BOOK REVIEW: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Unknown 6/23/2013 4 Comments Edit

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes.

Title: Me Before You
Author: Jojo Moyes
Genre: Romance
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: 5th January 2012
Goodreads Summary: Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.
What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.
Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.
What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

{ Review }

I'd seen Me Before You on a couple of blogs so when I saw it at the charity shop I thought I'd give it a try. To be honest, the synopsis didn't really appeal to me at first but in the end I loved this book. Me Before You is about Will Traynor, a rich, active businessman, whose life is turned upside down when he is involved in a motorcycle accident and paralysed from the chest downwards. His mother is desperate to find a full-time day carer for him and finds Louisa Clark, a recently unemployed young woman who doesn't have any qualifications. At first, Will and Lou don't get along at all, but they learn a lot from each other as time goes on. This is a heartbreaking story about two people whose lives are irrevocably changed from the moment they meet.

Me Before You is written from the first person perspective of Lou, the female protagonist. Lou is a really likable character and I thoroughly enjoyed reading her narrative because she's really funny and fearless but also sensitive and unique. She is the sort of girl who wears yellow and black striped tights even though she's twenty seven and you can't help but love her. I really connected with her character and felt both her happiness and her pain as I read this book. There are a couple of chapters which give us an insight into the minds of some other characters including Will, Nathan (Will's medical carer), Camilla (Will's mother) and Katrina (Lou's sister). The book starts off with a small chapter from Will's perspective on the day of his accident which is great because it means you can really understand what Will was like before his accident and see the tremendous difference afterwards.

The story line of this novel is really moving. I've never really thought about what it would be like to be completely paralysed or how it would make me feel but having read this book I feel that I have a greater understanding of what life must be like for those with disabilities. Obviously I'm still nowhere even close to really understanding the life of a quadraplegic but I can certainly appreciate that it's a lot more difficult that one might at first imagine. This isn't the sort of book I usually read, in fact, I usually avoid 'illness'-related books but I seriously regret keeping this book on my shelf, unread, for the past year.

This is a completely different sort of romance to any that I've read before because it doesn't really involve any physical touching and, in fact, it's not even really mentioned until the last few passages of the book. Even though it is not explicit, you can feel it developing between the characters, a real connection, a not the whimsical ones you often find in romance books. This is, without a doubt, the most beautiful and heartbreaking love story I have ever read in my entire life. This is the sort of love that creeps up on you when you least expect it. There was one moment whilst reading this that I actually started sobbing, like full on sobbing, and I had to put the book down for five minutes whilst I got all my emotions out. This was not the only time I cried whilst reading this novel, oh no, I was pretty much crying not stop for the entirety of the second half and this book touched my heart in a way that no other book has. In some ways, you could call this an adult version of The Fault in Our Stars, as there are similar-ish issues explored, but I was much more moved by Me Before You - if that's even possible!

Lou and Will learn a lot from each other as the book progresses, so in turn, I too learnt a lot. I think reading this book may have even made me a better person because I certainly have a completely changed perspective on quadraplegics, on life and on love. I cannot recommend this book enough. It is absolutely phenomenal and a must-read for everyone! For teenage readers, if you liked TFIOS, then Me Before You is probably also up your street. For adult readers, anyone with a heart will love this book.

BOOK REVIEW: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

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