Me Before You
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Me Before You
- by JoJo Moyes
5.0/5.0 stars
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Me Before You by JoJo Moyes is one of my absolute favourite books of all time. I picked it up by chance for my eight week trip to Africa in the summer of 2014 and it joined the pile of other chick-lit books that I hauled from England to Africa and back, but never got round to reading. And when I did read it, it was a breath of fresh air.
Worlds away from chick lit, Me Before You tells the story of 26 year old Lou Clark who still lives at home with her parents, is about to lose her job, and is in a relationship with a guy she does not love. She has quite frankly, hit a dead end in life. Until she is asked to become a carer for Will Traynor, a quadriplegic since being involved in a motorcycle accident at only 25 that has stolen his will to live. Trapped in a wheelchair and bound by the restraints of his paralysis, he is a prisoner in his own home and a prisoner of his mind. Swallowed by misery and wallowing in memories leaves him with only one option that would grant him reprieve of a life he no longer wants; and he is hell-bent on following through with it. What he doesn't know is that Lou is about to come crash-barreling into his life and forever alter the trajectory of their lives.
This isn't a love story. It's a story about friendship, family, and life and it is so beautifully done. Poignant, heart-warming, and outright hilarious in all the right places, Me Before You paints the realistic struggle of a person who has lost the desire to live. Through Lou's perspective, we watch the painful life that Will now leads and how it affects not only him, but his family, and also Lou. And we understand his choice to take away his own life. But we then see Lou changing his life. She doesn't let his quadriplegia define him like everyone else around him seems to do and he appreciates that. She makes him feel more human, more like himself, than anything has done since his accident. And it makes him trust her more than anyone else in his life. Their sarcasm with one another, their witty banter, their moments...their relationship is so utterly charming and it's wonderfully told with the right touch of warmth and hilarity.
There's so much that's perfect with this book. From the charming yet hilarious protagonist, to the unconventional male lead, to the quirky secondary characters, to the plot development to character growth to its sense of realism, and its writing style that evokes the deepest of emotions...this book is everything. It is as real as life is real. It's powerful. It's powerful because it touches a controversial topic that many people couldn't possibly begin to understand or even imagine, and it opens up a whole new outlook on it. It tells the sad yet real truth that sometimes, there's just not enough to make you want to keep on living. That sometimes, just being alive is simply not enough.
Me Before You is beautiful from start to finish. It made me laugh with Lou, and mourn with Will. It kept me up reading all night. And it had me sobbing at two am as it pulled at my heart only to rip into pieces.
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"I held him, Will Traynor ex-City whiz kid, ex-stunt diver, sportsman, traveller, lover. I held him close and said nothing, all the while telling him silently that he was loved. Oh, but he was loved" ~ Lou |
After You
- by JoJo Moyes
4.0/5.0 stars
Disclaimer: if you haven't read Me Before You - and I strongly suggest that you do - don't continue with this review because it's heavy with spoilers
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Disclaimer: if you haven't read Me Before You - and I strongly suggest that you do - don't continue with this review because it's heavy with spoilers
When I heard that a sequel to Me Before You was being released this year, I was super excited because I mean, you can just read me gushing over it above. But I was also apprehensive and slightly wary because it was never intended to be a duology, the ending for Me Before You didn't quite call for a sequel, and it would be hard to live up to such an incredible story. Nevertheless, it would be a crime for me to not read it, so read it I did. And I quite liked it.
After You follows Lou's story after Will has died, after reading that fateful letter he left her in which he told her to just live. And she did live. She went to Paris and did the fancy Parisian things that Will would have been proud of. She toured Europe as a proper tourist would and she tried to find meaning in her life, to inject Will into it and find herself a purpose. But she fails miserably and returns to England where she gets stuck in another crummy job and struggles to cope with the grief that threatens to drown her. She attends grief counselling sessions, re-inserts herself into her family's life and wonders at the possibilities that could change the course of her life. She's trying to heal, to move on, to live as Will wished, but letting go of someone she loved, and still loves, is proving to be harder than she thought. Then someone from Will's past turns up at her front door one night, and she is thrown into a turbulent life that will force her to live a life that maybe, just maybe, is the one Will would have liked her to have had...
I'm going to start off by saying that I can understand the negative reviews surrounding this book. Me Before You is on a deserved high pedestal, but After You comes nowhere close. And in fact, there was no need for this book. Me Before You could have done without it, as a wonderful stand-alone that stands tall in its credit and praise. In a way, After You cheapens its stunning prequel so to some degree, I would like to think that it doesn't even exist. But I get why it does. I understand it's not-so-amazing and I also understand that it isn't meant to be amazing. Because it deals with the very real issue of grief. And grief isn't amazing. It's wallow-y and miserable, and messy, all of which this book is. Maybe that's what I liked so much about this book - it's a realistic portrayal of life after losing a loved one and for that, I commend JoJo Moyes.
She wrote a beautiful story with Me Before You and when it ended, we see Lou jetting off to Paris and living a "wonderful life" following Will's death and we wrongly assume that she's okay and that she'll live the amazing life Will wanted for her. Moyes takes that false assumption, and let's face it, it's a false assumption on Lou's part too because she truly thinks she has it under control, and turns it into a gritty, heart-breakingly sad reality.
Lou is just as funny, charming, and love-able as she is in Me Before You but her underlying sadness is tangible. Especially after having lived through her story with Will. She is simply going through the motions of life in a zombie-like state whilst being consumed by the guilt of not living a life worthy of her promise to Will. She is swallowed by the fear of an empty future, of not making progress with her life and she finds herself constantly drawn to memories of Will, his presence, voice, and the possibilities of life that he once opened up to her. Then the universe intervenes and in the form of a ghost from Will's past, she re-finds all of those things, and more.
Moyes has a brilliant writing style that couldn't be faulted in Me Before You and she consistently delivers in its sequel. It's just as funny and compelling, and like the first, I found myself to be reading the simple, normal story of somebody's life whilst they journey through an emotionally tough journey, and enjoying it. I love that we re-visited many of the characters we met in the first book and saw how it wasn't only Lou affected by the consequences of Will's death. And I love that Moyes brought back many of the themes that made Me Before You a lovely book. It's a story about second chances, moving on, and finding happiness in the moments when it's hardest to find. Lou's story could have ended with Me Before You. But it didn't. It carried on into the realms of grief because as much as you want it to, life doesn't stop when a loved one dies. After You carries on her story. Because that's what life does. It goes on.
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" How could I convey the way those short months had changed the way I felt about everything? The way he had skewed my world so totally that is made no sense without him” ~ Lou |
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