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Title: Me Before You (you can Buy on Amazon here)
Author: Jojo Moyes
Published: 5th January 2012
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Genre: Romance, Drama,
Pages: 512
Format: E-Book
Rating: ***** (5/5 Stars)
About: 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: Ok so I must admit that I watched the film first before I read the book and I’m not actually sorry about doing it that way round because then the ending would have been spoiled when I was watching the film.
So be warned, there may be spoilers in this review.
Now you may be saying but now the book is also spoiled but I don’t think so. In fact, it made the film better because I had no idea how it was going to end – will he live? Will he change his mind? It was all so dramatic.
Even when reading the book, I felt myself sitting on the edge of my seat. It was written so amazingly well, I was fully absorbed in it. I never wanted it to end – I wanted to know as much as I could about the two of them and how things would play out.
I loved Lou, she was just so cheerful about everything. I mean until the end. But she never gave up on him.
Admittedly, although Lou is lovely, she has no direction in her life at the start of the book. As the blurb on the back says she knows certain things but not things that seem to matter or at least how to deal with situations? Which is why it’s absolutely brilliant that she gets put in charge of Will. A man who wants nothing to do with her or at least the idea that he needs help.
The two characters are basically complete opposites. He was outgoing and always ready for new places, whilst Lou just wants to stay put where she is.
I mean the saying ‘opposites attract’ could never be more right in this situation.
But the situation in this book is actually quite dark and thought-provoking.
The ending is difficult but the question remains whether or not it was right? I think what this book does is that it goes beyond the situation. It completely envelopes the reader in the story so that we can actually understand what is going on with people who have to deal with these situations.
And, to be honest, I don’t think any of us can give our opinion on whether we think it is right or wrong until we actually experience it first hand.
I can tell you now that I would never not give someone something that they wanted and it is clear in Will’s case that the ending was the right one, no matter how awful it was. (And yes I did just use a double negative in that sentence – so please don’t misinterpret it and think I’m heartless).
I know that this book has been out for a while, but I really can’t stress how important it is to read it. I mean it’s not a textbook, but to have it written down in this way is certainly a good way to get people to understand the difficulties of this type of situation.
CastlesandTurrets 