emilybettridge
Written on Apr 6, 2019
- ISBN10 1471201805
- ISBN13 9781471201806
- Publish Date 1 June 2012 (first published 1 January 2012)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 10 July 2024
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher W F Howes Ltd
- Imprint Whole Story Audio Books
- Format Paperback
- Pages 560
- Language English
Reviews
booksandcats
Written on Sep 16, 2018
ammaarah
Written on Jun 18, 2016
(...) live boldly. Push yourself. Don't settle. Wear those stripy legs with pride. (William Traynor)
When I started reading Me Before You, I wasn't blown away on the first page and I didn't understand why this book was being hyped so much. I thought that the great reviews and the amazing movie trailer heightened my expectations to a level that this book wouldn't reach. I was so damn wrong! Me Before You crept into my mind. I couldn't put this book down and when I did, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Towards the middle of this book, I was suddenly punched in the gut with the most unexpected feels. I don't know when last I felt as emotionally attached to a book!
Louisa is an endearing character. She's bubbly, quirky, wears bright and shiny clothes and ends up in realistically awkward situations that make her extremely relatable. Louisa is satisfied with her comfortable and predictable life until she loses her job. Thereafter she finds a new job as a carer for William Traynor. Will was a rich business man who was full of life and took part in stunt-activities such as diving off cliffs and bungee-jumping, until a motorcycle accident makes him lose the use of his limbs and he is trapped in a wheelchair, a life so different from his old one, and has no desire to live.
This book is about two people: Louisa and Will. One who is stuck in a world that she thinks she loves and the other who is stuck in a world that he doesn't. They both have first impressions about each other that are way off, but as they spend more time together, they warm up to each other and form an extremely beautiful friendship, that is characterized with sarcastic jabs, deep moments and unexpected humour. It's a relationship that allows two people to grow and experience the world in a way that they've never experienced before.
This book also has amazing secondary characters whose personalities were fleshed out. I especially loved Lou's family. They are hilarious and remind me of my own family. Lou's love-hate relationship with her sister was also extremely amazing.
This book isn't a conventional romance, nor is it a chick-lit book that the cover and the blurb make it seem to be. The main focus of this book is not it's love story. This book is about life and it's about choice. It's a book with extremely realistic characters who deal with situations in the most believable manner and I might not have agreed with many of the characters choices, but I understood their motives behind their choices and felt empathetic towards with them.
This book also deals with living with a disability in an extremely realistic manner. This book doesn't sugar-coat what people with disabilities experience. It's shows the good and the ugly parts of what they go through and how other people interact with them. It gave me an insight into their lives and their mind. While there is controversy about the message that this book gives to able-bodied people and people with disabilities, I'm glad that this book promotes discussion and debates.
Who was I before Me Before You? I was a cold hearted piece of steel. Who was after Me Before You? An absolutely emotional mess. Me Before You is a book of firsts. It was the first book that made me cry, the first book where I cried and laughed at the same time because the seriousness and the humour balanced each other perfectly and it's one my favourite book of 2016.
You only get one life. It's actually your duty to live it as fully as possible. (William Traynor)
whisperingchapters
Written on May 9, 2016
Stephanie
Written on Apr 10, 2016
Jo
Written on Mar 20, 2016
My Mum has been trying to persuade me to read Me Before You by Jojo Moyes for years, but it's been years since I read an adult romance, thinking I preferred YA. I did promise her I would read it - my Mum isn't a massive reader, nor does she cry at books, so the fact that she was imploring me to read this book that made her cry, well. I knew I had to read it. But I always had my own books to read, so years went by without picking it up. I recently saw the trailer for the movie of Me Before You, and it looked brilliant, and knew I had to read the book before I saw it, and picked it up as soon as I was able - to Mum's exasperation. Now, I wish I had listed to Mum all those years ago. Me Before You is an absolutely incredible and moving novel.
