A Review – Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

 
Me Before You
by Jojo Moyes
A Review

You may or may not know that I received a lot of books for Christmas. As in a lot. It has been taking a while to get through them, and this one is particularly larger than some of the others, so I put off reading it for a while. One evening, I picked it off my shelf, and opened it.

Before I continue, let me introduce the book! (Like always, I'm having formatting issues, so the layout is a little different from past reviews.)

Will needed Lou as much as she needed him, but will her love be enough to save his life?

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 teashop 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.

Amazon UK • Amazon US

Now, my review.

I read a couple of chapters each night, and I finished reading it within a week. It didn't take long to be sucked into the story, and I was utterly enthralled.

Lou is a whirlwind of what I would call chaotic, nervous energy, and she is certainly a bit of a chatterbox – I am much the same. Will, however, is the opposite. He is quiet, one might say brooding, and much more refined than Lou. They could not be from more different backgrounds, Lou coming from a small house having never really left the area, and Will from a wealthy background, having done more than Lou can imagine.

A man such as Will is the type of person who isn't meant to sit in an office all day, the type of person who needs action, to be constantly on the move, on the way to the next big adventure. Therefore, it causes unimaginable frustration and unhappiness when he is paralysed in an accident, leaving him a paraplegic with only a small amount of movement in one arm, and none in his other limbs.

When Lou comes into Will's life, she isn't quite sure what she is getting herself into. She needs a job, to support her family. With her and her father bringing in most of the money, and a household of six to support, when she loses her job she becomes desperate. Despite having no experience as a carer, she accepts the position out of necessity...

And proceeds to spend most of her time, to begin with, avoiding Will as much as possible.

He is rude, he makes her feel uncomfortable and inferior, and he does not seem grateful for the endless cups of tea she presents him with.

This is understandable, of course. Will's life has been changed so drastically that it is hard to look at people enjoying themselves, to pretend he doesn't see the pitiful stares and to try not to feel utterly humiliated whenever someone helps him with something that he used to be able to do himself. He has no control over his life, barely any control in what he does and where he goes and certainly doesn't have any plans for the future. His parents hover over him, the freedom he had as an adult is gone, and he is a helpless child once more.

While I truly felt for Will, I related to Lou. She grew up as the child compared to her sister, for her sister is smart and the kind of person everyone believes will succeed in every way possible. Having to grow up surrounded by such thoughts and opinions means that Lou doesn't tend to put herself first, she worries about how her actions will affect her family and she makes sacrifices so that others around her don't have to. When she meets Will, she has the challenge of her life to try and get him to like her, to at least recognise that she is trying to do something good, and maybe, just maybe, to put a smile on his face once more.

With Lou having spent her whole life in such a way, Will tries to push her to do something different. He tries to get her to travel, to pursue education, to do things she has never done before. While he may come across as arrogant as he is doing this (For example, 'The play you're referring to. It's Pygmalion. My Fair Lady is just it's bastard offspring.') he generally turns out to be right. She may be uncultured, but he can right that.

He may be quiet, reclusive and miserable, but that is something she will try her damnedest to right.

I spent a large majority of this book wondering whether I would end up crying happy tears, or a snivelling mess. Either way, it was bound to include tissues.

I won't give away which one it was, because it is technically a major spoiler, but tissues were required and perhaps reading it in the sitting room wasn't the best idea, because I got some strange looks from various family members for my reactions.

I am aware I have written quite a lot in this review, but I think this book deserves it. If you are after a read that will not only pull at your heartstrings, but rip said heart out of your chest, throw it to the ground and stomp on it, only to pick it back up, kiss it better and try to put it back in, then this is the book for you.

When I went online to find the blurb and cover image, I found that this is Book 1 of a series... WHAT?!, I hear you cry. While I have insufficient shelving for the books I currently own, my poor shelves will have to take the extra weight because I need Book 2 .

UPDATE (honestly, it's only five minutes later) IT'S A TRILOGY! THERE ARE TWO MORE BOOKS FOR ME TO GET!

Bye!