This is the story of Greg Gaines; amateur film-maker, and his desire in life to remain politically neutral when it comes to the delicate ecosystem known as high school. His partner-in-crime (or rather, partner-in-film-making) Earl, despite being from entirely different worlds, gets dragged along for the ride. Greg is basically your typical all American overweight dorky teen boy, whose exploits with girls are quickly made known -- as well as all the ways he's managed to fail with all of them.
That is, until one of them later down the road ends up developing cancer and his mother forces him to go rekindle a friendship.
It's an awkward, bumpy ride. Greg isn't exactly thrilled with this plan; nor is Rachel, the girl in question. Yet they manage to forge a sort of friendship, especially when she gets made privvy to the top-secret library of films that Greg and Earl have made over the years that have never been seen by another set of human eyes aside from their own. She becomes their biggest fan -- and as her illness progresses, her best friend rallies for them to make a special movie, just for her.
Cue many failed attempts at making this film. They try it in a variety of different styles, none of which pan out into turning into much of anything worthwhile. The harder they try, the worse the attempts become, until Earl's sudden realization hit that they haven't been truly trying to make a film about this girl... they'd revolved it around themselves the whole time without meaning to, while never truly getting to know the girl known as Rachel, and before they know it, it's too late.
There's no sappy love story here. Not even a proper coming of age story. And yet, there's a certain truth that rings through in this novel that makes it feel authentic, as if this were a true story that really happened to someone. There's something to be said for that.... and for that, I rate this book a 4 out of 5 rating. I'd say it's well worth giving this one a read.
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