I am back with another Monday Reviews! This week I am reviewing Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews which I am now going to call MAEATDG because that title is a hand cramp to type out.
I really enjoyed this book and how it wasn't your typical cancer story. The book was more focused on high school and social problems than it was cancer.
As usual, let's start with the synopsis:
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.
This was a hilarious book. I posted about it on Instagram when I started reading it and many people told me I would be laugh throughout the book. Sure enough, page 1, yes, you read right, PAGE 1 I was laughing hysterically all the while getting bizarre looks from family members who saw me laughing at a book with the words "dying girl" in the title.
I loved how this book was written. It was as though Greg, the main character, was actually writing it. He would also break up some of the heavier sections with script-speak (I have no clue what it is actually called, but it was written like a script) and I just thought it was really well written.
I also really liked how this wasn't your average lovey-dovey cancer romance story. I mean, the last and only other cancer book I read was TFiOS, so this was like the polar opposite. In the end, I took a star away because I felt like this book just didn't do it for me in the romance department. Now, I realize that Greg told us from the very beginning that it wasn't going to be a romance story and if that's what we were looking for, to look elsewhere, but part of me really wanted it to turn into a romance story. Maybe thats the unrealistic romance lover in me coming out.
Overall, this was a hilarious book that I highly recommend to everyone! Plus, that cover man! That cover!
I gave Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews a 4/5 stars on Goodreads.