There’s the feeling you get when you start to get lost in a book. The sense of being able to take a deep breath and feel recharged. It’s the same type of feeling you get when adrenaline starts pumping through your veins with a first struck of a chord or beat at a concert. Books take us to faraway places, places we could only ever imagine. They make us feel, empathize, and fall in love with words all over again. Me Before You by JoJo Moyes was that novel for me over the summer.
Life is jumping into an ocean full of unknown territory and learning how to scuba dive, and experiencing different things the world has to offer, according to Will Traynor that is. Louisa Clark is a quirky 26 year old stuck in a comfortable life. She doesn’t take risks, lives at home with her parents, refusing to live outside the box (besides the clothes she wears), she’s in a relationship with a guy who isn’t exactly who we call “boyfriend of the year” or “person of the year” because it’s safe. Lou is fine with all of this, until she takes the job as Will Traynor’s, a 30 something year old former business man and risk taker, caretaker for six months. Not a lot can change in six months? Think again.
I have a tendency to fall in love with a novel and spend every waking minute for the next few weeks after divulging in their world gabbing about these characters. Can you see where my parents might of gotten a little annoyed with me this summer? I genuinely love every single one of these characters, and all their faults. Will Traynor is not just some witty, snarky sarcastic guy. He’s what shapes the entire novel. Without him, Lou would still be in the rut she was in going into the castle for the first time in a skirt ripping up on the seam. Louisa, while quirky, has features that are relatable, you can’t help but take a part of her personality with you after you finish the book. She’s afraid of jumping in the water to take risks, and is okay with living in the world of comfortable. Even Patrick gave me a reason to hate a character so much. He’s the epitome of who to not date! Whether small characters that shape very little of the story, to the main characters that help Lou in this journey, each of them are aspects of the novel that make it so enjoyable.
While Me Before You was my summer guilty pleasure, other opinions have been flying across blogs, review boards, and movie theaters this past year. Opinions that surround this novel. Whether you agree, disagree or just not listen to differing opinions, try reading the novel first before you take others sides.
Finding a good book is hard to come by, learning to live is much harder. All in all Me Before You made me fall in love with Lou’s crazy little world, and made me cry nonstop over another fictional character in the middle of the night (because I couldn’t wait until the morning to finish the book). A novel I would highly recommend to others. Moyes takes you out of your own little world and into Lou’s in just a short time. At the end all of a sudden it’s not Louisa sitting at a little cafe, it’s you wearing the black and yellow stockings, near an uneven Paris street wanting to find out what Lou is up to after Will.
If you’re interested in finding out what Moyes thought Lou is up to after Will, check out After You