ME & EARL & THE DYING GIRL

This is not a sentimental cancer story.

And it really wants you to know that.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl follows Greg Gaines, a painfully self-aware high school senior whose main goals are to stay invisible and make terrible parody films with his friend Earl. When his mother forces him to befriend Rachel—a classmate diagnosed with leukemia—Greg does everything he can to avoid turning the situation into something meaningful.

Of course, it becomes meaningful anyway.

Written with sharp humor, discomfort, and emotional honesty, this novel dismantles the idea that serious illness must be wrapped in inspiration or moral lessons. Instead, it offers something truer: awkwardness, fear, connection, and grief that doesn’t resolve neatly.

It’s funny. It’s sad. It’s deeply human.

Why it’s been banned

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl has been challenged for:

• Profanity and crude humor
• Sexual references
• Frank discussions of illness and death
• A tone some consider “irreverent” or “inappropriate”

In other words, for allowing teenagers to sound like actual teenagers while facing real-life trauma.

Why we love it

• Because it refuses to exploit pain for inspiration.
• Because it lets humor coexist with grief.
• Because it treats young people as emotionally capable, not fragile.

This book doesn’t tell readers how to feel—it trusts them to feel it themselves.

Perfect for

YA readers • teens who hate overly sentimental books • fans of dark humor • readers navigating grief or illness • book clubs and classrooms ready for honest conversations