Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews Book Review

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

“Of course it’s girly…My room doesn’t have no James Bond in no…thong”

Greg is just a normal teenager who spends his time making films with his friend and trying to blend in at high school. That is until his old friend, Rachel is diagnosed with leukaemia and his mum forces him to reconnect with her. The book is full of awkward, funny and relatable moments. The plot is based around his relationship with Rachel and how it first started until the present day.

There’s different ways in which books deal with cancer and this has got to be the most honest and refreshing one I’ve read. Greg is forced to hang out with Rachel because she’s dying and in this situation the book goes down a different route than any other YA novel.

Greg as the narrator makes the book funny and interesting as he’s such an awkward character.  He’s so honest throughout the novel which makes the book better as its not cheesy then. He knows that he doesn’t know Rachel well enough, he knows his films suck, he knows his friendship with Earl is based solely on filmmaking and he knows he’s completely out of his element when dealing with Rachel.

There is no deep meaningful message in the book – it’s not a survival story or a story where Greg learns something important in the end. This book avoids death and instead focuses on humour and friendship.

The focus of the book isn’t on Rachel and at the end of the story we know very little about her which is something Greg actually recognizes. The surrounding characters are each given one personality trait which develops in the book so we get to know them. Plus Earl is really funny too.

The book is told in different narrative methods which link to Greg’s filmmaking which is a nice touch.

Also the ending was good. It showed this element of moving on although I do like the movie’s ending.

 ★★★★★