Jesse Andrews Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Jesse Andrews is a scriptwriter, author born in Pittsburgh Pensylvannia. He went to Schenley High School before he proceeded to Harvard University. He got started in his writing career with the publication of “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”, which went on to become a New York Times bestselling title. The novel was so popular that it was later adapted into a feature film that won the Sundance Film Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize in 2015. The script was written by Andrews with Alfonso Gomez-Rejon in the director’s chair. In addition to the script for his novel he has also written scripts for a lot many other feature films and adaptations. He currently lives in Berkeley California.

Growing up Jesse Andrews also loved bands and by the time he was in his early teens he was playing music and jazz immediately he got into high school. After finishing his college studies he tried to make a living making music while living in Boston with a bunch of other aspiring young men. They installed a studio in the house and would play almost daily, building strong relationships, friendships, and even rivalries. But it was during this time that he felt he needed to write about his experiences and also about the many other aspiring musicians that never make it. His musical background was a very significant factor in his later writing career including the writing of “Haters”. He loves to write about his positive experiences and also the negative experiences that the majority often go through in the quest to achieve their goals. He talks about identity and personality, which is one of the most critical aspects of life that teenage boy’s experience. However while he talks about serious issues, he writes in some of the most humorous language as he tries to be real and fun.

The Haters is a novel that follows the life and times of three friends that escape a jazz camp and go out on the road to fulfill their destiny. In essence it is a novel about friendship, love and three musicians and their quest to evade the law and finally do what have always wanted to. Andrew who has been heavily involved in bands since he was a teenager uses his experience to write with great familiarity about traveling with a band and going on tour. “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” is a book with a realistic but flawed anti-hero named Greg that is forced to hang out with a girl he does not like. The premise of the novel is that people will sometimes find themselves having to live with persons or situations they do not like. Obligation to situations and people often times leads to personal growth once a person becomes committed. The lead in the novel is a typical high school senior forced to make friends with a girl that had cancer, which finally makes him into a better person. The reason the novels are so great is that they emphasize that life is not always so serious through their humor. Even as they talk of weighty issues such as lack of achievement of goals, bipolar disorders, and cancer, they are light reads with a humorous tone. They are not all about forcing oneself to falsely be life affirming or emotional even in the hardest of times. The core message of the novel is that even in the midst of the biggest of crisis or even death, it is not necessarily the end of life.

“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” is a gripping novel about Greg Gaines, a high school student with some of the best espionage skills that enable him to camouflage himself into any social environment. Gaines is friends with Earl with whom he spends a lot of time creating movies that are horrible adaptations of the Herzog and Coppola classics. Greg is having the time of his life when his mother decides that it would be best if he rekindled his childhood friendship with a certain girl in the neighborhood named Rachel. Rachel is an awkward girl who has an extreme case of adolescent shyness and has been recently diagnosed with leukemia. He does not want to become friends with such a girl but now that his mother had issued the order, he has no choice but do as he was told. When Rachel is done with her therapy, the two boys decide to treat her by making a feature film for her that is deemed one of the worst films ever. However, the making of the film and the popularity it brings them is a turning point for the two boys. Greg who has always loved to live in the shadows now has to come out and embrace the spotlight.

“The Haters” is a cutting edge young adult novel about freedom, friendship, love, and music that follows three young men as they evade law enforcement to perform the amazing concert that their fans have been asking for. Jesse Andrews who spent much of his teenage years traveling with a band writes about three young adults on a trip across the country, surprising jazz lovers with their smooth tunes and succeeding against all odds. The three had been sent to a jazz camp by their parents who thought they stood to gain more from a formal training environment. But the three friends soon find the jazz camp too boring for their liking and begin planning on how they are going to escape. Corey and Wes two best friends bump into a charismatic girl named Ash, and together they make a beautiful sound that soon makes them inseparable. After practicing together for three hours, Ash tells the boys that they need to get their music out there. They escape the camp and hit the road as Ash tells them the road is the place where all the bands make their name and not in camp. Within minutes the three are in an SUV and are traveling north to perform in what they call The Haters Summer of Hate Tour. The novel is written in the distinctive voice of Jesse Andrews and is funny and humorous contemporary novel that will leave the reader in thrall.