After losing her job at The Buttered Bun cafe, Lou Clark is struggling to find a job she can stick at - she just isn't cut out for working at the chicken factory. Her adviser at the Job Centre suggests she become a carer for a quadriplegic. Lou is unsure, but there are very few options she's willing to try. And so she meets Will Traynor, who was injured in a motorbike accident two years ago. Will used to have a go-getter lifestyle; he climbed mountains, he bungee jumped, he lived life to the full. Now, he's paralysed from the neck down, apart from some movement in one of his hands, and requires help for everything, and he hates it. He has Nathan, his nurse, to see to his medical needs, but Camilla Traynor, his mother, has hired Lou to be Will's companion, to prepare his meals and feed him. The next six months will see Will and Lou change each other in ways neither of them expected.
I cannot even begin to tell you how much I adored this book! I absolutely loved Lou. Despite wanting to read the book before seeing the movie, I was still a little unsure as to whether I would enjoy it. As I said, I thought I preferred YA. But as soon as Lou started narrating, I knew I was going to love this book, even if just for her. She's kind of zany, wearing strange, bright coloured clothing and shoes. She lives in her small little town, still at home with her family despite being 26, and was quite content with her little life working in the cafe. She's been with her boyfriend Patrick for seven years, and is happily breezing through life. She's not ambitious in the sense that she doesn't feel her life is wanting. She's perfectly happy with the life she has, and was such a breath of fresh air! She's optimistic and positive, and the kind of person who finds something wonderful in the ordinary, always cheerful and chatty, and in that sense I found myself really relating to her. We're not exactly alike, but I could see parts of myself in Lou.
Will is such a fantastic character. At first, he has a serious attitude problem - but it's understandable. He is rude to Lou, acting superior and making her feel stupid. He quite obviously does not want her around. He doesn't expect her to stick up for herself though, and is surprised by her calling him out on his crap, and begins to thaw a little. As he warms to Lou, I warmed to him. He's not a happy guy, he doesn't like the way his life has panned out, and he's so angry and so miserable. But he still has a sense of humour, and maybe because of his circumstances, or just because of who Lou is, he encourages and pushes her to want more from her life, to experience more. Although Lou is quite happy with her life, Will shows her how there is so much more to the world than just their little town. And Lou tries so hard to bring a smile to his face. She organises so many outings and things she thinks he'll enjoy, rather than him staying stuck in his annexe, seeing nothing more than the four walls. She shows him that he can find some happiness again.
I don't want to say too much more because I don't want to spoil the story (though is there anyone who doesn't know the general gist of the story?), but I absolutely loved this book. It's incredible. It's as inspiring as it is completely heartbreaking. I simultaneously wanted to curl into a ball and cry until there were no tears left, and also go out and see the world and experience life. I was completely swept away by Will and Lou's story, by how their relationship develops, and I was completely hooked, desperate to know exactly how it would end. I finished Me Before You feeling depleted. My heart was hurting, and I was all out of emotion. But I also finished with so many thoughts, just wanting to talk about it, the subject matter, how this specific story ended. Me Before You is a hard but beautiful, thoughtprovoking and inspiring read, and I absolutely cannot recommend it enough. And I will most definitely be picking up more adult romance from now on.
Kait ✨
Written on Mar 14, 2016
I read the book a while back because it seemed like the thing to do what with the movie coming out and all. It was an enjoyable read, very well-written, and very thoughtful. But…I was completely unmoved by this book, which, given the gushing I’d heard about it, left me disappointed. This book is marketed as an inspirational tearjerker and it just didn’t deliver on that front for me. Case in point: Will saying “you’ve made these the best six months of my life” seems completely ridiculous and untrue. Based on his desire to end his life, that is just a thoughtless line designed to manipulate the reader’s emotions.
That being said, to me, this book is about the fact that love cannot heal all, and how we sometimes have to let go of those we love. It was also a lot about loving someone who is not the same as you. Physically, yes—but also in terms of your beliefs. It’s hard to do that, but I think this book shows how a) it can be done, but b) it is so so hard to accept what you see as truly flaws (i.e. his decision to die). It is not a political statement on doctor-assisted suicide; it’s a very singular story about one man’s experience. While there are obviously many people with disabilities who choose to live and love their lives, there ARE ALSO people with disabilities who don’t or can’t. Don’t they deserve a story, too.
