Be More Chill

Be More Chill is a novel published on June 1, 2004 by American author Ned Vizzini.^[1] It features a fictional pill named the "SQUIP." In 2015, a musical adaptation, with a score by Joe Iconis ran at the Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey^[2] and is set to premiere on Broadway in March 2019.

Plot

Be More Chill is written in the first person, from the perspective of high school student Jeremy Heere. Jeremy is considered a loser by his popular peers; the popular girls have no interest in him, and he is frequently tormented by bullies. Jeremy's best friend is the music-loving Michael Mell. They always sit together at lunch and often talk about Jeremy's attempts at wooing his longtime crush, Christine. Jeremy is tired of being a loser and hopes to find a way to change this. His main goal in life is to get Christine to notice he is alive, and maybe eventually start dating her. Christine loves anything to do with plays, which is how Jeremy plans to implement his plans as they both practice for their school play, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. His advances are slow-going at first.

Rich, a short-statured, but well-built part of the popular teen group bullies Jeremy. During a rather uncomfortable encounter in the bathroom, Rich informs Jeremy that he really needs to become cool, hinting at something that could help, but leaves before he can explain it further. Jeremy digs deeper into this matter, asking Michael if he's ever heard of something like this before. Michael tells him that he's vaguely heard of a technology that can improve your life; he thinks it's called a "script" and he suspects his brother used one to get a high SAT score.

Rich finds Jeremy at the schools Halloween party and tells him about the SQUIP. A "SQUIP" (Super Quantum Unit Intel Processor) is a supercomputer in the form of a pill that can communicate directly with your brain after being ingested with Mountain Dew. Jeremy decides to search for this "SQUIP." The pill is used to become cooler and comes with different avatar voices such as Sean Connery, Keanu Reeves, etc. Jeremy purchases the pill in the back of a Payless Shoe Store, in hopes of transforming himself from a klutzy loser to a member of the social elite to gain the attention of Christine.

The pill does just that: it instructs him on how to dress, act, talk, and generally comport himself through each day. He quickly gains the attention of Chloe and Jenna, two of the most popular girls in the school, as well as Brooke, who Jeremy skips class to make out with. Rich stops bullying Jeremy, saying that it was his own SQUIP who was telling him to in order to be cooler.

Jeremy also slowly gains the attention of Christine, as he advances through the social ranks of Middle Borough High School. However, this does come with a price: neglecting his friendship with Michael. Jeremy's SQUIP tells him that Michael is beyond his help and will never be cool, but Jeremy demands that his SQUIP helps Michael. It obliges. Later Michael and Jeremy attend a house party, where Michael hooks up with a girl, and Rich starts acting derranged. The next morning, Jeremy is woken up to the news that Rich had burned down the house from the previous night and is in the hospital.

The SQUIP comes up with the ultimate foolproof plan to get Christine to fall for Jeremy during the school play. Halfway through the play, after Jeremy's character is "revived" by Christine's, the plan comes into play. Jeremy begins by saying how rough he's had it at school, and how that has inspired him to go after what he cares about. He then professes his love for Christine and asks her to go out with him. Christine, staying in character, is angry at him for disrupting the play, but they continue out the rest of the scene awkwardly. Jeremy tries asking his SQUIP for advice on what to do next and to continue helping him remember his lines, but it does not respond. The drama teacher and play director, Mr. Reyes, then kicks Jeremy out for breaking character. Michael comes across a distraught Jeremy who confesses he acquired a SQUIP that has been influencing him for the last few months. Michael reveals he knew what SQUIPs really was the entire time, and told Jeremy a fake name because he knew that Jeremy would want one if he knew.

The SQUIP returns, apologizing to Jeremy for what he's done, asking to be deactivated as he is apparently faulty, and recommending Jeremy get a new model when it is released. He says that Mountain Dew Code Red will deactivate him. Before he does this, they come up with the idea to do a "data dump", or recall everything in Jeremy's head since the time of him being into Christine, in hopes that she will understand his feelings and why he did what he did. The implication is that the novel itself is the product of this "data dump" and becomes the in-universe book intended for Christine.

Characters

• Jeremy Heere: The protagonist.
• Michael Mell: Jeremy's longtime friend.
• Christine Canigula: Jeremy's love interest.
• Rich Goranski.
• Jake Dillinger: Christine's boyfriend at the beginning of the book.
• Chloe Valentine: friend of Jeremy's.
• Brooke Lohst.
• Jenna Rolan: the school gossip.
• Mr. Heere: Jeremy’s father, works as a divorce lawyer along with his wife.
• The Squip: A supercomputer that resides in Jeremy's mind.
• Mr. Reyes: A high school drama teacher.

Musical adaptation

A musical based on the book premiered in June 2015 at the Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey, where it received positive reviews. It later received an Off-Broadway production in 2018. Praised as "a high-energy, imaginative, well-crafted world premiere musical" in The Star-Ledger, Be More Chill was lauded as "a vibrant, inventive musical that makes the most of every moment and features an abundantly talented cast"^[3] by BroadwayWorld.

References