Me and Earl and the Dying Girl has been said to be like The Fault In Our Stars, and it makes a lot of sense: a guy meets a girl who’s dying from a terminal illness and they like each other. But in fact if you make that comparison you could not be farther from the truth about this extraordinary novel.
Picture a typical high school. Every person is divided into groups, nations even, of their very own. The goths, the theatre geeks, the jocks, the druggies, they’re all there. So how do you stay invisible? Not a target to any one group? 17 year old Greg Gaines has decided he knows the answer to his problem: get in to every single one of these nations. But then his mum forces him to be friends with Rachel Kushner, who’s just been diagnosed with leukaemia. His only friend before this was Earl Jackson, or his co-worker. Brought together by director Werner Herzog, Earl and Greg embark on a mission to please Rachel Kushner as her leukaemia develops.
You know what my flaw is? Not being able to write a synopsis that does the book any justice whatsoever.
Look, I cannot tell you how much I love this book in pure words. Perhaps I should explain why I feel this way about Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.
Firstly, tell me how you can’t just flip every page without wondering what’s going to happen next in the lives of Greg or Earl or Rachel, or any other character for that matter? Unlike every other book I’ve read, Jesse Andrews actually gives you a description of what each character is like. For example, I know that Greg Gaines is short, overweight, Jewish and from what I can tell is introverted and socially awkward, like every other ‘relatable’ YA character, and yes, that’s a negative as well. This only tags along with every other character in supposed ‘relatable’ YA novels.
But, I still stand by my belief that this is completely different from The Fault In Our Stars in every respect. And I think it should be on everyone’s to-read list.
Yes, you may be thinking, this may sound brilliant, but The Fault In Our Stars has a movie and this doesn’t! Well, criticiser, actually, this does have a movie. Coming into cinemas 12 June! (In America. September if you’re British. Why do you have to do this film companies?!)
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