Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hmm.. I’m not sure what to make of this book. It was cute, entertaining, and fast paced (I read it in a single evening, which is something I rarely do). I found it about as enjoyable as a book about a teenage girl with cancer whose only friend is a dick can be.

Greg has figured out how to navigate high school so that no one ends up hating him. Be on the fringe of every clique, but not part of any one group. He has no friends, only a colleague named Earl with whom he makes videos. Then one day his mother makes him re-befriend Rachel, the girl who was just diagnosed with cancer.

The book was kind of unbelievable and yet another reason adolescent male protagonists are not my thing. The main character was consistently using logic I couldn’t follow and making, what I thought, were stupid decisions… maybe that’s exactly right for adolescent boys, no one understands them. He was a jerk with an inability to form real friendships or truly care about others.

Despite the fact that I couldn’t fully get behind this being something that might actually happen, I did quite enjoy it. Even more importantly I appreciated it. There was no last minute, unrealistic love for the girl who was dying, or meaning of life only becomes clear in the face of death lesson. Sorry for the spoilers..? It seems like lately if you have a story about a terminally ill teenager, it means it’s a love story.

Since this book is such a quick read and it is different from all of the other kids-with-cancer books out there, I definitely suggest you check it out.. and if you’re worried about it being a tear jerker, don’t fret, I made it to the end without the use of a single tissue and I’m usually the first to cry in any book or movie.

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