Jesse Andrews

ZERO stars

From the book jacket: ME My name is Greg Gaines. I am seventeen. I am the one who wrote this book. … EARL Earl Jackson is the only person who is even sort of my friend. We make mediocre films together. … DYING GIRL During my senior year, my mom forced me to become friends with a girl who had cancer. This brought about the destruction of my entire life.

My reactions
I wish this had brought about the destruction of this book. He comes off as being about 10 years old, not seventeen. His “humor” is juvenile, mostly related to bathroom and bodily functions. His attempts at self-deprecation were just sad and sometimes even disturbing. I kept reading because it had some rave reviews, and I thought it might get better. (It didn’t.) I finished it only because it satisfied a few challenges.

A complete waste of time, IMHO.… (lisätietoja)

I was incredibly conflicted about this book. On the one hand, I really admire the originality of the author: the world he creates, where people's size varies depending on how wealthy they are, is incredibly creative, and provides an excellent social commentary as well as an entertaining background. On the other hand, however, I found this book very hard to read.

While I appreciate the thought that must have gone behind inventing a whole new language for the world, I found it incredibly difficult to understand what was being said. Perhaps it was due to the ARC formatting, or maybe that was the actual intention, but too many times I was faced with words smashed together and sentences that just made no sense on a first reading. I had to go back and re-read several times in order to understand what was going on, and that just made it impossible for me to enjoy the book as much as I would have wanted to. I also found the dreamworld to be a tad too complex for my liking, and struggled to understand without re-reading whole passages.

I didn't particularly like the characters, but I feel that may have been the original intention: none of them seem to be particularly likable from the start, with Warner (our narrator) being the only one to seemingly make an effort but ultimately being worn down by his dire circumstances and the exploitation to which he is subject. With unlikeable characters and a plot I struggled to appreciate fully, however, this book soon fell flat for me. I seriously considered DNF'ing multiple times, but ultimately stuck it out in the hopes that it would get better. Alas, for me it didn't.

As I said, I really appreciate the idea behind this, but the execution just didn't work for me.

For this and more reviews, visit Book for Thought.

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.… (lisätietoja)