Review: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Name: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Author: Jesse Andrews
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Date published: 2015
Rating: 5/5

Greg Gaines is the last master of high school espionage, able to disappear at will into any social environment. He has only one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time making movies, their own incomprehensible versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics.
Until Greg’s mother forces him to rekindle his childhood friendship with Rachel.
Rachel has been diagnosed with leukemia - cue extreme adolescent awkwardness - but a parental mandate has been issued and must be obeyed. When Rachel stops treatment, Greg and Earl decide the thing to do is to make a film for her, which turns into the Worst Film Ever Made and becomes a turning point in each of their lives.
And all at once Greg must abandon invisibility and stand in the spotlight.

- From Goodreads.

I don't even know if I can form a coherent sentence about this book (in a good way), but I suppose it's worth a try. 
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was straight-to-the-point hilarious. I found it funny from the first sentence, which you might not expect considering the subject matter, and which consequently gave the book quite a unique twist (I don't know about you but I've never read a laugh-out-loud funny book about cancer before). I think part of what made it so funny was the real, relatable characters, especially with Greg's self-deprecating narration which felt so true to life. It's completely and utterly honest in a brilliant way.
Something else that really made me love this book was that, even with the comedy element, it still managed to make you feel emotional about the characters and concerned for them. And even though you're kind of told what's going to happen at the end, you still hope it doesn't happen, you don't want it to happen, and yet the book almost helps you to accept that it will happen. Basically, it's depressing in a funny kind of way (and by that I mean both funny as in haha and funny as in odd).
Sometimes (and here's the part of the review where I just get emotional and ramble) it was so funny but then it was just so sad and I wanted to take Rachel and Greg and put them in a place where nothing could hurt them. Because cancer is so stupid.
Basically, it's a really depressing book and you should never read it, ever, because it's really awful and I hate it so much and I can't wait to tell everyone about it because it's now one of my favourite books and I love it so much and everyone should read it and you need to read it because it's so brilliant. It's ridiculous, really. By the end, I was sort of laughing and crying at the same time and it was just terrible, really terrible.
Conclusion: read this book. 

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