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 leukemia—-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.
Until Greg’s mother forces him to rekindle his childhood friendship with Rachel.
Rachel has been diagnosed with leukemia—-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.
Now I know everyone has already read this book, seen the movie or both, so I'm gonna keep this review brief since I'm so late to the game.
This book was different. It was very off the cuff and real, Greg is the most lovable and relatable character around and I just loved his telling of events. Sometimes it was painful to read how little confidence he has, but that just made me root for him more. Earl, on the other hand, was not my favorite character, but his interactions with Rachel opened up a whole new side of him to the reader. He was suddenly very self-aware, goal-oriented and very kind-hearted which we don't see from Greg's POV. Lastly, Rachel was the classic dying girl: she was every cliché in the book. She was really only there to help develop Greg and Earl's characters. But I'm ok with that, because that’s kinda assumed walking into any book with cancer as a main plot device.
Now to semi-review the movie: it didn't do the story justice. I'm not a huge fan of this type of film style (I didn't like Perks of Being a Wallflower either) and after reading the book you just can't get the same POV from Greg because you just can't be in his head when you're watching him on the screen. If that was translated better to the screen, I could happily love the movie as much as the book. I just couldn't form the same loveable bond with any of the characters while watching the movie - except Rachel. I liked her more in the movie for whatever reason - I still can't pinpoint what it was.
All in all, I loved the story the book told and I just feel like we missed out on that in the movie. Had I watched the movie first I might feel differently, but that's the way the cookie crumbled.
4 stars
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