New York Times Bestseller The book that inspired the hit film! Sundance U.S. Dramatic Audience Award Sundance Grand Jury Prize This is the funniest book you’ll ever read about death. It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. But on the first day of his senior year, Greg Gaines thinks he’s figured it out. The answer to the basic existential question: How is it possible to … answer to the basic existential question: How is it possible to exist in a place that sucks so bad? His strategy: remain at the periphery at all times. Keep an insanely low profile. Make mediocre films with the one person who is even sort of his friend, Earl.
This plan works for exactly eight hours. Then Greg’s mom forces him to become friends with a girl who has cancer. This brings about the destruction of Greg’s entire life.
Praise for Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
STARRED REVIEW
“One need only look at the chapter titles (“Let’s Just Get This Embarrassing Chapter Out of the Way”) to know that this is one funny book.”
–Booklist, starred review
STARRED REVIEW
“A frequently hysterical confessional…Debut novelist Andrews succeeds brilliantly in painting a portrait of a kid whose responses to emotional duress are entirely believable and sympathetic, however fiercely he professes his essential crappiness as a human being. Though this novel begs inevitable thematic comparisons to John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars (2011), it stands on its own in inventiveness, humor and heart.”
–Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“It is sure to be popular with many boys, including reluctant readers, and will not require much selling on the part of the librarian.”
–VOYA
“Mr. Andrews’ often hilarious teen dialogue is utterly convincing, and his characters are compelling. Greg’s random sense of humor, terrible self-esteem and general lack of self-awareness all ring true. Like many YA authors, Mr. Andrews blends humor and pathos with true skill, but he steers clear of tricky resolutions and overt life lessons, favoring incremental understanding and growth.”
–Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Awards:
Capitol Choices 2013 – Noteworthy Titles for Children and Teens
Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) Choices 2013 list – Young Adult Fiction
YALSA 2013 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
YALSA 2013 Best Fiction for Young Adults
YALSA 2014 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults
more
I just want to say this is not your typical dying girl love story. Actually, it’s not a love story at all. It’s raw, it’s weird and stupid and vulgar. But it’s real. There was no point in this book, but the mission to make the readers laugh (Trust me I did, I laughed multiple times at the stupidity) It made me hate Greg because he was so I don’t know but he’s just so- I don’t know but he isn’t what he could be. Earl def likes Rachel. You could tell. If Rachel lived longer, she and Earl would be together. Anyway, I wanted to say it’s worth a read but not if you want to actually feel something.
Movie did a great job of sharing the book’s integtity and heart
Author stuck through with keeping true to his words but hated it lol
The best description of the feeling of grief that I have ever read.
Yeah! I don’t understand why so many people love this book. It had some funny parts, mostly due to the ridiculousness that is Earl and the random dirty stuff that comes out of his mouth. All the nigga this and nigga that stuff that came out of Earl’s brothers mouths was unnecessary and excessive in that one small scene. Why am I not surprised? Plus, apparently he did a lot of drugs and his parents are nonexistent.
Greg was the most awkward character ever and very bland. I mean the whole book he hung out with Rachel who is dying out of obligation. Earl was nicer to Rachel than Greg and he kept it real the whole time. It would have been better if this book was told from Earl’s pov.
So I’ll be in the minority on this book and say I did not really like it. This only got two stars because of Earl.
What a scam. This book was about nothing. If I had paid full price I would demand my money back for being ripped off.
I did enjoy the first half of the book, despite some early qualms, but once the making of Rachel’s movie started it all just fell apart. I grew to hate (or just dislike) the characters, the good humor was no longer quite so funny, the dirty humor never had been, and I was constantly reminded that the book had no moral. It all felt so repetitive and I had to force myself through passages. And chapters. I know the point was that Greg didn’t particularly care about Rachel, but I’m just not going to love a book that relies solely on relationships when the relationship development simply sucks. Greg himself says that this book is a disgrace to the human language, and I have to say that I agree.
If nothing else, though, this book has made me want to watch the movie. So that’s something.
If you don’t like the narrator basically telling you a story, or one who keeps telling you that the book is stupid and you shouldn’t be reading it, then this is not the book for you. If you find that amusing, pick it up! This is a book about cancer, yes, but it’s done in a way that will have you laughing through most of it. I did end up shedding a tear or two along the way. There’s still a kid with cancer after all. But this isn’t a normal sob fest of a cancer book. And it’s entertaining in a way I haven’t really read before. I found myself reading passages to my husband (which is not something I normally do) just because they amused me so much I had to share with some one THAT second. I’m anxious to see how the film will compare to the book.