Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a young adult novel written by Jesse Andrews. It was different compared to what I normally read. I read a lot of young adult novels but they’re not usually the books that I first look for when I head into a bookstore. I’m trying to get more into young adult fiction and I already had this book on my bookshelf so I figured it was time to finally read it. I also knew that there was a movie recently made based on the book and I have a very strict rule to read the book before I watch the movie.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl tells the story of Greg Gaines who is forced by his mom to befriend Rachel, a girl that he used to talk to when he was younger. Rachel’s been diagnosed with leukemia. Greg is an anti-social teen who spends his time making parodies and hanging out with his friend Earl. Earl is the comedian of the two and who also says very disgusting things at times, leading to Earl and Greg having a face-off to see who can say the more disgusting thing. Greg wants to fade into anonymity but by being friends with Rachel, it changes everything. She’s a strong person who helps Greg to “be himself,” and teaches him to love someone else, other than himself.
One aspect of the book that I loved was the friendship between all three characters. Despite Greg being the main character, Andrews still wrote moments where Greg would be dense or saying the wrong thing and Earl and Rachel would be there to put him in his place and remind him of the situation he’s in and that sometimes he can’t be his usual snarky self. Another part of their friendship that I liked but wasn’t shown much is the friendship between Earl and Rachel. Andrews mainly wrote about Greg and Rachel or Greg and Earl. Either combination, it mainly included Greg seeing as he’s the main character. There weren’t many moments where all of them were together. That’s why I loved when in some parts of the dialogue there were hints that Rachel was hanging out with Earl alone too, she wasn’t just hanging and depending on Greg.
There were definitely some parts where Greg and Earl would be having one of their little battles to see who could be more disgusting and I was getting uncomfortable for a second and I usually skimmed over those parts. I also suffered a lot of second-hand embarrassment from reading some of Greg and Rachel’s interactions. I mainly stuck to skimming those parts of the book as well just because it made me feel anxious and uncomfortable.
Another great part of the friendship between the three was when Greg and Earl were trying to find an idea to help them make a movie for Rachel. Since she loved all their other parodies and another girl from school suggested writing their own movie for Rachel instead of making another parody to try to cheer her up. And there was just a chapter or two dedicated to Earl and Greg going through all their ideas and it was fun getting to read some of their more ridiculous ideas and watching them struggle to try to find something heartfelt and didn’t feel too emotional or forced. And while talking about the emotional aspect of having Rachel dying, Earl was definitely the more helpful of the two with trying to find ideas. Earl was really reflective and insightful about the situation that was happening between Greg and Rachel. Out of the two of them, I think Earl was more in tune with his emotions and was able to express his better than Greg could.
I really connected with the part of the book where it was showing Earl getting a job because he didn’t want to be like his family and he wanted to be independent and get out of his house. And then watching Greg struggle through school and trying to find something that even interested him that he could do in college. This part of the book is one that resonated with me the most. Mainly because at the time of me reading this book, I was having this exact same struggle (though our struggles for different reasons). I was struggling through doing my school online and couldn’t find the motivation to do any of my school work, much like Greg was struggling to find the motivation to do his because his friend was dying. But watching him figure out this part of his life and watch him get everything together in the end really helped me settle that part of me that was nervous about not figuring everything out.
I wouldn’t say that I totally recommend this book. While it was a good read, it’s not a book that I intend to keep. There were some redeeming parts of the book but I really had to force myself to finish it. I couldn’t really connect to the characters and I didn’t really like them that much. But there were some redeeming qualities to them. I definitely don’t see myself re-reading this book and I’m more than likely going to be donating it. Check out Jesse Andrew’s website here.
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