Films, High School, and the Dying Girl
Book Review: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl -Jesse Andrews
To be honest, I did not enjoy the book as much as I thought I would. I had hoard this book for while. The last time I picked up this book was back in 2016- my infamous year of depression. Through this book, I thought I was going to be able to see the interactions between friends and a dying girl. I wouldn’t necessary have called myself “a dying girl,” but I wanted to dive into the effects of others if I was dying. It was honestly the reason why I even picked up this book.
Recently I told myself I wanted to spend more quality time reading and actually go through my “to-be-reads.” I picked up the book with the same mindset, which was a huge mistake.
The book definitely offers a refreshing and different viewpoint of being around a dying girl (Rachel). Greg, the main character, is rekindled with Rachel after his mother found out that Rachel had acute myelogenous leukemia. This meant that she had cancer that was spreading quickly in the bone marrow and must be treated with radiation and chemotherapy since there was no direct part of her body that was affected- it was her whole body. Greg, Greg’s friend, Earl, and Rachel became friends through the conversations about films that Greg and Earl loved and made. The book really focused on two main aspects: films and high school.
1. High School sucked.
2. Films made by Greg and Earl was top secret and hidden.
The first part of the book focuses on how lowkey Greg tries to be through high school so that he could be enemy free with no attachment to a specific group. He vents a lot about how his mother ruined his high school life after she made him hang out with Rachel because that is how the news of Greg and Earl being filmmakers was let out throughout the whole school after they made a film for Rachel. The second part of the book further details the process of how they ended up filming a YouTube-like video of them just hoping Rachel would get better and was later shown to the whole school by the request of Greg’s mother. This exposed Greg and his reputation to the whole school and that is how Greg claimed his mother ruined his high school life.
Although this book was a breeze to go through because of how conversational the tone was towards the readers, it was difficult to read on with no anticipation for something that could be more. The author did warn the readers that it was no typical book, but the humor was a part I did not understand. While going through reviews of the book on Goodreads, I noticed that many commented on the humor and to be completely honest, I did not find the book funny at all. Maybe it was the mindset that I had going into the book, but I couldn’t find the humor in it at all.
I did enjoy the different style of writing that the author used. I like the conversational layout he offered because it was friendlier and real. it seemed like there was no editing (although I am sure the grammar had to be 100% for it to be published).
Overall, I definitely like the exposure I got from reading this book, but I don’t think I would pick it up for a reread a second time.
