I decided to read Me, and Earl, and the Dying Girl because it seemed to have been well received both as a book and a movie, and I was told that it was similar to John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars. This was a mistake.
This book was many things that I did not like, but I do have to say that it was honest, believable, and raw. Nothing about it was fake. There’s something to be said about that.
However, I did not enjoy how brash, disjointed, and frankly insensitive this book was. (Yes, I understand that this was meant to be written by a teenager, and teenagers are usually all of these things, but it was done in distaste). I respect Jesse Andrews, and I even respect this book, but I did not enjoy reading it.
I’m sad to have to write this review, but I always want to be honest. I was disappointed that I didn’t like it, not disappointed in the book itself.
This book is the story of a teenage boy who is forced to befriend (this term is used in the lightest sense) a girl who has been diagnosed with cancer. Rather than show any compassion at all, this character blatantly shows how little he cares for her. When she dies there is no emotion. I have a personal problem with this, but it doesn’t make it a bad book. I’ve known people who have had deadly diseases and cancer, and I know people who have died from them. It breaks my heart to think that there are people, people I don’t know, that died without knowing that someone cared. When the girl in this book died, it felt as if she had no one that did more than shrug afterwards. That was terrible to witness.
I did not create a Currently Reading post, so here is the cover should you care to read it:
With some smiles,
Ivy B. Lake
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