Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

by Jesse Andrews

[boghunden]

When I started this book, I was expecting to be entertained. When I finished the introduction, the fun was over.

The introduction was really, really good. I've rarely read anything like it - it was so much fun! Now, that only helps raise the expectations towards the rest of the book; expectations that weren't met. This book is about Greg, whose mother is "forcing" him to visit Rachel, who's a girl with leukaemia. Greg is insensitive towards Rachel and doesn't really care that she's sick. That isn't my main problem with the book though. What is the problem though, is that he keeps visiting her, even when he doesn't like her. Come on! You're 16, now do something, stand up for yourself! He's one of those guys who'll end up doing whatever people tell him to. It was just so annoying! At the sime time, he's feeling really sorry for himself. Stop it! Just...please! His friend Earl is almost as annoying as Greg is. He swears way too much. Now, I don't mind swearing in my books, but it needs to be there for a reason, and I didn't feel like there was any reason for it in this book. It just didn't seem real. I don't know anybody who swears as much as him. Furthermore, he's acting like he's schizophrenia; one moment he's this good guy with all the best intentions, and the next he's so annoying and provoking that you just wanna slap him. But this too, of course, doesn't bother Greg; he's just saying and doing whatever Earl wants.

All in all, I found the story to be flat and a waste of time. It's more of a diary with notes about what movies Greg is making - which, of course, I didn't care about. Now, you'd think that was enough, wouldn't you? But no, it's not. The writing style was one-sided and dull; all the bad words felt like they were just there to fill the pages. To be fair, parts of the book worked out okay, but unfortunately those parts were to few. I was expecting to be laughing a lot while reading this book, but instead I ended up bored. I didn't feel anything. At all.

My advice would be to read the introduction and then stop. Or maybe just hang it on your wall, because this cover is gorgeous.