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Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Jesse Andrews

Start date: July 1, 2015

Finish date: July 31, 2015

Discussion: Stand Alone

Why we're reading this: It won the poll for the stand alone BOTM
[close] It won the poll for the stand alone BOTM

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What Members Thought

Apr 08, 2017 Colleen Scidmore rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: currently-on-my-computer

Me Earl and the Dying Girl was much more powerful than I had anticipated. Especially because of the amount of cracking up I was doing in the beginning.
The book was hysterical from the very start. Sometimes the humor could be a little obnoxious and I definitely don't think every reader will enjoy this type of wit, but I enjoy sarcastic comedy so this was right up my alley.
First off all the chapters were very interestingly named such as I Put the "Ass" in "Casanova" and Fight Club, Except Lamer, Me Earl and the Dying Girl was much more powerful than I had anticipated. Especially because of the amount of cracking up I was doing in the beginning.
The book was hysterical from the very start. Sometimes the humor could be a little obnoxious and I definitely don't think every reader will enjoy this type of wit, but I enjoy sarcastic comedy so this was right up my alley.
First off all the chapters were very interestingly named such as I Put the "Ass" in "Casanova" and Fight Club, Except Lamer, etc.
And you can't help but laugh at Greg's navigations through high school with trying to stay under the radar without any real friends or being noticed but at the same time checking in with all the walks of life in high school which are:
The Theater Kids
The Band Kids
The Goth Dorks (It is important to have a somewhat association with them, but in NO way dress as they do)
The Church Kids
The Soccer Team
The Ill-Tempered Foreign Kids
And Last but not least The Stoners

He does not want to belong to any of these groups but keep a light association so he can stay under the radar and not have any issues with anyone person in his senior year of high school. Personally I think this sounds exhausting, but it's still pretty funny the amount of energy he spends in order to not really be noticed.
I think my favorite character is Earl, who Greg defines his characteristics as a very young looking senior who has the height of a ten year old with a sort of round bug-eyed Yoda esque face. And unlike a ten year old Earl is a chain smoking vulgar mouthed angry guy with 2 types of moods: Pissed or Mega-Pissed. And even though he is height challenged he can kick any object within 7 feet of the ground. Which scares the crap out of Greg. And I love that Earl pretty much tells it how it is and doesn't take anybody's shit, including his deranged half brothers. It's a miracle Earl is as good as he is considering the household he's had to grow up in. You have to read it to believe it, it left me laughing so hard on one hand and appalled so bad in the other I wanted to adopt this poor kid.

Now on to Rachel (aka the Dying Girl). I love the whole dynamic between Greg and Rachel. Greg feels at first he's being forced by his mom to rekindle his friendship with Rachel because she is sick. But then he kind of gets gratification because he really seems to cheer her up once she accepts he's going to keep coming back. It did get a little frustrating at times because this is when Greg's humor got to be a little too much, but I give him an A for effort. Greg feels bad about himself because he feels like his friendship with Rachel is for all the wrong reasons and he doesn't care for her like he should. But I can see he really does and he just doesn't recognize this or he wouldn't have some of the strong feelings that he does.

At about Chapter 24 the laughter kind of stopped and the tears starting flowing. There were some really emotional parts towards the end of the book. And it's amazing that a book, especially as small as it was can bring about such strong emotions from me that range from laughing so hard tears were coming out of my eyes to then bawling pretty hard where it was difficult to stop the tears.
This book was definitely a winner for me and I am really looking forward to watching the movie and reading more of Jesse Andrews work. ...more

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Jun 10, 2016 Naomi rated it liked it

I don't know. I had high expectations because I had seen this book around and people talked a lot about it but I didn't really like it. I never really got into the story or felt attached to the characters. Rachel is one of the main characters and I felt like we really never got to know her and she was used more like a prop than a person. I didn't mind the fragmented and weird format but I also don't think it added anything to it. I think mostly I just didn't care that much about what happened to ...more

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