Me Before You: Book Review + Trailer

 5  ❤❤❤❤❤

“You only get one life. It's actually your duty to live it as fully as possible.” 

― Jojo Moyes, Me Before You

It's finally here! The movie everyone has been talking about for a VERY long time, Me Before You based on the novel by Jojo Moyes.
After finishing up finals, I quickly hurried to finish this novel and I'm so excited to see the movie! Like all books though, it deserves it's own review.

Description via Goodreads:
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.



My Review: 

First off, I'd like to say I'm still in mourning from the completion of this book. It took me a night's sleep and some more hours to really get into another book.

The Characters:
Louisa Clark (Lou) - a vibrant young woman who recently layed off finds a job as caretaker for a quadriplegic. Louisa will make you laugh and cry. She's witty, fashionable, and determined. Her character changes the most in this book and she's well worth riding the roller coaster
with.

Will Traynor - a daring young man who lived life like everyday was his last ends up in a terrible accident that leaves him paralyzed. His character loses hope in life or seeing what life has to offer him. Lou's job as his caregiver is to make sure he is well taken care of and also figure out how to help him see that life is worth living even under his circumstances.

While there are other important characters in the book - for the purposes of this review I only focused on Louisa and Will.

Moyes hooks you and pulls you into this book. First off, how many books do you know work around the subject of disabilities? I COMMEND Moyes for taking on the task of going where a lot of authors don't go or aren't willing to go. I imagine it took a lot of research to incorporate a disability in the novel.

Ultimately, the novel is a love story but it has so many elements that you will find yourself laughing, feeling anxiety, getting angry (at some characters), feeling excitement and then pain. Be prepared with a box of tissues, this story will make you cry. Moyes allows you to feel invested in multiple characters when she shifts the narrative to certain characters. It's simply - brilliant.

“... if you're going to wear a dress like that you need to wear it with confidence. You need to fill it out mentally as well as physically.” 

― Jojo Moyes, Me Before You

The evolution of Lou (with her bumble bee leggings)  in this novel is beautiful. She's really a character you can grow with and knowing that Moyes has written After You (the sequel), we can further understand what Lou does next with her life is another  great move for her and for her readers.

Moyes unfolds many other issues that are relevant in society such as being privileged, socioeconomic status, the differences of people whom live in different areas and while Me Before You is majorly viewed as a love story, it is so much more than that! It's a full novel that will have it's readers questioning the meaning of all things around you.

You can imagine now that I'm going to trot off to the bookstore and get After You by Jojo Moyes.

Here's the trailer for the movie in case you haven't caught it yet!

About the Author

Jojo Moyes is a British Novelist whom has been working in various categories of writing for a number of years. She is also the author of many other titles such as After you (the sequel to Me Before You), One Plus One, Sheltering Rain and a list of other novels.


Author's Website | Amazon US | Goodreads