Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was generally well-received by critics, including starred reviews from Booklist[3] and Kirkus Reviews.[4]
Booklist's Daniel Kraus wrote, "One need only look at the chapter titles ... to know that this is one funny book, highlighted by screenplay excerpts and Earl’s pissy wisdom. What’s crazy is how moving it becomes in spite of itself. The characters are neither smart or precocious ... But it’s this honest lack of profundity, and the struggle to overcome it, that makes Andrews’ debut actually kinda profound."[3]
Kirkus Reviews stated the book "stands on its own in inventiveness, humor and heart."[4]
A mixed review from Publishers Weekly stated, "This tale tries a little too hard to be both funny and tragic, mixing crude humor and painful self-awareness. Readers may be either entertained or exhausted by the grab bag of narrative devices Andrews employs ... In trying to defy the usual tearjerker tropes, Andrews ends up with an oddly unaffecting story."[5] The outlet praised the audiobook's production, though, claiming, "The use of multiple voices textures the story and increases the entertainment value."[6]
Further, Me and Early and the Dying Girl book has a 3.6/5 rating on Goodreads[7] and 4/5 rating on the Barnes & Noble website.[2]
Booklist included Me and Earl and the Dying Girl on their 2012 "Top 10 First Novels for Youth" list,[8] and Young Adult Library Services Association named on their 2013 Best Fiction for Young Adults list.[9]
Censorship in the United States
Despite the positive reception, according the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was the seventh-most banned and challenged book in the United States in 2021[10] and tied for the tenth-most banned and challenged book of 2022.[11] In late 2023 the book was removed from 20 library shelves in Cobb County, Georgia; the school district administration said they presented, "highly inappropriate, sexually explicit content."[12] President of the Cobb County Association of Educators said that media specialists were being interviewed about when and why they had bought the books and that the interviews may be a prelude to being fired.[13]
