Book Review: Me Before You

One of my goals for the summer is to read a book every week. It's to be determined if I will actually stick to this plan, but I do want to do a bunch of reading this summer. I feel like there are so many books right now that I want to read, and summer is perfect time to blow through a ton of them. That being said, I just finished Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. My friend Clare recommended it to me, and told me I had to read it before seeing the movie. I realized my time frame for reading the book was quickly closing, as the film had already been in theaters for a few weeks, therefore I read the book in 3 days after school got out.

I'm certainly not the most well-read person you'll come across, but I have read my fair share of novels and I think that Me Before You might be my favorite ever. From start to finish the book is as heartbreaking as it is funny and clever. It lives up to all of the hype. It follows main character Louisa Clark, a young, quirky woman in her 20's who's family is struggling with money, as she takes a job providing care and companionship for a man, Will Traynor, who was left a quadriplegic after a motorcycle accident. Louisa helps Will to try and make the most of his life as it is now, whereas Will finds purpose in convincing Louisa to live her life to the fullest, and have dreams bigger than the sleepy hometown she has barely ventured out of her entire life.  The relationship they develop during the time they spend together is magical, and you never want the book to end. The best way I can think of describing Me Before You is intelligent; it's so well written that you feel challenged as a reader while being completely engrossed in the story. The book made me cry on three separate occasions, and I've only ever cried at one other book in my life.

As a bonus, I went and saw the movie the day after I finished the novel. I thought it was well cast an certainly kept the essence of the book, yet I just felt it was missing something invisible that I can't necessarily put my finger on that the book seemed to have provided and the move didn't (real specific, I know). I'll admit to being hyper critical, I did finish the book only the day before and therefore clearly noticed when the plot veered from what was true to the text (I'll note that this did not happen very often, thankfully!) The movie is 100% worth seeing, but I would highly suggest reading the book before.

There is a sequel to Me Before You, titled After You that came out last year. I've heard that this 2nd novel doesn't nearly live up to the first, and for some people actually tarnished the beauty of the first book for them. For this reason, I don't think I'll be reading it, but if any of our readers here have read it and have a different opinion I'd love to hear it!

Have you read Me Before You or seen the movie?

xoxo,

Julianna 

Preppy by the Sea