A couple thoughts on some of the reviews I’ve read of the film…
Alison Fillmore writes for Buzzfeed:
He can no longer climb mountains or ski down them or anything close, and he’s susceptible to pneumonia. But Me Before You makes it clear that it’s not the difficulty of Will’s new life that’s the real problem—he admits that he could still have a good life—but that he can’t reconcile what he lost. He was the shiny, bright master of the universe once, and now he’s dependent on others, and because of it thinks he’d be better off dead. It’s a point of view that anyone actually living with a serious disability and, in all likelihood, without the resources to have one’s stables converted into sleek, wheelchair-friendly living quarters, will undoubtably find enraging. But it’s also a galling thing to underlie a romance, despite Claflin doing his best to sell Will as a Byronic hero slowly softening to the warmth of his working-class companion. . . . A drama in which everyone, lips trembling, approves of an able-bodied person’s desire for suicide would be obviously repellent, but in Me Before You, a man’s suicidal ideation is treated as tragic but understandable, his disability making his life less worth saving. Isn’t that romantic? No, it’s really not.
I don’t think Will wants to die because he’s dependent on others, I think he wants to die because his dependency makes him unable to do any of the things he used to love. The only thing he has left is his family. And the point of this book is that sometimes love is not enough. Which is true, I think! Furthermore, I don’t think Moyes is trying to make Will’s disability romantic…? To me, the romance was an aside to the larger issues Will was dealing with.
Julia Cooper writes in The Globe and Mail:
There are so few empathetic depictions onscreen of people whose bodies are different than what we call normal. This film is a squandered chance to illuminate the ways in which bodies function differently but feelings like ardour and lust are universal. Instead, Me Before You is clearly disgusted by the needs of the quadriplegic body and Will’s disability is aestheticized. It is as though the film itself is swaddled in soft cashmere. Through dialogue we hear that Will’s pain and suffering is gruesome, so debilitating that questions of suicide and assisted dying lie not far outside of the shot. And yet, we see none of this “ugly” stuff. Will’s insistence that his is not really a life worth living reads, then, as a cold and insidious insistence that in fact it is the disabled life that is not worth living. By contrast, we can look to Hanya Yanagihara’s 2015 novel A Little Life for a complex and affecting narrative of living with and through pain. Without shirking contentious questions of suicide and trauma, it offers a better love story, too.
I agree 100% that it is extremely problematic that Me Before You is one of the only mainstream narratives—film or print—that I can think of. (In fact, I can’t think of any others. I haven’t read [b:A Little Life|22822858|A Little Life|Hanya Yanagihara|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1446469353s/22822858.jpg|42375710] yet but will bump it up the TBR now.) That is a systemic societal problem. But I don’t think most writers set out to write a book that will change society; they want to tell one story, and that’s what Moyes has done. It is impossible for Me Before You to achieve everything.
I think Julia’s other points are mostly only relevant to the film—readers of the book will have experienced Will’s pain and suffering alongside him, and will not, I think, aestheticize Will’s disability. To me these criticisms are ludicrous because they are so patently nonexistent from the book. It’s hard to separate the book from the film, but I can see how watching the movie without reading the book beforehand would create some issues here.
Overall, I thought Me Before You was an enjoyable read but it didn’t pack the emotional punch that I expected. For me, the most valuable part of the experience of reading this book / watching this film was engaging in the debate about representations of disability in mainstream culture and doctor-assisted suicide.
sstaley
Written on Feb 28, 2016
I was taken in from the very beginning of this story. Moyes writing style is so engaging and entertaining. The story is told in first person narrative, all Lou's except for a few chapters from other people, which felt kind of strange throwing them in where they did. I'm not sure that they were needed.
