Title: Me & Earl & The Dying Girl
Author: Jesse Andrews
Publication date: March 1st, 2012
Publisher: Amulet Books
Genre(s): Young Adult (Contemporary)
Challenges: A-Z Title, SARC, DAC
Source: NetGalley
Format: Digital ARC
Format: Digital ARC
Pages: 304
Up until senior year, Greg has maintained total social invisibility. He only has one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time--when not playing video games and avoiding Earl's terrifying brothers-- making movies, their own versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics. Greg would be the first one to tell you his movies are f*@$ing terrible, but he and Earl don't make them for other people. Until Rachel.Rachel has leukemia, and Greg's mom gets the genius idea that Greg should befriend her. Against his better judgment and despite his extreme awkwardness, he does. When Rachel decides to stop treatment, Greg and Earl make her a movie, and Greg must abandon invisibility and make a stand. It's a hilarious, outrageous, and truthful look at death and high school by a prodigiously talented debut author.
I was really excited to start Me & Early & The Dying Girl, as I heard great reviews for it. The synopsis was very intriguing as well, and I honestly just love sad endings. As I started reading the book, it was apparent that the book was going to be a funny one. I liked Jesse's writing style, he made the characters sound so real. Greg, the main protagonist, was really funny at first. His points of view, and how he sees things was just very different than any other character I read about.
After reading more, I got a bit annoyed. The amount of swear words in the book was uncountable. I really don't mind if it was once or twice, but it was up to five times in every single page. I mean, come on, use some decent words. His friend Earl was really annoying as well. His thoughts and the way he thought about things was just disgusting to me.
Rachel was probably the only normal character in the book. She wasn't naggy or annoying either. She got Leukemia, and was fine with it. I honestly didn't cry in this book, even though I do know some people actually did. I just felt like the whole story was too laid back and random to be taken seriously. I guess some people would actually enjoy this book, but it just wasn't all that for me.
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Shame you didn't enjoy this more. I don't have much of a problem with swear words but I can understand why it would be annoying to read if they're used way too frequently. Anyway, I'm hoping I can get round to this soon - hopefully will be a better read for me! :)
ReplyDeleteoh oh. I had this book on my list to review this week, but it's taken me longer to finish Partials due to a crazy schedule and Me and Earl and The Dying Girl is next on my list. Hmm, I'm scurred now :)
ReplyDeletePity. I really enjoyed this one, but we all have different tastes! Earl did bother me as well though.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear this! I have it on my kindle and am starting it soon. I'll be interested to see how our opinions match up.
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