Review of Me & Earl & The Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Review of Jesse Andrews' Me & Earl & the Dying Girl

Release Date: March 1st, 2012

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

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.

And all at once Greg must abandon invisibility and stand in the spotlight.

Synopsis as found on Amazon.com:

Sundance U.S. Dramatic Audience Award
Sundance Grand Jury Prize

This is the funniest book you’ll ever read about death.

It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. But on the first day of his senior year, Greg Gaines thinks he’s figured it out. The answer to the basic existential question: How is it possible to exist in a place that sucks so bad? His strategy: remain at the periphery at all times. Keep an insanely low profile. Make mediocre films with the one person who is even sort of his friend, Earl.

         This plan works for exactly eight hours. Then Greg’s mom forces him to become friends with a girl who has cancer. This brings about the destruction of Greg’s entire life.

         Fiercely funny, honest, heart-breaking—this is an unforgettable novel from a bright talent, now also a film that critics are calling "a touchstone for its generation" and "an instant classic."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have found that I have gotten more interested in reading books about terminally ill children recently with the realization that they were actually great books after reading John Green's The Fault In Our Stars and Robyn Schneider's Extraordinary Means. When I saw this book was being made into a movie I wanted to read it before seeing it in theaters. I also heard great reviews about it from a friend at work.

Maybe it is my reading funk of lately, but I did not enjoy this story as much as I had been hoping. I found the narrator a bit annoying and the writing style of going back and forth from novel, bullet point, and play script styles a little too hectic. The character talks a lot about how you will hate this book and how he doesn't understand why you haven't put it down already. I was hoping that the main character would have been a more successful filmmaker, but I guess he wouldn't have been as realistic.

I just felt like the story had no real ending and lacked a reason for being. It wasn't about Rachel "the Dying Girl's" Life, because you don't find out much about her of substance until the end of the book. I'm just a little confused by it.

Another book bites the dust.