Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl

The book I read this first quarter was called Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, and it was written by Jesse Andrews. There were 304 pages in the book.

 Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a Young Adult non-fiction book, and it's a story about him, and Earl... and a dying girl. Greg is the protagonist of this story, and Earl is his best friend. To start it off, Greg liked to be considered everyone's acquaintance in that he wouldn't be subject to being labeled as certain cliques and be liked by everyone. He even considered Earl his work partner for films even though they were best friends. This dying girl, Rachel, is one of Greg's friends he made from years ago to get close to a girl he had a crush on. They hadn't talked for years, and the last time they talked, they didn't end on good terms. Because of his attempt to get close to Rachel's "hotter friend", their parents assumed that they were good friends... and good friends do good things for each other. One day, Rachel is diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia, and his mother prompts him to rekindle with her and cheer her up. They didn't even like each other, but he is forced by his nagging mother to talk and make her last days good. Greg does go to her and talk to her. His awkwardness actually broke up some tension between them too because it makes them both laugh, and their friendship continually grows from the cracked union from years ago. Eventually, she meets Earl, Greg's best friend. Although Greg didn't like it when he talked about their films, Earl still spoke of the films they made. It was then that Rachel had enough friendshiply love for Greg to be advising him on his career opportunities. She told Greg to continue on film school, but would Greg still follow up on the words of someone who will soon come to pass?

I really liked this book because of the way it was written. The way it was written with a lot of slang in the way that young people would understand really helped me to connect with it. The antagonistic perspective of Greg throughout the whole story; however, just made me annoyed. Though sometimes it was funny, it was a bit annoying sometimes. I guess I was looking for a strong change of character because of Rachel's influence, like a love story, but this book showed to be realistic. In real life, most of the time, we don't change. Although you could, it's just difficult. In addition, I was expecting Rachel to be a huge grenade, a huge impact on everyone's lives, but in the end, she was just another cancer patient. She didn't end up being a person who made a great impact on the people surrounding her. That's also another reason why I liked this book. I thought it was going to be another love story where the guy wouldn't have forgotten the girl and continue to cherish her forever, living out her aspirations for them. In two words, I liked the difference it portrayed to others through it's realistic construction of a story.