Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults)
A  frequently hysterical confessional from a teen narrator who won't be  able to convince readers he's as unlikable as he wants them to believe."I  have no idea how to write this stupid book," narrator Greg begins.  Without answering the obvious question—justwhyis he writing" this  stupid book"?—Greg lets readers in on plenty else. His filmmaking  ambitions. His unlikely friendship with the unfortunately short,  chain-smoking, foulmouthed, African-American Earl of the title. And his  unlikelier friendship with Rachel, the titular "dying girl." Punctuating  his aggressively self-hating account with film scripts and digressions,  he chronicles his senior year, in which his mother guilt-trips him into  hanging out with Rachel, who has acute myelogenous leukemia. Almost  professionally socially awkward, Greg navigates his unwanted  relationship with Rachel by showing her the films he's made with Earl,  an oeuvre begun in fifth grade with their remake ofAguirre, Wrath of  God. Greg's uber-snarky narration is self-conscious in the extreme,  resulting in lines like, "This entire paragraph is a moron." Debut  novelist Andrews succeeds brilliantly in painting a portrait of a kid  whose responses to emotional duress are entirely believable and  sympathetic, however fiercely he professes his essential crappiness as a  human being.Though this novel begs inevitable thematic  comparisons to John Green'sThe Fault in Our Stars(2011), it stands on  its own in inventiveness, humor and heart.