I liked main character Louisa, Lou, from the beginning. She is a twenty-six year old woman who is living a very normal life in a common job working in a local cafe, she has been in a seven year relationship with her over-obsessed athletic boyfriend Patrick, and she still lives at home to help out her family- especially financially. Lou is quirky, bubbly, and eccentric, especially with her fashion style. She also is somewhat timid in the way she looks at life because of something that happened to her in her past. After her job ends she is in need of employment. Lou takes a job as a carer of Will a quadriplegic man. Throughout the course of the story we see Lou come to life. I loved the journey I saw her take as she became friends, and a little bit more with Will.
Will after being hit by a car has given up the desire to go on in his life. He had been living an adventurous, healthy life of many trips and adventures. Now Will is cold, in a lot of pain, and distant with most people, but underneath that cold exterior, there still lies a hidden layer of humor and the way he looks at life. Bringing these two very different people together at first seems like a mistake. Lou wants to call it quits quite early on as she learns how to take care of Will and putting up with his shifting moods.
The best part of this book are the interactions between Lou and Will. If you take each interaction for what it is, and not wondering if Lou can change Will's mind about ending his life, then you will enjoy this book so much more. No one can be in Will's head and understand what it is like living the life of a quadriplegic, unless you are living that life. That is why I hope readers don't judge Will harshly about his reasons and attitude of how he views his life now.
“You are scored on my heart, Clark. You were from the first day you walked in,with your ridiculous clothes and your complete inability to ever hide a single thing you felt.”
This book made me laugh and cry and feel every emotion under the sun. It's one of those books that makes you think of life and it's meaning to you. If you are not afraid of reading a book that will truly play with your emotions, then pick up Me Before You. This is a fast read that is so hard to put down. Once you get pulled in you must keep reading. I'm glad that I read this book and I can't wait to see the movie this summer. This book is recommended for older teens(17+ and adults.)
***Warnings: Infrequent swearing using British terms such as "arse" and "bloody, as well as "f--k" and its variations, social drinking, little sexual content, sketchy details of gang rape, but not described.***
Read an excerpt from Me Before You on my blog at http://whynotbecauseisaidso.blogspot.com/2016/03/me-before-you-by-jojo-moyes-review-and.html
kimbacaffeinate
Written on Feb 16, 2016
Will Traynor is a thirty-five year old quadriplegic who only has limited movement in one hand. Will lived a life most of us will only dream of. He was a wildly successful venture capitalist, who traveled the world and spent weekends adventuring before a horrific accident changed his life. He now spends his days in chronic pain, confined to a chair. Will is bitter, closed off and rude through the first half of the story and poor Lou is downright awkward. Despite the great pay, this job is a nightmare. Things change when Lou overhears a discussion between Will’s mother and sister. She sets out to change the outcome and is determined to make Will happy.
The chemistry and friendship that develops between Will and Lou pulled at my heartstrings. We see growth in Lou even as she stumbles. I came to love Will, which led to huge crocodile tears as I listened. I laughed, cried and hugged myself as Lou and Will experienced things together and faced setbacks. While not a typical romance, the emotional impact of their relationship made it one of the best love stories I have ever read. Moyes pulled emotions from me as she brought these characters to life and made them real for me.
You will notice there is quite the cast of narrators. We had a few chapters from other characters, which only added to the tale, and one narrator was the voice of Will as Lou read his letters.
Me Before You is a heartbreaking love story. It is gritty, realistic and one that will stay with you long after their story has ended. Moyes captures a moment in time as she makes the reader question and understand all sides of a controversial moral issue.
Grab some truffles,a box of tissues and lose yourself in Me Before You. This review was originally posted on Caffeinated Book Reviewer
Linda
Written on Feb 16, 2016
Me Before You is an emotional read, in which Lou finds herself, and Will makes a decision that can't be taken back! This was a buddy read with Brandee @ Bookworm Brandee, and part of my review below is our chatting about it.
