I’ve had my eye on this book for a while; the cover intrigued me and so many reviews raved about it. I finally read it when my friends started to tell me how good it was, the trailer looked amazing and the film was coming out. It’s fair to say I had quite big expectations; I was disappointed.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a young adult book about Greg Gaines, an (he admits it himself) ugly teenage boy who has a friend who he makes films with, and Rachel, a girl he is forced to befriend due to her getting cancer. It sounds like a John Green book, right? It’s not. It is the exact opposite. It’s (supposedly) funny, there is no romance involved and there’s not much sympathy for the cancer patient either. One thing’s for sure – it’s not your traditional YA book.
In my opinion, this book had the potential to be fantastic. I love it when authors challenge the expected and create something completely different. Pushing the boundaries and trying new things is exciting!
Unfortunately it didn’t quite work for me. One of the major problems was I found I couldn’t relate to or empathise with the characters at all. Frankly they annoyed me, reading the book I realised they would be people who I couldn’t be friends with.
Greg repulsed me; he made no effort to form meaningful relationships, he wouldn’t take compliments, he tried too hard to be funny and had no empathy for others. All I learned about Earl was that he had an affinity for swearing and was sexist and homophobic. As for Rachel, I’m not sure because the only time that was spent on her was focused on Greg. Maybe other people connect with this trio, but for me they seemed a world away from the high school I’m used to.
Secondly, the writing style. There is too much waffling. I understand that it’s a stream consciousness and you’re meant to feel as though you’re in Greg’s brain and that was fine for the first ten chapters. After that I just wanted to scream at him. I think this links back to my dislike for the characters. I would have loved it if Greg’s humour had appealed to me and I had wanted to be his friend, however I didn’t care if he just stopped writing to get some donuts.
Despite all these negative comments, I did enjoy Jesse Andrew’s book. It was refreshing to read something different and original. I think it’s well worth a read and reckon you will love it if you can make a connection with the characters. I’m still excited to see the film (which I think may be better – I can’t quite believe I’ve said that). It may not live up to all its hype, but it’s an intriguing idea and I would love to see what Andrews writes next.
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