BOOKS

Book Review || Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

On 16th May 2017
12 Comments

There has been a lot of hype about Me Before You. Mostly due to the fact the film was released last year. I can only imagine that often happens when favoured books become scripts and most avid readers will attest that the book was better. Though I can’t imagine having a film made is negative for the original author at all…!!

Still, I have been meaning to read this novel for ages, and pretty much refused to see the film before I had (yep, I’m one of those “book was better” folk! Having promised my friend and fellow Plymouth blogger Emily a borrow of I Let You Go in return for her copy of Me Before You, we finally remembered to swap and I’m glad I did!

The official film blurb gives you an adequate premise for the story:

Young and quirky Louisa “Lou” Clark moves from one job to the next to help her family make ends meet. Her cheerful attitude is put to the test when she becomes a caregiver for Will Traynor, a wealthy young banker left paralyzed from an accident two years earlier. Will’s cynical outlook starts to change when Louisa shows him that life is worth living. As their bond deepens, their lives and hearts change in ways neither one could have imagined.

The premise for the book actually sounds a bit naff if you ask me, but once you’ve read it, it does describe the story quite well.

Now, this wasn’t quite as hard hitting as I had expected, and it did touch on chick lit a little more than I thought it might. Knowing a little about the story before I started made me think strongly of a film I remember seeing on the BBC “A Short Stay in Switzerland”. Now if you haven’t seen this one I highly recommend it. Julie Walters is unbelievable and it’s one of the hardest things to watch (I was pretty much in tears for the entire second half and that’s really not like me!), but boy did it widen my perspective on euthanasia!

Though we’re talking about Me Before You here, and I have a tenancy for getting distracted!

The story was told well and was heartfelt. I liked the change in narrator and perspective and the ending (no spoilers here folks) but honestly, I also thought it was a little unrelatable. Not that I’ve ever been in such a situation, but just that the characters didn’t have a huge level of depth and the plot didn’t have any significant shocks or twists. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but it didn’t leave me pondering over it for days afterwards like some of my favourite stories have. A good one for a holiday read, but if you’re after something that won’t let you put it down, this one just wasn’t gritty enough for me.