Tuesday 1 January 2013

Jojo Moyes, 'Me Before You'



Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.
What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.
Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.
What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.


 
Me Before You was a book that stuck with me long after I finished it. The subject matter was challenging but I found Moyes’ approach to be thoroughly refreshing.  The characters are flawed and real and it is easy to identify and empathise – sometimes heart-wrenchingly so – with both Lou and Will. Dealing with the aftermath of an accident which has left Will mostly paralysed from the neck down, it is the type of situation very few people would experience or truly comprehend, but Moyes forces you to stop and really think about the impact that people have on a life and how you would cope. There is a delicate balance maintained between not sugar-coating the difficult realities, but equally keeping the general tone of the book as one of romance and optimism, to an extent. Perhaps some aspects of the story could be considered a little far-fetched or clichéd in places, but that contributed to the overall charm and pleasure of the book, both of which were greatly supported by the comfortable and eloquent writing style of Jojo Moyes.

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