Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, written by Jesse Andrews, is written in the eyes of the main character, Greg Gaines. Greg is a senior in high school and believes the only way to survive high school is to fly under the radar.
Greg only has one friend, Earl, and together they make movies, their own incomprehensible versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics.
Greg is just living his life trying to get through high school until his mother forces him to rekindle an old childhood friendship. Rachel, a girl Greg hasn’t talked to in a few years, was diagnosed with leukemia. Rachel goes through treatment and when she is finished, Greg and Earl decide to make her a video in an effort to make her feel better. This turns into The Worst Film Ever Made.
This forced friendship causes Greg to have to step out of the invisibility and isolation he was so used to during school.
Goodreads gave Me and Earl and the Dying Girl an average 3.6 stars out of 5.
After John Green’s novel, The Fault in Our Stars became so popular, a love story about a person with cancer became popular. The glorified idea of cancer and other illness turned into a popular trend.
Jesse Andrews’ book was nothing like this. It gives a more realistic story about illness and the effect it leaves. Although Andrews gives a more realistic sense of how illness really affects someone, he also gives a great amount of comic relief and the characters he created are extremely colorful to say the least.
The author conveys a tough but completely realistic message; sometimes things end badly, things go wrong and people die and there isn’t necessarily a useful lesson to be taken away from it.
Readers might see this book to be brutally honest. Greg feels like he should be moved by Rachel’s illness, like he should hang out with her. Andrews allows him to acknowledge that he isn’t moved, he doesn’t really want to help out or get involved. He finds himself wishing he could ignore the whole situation, carry on with his life, and pretend it isn’t happening.
It’s hard to not compare Andrews’ novel to Green’s. Andrews’ characters are not life lessons. They’re just kids in the worst kind of situation–who are also incredibly funny.
What was different about this book was the way it was written. The narrator, Greg, continuously tells the reader to stop reading. Andrews seems to insult the book throughout the whole story. Andrews’ makes a more personal connection with the reader in a unique way. Greg stops telling the story sporadically throughout the book to crack a joke about himself, or the situation. He also makes comments about how terrible his films were or about how terrible the book itself is.
Readers looking for a glorified story about illness should steer away from Andrews’ novel.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl recently became a movie. It was released on January 25, 2015.
