Review: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Author: Jesse Andrews
Published: March 1, 2012
Paperback, 295 pages
4 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

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 leukaemia - 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. 

I quite enjoy a good cancer book. I love reading about characters going through hard situations and trying to turn their lives around, making new friends and rekindling with old ones. Whether they have cancer or their friend does, there is always a moment in the book where all hope is lost and I turn into a ball of pure crying wreck. My emotions are crazy when I'm reading one of these books and there's no telling how it will end, though it's assumed someone will die. They are hard work on your body and mind, but to me they are worth it. They remind me to live my life to its fullest and to tell those I love how I feel. Heartfelt books with meaningful moments and a whole lot of tears. Well, this is a cancer book, but it's sure not one of those books.

Andrews has found a way to make a cancer book into something you can laugh along with. Yes, Rachel has cancer, yes she is dying, but when Greg is the narrator, the sad moments aren't as sad as they could be and this is so realistic. A teenage boy who only really cares about making movies doesn't really understand cancer or why he has to hang out with Rachel just because she's sick. His dialogue is pure teenage boy and from the outside it may look like he's being inconsiderate, that's just how he's reacting to everything that's been thrown at him. What Greg knows is movies and so he does the only thing he knows how to do - he makes a movie for Rachel. The best part is that his movies are awful and very homemade, another realistic aspect to this book - these are just kids and they actually act like kids. At no point did the author make me pity Rachel and that's not to say that I wasn't sad when I knew she wouldn't make it, but that wasn't the point of this book.

It's clear that Andrews is a film guy and that he usually writes for film, but I think this was what made this book stand out the most. The writing is clear and precise and straight to the point. The chapters titles are genius and I loved that most conversations were told in script form. It was a lot of fun to read this book, even though there were some really sad parts. Greg knows what he wants out of life and somehow he manages to get most of it while also making a difference in Rachel's life. If you're looking for a different take on the cancer book, this is the one to pick up. It plays out like a movie and reads like one too. A great change from the other YA books out there.

"If after reading this book you come to my home and brutally murder me, I do not blame you."

Review: The F-it List

The F-it List
Author: Julie Halpern
Published: November 12, 2013
Hardcover, 256 pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

With her signature heart and humor, Julie Halpern explores a strained friendship strengthened by one girl’s battle with cancer. 

Alex’s father recently died in a car accident. And on the night of his funeral, her best friend Becca slept with Alex’s boyfriend. So things aren’t great. Alex steps away from her friendship with Becca and focuses on her family. 

But when Alex finally decides to forgive Becca, she finds out something that will change her world again—Becca has cancer. 

So what do you do when your best friend has cancer? You help her shave her head. And then you take her bucket list and try to fulfill it on her behalf. Because if that’s all you can do to help your ailing friend—you do it.

There are a lot of "cancer" books out there. Some have become so popular (The Fault in our Stars) and others hang out under the radar (Send me a Sign) but they all have one thing in common: they will tug at your heartstrings and make you cry. There are some that read as a morbid tale, making everything in the story and everything you feel afterwards feel like death. I feel reluctant to plunge into some of them, knowing that I will be depressed and cry and someone may die, but I read them anyway and The F-it List takes everything that I love about reading these kinds of books and turns into a story of friendship and love with cancer hanging out in the background. It starts out with a blast. Alex's father has recently died so Alex is already in grieving. When she finds her best friend, Becca, in bed with her boyfriend. an unforgivable action, Alex blocks Becca from her life, spending the summer without her for the first time in forever. But when school starts up in September, Alex gets news she would never expect to hear - Becca got cancer over the summer. Finally realizing she needs to forgive her so that she can be with her friend during this time, Alex puts everything else aside to help Becca. Their relationship quickly goes back to normal, or as normal as it can be with cancer in between them. Becca shows Alex her bucket list and begs her to help her complete it just in case. It's takes some convincing, but soon Alex is ready to check some things off the list.

Becca's list is exactly what you'd think a teenage girl would have on her list. There are some silly things like eating a hot pepper and prank calling people, but there are also more important things like making love with someone you love. This book is written so perfectly for a cancer novel, completely turning it into real life with cancer. Becca does not let it rule her even as it eats away at her and Alex stays strong even when she can't bear to look at her dying friend. Becca takes to flirting with the boy next door and Alex starts spending time with a boy from school who she's seen at horror conventions in town. As much as they stick together, they also start new lives, exploring new things while checking off things from the F-it list. 

There is a lot of swearing and sex themes in this novel, and that may be different than what we see in most YA novels, but it's realistic. Teenage girls want to kiss boys, want to do more than that with them and anyone dealing with cancer would be angry. There are so many nerdy references, like comic books, horror movies and conventions. This added to the story so much giving it a life of its own and letting us focus on things besides the cancer. Every relationship in this feels real. Alex and Becca struggle to stay happy at times when there is so much to be unhappy about. Alex is still very guarded since the death of her father and even though she loves being around Leo, there are moments where he can't fix everything. I love their secret hiding place at school and I love how it becomes something so much bigger as the book goes on, especially when things aren't going so well with anybody. 

I won't lie when I say you'll cry, but you'll also laugh and smile and  get excited when they meet Bruce Campbell. Friendship isn't always easy and grief is harder to deal with than everything else. The only thing we can do is learn to survive after everything and learn to move on when we don't want to. This book made me want to write my own bucket list and do everything on it now just to be able to say I'm living life to the fullest. 

“I wished I could erase the message, suck the word “sorry” from the En glish language, and hack it to pieces with a rusty ax.”