In a previous post, I mentioned the book Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, which has been branded as “sick-lit”. After seeing the title, and reading what the book was about, I had to read it myself, and I wasn’t disappointed. Granted, I’m not a teen, but the content of the book, the way it was written, and the characters all had me laughing out loud, and I was surprised to find that I finished the nearly-300-page book in less than 24 hours. I believe that’s a new record for me. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews is the story of Greg Gaines (Me), Earl Jackson (Earl, obviously), and Rachel Kushner (the Dying Girl). While Greg is trying to make it through his last year of high school with as little attention as possible and hoping to blend in with all the cliques (yet never really get too close to anyone in particular), he and Earl (who seems to be the only person Greg would consider a friend, though he frequently refers to him as a coworker) make terrible movies that they refuse to show to anyone. It’s all going great until Greg’s mother informs him that his childhood friend, Rachel, has leukemia and she could really use a friend. Even though Greg doesn’t want to get awkwardly involved with a girl he had simply stopped being friends with for no real reason, his mother is unrelenting until he gives in. A series of unfortunate events caused by people who have good intentions ends with Greg and Earl making Rachel a terrible movie before she passes away. While this seems like a fairly simple plot, the characters and narrator make it an amazing read. Right from the beginning, Greg (the narrator) informs the reader that this isn’t a story where he learns a lesson about life by spending time with his dying friend. In fact, he says that being friends with Rachel messes up his entire life. He is honest in ways that I don’t think a lot of characters would be, which at times may make him come off like a jerk, but makes perfect sense for a teenage boy who never got close to anyone and was suddenly spending all of his time hanging out with this girl who was probably dying, and he had never had to deal with any of those issues before. Earl is another story all together. The vulgarity he uses and anger that he carries is hilarious. However, Earl is smarter than anyone would ever know because he sees things in a completely different way than Greg, and he gives Greg some lessons in life, and beat down when he needs it. Earl puts on a good front, but deep down he really cares about people more than Greg even thinks to. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl takes an interesting look at high school life from the loner perspective, and while Greg insists that he doesn’t learn much from his friend Rachel, and ultimately feels like he’s failed her as a friend, he makes her last days happy ones. In addition, he shows his honest side when he says that he’s angry with Rachel for giving up on herself and not trying to fight anymore. A lot of people would feel guilty for that feeling, and Greg says he probably sounds like a major jerk for thinking it, but that’s how people really do feel in those situations. Overall, it was an excellent, honest, and real book about a good-hearted kid who gets roped into doing something that a lot of people wouldn’t be able to do, yet he does it anyway. Despite his protests, maybe he really does grow and learn from the experience.
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Samantha Buttrick
Author of "The Beast of Yorkshire Place" and "The Wasteland" Archives
October 2015
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