Me, And Earl, And The Dying Girl

Me, and Earl, and the Dying Girl
By: Jesse Andrews
Rating: 3.5/5 Liked it, but would not read again

There seems to be a cult following for this book and either you love it, or you absolutely hate it.  To be honest, I didn't exactly hate this book, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

The narrator (Greg) kind of got on my nerves in the beginning, in the way he kept saying "you shouldn't read this book, it's so bad" or "you will probably want to come punch me in the face when you're finished with this book" just didn't sit well with me.  I can appreciate how he was trying to be funny, and maybe a little cheeky. I do however think the book could have stood on its own with out it.  Towards the middle I really started to get into the story, and the characters.  I laughed more than I thought I would during a book with "Dying Girl" in the title.

One thing I did like about this book is the fact that the author wrote some of the passages in film script formatting.  He mentions in the first chapter that he is more of a filmmaker not a writer. Now that I think about it, that probably explains why I was thrown off in the beginning.  So, in the long run I feel like I learned a little about film making, even though Greg and Earl were pretty bad at it.

Earl and Greg are just "coworkers" they hardly ever define themselves as friends because Greg is obsessed with being able to blend in while in class, or at home.  Earl is extremely crude, makes super offensive jokes, and has the worst dialect to read. That was one of the hardest things for me to get past was how Earl was written. However he does have some pretty good lines, and can be super emotional but I still could not get past his dialect. 

Then enter The Dying Girl, Rachel.  She is diagnosed with leukemia at the beginning of their senior year, and her story I did appreciate.  He didn't write about Rachel to make you feel deep things about her situation, (he states that very clearly in the beginning) nor would he put paradoxical lines in italics.  He never sugar coated the emotions she was feeling and how the treatments had an effect on her daily life.

In the end this book is hardly about cancer, its really just about a teenage boy trying to define himself, trying to be less (or more) invisible and bringing a little more focus on his future.  I did like how realistic this book felt, it wasn't a hard read, even for someone with cancer treatment history.

If you're looking for something a little different, I recommend picking up this one.  

Stephanie