Me Before You’s Back-of-book Description:

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than her 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 he is not interested in exploring a new one.

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, Lou sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

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?

My Thoughts

I think I read Me Before You a little later than most of my friends – they were all talking about how wonderful and sad it was around the same time. It wasn’t until I saw that it was going to be made into a movie that I decided I’d better hurry up and read it. I gotta tell ya, my friends were not exaggerating – it really was wonderful and it really was sad. But the good sad, you know? The kind where you’ve gotten to know the characters and the chances of your heart breaking or not are directly linked to the outcome of the story. And then you get to the outcome and you can’t believe it happened that way, but OF COURSE it happened that way, because there was really no other option… and then you’re left with this sort of ‘book hangover’ for a few days (or weeks) until you’re able to move on and find new characters to hopefully make you forget about Lou and Will.

Do you know what I mean?

Well I’m sure some of you know what I mean, because it sold A Lot of copies, and it was made into movie (that I still haven’t even seen yet!).

But back to the review: Me Before You was wonderful! Jojo Moyes created the most wonderful character in Lou and her relationship with Will developed in such a genuine, real way. Her relationships with the other characters were relateable and inspiring as well. The story was very well written and the writing made me want to read more of her books, for sure.

Favorite Quotes From Me Before You:

“I hadn’t realized that music could unlock things in you, could transport you to somewhere even the composer hadn’t predicted. It left an imprint in the air around you, as if you carried its remnants with you when you went.”

 

“… 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.”

 

“She looked a bit like a different person. It was weird. Just a few weeks away from home could rub the familiarity right off of someone.”

In Conclusion

I would give Me Before You  4 stars. Even if you’ve already seen the movie, you should still read it … because the book is always better. I’d also recommend this book to anyone who likes a bit of romance (without being over the top) and a nice “the main character is figuring themselves out” story.

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