Beyond Survival: Comparing The Be More Chill Book And Musical

I attempted to read Be More Chill, the novel by Ned Vizzini that would later inspire this year’s viral musical. After trying to go halfway, I gave up. RIP to Vizzini, since his book is well-written. It just wasn’t for me.

Be More Chill is a story about a “loser” high school teen that swallows a miniature computer to improve his self-image and get the girl he likes. The SQUIP turns out to be an emotionally abusive AI that uses Jeremy to take over his classmates’ minds, in the musical; in the book, the SQUIP is just plain incompetent. Jeremy struggles with his desires to be “cool” but realizes that he can’t use a computer to fix his behavior.

The main differences between the book and the musical are that the SQUIP has different agendas in each version. Vizzini’s SQUIP is a Japanese bootleg that hasn’t been released in the US because of the potential safety hazards. It genuinely wants to help Jeremy but realizes that it has messed up badly. Musical SQUIP wants to take over people’s minds and create a universe of ultimate control, like the plant Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors. Because the SQUIP is worse, Jeremy and Michael can behave better in the end.

A smaller, significant detail is that the cringe comedy is significantly reduced. Jeremy in the book drums up the nerve to deliver a…