Book Review: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Release Date: July 30th, 2013
Read: February 28th -
Publisher: Penguin Books
Series: Me Before You, #1
Format: Paperback, 369 pages
Source: Gift

Description from GoodReads:

   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?

Review:

Contains Minor Spoilers:

   Why am I not enough for you?
   Me Before You first grabbed my attention when it's movie trailer was first released. I was so overwhelmed with emotion, I just knew that the book would make me feel that way and possibly more. So off I went asking for a copy for my birthday, after receiving a copy I wasted no time at all in starting it.
   I always hate when people say "Don't judge a book by it's movie.", it's usually always correct, especially in this case. By just watching the trailer, I had assumed a bunch of things when going into the book. Most of which turned out wrong.
   Me Before You is not primarily a romance, sure it's sort of there, but it's definitely not focused around it. Me Before You is a book of trying to convince Will to live, to show that life can still be like the way it was before the accident. With this being my first read with a quadriplegic, or really my first experience in general with one, I did not know what to expect, but it wasn't what I got.
   From where Will started off, to where he ended up, I understood why he didn't have the motivation  anymore. To live a life of travel, adventure, and excitement then suddenly not being able to do those or really anything anymore, it was be devastating. If I were put in a similar situation, I would hope that my parents would respect my wishes.
   To be completely honest, I did not find anything romantic in the novel at all, it was all so bland for me. We were given a bland relationship between Louisa and her first boyfriend, then we were given the relationship that was Will and Louisa. But really, in same ways that could be only considered one sided because of the way Will treated it. Then there was the way Louisa viewed it, just because you made someone fall in life with you, that doesn't mean you're going to change their perspective of their life.
   Where the novel was bland, the movie trailer depicts that the film will probably be taking a different route when it comes to the story, which will probably be for the best. I'll definitely be seeing it in the near future, reading the novel's sequel on the other hand, that won't be happening.

Rating:

Favourite Quote:

"Some mistakes just have greater consequences than others."

Recommend to People Who Enjoy:

Adult, Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Chick Lit, Books with People with Disabilities