Bookish Wanderess: Review of Me, Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Greg Gaines is the last master of high school espionage, able to disappear at will into any social environment. He has only one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time making movies, their own incomprehensible versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics.

Until Greg’s mother forces him to rekindle his childhood friendship with Rachel.

Rachel has been diagnosed with leukemia—-cue extreme adolescent awkwardness—-but a parental mandate has been issued and must be obeyed. When Rachel stops treatment, Greg and Earl decide the thing to do is to make a film for her, which turns into the Worst Film Ever Made and becomes a turning point in each of their lives.

And all at once Greg must abandon invisibility and stand in the spotlight.

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I have meant to read this book for a long time, I have heard so many great things about it, and I’m not sure why I hadn’t read before. But, to be honest, what finally made me read it was that a bunch of movie critics that I really respect started to talk about how great the movie was and then it won the Sundance Audience Awards and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize this year, and I just couldn’t wait to read the book.

This book was a quick and funny read. The way it was written, with the movie script parts and the bullet points was unique and interesting, the writing style captivated me because the second person POV made me feel like the character was talking to me, and it had a very fascinating sense of humor that managed to be awkward, make you a little uncomfortable, and still be funny.

One of the biggest strength of this book was that the characters actually seem like real teenagers, even if that meant they were annoying and inconsiderate at times, it also meant the story felt honest. This is especially true with Greg, who got on my nerves sometimes. Nonetheless, the thing that took away from this book, for me, was that even if the characters were very real, because of the way the story was told, I felt like I couldn´t really connect with them, and that meant I wasn’t as invested in the story.

The plot especially at the beginning felt like it was going nowhere; it was a bit all over the place. I feel like even if after a while you started to see where it is going, the plot is not a strong point of the book. Also, I feel like sometimes Greg started babbling and got off track, and that contributed to the feeling that this book was all over the place.

Even if I had some minor issue with this book, I would definitely recommend it. It’s a really quick read, you can read it in a sitting, it’s really entertaining, it has a unique sense of humor and the way it was written is very interesting.