4 reasons why "Me, Earl, and the dying girl" sucks big hairy ass

REVIEW ON THIS MOLDY RUBBISH:

The book "Me, Earl, and the dying girl" is, supposedly, about a "dying girl" named Rachel. Written from the point of view(POV) of one of the main characters named Greg. Who is trying to get through senior year of highschool as invisible as humanly possible. If you’ve ever read the book, and you liked it, or at least saw the point of it all. I envy you. After reading at least half of it I completely tuned out, as my brain felt like it was beginning to rot. I skipped some pages ahead, in needless search of profound( or at least simiprofound) depth inside it. And of course found nothing of the sort. The worst part is I couldn't really even understand why it was I didn't like it so much. Then I skipped to the ending and read the whole page. The last four sentences being;"Maybe I should try to put her in my next film. I don't know. Honestly? I don't know what the hell I'm talking about."

Seriously, I can't make this up.

Then it struck me, it tortured me reading this book, so i was expecting a reward( or sense of relief) at the end. It wasn't even the fact that Rachel,being pretty much the only understanding ,sweet, person that we are even introduced to in the entire book, ended up dying. Because they say that she's going to die in the title, so i knew that part. What really ticked me off was Greg's response, and the fact that it was his last response after millions of dumb responses. In a way that's kinda my fault, I knew he was dumb after the second page. Or as the character would put it ," I have a brain fungus ", still doesn't help mentioning that. So I'm assuming that this statement was put in for some sympathy points. For example; if Greg says something dumb, or interpropate, then keeps doing so page after page. It's your fault because you continued reading it. I mean really. What the hell did you expect? This to be about a dying girl? Well that's to bad because it's really about some dumb guy named Gregory. Whom we're supposed to care and have sympathy for because?!? Oh, because he knows a girl that's dead.

In case you're wondering why I kept reading. Let me be honest. The book genuinely made me laugh. Not because of genuine humor, but because of just how much of an idiotic asshole Greg is. So at first I was hanging on because I was waiting to see where the "dying girl" came in. The humor entertaining me while I waited. Then I learned that the dying girl actually has a name, her name is Rachel. Finally Once I found out who Rachel was to Greg in the past, it made me disappointed with him. It also made me feel really sad for Rachel. Rachel clearly really liked Greg, for some reason, but Greg was still a jerk towards her. Despite all this, I had hope that maybe Greg would change and become more sensitive, and understanding, if not smarter. And that hopefully ,after Rachel passed, he would maybe have a different perspective on life, the world, and the people in the world including women. But sadly I lost all my patience for this guy. And gave up reading it. It just would have been easier to stare directing into the sun until my brain fired, than to continue reading this book. Besides even if he did somehow became a better person, the book still wouldn't be worth the read. Because the book is uninteresting but not only because of Greg. And here's a list of reasons why.

#1: THE NARRACTER IS NOT RELIABLE:

In a lot of ways an unreliable narrator can make a book more interesting. They can add flavor, and layers, to the storyline. Which draws readers in more to the character that is the unreliable narrator, or at least it should. Because the character has secrets, so readers aren't really sure what will happen next. That sadly is not the case with the book "Me, Earl, and the dying girl". The main character Greg is a trouble person, and maybe i would have more sympathy for him if there was a good reason behind why he thinks and feels the way he does. Like for example in the well known tv show Euphoria. Rue, on of the main characters, is the narracter. And she is a very unreliable one at times. Though with Rue she at least has sympathy for others, to narrate their lives without bias(sometimes). The reason why she isn't bias most of the time is because she knows that she has her own issues.

So yes Rue struggles with drugs , and pushes away the people who love her and want to help her get better. Except, unlike Greg, Rue ask for forgiveness. She begins to unravel and the viewer sees that she's really just very broken, and her father's death only made it worse. All these things help the reader sympathises with the narrator enough to keep reading( and/ or watching). Because we all love a character who is relatable, and compassionate, if not reliable as a narrator. Plus The story, Euphoria, brings you in because you can't help but wonder how Rue knows about other character's secrets. Greg ,however, is not even a good person. In addition, he has no reasons behind why he was rude to Rachel. Other than the fact that he was trying to get another girls attention, Leah, who was prettier than Rachel. Which is very toxic of him by the way. Why would i wanna read a story about about a Toxic male view, who stays toxic even in the end.

