First Line: "So in order to understand everything that happened, you have to start from the premise that high school sucks."
Plot: Greg Gaines is a chubby, awkward teenager who has perfected the delicate art of being friends with everyone and no one at the same time. He spends his time making mediocre films with the cussing, perpetually angry teen Earl. Things are okay. But then Greg's mom forces him to become friends with a girl who has cancer and his life begins to fall apart.
Comments: I skimmed over a lot of the text. There seemed to be descriptions and sections that lasted too long and I would skip to the next part. What I did read was vaguely entertaining but not dramatically so. The book definitely felt like it was written by a teenager who doesn't know how to write.
I didn't ever connect much with any of the characters. They were all so very flawed that liking them was difficult. Their situations were easier to relate to, perhaps. But the people in the story felt like characters as opposed to real people.
The idea of the book is great. It's not some inspiring, heroic tale of cancer-fighting teenagers who support each other and fix everything. It's about an overweight, awkward, antisocial guy who finds himself stuck with trying to be a good friend to a girl dying of cancer. The story is different and feels real because of the flawed characters and the awkward dialogue.
However, it's a little boring. Because it's a pretty realistic story, nothing exciting really happens and the characters don't do things that make you feel happy inside. This is partly why I kept skimming. I was waiting for something exciting to happen but it never really did.
Nothing was resolved in the end, but in this case it seemed fitting. It made sense because experiences like this in real life don't resolve smoothly and happily and with a clear lesson learned. So while the book ends without a satisfying conclusion, it ends realistically, which is satisfying by itself since so many books have ridiculous fairytale endings.
Rating: I rate Me and Earl and the Dying Girl a six out of ten.
Plot: Greg Gaines is a chubby, awkward teenager who has perfected the delicate art of being friends with everyone and no one at the same time. He spends his time making mediocre films with the cussing, perpetually angry teen Earl. Things are okay. But then Greg's mom forces him to become friends with a girl who has cancer and his life begins to fall apart.
Comments: I skimmed over a lot of the text. There seemed to be descriptions and sections that lasted too long and I would skip to the next part. What I did read was vaguely entertaining but not dramatically so. The book definitely felt like it was written by a teenager who doesn't know how to write.
I didn't ever connect much with any of the characters. They were all so very flawed that liking them was difficult. Their situations were easier to relate to, perhaps. But the people in the story felt like characters as opposed to real people.
The idea of the book is great. It's not some inspiring, heroic tale of cancer-fighting teenagers who support each other and fix everything. It's about an overweight, awkward, antisocial guy who finds himself stuck with trying to be a good friend to a girl dying of cancer. The story is different and feels real because of the flawed characters and the awkward dialogue.
However, it's a little boring. Because it's a pretty realistic story, nothing exciting really happens and the characters don't do things that make you feel happy inside. This is partly why I kept skimming. I was waiting for something exciting to happen but it never really did.
Nothing was resolved in the end, but in this case it seemed fitting. It made sense because experiences like this in real life don't resolve smoothly and happily and with a clear lesson learned. So while the book ends without a satisfying conclusion, it ends realistically, which is satisfying by itself since so many books have ridiculous fairytale endings.
Rating: I rate Me and Earl and the Dying Girl a six out of ten.
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