“So in order to understand everything that happened, you have to start from the premise that high school sucks.”

From Jesse Andrews’ Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

Greg Gaines is seventeen and a senior at a Pittsburgh high school.  Due to the population make-up of the school, Greg has managed to loosely connect himself with every group of students to survive the day-to-day craziness.  However, his methods of knowing everyone just enough to fit it has left him truly friendless and unable to connect with anyone except Earl… short, moody, chain smoking Earl.  Greg and Earl are completely different, but their love of classic, violent, and obscure movies, especially Aguirre, the Wrath of God, inspired them to both recreate films they love and create new stories.  However, the boys do not show their movies to anyone else since they deem the quality not yet ready to share.  When Rachel, a girl that Greg went to Hebrew school with as a kid, is diagnosed with leukemia, Greg’s mom pushes him to spend more time with her… to Greg’s ultimate disapproval.  Greg is pleasantly surprised by his success in making Rachel laugh and the two begin to spend more time together after school.  While Greg keeps his friendship with Earl separate from his friendship with Rachel, the two worlds eventually come together and create an entirely new problem for Greg as Earl shares their movies with Rachel. Greg struggles to stay connected with Rachel once she her health deteriorates, but his greatest challenge might be making a movie for Rachel.

The variety of styles to all of the chapters creates an interesting story with a strong connection to the narrator.  Andrews develops a narrator in the main character of Greg that is believable and realistic, if not slightly annoying for the constant evidence of his low self-esteem.  Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a quick and engaging read that will stick with the reader long after the book is finished.