Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

4 stars


“You only get one life. It's actually your duty to live it as fully as possible.”

Wow. Wow. Wow. I want to start by saying, it's getting harder and harder for me to find a book that I can't stop thinking about and that I can read without distraction these days but this was one of them. When I was at school, I was thinking about getting home and reading it. When I was to sleep I was thinking about it. I actually literally dreamt about reading it last night, it was such a surreal dream. I wasn't seeing anything, just words going through my head and the weird thing was it actually sounded like the book, like Jojo Moyes writing.

I fell in love with the book pretty immediately, which was strange for me. It usually takes me a while to get my head around a new book and I usually have to grow to love it. This, I loved. I loved Lou, I loved her family, I loved Will when we met him (even if he was an arse) and I loved the writing. The chapters were longer then 10 pages which usually annoys me since I typically get distracted but this some how allowed me to fully submerge myself in the book. I just want to exaggerate that, Me Before You was a really great reading experience for me.

The plot was kind of predictable but still enjoyable. It was still very different and talked about something different. It could almost be compared to My Sisters Keeper but still they're fairly different. I've never read a book about a quadriplegic and I learnt a lot about the condition. I think it's always admirable when you can learn things like that in a book.

Will I be reading After You? Honestly, I don't think so. At least not right now. I want to imagine the life Lou is leading and really let myself imagine things the way I want them to be for a while. It isn't that I don't love Jojo Moyes writing or these characters or anything. I just feel as though I need time to let the book settle and I guess, grieve. I know, I sound so ignorant when I say things like this but I almost don't want to see Lou getting on with her life. I want to imagine it my way.

It makes me feel the same way The Fault in our Stars did for sadness factor. I remember I woke up the night I got it and couldn't get back to sleep because I needed to finish it. I felt something very similar with this. Only, I dreamt about this one rather than waking up needing to finish it. Although, I like the actual quality of this one so much more. I think I like it more, actually, I do like it more.

I feel like I always give sad books high ratings simply because they made me feel sad but this one feels like a genuine rating, I genuinely think it deserves 4 stars. I really loved it. I was nervous about it because sometimes it can be nerve racking to read a book everyone else already loves because what if you don't feel the same way and you've got such high expectations. I was not let down at all. And, I can't wait to see the movie because Sam Claflin, Emilia Clarke and Matthew Lewis are probably my favourite people ever.