A review by lauroberge
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, by Jesse Andrews
4.0
If all readers could agree on one point about this book, it would be that it shows honestly the impact of knowing a victim of cancer on a teenager.
Although Greg hadn't really been friends with Rachel before she was diagnosed with cancer, her illness changes his life very much. Through his disclaimers about how he is self-centered and a bad friend, it's easy to see that he begins to care a lot about Rachel, proving he isn't that bad of a character. I liked how he gets angry with her and her cancer, because no matter how stupid of him it is, it is his own way to react to such a hard period. There is no precise way to react when someone you know is dying, especially when you're a teenager and you already don't know what to do with yourself, and I think Me and Earl and the Dying Girl explained it perfectly.
Greg isn't a hero, or a loveable character. He's flawed and he knows it, which is even more annoying, because he then complains about it. However, he's human. He doesn't want to pretend he's perfect or he cares about things when he doesn't give a crap, so he's always honest and authentic, at least in his writing, when he isn't in real life. I liked that about him. His friend, Earl, is really mature and grown-up, no matter how ironic it is, considering the fact that he looks like a child. He brings some sense into Greg many times and he acts a lot more like a hero than his friend does, but he doesn't even seem to know it. I liked the fact that I didn't get to know much about Rachel's personality, because it shows how badly Greg got to know her. However, it is one of the reasons why I didn't get invested in her character, because she felt empty to me.
Overall, I really liked this story. There are things about the way it's written, as if Greg was writing it himself, that I wasn't too sure about, such as my cluelessness about Rachel's character, but I still can't see how else it could have been written.
Although Greg hadn't really been friends with Rachel before she was diagnosed with cancer, her illness changes his life very much. Through his disclaimers about how he is self-centered and a bad friend, it's easy to see that he begins to care a lot about Rachel, proving he isn't that bad of a character. I liked how he gets angry with her and her cancer, because no matter how stupid of him it is, it is his own way to react to such a hard period. There is no precise way to react when someone you know is dying, especially when you're a teenager and you already don't know what to do with yourself, and I think Me and Earl and the Dying Girl explained it perfectly.
Greg isn't a hero, or a loveable character. He's flawed and he knows it, which is even more annoying, because he then complains about it. However, he's human. He doesn't want to pretend he's perfect or he cares about things when he doesn't give a crap, so he's always honest and authentic, at least in his writing, when he isn't in real life. I liked that about him. His friend, Earl, is really mature and grown-up, no matter how ironic it is, considering the fact that he looks like a child. He brings some sense into Greg many times and he acts a lot more like a hero than his friend does, but he doesn't even seem to know it. I liked the fact that I didn't get to know much about Rachel's personality, because it shows how badly Greg got to know her. However, it is one of the reasons why I didn't get invested in her character, because she felt empty to me.
Overall, I really liked this story. There are things about the way it's written, as if Greg was writing it himself, that I wasn't too sure about, such as my cluelessness about Rachel's character, but I still can't see how else it could have been written.