When you meet Greg Gaines (Thomas Mann), you might think he’s just another high school boy/filmmaker who complains endlessly about the unwritten rules of high school and wants nothing more than to get the girl. After all, he’s quite unappealing, as he tells you himself, and his eyes are constantly drawn to the chest of Madison Hartner. Nothing is farther from the truth. Well, except for the part about her boobs. They are always in his face.

The 2012 novel by Jesse Andrews is perhaps one of the purest outcries of cancer-ridden teenagers I’ve ever seen. I doubt there’s ever been a more sarcastic, un-serious take on such a serious illness. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is one of the closest situations to real life that we see, and it’s a book not overwhelmed by the pity and sympathy of most cancer stories.

While Rachel (Olivia Cooke) was the one diagnosed with leukemia, the focus is not entirely on her, but Greg’s interactions with her and how he deals with knowing that an almost-friend is going to die and there’s not really anything he can do to make her feel better because they’re not really friends. Greg brings us the stone-cold truth on a silver platter.

He’s a guy who tries to walk the halls invisibly, maintaining casual friendships with everyone and nothing too serious with anybody. He even calls Earl his “co-worker,” due to his fear of being labeled, even though they’ve known each other since kindergarten. After Greg’s mother forces him to start hanging out with Rachel, his beloved anonymity is shattered.

It was a refreshing read, though if you’re expecting an awe-inspiring romance to blossom between Greg and Rachel, you’ll be severely disappointed. This isn’t that kind of novel.

There were plenty of notable characters, nonetheless: Earl (RJ Cyler), Greg’s small, angry black friend; Mr. McCarthy (Jon Bernthal), Greg and Earl’s large, fact-obsessed history teacher; and even Denise (Molly Shannon), Rachel’s alcoholic, blubbering mess of a mother. The great thing about this book is that it doesn’t rely on a poorly scripted romance between two characters to keep readers hooked; it thrives on its own unique characters, hilarious puns, and unusual style of writing, that switches from script-form to bullet points to newspaper headlines and more.

Even the movie was pretty spot-on, though I was slightly upset that we didn’t get to meet Earl’s 13-year-old brother with the “TRU NIGGA” neck tattoo. Appearances aside, everything pretty much went well from book-to-movie, up until the last 30 minutes, when producers probably tossed the last 50 pages out and decided on a much more grand ending.

In the book, the horrible film that Greg makes for Rachel is shown to the entire school at a pep rally, and she watches it on her own and later dies in the hospital. The movie adaptation showed Madison asking Greg out to prom, Greg pulling up to the hospital in a limo, and watching his own film beside Rachel. She dies about halfway through it, and this scene was quite impressive, I will admit; the nurses rushing in while the projector is still flashing the colorful lights of Greg’s production, to the music of some wordless song. It was very artsy, though that’s not how things really happened.

In the book, Greg isn’t as emotional over Rachel. I was kind of upset about this when I read it (how can you not consider someone you spent over 60 days with at least your friend?) so I was happy for the edit they made in the movie, where he pokes through her room and finds little quirks once she’s gone. The Greg-Earl fight scene was also very well done.

In the end, both the book and the movie do a great job of depicting the life of a girl who just happens to die of cancer, and has no big story to go along with it. Because, let’s face it, most people we know don’t have grand gestures to complete before they die. It’s just their turn, and they take it, and they go. Andrews explains this in a way that anyone can understand.

So if you’re looking for a new read, do yourself a favor and pick up Me and Earl, and leave Hazel and Augustus to gather dust on your bookshelf.