Book Review: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

05.9.2016

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl takes the typical cancer story and turns it on it's head. This was another book I started with no expectations, though unlike Brooklyn I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't inspiring or great or anything, nor does it claim to be. It's a very real portrait of high school, and of someone you know of (but don't really know) dying. As with any media set in high school your mileage may vary -- no one has the same experience, and there were definitely a lot of inconsistencies with my experience of high school. But no matter what your experience was, it takes you back to the time before adulthood, and the first time you experienced that confusion and sadness of loss. The main character, Greg, is a self-depricating, uninspired human in the thick of the teenage years. He's incredibly well-written, and allows you to forget that he's totally fiction. It was a great break from a few more heady books I'm in the middle of, and is a great weekend read if you're looking for something more seroius than a romance novel but less serious than LOTR.