Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've had this on my Kindle for a couple of months. It's one of the purchases I made with the voucher I got for my birthday. I'd been told that it was good, but a tearjerker, so I'd been holding off on reading it a bit, but after the rather awful book I finished on Sunday I wanted something I knew would be good.

I was right. I read the whole book in a day and wanted to start reading it again the next morning.




Here's the basic story:

Louisa Clark fell into her job at The Buttered Bun cafe in her hometown. She fell into the role of main wage earner for her family, and she fell into an easy relationship with Patrick, her personal trainer boyfriend. When her boss announces that he's closing the cafe and she finds herself out of a job, Lou finds herself desperate for a job. After a number of disasters, she goes to an interview as a care assistant, never dreaming she would actually get the job.

Will Traynor, former City high-flyer, is a quadraplegic requiring around the clock care. Louisa cannot understand, at first, why his mother hired her, as he obviously doesn't want her around.

Louisa and Will strike up an unlikely friendship. Will endeavours to expand Lou's horizons and when she discovers the reason she's on a fixed six month contract, she makes it her mission to help Will see that life is worth living, even with the limitations his condition puts on him.

I fell in love with Will and Lou, and several of the other characters as well. They were beautifully written, totally believable and likeable, for all their shortcomings.

This book broke my heart. I cried from Mauritius all the way to the end, and once or twice before that as well.

Euthanasia is a topic I've discussed and taught about a lot in Ethics classes. As such I've looked into both sides, but Moyes still managed to bring a new perspective to the issue.

Read it, but make sure you have tissues to hand.





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