Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

*All reviews I write are spoiler free*

I feel like everyone is reading this book lately thanks to the movie trailer being released, and while I don’t usually like contemporary books, I had to jump on the bandwagon with this one. I watched the trailer more times than I cared to admit, so I ordered the book as soon as I could and dove into it the very same day it arrived at my door.

So let’s talk about Me Before You!

Title: Me Before You

Author: Jojo Moyes

Publisher: Penguin

Series Status: The 1st book in a duology

Number of Pages: 481

My Rating: 5/5 stars!

(Found on back cover and 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.

It’s probably a good job I didn’t have to write this review as soon as I finished the book, because my keyboard would’ve been covered in tears. I know everybody mentions how heartbreaking this book is, but I’m telling you – as a person who rarely cares about contemporary books – it’s not a lie. By the end of this book I was full on ugly-sobbing.

Even going into this book, I pretty much knew how it was going to end, judging from everybody’s reactions and the fact that the title of the second book is pretty much a spoiler itself (if you don’t know the title of the second book yet, DON’T look for it). I did actually think this was a standalone, but then saw on Goodreads that it’s a duology. Anyway, despite guessing how it ended, it didn’t seem to ruin the book at all. The entire story just captured my heart and brought out all the emotions. So I’m appealing to you guys who haven’t read this book yet, and are kind of put off from guessing how the story ends – PLEASE just go ahead and read it. Half the beauty in this book is the journey, rather than the ending.

From the very beginning I was engrossed. The majority of the story is written from Louisa’s point of view, and her personality is just so lively and quirky, I couldn’t help but get pulled along into her story. There were a few chapters (literally about six chapters in the entire book) that seemed slightly out of place, since they were written from the view of a different character, and while I found these a bit random and slightly less interesting, I understood why they were relevant. They just provided that little bit more information, which you wouldn’t necessarily see from Lou’s point of view.

More often than not, I forgot I was reading. I was no longer reading words on a page – I was living the story. That’s probably why it affected me so much. I felt so strongly towards the characters and the events, it was like the book was toying with my emotions. One minute I’d be laughing at the sarcasm (trust me, there was plenty of it), the next I’d be cringing at an especially awkward moment. Even though the pace was slow, I never found it boring, with the ups and downs keeping it interesting and also realistic.

I really do applaud Jojo Moyes for having enough courage to write about such a sensitive topic. It’d be so easy to write something wrong and cause offense, and although I hardly know anything about this topic myself, it seemed so close to the truth that I can’t really doubt anything that was mentioned. It was so thorough, showing both the ups and downs of living as a quadriplegic, the feelings of constant paranoia and the medical issues involved with every journey. It was actually pretty mind-blowing, and the sort of book where I now feel enlightened after finishing the story. 

So now I’ll say this: If you haven’t already read this book, and even have the vaguest slither of interest in reading it…READ IT. Please. Coming from a person who rarely enjoys contemporary books (but is trying to get into them more), I can honestly say this has become a favourite of mine, and I dearly hope it’ll affect you just as much.

Rated 5/5 stars!

 

Order from Amazon!

(It’s only £3.49 from Amazon – it’s where I got my copy from)

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Let me know you’re thoughts!

Have you read this book? What did you think? 

Did you cry, like I did? (don’t mention spoilers!)

If you haven’t read it, is it on your TBR?

Do you plan on watching the movie once it’s released?

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