Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

By Jesse Andrews

One of my favorite books when I was growing up was Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick. When I was in fifth grade, I remember picking out this book in the library after reading the back cover and becoming intrigued. The main character receives news that his five year old brother has been diagnosed with leukemia and his whole world is turned upside down. After reading the book once, I was hooked. I read it over and over again and recommended it to everyone I could. To this day, I still regard it as one of my favorite books.

This might be the reason why I enjoyed Me and Earl and the Dying Girl so much. The novel is extremely similar to Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie in that the protagonists deal with very similar issues. The main character in Andrews’ book, Greg, is told that his childhood friend, Rachel, has been diagnosed with leukemia. Unlike Sonnenblick’s book, Andrews’ novel is geared more towards high school students and upper level readers. Instead of being in eighth grade, the protagonist is in high school and the story was
more relatable for my age group.

Another reason why I enjoyed the story so much was because of the unique style in which it was written. Andrews combines traditional chapter-style format with script-style text to give the reader views into the films that the protagonist enjoys creating so much.

This novel was also made into a movie but I have not yet seen it. I was definitely able to picture each individual character extremely well, so seeing how others
interpreted these characters would be interesting to me. Andrews is able to tackle everyday high school struggles and issues along with addressing the touchy subject of illness and cancer while still injecting humor into the story. One can read this story while laughing and crying altogether.

Although this story did not score above Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie, it faired very well in my book. I would recommend reading the story before seeing the film so that one can gain their own view of the characters before having the image of what the actors look and act like in their minds.