While working on a class project for one of my classes, I was instructed to read a non-ALA (American Library Association) award-winning book. Let me tell you, finding a book that was a non-ALA award winner was more difficult than I ever expected it to be. I never realized how many ALA awards there were, so I was relieved when I found the Children’s and Young Adult Blogger’s Literary Awards (Cybils Awards). Cybils Awards are unique because they are awarded by people who blog about children’s and young-adult books. When I looked through past award winners, I was excited when I saw that “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” was an award winner. Conveniently, I already owned the book. I saw the movie on campus last year and bought the book soon after with the intent of reading it, however, I never got around to reading the book. This semester blog project has allowed me to read for pleasure, but also gave me the opportunity to read books I’ve wanted to read for a while but haven’t gotten the chance to; “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” is a perfect example.

This book, published by Jesse Andrews, is a story written from the point-of-view of a high school senior named Greg Gaines. In the beginning of the story, Greg goes to the extremes to ensure he stays invisible, even going as far as avoiding being a part of any cliques or having any real friends. While he spent the majority of his high school years at the periphery, his life was brought to the forefront when his childhood friend, Rachel Kushner, was diagnosed with leukemia. Greg found out about her diagnosis from his mother, who then forced him to start hanging out with her because “Rachel is going to need her friends now more than ever” (pg. 36) and “The more time you spend with her, the more difference you can make in her life” (pg. 37). Throughout the story, Greg and Rachel’s friendship blossomed, and the reader was eventually invited into Greg and Earl’s (his only friend) passion for filmmaking. “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” is a story about friendship, illness, and stepping out of your comfort zone and embracing all of the obstacles the world throws at you.

My favorite thing about this book is Greg’s interaction with the reader. Greg interacts with the reader throughout the entire story because he is a character in his own story. Before the story even begins, Greg introduces himself to the reader on pg. 1 with a headline of “A Note From Greg Gaines, Author of This Book.” Despite the fact that Jesse Andrews wrote the book, the entire story is told from Greg’s perspective and it’s almost as if he really is the author of the story because of the way he interacts with the story. Some of the things he says that show his interaction with the reader are “Can I just be honest for you one second?” (pg. 1) and “I do actually want to say one of thing before we get started with this horrifyingly inane book. You may have already figured out that it’s about a girl who has cancer” (pg. 2). The words “you” and “we” are frequently used in this book which shows Greg’s direct interaction with the reader. My favorite lines in the book is featured on pg. 125. Greg was just finishing telling the reader about all the film’s he and Earl have made, when he said “I have to say this: In that moment, Rachel was awesome. Meanwhile, I guess I probably have to describe the films to you. You’re being less awesome than Rachel, you stupid reader.” Greg was so deep into his interaction with the reader that he called them stupid! The line “you stupid reader” made me laugh and I also thought it was unique because I have never read a book where the main character’s interaction with the reader is so prevalent. Another section of the story I enjoyed was “So that’s Earl. I’ve probably missed a bunch of stuff and will have to describe Earl in greater detail later, but there’s no reason to believe that you’ll still be reading the book at that time, so I guess I would say don’t worry about it” (pg. 67). I loved Greg’s interaction with the reader because as a reader, I felt more connected to the story and I felt like I understood Greg’s mind more-so than any other character in the story because I could experience what he was feeling while reading along.

Besides loving Greg’s interaction with the reader, I loved how he interacted with himself throughout the story by critiquing the way “he” was writing the book. Throughout the story, he would often get mad at the way he wrote something and write his anger in the story. In the story’s introduction, “A Note From Greg Gaines, Author of This Book,” he starts it by talking about how he was originally going to start the story with “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times” (pg. 1). When he decides that is a terrible idea, he asks himself “What the hell does that even mean? Why would you even think to do that? You wouldn’t, unless you had a fungus eating your brain, which I guess I probably have (pg. 1). Another example is on pg. 157 when the text says “Little did I know that I would soon be joining her (Rachel) in the very same hospital. Actually, what the hell is this “little did I know” business. I didn’t know at all that I would soon be joining her in the very same hospital, because I can’t see into the goddamned future. Jesus. You can take pretty much any sentence in this book and if you read it enough times, you will probably end up committing a homicide.” Despite the fact that Jesse Andrews wrote the book, his interaction with the reader and his interaction with himself throughout the story can actually make the reader believe that Greg actually wrote the story because of how present his feelings, thoughts, and emotions are in this book. I absolutely love how this story was written and the writer’s style was probably the most interesting I have read thus far.

Something I found unique in this story is that the story was written in two point of views. While Greg’s point of view is dominant throughout the story, some of the story was written in third person, but not just any regular third person; some of the story was written like a film script is written, signifying the importance of filmmaking to Greg and to this story. I could tell when the point of view switched to third person because it was written like a film script is written, with terms like “INT.” and “EXT.” and it was also written in a different font. At first, I thought the shift from first to third person was annoying, but I enjoyed it as I kept reading the story because it mixed things up and like I said before, it showed the importance of filmmaking in this story. When the story was written in first person, I felt like I was inside Greg’s mind, but when the story was written in third person, I felt like an outsider looking in.