Me Before You is not only the story about Will, how he copes with being a quadriplegic, and how hard it is for him to depend on other people for every single thing he wants or needs to do. It is also the story of Lou, of finding herself, of figuring out what she wants to do with her life. Of living, rather than just existing. To be honest, I think I found Lou's journey to be the focal point of the story, even when she peeved me out a little. There are several layers to her, and little by little, she opens up to Will to share why she has been merely existing for the past several years. Taking care of her parents, her sister, her sister's son. Not asking anyone for anything, and being content with a boyfriend who is more interested in counting calories and training for Iron Man than he is with her and their possible future together.
Of course, there are parts of the story in Me Before You that touched my emotions, but this happened mostly towards the very end, and my tears at that point were more of a kind of release than extreme sadness. The subject matter is quite heavy, but one I'm fairly used to, as I live in Switzerland. We don't tend to talk too much about assisted suicide here, because it's something that is legal, and each person can take precautions to make sure their wishes will be heard if the unthinkable happens to them. I think it's an important discussion to have, and Me Before You definitely opened up for that in a way that wasn't clinical but rather emotional.
Chat with Brandee about Me Before You:
Me: So, what did you think of Lou and Will? and the whole assisted suicide thing?
Brandee: I adored Lou and Will. They broke my heart, both of them. And it was very interesting to read a book on assisted suicide since Sky did a debate earlier this year (school year) on 'right to die'. I am a proponent of assisted suicide. However, as a parent, my heart went out to Will's parents. What about you?
Me: They didn't completely break my heart, but I did cry in the very end, when Lou ended up going to Switzerland to show him her support anyway. And I'm like you, I'm all for it, but it would definitely be difficult to help a child (even an adult one) go through with it. We wouldn't really have to travel, though, it could be done at home.
And I thought the whole 'why aren't I enough' part from Lou was more than a little selfish! She knew Will for six months, and while I do believe they both had very strong feelings for each other, I was a bit mad at her when she didn't even want to speak to him after he told her that he was still going through with it. It truly must be awful to depend on people for every little thing, plus Will was in pain as well.
Brandee: So did you like Will and Lou? As I was sitting here thinking of that question, I was thinking that I could see where Lou would irritate you. wink emoticon But I cried so often while reading their story. As you know though, I'm hyper-emotional right now.
Assisted suicide is being debated in Colorado right now. It passed our Senate but hasn't passed completely yet. But yet it'd be very hard to help a child go through with it.
Me: I loved both Lou and Will, and I thought that Lou really grew a lot thanks to working with Will, and asking herself some real questions about her life and what she wanted to do with it. Plus, I think it really helped both her and Will when she told him about what had happened in the maze.
My oldest son has said to me that if he had an accident and ended up quadriplegic, he'd want to die instead, because he couldn't do any of the things he loves doing anymore...
Brandee: I was happy that Lou went to Switzerland in the end. I did think she was selfish in her reaction, but I also felt her reaction was understandable to a certain extent - realistic, even. I hated that it hurt Will though.
Me: In a way, her reaction was understandable, however, she only did see things from her own perspective, not Will's. And I was so glad when he told her that the last six months - those with her - were the best he had after his accident.
Brandee: I liked watching Lou blossom. And I was so happy she shared what happened to her with Will. He was able to pull her out of that shell she'd put herself into. It was beautiful to see them both pull each other out. And it was interesting that they were both trying to convince the other to live. I liked that Will told Lou that as well.
Me: Yeah, because Lou had effectively been not living for longer than Will, she had just been existing.
Brandee: Do you think Lou telling Will about the maze helped him but letting his see why she was living the was she was?
Me: Yes, because that was a way for her to protect herself - she was with running-man because she didn't really love him, but it was expected of her to be with someone at her age; she had worked at the café because it was safe, and she never wanted to leave the little village because it was safe for her there, with mostly people she already knew and tourists she could steer clear of.
Brandee: Oh, it absolutely was her way of protecting herself. Ugh! Running man...I hated that he got to the be the one to end things because really, Lou should have dumped him. But I understood.
What did you think of Lou's relationship with her sister?
And how did you feel about her mother's reaction to Lou at the end?
