Book Review Monday- Me Before You by Jojo Moyes| It'sCarenzaB

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I recently read Me Before You by Jojo Moyes and I knew that I had to review it. I had seen lots of people in the book community talking about it, but never got around to picking up a copy until January this year. This review will contain spoilers, so if you have not read this book, you will not be able to read this review.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes- Contains Spoilers

Non-Spoiler Thoughts

At first, I wasn't overwhelmed by this book and for a while, I couldn't understand why there was so much hype around it. It wasn't until I was about half way through, that I began to understand why this book is so loved. It does cover a difficult and slightly controversial issue, but it covers it very well. I gave it 5/5 stars and had I not been on a train whilst finishing it, I would have cried.

Cover Chat

The version I have is the Movie Tie-In edition as the movie came out last year. I do like getting tie-in editions as it shows that a book was popular/ successful enough to become a movie. 

Plot

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has never been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair-bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

A love story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?

Opinion

I'm going to start this section by talking about why there is so much controversy surrounding this book. As Will is a disabled man, he believes he cannot going on the way he is. He isn't happy with his life and wants to die. The author is not saying that all disabled people feel like this or that they should all kill themselves, she is simply saying that this individual feels that their life isn't worth living. I'm sure that the author never intended to offend anyone. There are cases in the media of people who have become severely disabled through illness or accident who want to die because they feel they cannot live their lives to their full extent. I can see why there is controversy, but at the end of the day, this is a work of fiction and these characters are not real.

It would have been interesting if the author had chosen to write this from Will's perspective rather than Lou's, as at some points Lou's feelings cloud her judgement and gets in the way. At times I found Lou irritating as she wouldn't respect Will's wishes and feelings. I understand that in that situation it is hard, but it was Will's wishes and she was unwilling to respect it.

This story was not your traditional love story, which I was happy about. It was very subtle and didn't take over the central plot. I was happy that the author chose not to let Lou's involvement in Will's life change his decision. It would have felt like "oh, I just let this pretty girl change my decision".

I really liked the characters as they all had different voices. However, I felt it unnecessary when the author would change the chapters perspective as it felt as though she was doing this to fill us in. It didn't add to the story, it felt more like a info dump. If this was something she wanted to do, she could have chosen to add more chapters with perspectives from characters other than Lou's.

It wasn't until I was half way through, that I began to feel connected to a character. I guess this is because this book is for adults and I am used to reading about teenagers.  This was one of the most emotional reads I have ever read and like I said in my non-spoiler section, I would have cried if I hadn't been on public transport.

I'll end this on a positive, while this book deals with a saddening issue,  this book had moments of being really funny. Will and Lou's relationship was quite humorous. They would joke about each other and I really liked this as it lightened the mood for the whole book.

So that concludes my review of Me Before You. Let me know what you thought and if you agreed with me at all.
Love,
Carenza x