he is insane and sign him up for therapy. Jeremy's therapist, however, also has a squip, and the problem is solved.

The squip tells Jeremy about his plan, which is to stop the play halfway through and ask Christine out, on stage, in front of everyone.

Unfortunately, the plan goes horribly wrong, as Christine doesn't kiss Jeremy as predicted by the squip. Jeremy ends up making an ass of himself in front of everyone. They try to end the scene normally, and Jeremy is kicked out of the play, with a teacher acting in his place. Jeremy goes outside. On his way out, he is made fun of by the cast; he is called a loser by Christine and it seems his social status has reverted to the loser rank. Jeremy sits on a curb and starts crying. He desperately tries to start up the squip, but it won't turn on.

Michael finds him outside and discloses that he knew about the squip the enitre time but he did not want Jeremy to know because he knew Jeremy would want one and they are very dangerous. Suddenly the Squip turns on and convinces that Jeremy must get rid of it with Mountain Dew Code Red due to a malfunction. Before he does though Jeremy and the squip decide to try to win Christina back one more time by writing a book a telling her everything that hes thought (including the squip) since he was 14. The story ends with Jeremy giving the book to Christina hoping she will like it.

Characters

Jeremy :The protagonist. In the beginning of the book, 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. Although he acts like a tough guy and disrespects people on the squip's advice, he is cowardly and has no self-confidence when he can't receive instructions from it.

Michael :Jeremy's best friend. Initially despised by the squip, but ironically the same person who introduced the concept to Jeremy. Big Weezer fan, and like Rivers Cuomo has a fetish for Asian women.

Rich :Rich is the only other main character with a squip. Rich used to be a loser like Jeremy, but after getting a squip, he became cool. On the squip's advice he bullied Jeremy. Rich is shown to be confident and has a nice personality when he isn't taking the squip's advice, despite his slight arrogance.

Christine :Jeremy's love interest. Christine is shown to be deep, compassionate, intelligent and beautiful. Unlike most of the girls in the book, 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 hooks up with two others.

The Squip/Keanu Reeves :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 (such as instructing Jeremy to blow off Michael at the mall). The squip uses photons as data, which is nearly impossible in real life, even with the use of the LHC.

Chloe :Although Christine is Jeremy's love interest, Chloe is the main girl that Jeremy hooks up with. After he gets the squip and acts differently around her, Chloe becomes attracted to Jeremy. For the most part, she is shallow, although secure in her social status. She is best friends with Katrina and Stephanie.

Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science

There is no current known technology that can effectively detect thoughts as words, and turn them into commands, (ex:ON/OFF) but that doesn't stop diehard fans of "Be More Chill" and the squip from hoping that it will appear soon.

At one point, a number of fan sites dedicated to the squip existed, but they have since been dismantled. There was also a grassroots publicity campaign where fans were encouraged to place free stickers saying "Squip? Google It." in interesting places. This campaign has since been terminated as well.

A squip could be possible in the near feature, and some of the experiments made in the Large Hadron Collider could find out things that could make the squip possible.

Ned Vizzini's Comments on the Squip

In regards to the fan sites and numerous requests about the validity of the squip, author Ned Vizzini has said, "To promote the book and expand on it, I and my former business partner built a universe of websites that presented a world where the squip was real... Squips are real by the way." [http://www.nedvizzini.com]

External links

* [http://www.nedvizzini.com Ned Vizzini's Website]