Me and Earl and the Dying Girl | Book Review

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was unlike any book I have ever read before. It was over a month ago when I read it and I originally wasn't going to write a review for it but it has been haunting me ever since I turned the last page and I thought I had better share my thoughts...

Also, there will be no spoilers in this review -YAY! - so if you haven't yet read this book, you won't have to read this cautiously!

Greg is doing his best to remain invisible in society during his senior year of high school. Earl is his best friend; his only friend; and his co-maker of versions of old cult-classic films. They both know their films are terrible, but that's okay- they're for their eyes only.
Greg never intended to get wrapped up in a dying girl's life, but when his Mum makes him befriend Rachel, a childhood friend who has just been diagnosed with leukaemia, Greg's life turns in a completely new direction.
But when Rachel decides to stop treatment, everything is changed again and Greg and Earl set out on a mission to abandon their invisibility and make a stand.


As I have already said, this book was unlike any other book I have ever read. Okay, the 'theme' of the story wasn't exactly an original one- girl is diagnosed with a horrible form of cancer, which she attempts to fight off, but the ending is inevitable. There must be hundreds, if not thousands, of books around with that idea as the main plot, and don't get me wrong, a select few are some incredible and amazing stories! But a great number of them are dull, frustratingly emotionless and just copies of each other.
Jesse Andrews, however, managed to write his story in a completely unique and refreshing way, which made me know right from the start that Me and Earl would end up being one of my favourites for a very long time.


I loved the way this book was written. This definitely has to be one of my favourite things about this Me and Earl as I love books with different writing styles and this one was all over the place!
With so many books around these days, it's difficult to find a book with a completely different style of writing that also works well with the story it's trying to tell. So finding that Me and Earl had seemingly original writing was a big selling-point for me!
There were parts of the story told in film scripts, with stage directions and features like that, there were also parts told in bullet points and lists, and then, of course, there were other parts told in 'normal' writing, but even these parts were still a little different to how most stories are written and I loved it!
It was such an honest and down-to-Earth book and the way it was written made it even better.

I really, really liked Greg as a character, which is a little strange for me to be honest. It wasn't until after the story ended that I realised how self-centred, idiotic and uncaring he was. He never really had empathy for Rachel until the end of the book and thought of himself more than he thought about anybody else. But I think that's why I liked him so much.
He wasn't heroic, he didn't save anybody and he barely even managed to make anybody feel better, especially Rachel, who he seemed to insult more than cure! Stereotypically, you might expect Earl, who comes from a family of drug-taking, hard-core thugs, to act more like this. But as it turned out, Earl was far more compassionate and caring than Greg was.
So, from all of this, you would expect Greg to be a really hated character and to be perfectly honest, I'm not really sure why I don't hate him! But these features make him human, and I'm sure we can all relate to what he thinks from time to time, which I guess he isn't blamed for feeling these things. I also think it's a little unfair to him since the book is set almost inside his head, revealing his deepest thoughts and secrets that he would reveal to no one. So we do see a side to him that his peers wouldn't be able to see. I would imagine that if everybody wrote down every single one of the thoughts that went through their heads, they might also seem to be bad people.
I can only applaud Jesse Andrews for taking a self-centred and bad natured character and turning him into an incredible and relatable person. I know a lot of authors who have attempted to do this and failed miserably, so Jesse Andrews has clearly done an amazing thing!

The thing that amazed me the most about this book was that it wasn't really all that sad.
For a book with the word 'Dying' in the title, I had expected to be sobbing my heart out by the end, but I don't really remember crying all that much. I mean, I did cry a little bit, but in comparison to my hysterical sobbing from the majority of books (even those with happy endings!), this said a lot! So for the book to be about death and it not be too sad was quite a big deal.
What surprised me even more was how funny it was. There were not just some odd chuckles every now and then. There were parts of this book that made me quite hysterical with laughter! It was a lot funnier than it was sad, which is quite a big thing to achieve, I think!


I would recommend this book to pretty much everyone. It really was incredible.
In terms of suitability, there was a lot of bad language, sexual references and drug use, but nothing too bad compared to some other books in the YA genre, so I would say it would be suitable for ages 13 and up but it would depend on maturity, I guess.
If you haven't figured it out already, I really, really, really loved this book! I gave it 4 stars officially, but realistically it's more like 4.5. Very close to perfect!
I can't wait for Jesse Andrews to release some more books, since they're sure to be amazing too!

I also cannot wait to see the film adaptation - I didn't manage to see it when it came out in the cinema but I am really looking forward to finally seeing it as soon as I can!



That's all for now! If any of you guys have read or watched Me and Earl, please share your thoughts in the comment section as I would love to know what everybody else thought!



Charlotte xxx