Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

March 26, 2015

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, a mediocre book with a grammatically incorrect title, is about a boy and his movie-making partner who are forced to befriend a girl who is dying of cancer. It's like a not-moving, character development-less, disappointing Fault in Our Stars. I understand the point of this book is that its intent is not to be moving but it is in spite of itself, but I didn't really feel it. It's the book version of making uncool the new cool.

SPOILERS BELOW

I recently finished this book and put it in my book haul. My overall thoughts of this book were not impressed, if you didn't glean that from my passive aggressive summary. Because of this, I'm not going to analyze this book and I'll be doing this review a little differently. I'm going to try listing the parts I did and did not like as a pro/con list. Let me know how you feel about this style in the comments.

PRO:

•I really enjoyed Earl's character. I think it was very interesting how he differed from the rest of his family.

•I empathized with Greg in the way of not fitting into a particular group.

•The way Greg narrated the dynamic of high school was so funny!

•I absolutely adore the cover. The color blocking is very eye catching and I love the homemade movie feel it incorporates with all the strings and shadows.

CON:

•This book felt like it was making fun of other books that are meaningful. I understand that not all books are like that and some are overrated, but part of me was defending other books that setimrs come off as pretentious the entire time I read this.

•This book did not stir anything in me emotionally. My main feeling throughout the story was irritation. My frustration was mostly pointed at Greg and his inability to be a decent human being. I'll give him points for acknowledging this fact throughout the book, but the ending gave me no solution to this problem. It never seemed to me that Greg did anything except a few feeble attempts to be a better person.

•While the narrator was funny, sometimes the humor felt a little forced.

•I typically read books to escape the stupidity and ignorance of the people at my school, because that is typically where I read. This book's incredibly accurate representation of typical student dialogue and actions kind of hit me in the face. This is a very truthful contemporary, which wasn't really what I needed at the time of reading it.

•Rachel died in the end (as expected). It wasn't her dying I had a problem with, it was the fact that her death didn't seem to mean anything. It was not a true climax.

•I genuinely think I would have enjoyed this book more had it been narrated by Earl. Enough said.

Well, I think I'll give this book a solid 2 stars. I'm sorry if you really liked this book, but these are just my feelings. I'll have a new book talk up soon.