Book Review #1

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

By: Jesse Andrews

            Goodreads Summary: This is the funniest book you’ll ever read about death. It is universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. But on the first day of 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 had cancer. This brings about the destruction of Greg’s entire life.

            What is it? Witty cancer story that isn’t actually a cancer story with no romance and no paranormal anything and a main mood of awkward sarcasm and blunt honesty written as if speaking to the audience (mainly second person) about events of the past.

My Rating: B-

            Review:

Okay, let me just start by addressing a common misconception as well as my own first impression of the story by simply reading the summary. My first thought was of The Fault in Our Stars, but I am here to tell you it’s just. Not that. At all. The only similarity was that there was a girl with cancer, and while that may seem like a big similarity, after reading the book it almost reminds me of comparing To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) and Mockingjay (third Hunger Games novel, Suzanne Collins) because hey, look at that, there’s a bird in both. So just, get that out of your head, because no. It’s not that. At all.

Now on to the actual book.

When I finished Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews, my first thought was honestly, “What…did I just read…?”

This book was weird. Wonderfully weird, but weird none the less. The narrator tells the story as if he were the one writing the book. I’m not usually a fan of that style of writing, but I think for this story it worked well and wasn’t too distracting from the actual plot. If anything, it allowed for more humor to be added to the story.

The plot itself seemed a bit problematic at times, but in an odd sort of way. This book was stylized as if it had been written by a teenage boy, so sometimes I couldn’t tell if the straying of the plot was on purpose due to that style… or if the plot really was just kind of loose and generally lacking a clear format. So whether I should be criticizing that part or applauding the author for a great sense of narrator and really sticking true to that voice is not really clear.

A few other sticky situations I found: The narrator himself is very…self-deprecating. A few times humor is poked at as the narrator says things such as “I’m not even sure why you’re still reading this book,” and “I’m positive you will have stopped reading this book by now.” The first couple times it was funny, but after a while it gets a bit much and it starts to feel less like a chuckle and more like an eye roll.

The only other not good was…this book had Hipster Syndrome.

         Hipster Syndrome: a condition had by books where the writing pays great attention to how unlike other books it is; the book focuses on its own uniqueness in multiple circumstances. 

Except this novel had undercover Hipster Syndrome, where it attempted to cover it up with its sarcasm and self-deprecation. But I caught it! I saw through that poorly masked disguise!

But alas, it did still have Hipster Syndrome. This book loved to play off of how unlike other stories it was. Honestly, if you’re not like any other stories, let your writing show that, don’t force it down the readers throats. There were multiple times attention was called to how in any other story a certain scene would have been a romantic scene or a meaningful scene or a scene where a great lesson is learned, but in this story it wasn’t that. I would have liked for this novel to have been less about what it wasn’t and more about what it was.

The best part about this book was the characters. The book had a way of not showing much deep, meaningful compassion through the protagonist, but making it up through the supporting characters. Crazy college professor dads and overtly hostile best friends and dying girls and teachers who care maybe a little too much. They were described in a unique, yet very life like way that really stole the story.

The Really Close to the Best Part but the Characters Were Just So Good This Other Best Part Had to Be Slightly Less Best Part Than the First Best Part aka The Second Best Part was the brutal honesty of the book. This book was like line after line of witty, sarcastic awkwardness that was only made better by the honesty of the witty sarcasm. The main characters of this book were teenagers and a lot of stories like to glorify that. They make the characters mature and smooth talking, while in reality teenagers just…aren’t that. This book was honest about teenagers. They don’t talk all smooth and cute nor do they look all smooth and cute or act all smooth and cute. It was refreshing in an odd way.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was a good read with solid writing and great characters. The beginning was easy to fall into and I actually liked the resolution to the story and all that led up to it, despite the little plot problem. The book was weird, but it was a funky good weird.

 

                                                                                    -Sarah Elisabeth

                      

When the world stops spinning, we're still reading.