Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews


Release Date: March 1, 2012
Publisher: Abrams
Rated: YA 14+
Format: eGalley
Source: NetGalley
Buy: Amazon ❘ The Book Depository
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Greg Gaines is the last master of high school espionage, able to disappear at will into any social environment. He has only one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time making movies, their own incomprehensible versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics.
Until Greg's mother forces him to rekindle his childhood friendship with Rachel.
Rachel has been diagnosed with leukemia - cue extreme adolescent awkwardness - but a parental mandate has been issued and must be obeyed. When Rachel stops treatment, Greg and Earl decide the thing to do is to make a film for her, which turns into the Worst Film Ever Made and becomes a turning point in each of their lives.

I guess what really caught my attention with this book was the title. And when I read the blurb and some reviews saying that it was funny, I was like, 'Wait, hang on. A book about somebody dying can't be funny!'. Oh boy, was I wrong.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl has the "feel". The hilarious-and-fresh-new-voice feel. I loved it– it made me laugh, it made me want more and best of all, never a dry spot in this novel. The format is amazing, sometimes in a movie script, bullet points and such, and it just makes it so much more interesting for a change, instead of reading the way we normally do. Good to shake it up a little.

Greg really reminded me of another Greg– the one from Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Both are hilarious, and their mom's just are the cream on top. I like how this young adult novel has a male's POV, which sadly is pretty rare today. Great to see a guy's view in a contemporary.
Earl is Greg's only friend, and even though he's hilarious, unfortunately he was the only "problem" I had with the book. I couldn't understand what he was saying at times (and it was probably good that I didn't because most of the time it isn't clean), but seriously, once your get past it, he's a great character, really genuine and really original.

We've had Greg aka "Me", and we've had Earl...and so we finally come to the Dying Girl. Rachel was a great character, and it was quite interesting (yet saddening, no matter how funny this book was) to see her during the stages of her lukemia. I loved her strength throughout the book, and her tolerance of hanging out with Greg (I would have blown it sooner or later) and she's just such an interesting character. Totally normal, which makes you really connect to her. She doesn't have anything "special", but it's just that which allows you to get to know her through Greg.

There were times in this book when I couldn't believe that these characters were in their senior year of high school. I mean, they sounded so...young. Like, I kept thinking they were freshmen or sophomores, but because of Greg's search for colleges time to time during the novel, I managed to grasp to the fact that they were a little bit older.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl will have you in tears from either laughing to hard, or sobbing from the tragedy of it all (okay...a little too exaggerated). Jesse Andrews has written a fabulous debut which introduces a fabulous male protagonist into the world of young adult contemporary. I look forward to reading more of Andrew's fresh and funny writing in the future!

If you like this, try...

• Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin ◆ Goodreads
• An Abundance of Katherines by John Green ◆ Goodreads