Book Review | Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Title: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Author: Jesse Andrews
Publisher: Amulet Books New York
Release Date: March 1, 2012

For Fans of: Winger by Andrew Smith, Aristotle and Donte Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, and Crash and Burn by Michael Hassan

My Rating: 4 stars

Summery:

"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"

If you have read my last posts, you would know that I was currently reading this book and that I was enjoying it.  This book has a very unique writing style in which Greg Gaines is writing a book about everything that happened that school year. I am also not very used to swearing in books. Yes, I hear it in my everyday life, but I have never read it before. I have to say I wasn't a huge fan. There is also one chapter where Greg and Earl accidentally get high, which was also very new to me. You quickly get used to it though, because Earl has quite the dirty mouth, and it makes the book 10x funnier.

You have to go into this book with a pretty open mind. You absolutely cannot go into it thinking that it will be like The Fault in Our Stars, because it isn't. Yes, it is a novel about a girl with cancer, but it really wasn't a very heartfelt book. This was one of my major issues with the book, Greg is a very self-centered and selfish person. I mean, in the beginning he was literally forced by his mom to go hang out with Rachel in the first place. You would think that as Greg got closer to Rachel, he would start being a little more serious about the fact that  Rachel was dying, but honestly, he just got worse. 

I honestly think that I would have given this book 3 stars if it hadn't been for the ending. You have to stick around for the ending. It's really the only part of the book where you get to see some real emotion from Greg. 

So yes overall I really did enjoy this book, I give it 4 out of 5 stars. I would recomend picking this up if you are okay with some vulgar language and want a lighthearted (But somewhat heavy)  quick read.