Greg first comes across as a teenage boy who struggles with finding a place for himself:“In middle school I just had a hard time making friends. I don’t know why. If I knew why, it wouldn’t have been so impossible” (131).In response to feeling as if he does not belong anywhere, he shuts himself off emotionally from everyone around him, creating a non-threatening existence for himself where he risks nothing. He even convinces himself that he prefers life this way, not really knowing anyone and not being known.

Greg’s tone is flippant, nonchalant, and he often second-guesses himself. He relies on his sarcasm and humor to combat the world and becomes angry or confused when these traits fail to see him through any given situation. Even though he errs on the side of the dramatic and rarely delves much deeper than surface-level reflections, his vulnerability still resonates from the page. It is his childish behavior and first-time experience with death that causes readers to sympathize with him.

Greg faces two major challenges within the span of one school semester: to connect with people and lose someone hereally caresabout. Even though he vows from the beginningnot to convey any life lessons or sappy messages at the conclusion of this book, some of his messages wind up being just that.