#2 The other characters don't have depth

You ever wonder why you're not all that sad when you find out a person you've never met has died? Well folks, that's simply because you don't know them of course. You have no judge of character towards them, because you didn't get to see what type of person they were before they died. So it can be an issue to not add details to a person when you are creating characters for a book or film. There is a reason why authors introduce characters in the first place. So giving a character no depth, and then making their very existence broad and shallow, is super annoying. You might as well say "This character named BOB is important", and then in the next 20 pages " SIKE!, no he's not"

For example in the Film "Dear Evan Hansen" there are a lot of different characters. Most are unmentioned, by name, but the ones that are mentioned have their own climaxities. As well as similarities to bring them together. The main character Evan ,Unlike this book "Me, Earl, and the dying girl" has a big heart despite his mistakes, depression, and feelings of loneliness. Even the character Alana has depth, and she isn't the main character. Instead "Me, Earl, and the dying girl" focuses on Greg mainly. I would love to know more about Rachel, or Leah, or even Earl.

#3 There are offensive stereotypes and slurs

When people read a story, or watch a movie they end up finding someone they can relate to. Some may say "Oh, that person wears the same clothes as I do'', or " me and that character have similar backgrounds,similar likes and dislikes, similar skin tone", or even similar issues. So as you can imagine it can be pretty upsetting when those characters who we have a lot in common with aren't mentioned much. But even more devastating when those characters receive insults (and an untrue statements) from other characters based on their identity. And me, being a black genderqueer woman, reading this book. Found it astonishing that a white male author, by the name of Jesse Andrews, thought it perfectly fine to but the N-word in his book, typed out in all capps. Then he had the gall enough to publish it, and make a movie based on it. When it's not even all that good to even be a movie based on a book.

(How ironic)

Isn't it already racist enough to say the N-word when you're not black? Didn't he already cross a line? Then he also manages to make the character Earl an African American stereotype. Then on top of that , literally the only lesbian character, Leah. Who of course was only mentioned when the character Greg is explaining he had a crush on her. Is described as "became" lesbian because she believed all men are jerks. Plus in the "where are they now" chapter. She, til this day, won't read a book by a man. Because she's a lesbian? That's ridiculous. Yet here I am, gay, and black as the night sky still reading this moldy rubbish. Well, I did give up at some point, but when I first started reading it. I knew it was written by a white man. Dang it! Should have gone with my lesbian instinct!

#4 There is no sense of release in the end

In a film or book that has someone who dies that was a big part of the main characters life. It is important to establish a sense of relief to take a little bit of the pain away from the reader or viewer. For example maybe the main character feels or says something that says, that the main character is gonna be okay, or going to learn from their mistakes.One film that some people have compared to "Me , Earl, and the dying girl" is "The fault in our stars" Which makes no sense considering that there is a difference between masterpiece and trash. For insincense in "the fault in our stars" Hazel's boyfriend(Augustus)passes away, and at his funeral she resights something he said. He says getting hurt in this world is inevitable, but we do get to choose who we allow to hurt us, and that he his happy with his choice. Which suggest that Hazel is happy with her choice too. She is happy that she was able to to get to know Augustus, despite him passing.

CONCLUSION:

After reading this book review some may argue " Well if it's such a waste of time why would you waste more time writing a review". The answer: To warn you. I haven't watched the movie, and most likely will not, but I figure that since i already wasted my time reading this and didn't earn a catharsis in the end. That I should purify my soul with the thought that maybe someone will find this and refrain from reading it because of me. And maybe even refrain from watching the movie.With all that said, I'm giving this book a 0 out of 10. But a 10 out of 10 for being a big pile of moldy rubbish, and successfully transmitting Greg's brain fungus to me. Thank you Jesse Andrews, you suck! All I have to say is "Just because something is weird and hard t understand doesn't mean it's creative".