Happy New Year!  My Last book of 2010.

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

Vera Dietz's a little odd, but in a good way. She's dealing with the death of her ex-best friend, Charlie. She loved him. She hated him. She knows what happened the night he died, but can she find it in her to forgive him and clear his name? 

Vera  and Charlie have been best friends since childhood and they keep each other secrets - Vera's mother left when she was 12 and was a stripper when she was a baby.  Charlie's dad abuses his wife and Charlies.  But as they enter their Junior Year everything falls apart. 

Charlie finds new friends when he starts having after school detention buddies Evil Jenny Flick.  When Jenny decides that she wants Charlie and that Vera is in the way she broadcasts Charlie's secret about his father's domestic abuse to the whole school and blames Vera. In “retaliation,” Charlie reveals the fact that Vera's mother was a stripper before she deserted the family and then starts a perilous relationship with Jenny. 

But Vera is changing too as her goal has been to get hired by the local animal store/shelter that she has been volunteering in for the past several years.   But she is torn as her father tells her he can have her mother's car only if she gets a job delivering pizza.

Vera's story begins at Charlie's funeral where she hides the truth about Jenny's part in his death. It seesaws through her full-time job delivering pizzas while maintaining “A” grades, her upsetting relationship with Charlie, her conflicts with Jenny as well as her father, her romance with a 23-year-old coworker, and other complications.  Charlie's ghostly presence manifests itself through out the book making her feel like she is going crazy. The chapters alternate between perspectives of Vera's father, dead Charlie, and the pagoda atop the town (yes, the pagoda speaks). Vera's father's even include “flow charts” about dealing with life circumstances. All of these give us another view of Vera's life. 

Heartbreaking to read yet page turning as I wanted to know if Vera could find the strength to stand up and tell the truth and not just let things be.   It was refreshing to read a YA novel with real situations versus fantasy or teen angst.