Me and Earl and the Dying Girl in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Apr 11, 2022 Kristin rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I chose this one from a Little Free Library after hearing it was among the most challenged school library books of 2021, but failed to see what the hype is all about. Told in first person from the perspective of Greg Gaines, an amateur filmmaker trying to get through high school as invisibly as possible, the book chronicles what happens as Greg's anonymity falls away after his mother forces him to reconnect with a childhood acquaintance who has recently been diagnosed with cancer. Greg and his c I chose this one from a Little Free Library after hearing it was among the most challenged school library books of 2021, but failed to see what the hype is all about. Told in first person from the perspective of Greg Gaines, an amateur filmmaker trying to get through high school as invisibly as possible, the book chronicles what happens as Greg's anonymity falls away after his mother forces him to reconnect with a childhood acquaintance who has recently been diagnosed with cancer. Greg and his co-producer Earl both know their films are awful, having based them on the obscure films that Greg's father favors but with absolutely no funds for a film budget, yet after introducing Earl to Rachel, the titular 'dying girl', Greg learns that Earl has offered to show Rachel their films, and she actually likes them.
Greg 'writes' this book as sort of a memoir of his time spent with Rachel, while interjecting chapters worth of the necessary background information to put it all into perspective, but he constantly notes how stupid his writing is and doesn't expect readers to actually make it through the book, much like he doesn't want anyone to see his films because they're stupid too. Overall, I have to agree with Greg and not whoever gave the book awards, because it didn't do anything for me.
As for why it was controversial, to me it was just a reflection of high school these days, where foul language is at a high, respect is at a low, and it's definitely somewhere I wouldn't want to be. It seems that Greg's treatment of the various girls he 'dated' and rejected, including Rachel, plus the aforementioned foul language was what ruffled feathers. I expected the issue to be more of Andrews' portrayal of Earl's family, a Black family with an absent father, another in jail, Mom an alcoholic, all 5 of Earl's brothers/half brothers in gangs, dealing drugs, and dropped out of school, and the house a run-down dump. But no, the problem is that Greg pretended to be in love with the unattractive Rachel at Hebrew school years ago in order to try to make the hot girl in class jealous.
Regardless, I'm glad this was a quick reading book, because I kept hoping it would get better but it never did. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 21, 2016 Gina rated it liked it

This book was entertaining, as well as, annoying. Sometimes I laughed out loud, and other times, I wanted to throw it away from me in disgust. Greg is a senior in high school, who has achieved slipping through everyone's radar. He isn't friends with anyone, nor is he hated by any of his fellow students. He just drifts along seamlessly, making and watching movies with his "business partner", Earl. Until, his mom makes him start spending time with a girl who is dying of leukemia. Not a funny premi ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Aug 04, 2017 Jamie rated it really liked it

Shelves: battle-of-the-books

Easy and quick read. Light humor around a serious subject.

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 23, 2016 Chazza Everafter rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, owned, recommended-to-me, own-in-ebook, general-fic, 2016-read-list

It's been a loooong while since I've sat and read a book cover to cover in one sitting, throughout one day, and this was the book that got me to do it again. ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL is an interesting debut novel centered on a teenage boy and the girl he (re) befriends after finding out she's dying from leukemia. I say 'interesting' because it handles the seriousness of the topic with a kind of brute honesty and a side of humor (sometimes awkward teenage boy humor) which I wasn't sure I wa It's been a loooong while since I've sat and read a book cover to cover in one sitting, throughout one day, and this was the book that got me to do it again. ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL is an interesting debut novel centered on a teenage boy and the girl he (re) befriends after finding out she's dying from leukemia. I say 'interesting' because it handles the seriousness of the topic with a kind of brute honesty and a side of humor (sometimes awkward teenage boy humor) which I wasn't sure I was expecting. All around, the story didn't follow any easily identifiable trope or plot, which was refreshing for some reason (and I've read a few other stories about teens dying from illnesses, so I wouldn't necessary call them contrived either, but maybe more emotionally moving?).

In this tale, we see everything through the eyes of the narrator Greg Gaines. He's funny, but awkward, shy, and wants nothing else but to live on the fringe in a kind of unnoticeable, unregistered citizen--a kind of high school drifter who doesn't want to make waves, but also doesn't want to be entirely ignored and thus, he sort of befriends everyone--without actually befriending anyone, really. If I sound confused, it's because this book so accurately describes the microcosm of high school and it's bizarre blurred hierarchy. Greg doesn't fit into any particularly easy labels though he's a Jewish kid with siblings he almost never speaks to, one weird friend he makes (seemingly bad/misunderstood) movies with, and is painfully inept when it comes to girls. He has a fairly self-deprecating sense of humor, though you do kind of want to tell him to not be so down on himself, but for the most part, he doesn't *feel* particularly lacking in confidence (though I would not describe him as especially 'confident' by any stretch of the imagination).

But anyway, straight away, you get hooked into the story by Greg's voice. It's fairly unique and you kind of feel like you're reading his diary (if boys kept diaries). The story itself evolves and Greg grows in small, but meaningful ways through his friendship with Rachel (the 'Dying Girl' referenced in the title). Interestingly, it seems his BFF Earl is actually a bit of Touchstone for Greg--which I found surprising but simultaneously really cool because he's kind of untypical with a bit of a rough family life/backstory.

I'm finding it kind of hard to really describe how I felt about this book aside from the voice was really engaging and kept me going throughout the entire story. The story itself, while not exactly a surprise, unfolds in what feels like a natural pace and whatever expectations you might have of a book about teenagers facing death, you might find it in this, or you might not. But you will probably laugh and be at least a little charmed... it's an inexplicable connection with the story, with the character of Greg, that I'm walking away with here. After all, there's something when an author's voice can carry you from start to finish while maintaining a sort of distance that is described right at the outset: "This book contains precisely zero Important Life Lessons, or Little-Known Facts About Love, or sappy tear-jerking Moments When We Knew We Had Left Our Childhood Behind for Good, or whatever. And, unlike most books in which a girl gets cancer, there are definitely no sugary paradoxical single-sentence paragraphs that you're supposed to think are deep because they're in italics." (All of that? Truth. Yet, still a really good, really refreshing, really honest read.)
...more

Like · see review

Jun 22, 2016 Kathy Wheeler rated it liked it

While I enjoyed the writing style at first, the humor eventually felt a bit forced. Although we are told upfront that the narrator didn't learn anything from his experience, I was kind of hoping he was being modest. Nope. ...more

Like · see review