Me: I think she was just so comfortable with that relationship she didn't really care. And I didn't even really mind that he was the one to end it - it was really over in her heart long before that.
Brandee: That's true. And I'm happy things ended before she was married and 'stuck' there.
Me: The sister was smart in many ways, but she was definitely taking advantage of the situation whenever she could.
Brandee: It bothered me that Lou's parents were always telling her that Treena was the smart one.
Me: And Lou's mother :( I was not at all understanding where she came from!! What's the biggest sin? 'Making' someone stay alive with medicine, or help them die, or even just let them die so they can be in peace?
Yeah, that's not nice at all, and it was like they didn't even try to understand her, but they were happy to take her money, of course.
Brandee: Exactly!
Me: And so was Treena, but I guess that's how it works in some families, where every person puts themselves first.
Brandee: Yes, well the religious side is the reason there's even a debate over assisted suicide. I don't understand it myself. I've said for many, many years that here in the US we treat our pets more humanely than our family.
But Lou's mom...that made me so mad!
Me: True! And if they want it to be the way it was before, Will would have probably died when he had his accident, or the very first time he got pneumonia.
Yeah, Lou's mom was really over the top! I wanted to smack her! Heap some more grief on your daughter, won't you?
Brandee: I thought Treena was taking advantage. It bothered me, honestly.
Me: Oh, and Will's mom... what did you think of her?
And Treena being all 'I'm the smartest, and I have a child... you have to work, Lou, so I can follow my dream, my brain is going to waste' *rolls eyes*
Brandee: *ha* Reading your last comment about Lou's mom made me realize her whole family was a bit selfish.
Me: Her dad was the most supportive - and he really supported everybody! Working long hours, and not being too proud to take the job at the castle after he lost his job at the factory.
Brandee: I like Will's mom...what we got to know of her. She made some comment about how her relationship with Will had always been difficult and I wondered why. I guess it was just Will's personality. We did have that explained a bit near the end...how he'd been as a child. I didn't understand her relationship with his dad...why all that had happened and why she was dealing with it the way she was. But then, I guess that's a whole other story.
Yes, I did like Lou's dad even if he talked down to her. He was supportive and he still stood by Lou in the end.
Me: I think some children kind of just don't get along with their parents, Will seemed to be one who enjoyed doing the opposite of what was expected of him in some situations. And if he didn't really get along with his mom, it must have been even harder to have to live at home again and depend on his parents after his accident!!
It seemed to me that Will's mom and dad had possibly wanted to divorce before Will's accident, but then, they stayed together afterwards to kind of care for him together? Not sure... That relationship sounded like a very clichéd upper class marriage to me.
Brandee: *sigh* WIll really did break my heart. To have to live like he was - and it not even have been caused by something he did. You know? He was hurt while jumping off a cliff...and I couldn't imagine living life so fully, as he did, and then to end up living a life he hated.
Yes, I did feel their marriage was cliched. And I felt like Will's dad wasn't as committed to his wife's cause with Will either.
So, who was your favorite character in the story?
Me: And I think that is a way that this book is very important! To show how difficult it is for someone who leads an active life, at the very beginning, he didn't even want a vacation where he could relax, he wanted to jump from a parachute or something.
Then, nothing he could do on his own anymore. That was definitely tough to read about, but it didn't completely gut me.
Brandee: I agree. It was important to show how unhappy Will's circumstances would make him since there was nothing of his old life he could still enjoy. And he was certainly a thrill seeker.
Okay, okay - so I'm just a sap. Is that what you're telling me?!? :P
She is wearing one of his T-shirts, and her long hair is tousled in a way that prompts reflexive thoughts of the previous night.
Here, I could hear my thoughts. I could almost hear my heartbeat. I realized, to my surprise, that I quite liked it.
I realized that the anxiety that had held me in its grip all day was slowly ebbing away with every one of Will's comments. I was no longer in sole charge of a poorly quadriplegic. It was just me, sitting next to a particularly sarcastic bloke, having a chat.