Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. But on the first day of his senior year, Greg Gaines thinks he’s figured it out. The answer to the basic existential question: How is it possible to exist in a place that sucks so bad? His strategy: remain at the periphery at all times. Keep an insanely low profile. Make mediocre films with the one person who is even sort of his friend, Earl.
This plan works for exactly eight hours. Then Greg’s mom forces him to become friends with a girl who has cancer. This brings about the destruction of Greg’s entire life.
THEMES:
Grief, Death, Cancer
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.
Publication Date: March 1st, 2012
Audiobook? Yes
Age Range: 14+
Read Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes (at 300 WPM)
ISBN-13: 9781419701764
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jesse Andrews is a New York Times best-selling novelist and award-winning screenwriter.
His books are Munmun (Amulet Books, 2018), The Haters (Amulet Books, 2016), and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Amulet Books, 2012)
His screenwriting work includes Pixar’s Luca, coming in June 2021; Every Day, an adaptation of the novel by David Levithan, directed by Michael Sucsy and released by MGM in February 2018; and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, adapted from his own book. It was directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, produced by Indian Paintbrush, and released by Fox Searchlight in June 2015. It won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
Jesse Andrews and director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon talk about adapting Me and Earl and the Dying Girl to a feature film (June 2015, DP/30)
Jesse Andrews discusses his book with a young interviewer at the Texas Teen Book Festival (February 2016, Forever Bookish)
IN THE NEWS
Katy ISD parents want book audit of district's libraries after claiming they found 'porn' (ABC News)
How a YA oral-sex scene touched off Texas’ latest culture war (Texas Tribune)