Review: Me, Early and the Dying Girl

Stars: 4

Author: Jesse Andrews

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams

Genre: Young adult fiction

I laughed out loud while reading this book-- a lot. His description of hot girls as moose tromping through the forest over chipmunks (guys like him) was fantastic. Equally great was the whole bit with the accidentally getting high, really that whole episode, ending in him getting ice cream all over his entire body, including his ankles-- was very funny. 

That being said I kind of got over Greg's self-loathing by the end of the book. In fact, his whole world view got to be so much convincing the reader that he doesn't care, and by extension you, the reader, doesn't care, that I wasn't even affected by Rachel's death at the end. There was really no emotional punch to what happens because you know going in that is what is going to happen, but really also because Greg spends the entire book telling the reader that he really thinks the book is a piece of garbage, that he does nothing out of the goodness of his heart, cares about no one, and he thinks he is a terrible person. It's all a bit too Holden Caufield of him. 

By the end, I started to agree with him. On the other hand, I thought the writing was witty and frankly hilarious. Greg's inner monologue is a thing of beauty. All the secondary characters equal parts ridiculous and vivid. I liked the whole thing. Andrews has Greg narrate the book using both first person narration, but also lapses into screenplay style interactions at times and perhaps my favorite-- bulleted listed in lieu of written dialogue. 

Greg's obviously an anti-hero but I appreciated that this book stays well away from all the teen book stereotypes. It was very refreshing. (Which I felt made the movie version o the book less awesome-- because they included the obligatory teenage prom and a lot of stuff at the end around Rachel's death to specifically pull on your heart-strings) but I digress. I appreciate the utter lack of romance and teen cliches in this book. 

A final note: Earl is fantastically awesome. Not only is Earl just about the best character ever, but he sounds like what you would expect him to sound like. He's just awesome. The book wouldn't have been a tenth as good as it was without short, angry, chain-smoking Earl-- who deep down seems to get people and Rachel in particular, a lot better that Greg ever does.