Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

“I entered Excessive Modesty Mode. Nothing is stupider and more ineffective than Excessive Modesty Mode. It is a mode in which you show that you're modest by arguing with someone who is trying to compliment you. Essentially, you are going out of your way to try to convince someone that you're a jerk.”

Not really my kind of humor, but it did have its moments, I'll give you that.

I found Greg and Earl either quite irritating or plain boring for the first half of the book. I was put off by Gregg's “trying to stay cool in school” drama and his self-proclaimed complete lack of empathy towards another human being because both of these angles were overplayed in an attempt to make him seem more intelligent and interesting than the average kid. Luckily, this was mostly just in the beginning.

Then, Earl's crassness was too much for me, despite the fact that I understood that he came from such an unfortunate background. Most of the jokes between him and Gregg were gross and I found myself twitching when he was butchering English.

However, at times, I resonated a bit with Greg's self-deprecation and I appreciated Earl's good nature. I did warm up to both of them by the end.

I wish there'd been more Rachel moments, because those were the best parts, but I guess I get why there weren't. I really liked that nobody fell in love and there were no life changing epiphanies. Also, I loved the simplicity of the ending. I think that it made it all feel so genuine, after all.

I can't say it's a book I enjoyed for the most part, but it had a few great moments that made me appreciate it.