How are you?
Last Monday, I posted my review of Me Before You by Jojo Moyes and this week I am reviewing the sequel, After You. As After You is a sequel, you will not be able to read this review if you have not read either books. I am going to be discussing spoilers, so you have been warned.
After You by Jojo Moyes- Contains Spoilers
Non-Spoiler Thoughts
I will say that I preferred Me Before You as I felt After You was simply answering the fans questions and giving the fans what they wanted. I didn't feel as though it added much to the overall story and I was quite content with how Me Before You ended. However, I did enjoy it as I have been loving contemporary books at the moment. I gave After You 4/5 stars, but looking back I feel as though it was more of a 3.5/5 star book.
Cover Chat
Plot
Lou Clark has lots of questions.Like how it is she's ended up working in an airport bar, spending every shift watching other people jet off to new places.
Or why the flat she's owned for a year still doesn't feel like home.
Whether her close-knit family can forgive her for what she did eighteen months ago.
And will she ever get over the love of her life.
What Lou does know for certain is that something has to change.
Then, one night, it does.
But does the stranger on her doorstep hold the answers Lou is searching for - or just more questions?
Close the door and life continues: simple, ordered, safe.
But Lou once made a promise to live. And if she's going to keep it, she's going to have to invite them in...
This summary is taken from Goodreads and the average rating on Goodreads is 3.71/5 stars.
Opinions
Like I said at the beginning, I did prefer Me Before You. I do think the story could have survived without this book, but I do understand why the fans wanted this. Me Before You left it open to interpretation, so it was interesting seeing where the author would take it.
I'm going to say that I really didn't like Lily and found her story line uninteresting. She was really self-centred and just kept on getting into trouble. The only moment where I felt sorry for her was when she revealed someone had indecent photos of her. I would have been quite happy if she hadn't been in the book.
I also felt that it would be very unlikely for someone working in an ambulance to use it as a taxi and let people have lifts in it. It is an ambulance, not a taxi. It is used to save lives, not to drive people around. It would be highly unlikely for a paramedic to let someone distract them while on the job and also put that persons life at risk.
It was nice seeing how the relationship between Lou's family had changed. I did feel a bit disconnected from Lou's mum trying to become a feminist as I felt that it was put in there to make people laugh at Lou's father's reaction.
I did like how Lou had kept in touch with Nathan and that he had been able to move on. It was good that Nathan helped her get a job, which meant she could finally move on. I was happy that the author chose not to go down the romance line again.
Overall, I did enjoy this, but felt that it wasn't necessary to the overall plot. Let me know what you thought in the comments.
Love,
Carenza x
